One in a series of four founders and shapers of a Muslim sect known as the Baha'is, Persian-born religious leader Abdul-Baha (1844-1921) perpetuated the teachings of his father, the Baha'u'llah, by becoming the community's third religious leader. Essential to Abdul-Baha's work as superintendent of the faith was the dissemination of the Baha'i message of world peace, justice, racial and gender equality, and the unity of all people. He composed a history of Baha'ism and spread its tenets throughout the Middle East, India, Burma, western Europe, the Americas, South Africa, and the Pacific rim.

Named Abbas Effendi in infancy, Abdul-Baha was marked from the beginning for a religious career. He was born on May 23, 1844, in Tehran, Persia (now Iran) on the day that Mirza Ali Muhammed of Shiraz, Persia, the self-proclaimed Bab (The Gate) and successor to Muhammed, launched the Baha'i faith. As the eldest son of Navvab and...