Abd al-Hosayn Ayati

Abd al Ḥosayn Ayati (1871—1953), known to Baháʼís as Avarih, was an Iranian convert to the Baháʼí Faith, who later converted back to Islam and wrote several polemic works against his former religion. In his later years heserved as a secondary school teacher while writing poetry and history, and was regarded as a competent orator.

During his 18 years as a Baháʼí, Ayati was a traveling teacher to Turkestan, the Caucasus, the Ottoman Empire, and Egypt. During this time he associated with ʻAbdu'l-Bahá and wrote a two-volume history of the Baháʼí Faith, al-Kawākeb al-dorrīya (1914), which was translated to Arabic in 1924.

After the death of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, he insisted that the Universal House of Justice be formed immediately, hoping to attain a leading position in the Baháʼí community. However, Shoghi Effendi, the then head of the Baháʼí community, concluded that before the election of the Universal House of Justice—an international institution—Baháʼí elected institutions at lower levels, local and national, first had to be established. Ayati opposed Shoghi Effendi’s approach, began opposing him, wrote protest letters to Baháʼís, and eventually turned away from the Baháʼí Faith and, after eighteen years, returned to Islam. His main polemic writing refuting the Baháʼí Faith was the three-volume Kašf al-ḥīal (1928-31). He has a total of seventeen published titles on various subjects, such as the history of Yazd Ātaškada-ye yazdān (1928), and commentaries and translations of the Qur'an. He also published the periodical Namakdan for six years and was among the founding members of the Yazd Literary Society.