Ahmad Sohrab

Mírzá Aḥmad Sohráb (March 21, 1890 – April 20, 1958) was a Persian-American author and Baháʼí who served as 'Abdu'l-Bahá's secretary and interpreter from 1912 to 1919.

He co-founded the New History Society and the Caravan of East and West in New York and was excommunicated from the Baháʼí Faith in 1939 by Shoghi Effendi.

Born a Baháʼí in Sedeh, Isfahan Province, Persia (now Iran), Sohrab's father 'Abdu'l-Baghi was a descendant of Muhammad.

In the 1920s, while living in Los Angeles, he helped write a scenario for a movie dealing with Mary Magdalene, for the actress Valeska Surratt.

[3] He found it necessary to go to New York to discuss business matters with Miss Surratt and it was through her that he was introduced to Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler and his wife Julie.

Mrs. Chanler attempted to patch things up between Sohrab and Horace Holley, "one of the chief men in the American Baháʼí Administration".

Since Holley sat on the National Spiritual Assembly at this time, this led to a confrontation which resulted in Sohrab and the Chanlers being expelled from the Baháʼí community about 1939.

[6] In 1941, Allen McDaniel and others, as members of the National Spiritual Assembly, filed suit against Sohrab to try to stop him from using the name Baháʼí.

The NSA felt this created the impression that Sohrab was "connected with and authorized to represent the Baháʼí religion..." This suit was filed in the Supreme Court of New York County.

Part of this combination was a court case raised by Qamar Baháʼí, Jalal the grandson of Mírzá Músá and others in about 1950–1, challenging Shoghi Effendi's right to carry out major construction work around the Shrine of Baháʼu'lláh.