Shoghi Effendi
grandson of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, head of the Bahá'í Faith from 1921 until his death in 1957
Shoghí Effendi (; Persian: شوقی افندی; 1896 or 1897 – 4 November 1957) was Guardian of the Baháʼí Faith from 1922 until his death in 1957. As the grandson and successor of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, he was charged with guiding the development of the Baháʼí Faith, including the creation of its global administrative structure and the prosecution of Baháʼí teaching plans that oversaw the expansion of the religion to several new countries. As the authorized interpreter of the Baháʼí literature, he translated the primary written works of the Faith's central figures, providing unity of understanding of its essential teachings and safeguarding its followers from division. Upon his death in 1957, leadership passed to the Hands of the Cause, and in 1963 the Baháʼís of the world elected the Universal House of Justice, an institution which had been described and planned by Baháʼu’llah.
Shoghi Effendi, an Afnán, was born Shoghí Rabbání in Acre in the Ottoman Empire, where he spent his early life, but later went on to study in Haifa and Beirut, gaining an arts degree from the Syrian Protestant College in 1918 and then serving as ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's secretary and translator. In 1920, he attended Balliol College, Oxford, where he studied political science and economics. Before completing his studies, news of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's death reached him, requiring him to return to Haifa. Shortly after his return at the end of December 1921, he learned that the Will and Testament of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá named him Guardian of the Baháʼí Faith. Two crucial aspects of his leadership focused on building the administration and spreading the faith worldwide.
During his 36 years as Guardian, Shoghi Effendi translated and expounded on many of the writings of Bahá’u’lláh and ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, established plans that enabled the faith to spread globally and sent more than 17,500 letters.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Shoghi Effendi” is grandson of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, head of the Bahá'í Faith from 1921 until his death in 1957. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Shoghi, Effendi and grandson, not as a finished interpretation.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q318441. VIAF identifies the subject as 27864297. The Library of Congress control number is n79127752. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1896, 1897, 1957 and 1922.
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This entry incorporates text from “Shoghi Effendi” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.