Laleh Mehree Bakhtiar was born in the United States on July 29, 1938 in New York City, New York. She was born of Irani parents who immigrated to the United States on a scholarship from a Christian Missionary organization.
Shortly after her birth, Bakhtiar's parents divorced, and her father returned to Iran. Growing up in Lost Angeles and Washington, D.C., Laleh was raised as a Christian. Her mother, a Presbyterian, sent the children to Catholic school.
At the age of eight, she decided to become a devout Catholic. At the age of 13, she had drifted away from that faith.
After graduating from Chatham College in Pennsylvania with a history degree, Bakhtiar married an Iranian architect who had also grown up in America. The couple had two children and moved to Iran where she met her Sufi spiritual teacher and advisor Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr. In 1964 she converted to Sufi Islam.
After she and her husband divorced in 1976, Bakhtiar started a publishing house in Tehran called the Hamdami Foundation.
After the Irani Revolution in 1979, she began to make her way as a translator and interpreter and continued to operate her publishing company. After remaining in Iran for eight years, she moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico with the financial assistance of her brother.
She then founded the Institute of Traditional Psychoethics, in 1991, which works mainly with immigrant Muslim teenage girls. She is also the resident scholar at Kazi Publications in Chicago, Illinois (USA).
She holds a number of educational degrees. She has a Bachelor's degee in History from Chatham College in Pennsylvania, a Master's degree in Philosophy, a Master's degree in Counseling Psychology and a Ph.D. in Educational Foundations. She is also a Nationally Certified Counselor.
She has authored, co-authored and translated a number of works, on Islamic unity, architecture, psychology, psychoethics, and moral healing through the Enneagram and the 99 Most Beautiful Names of God. Dr. Bakhtiar has translated over 30 books on Islam and Islamic beliefs into English, and has lectured extensively in both religious and academic institutions. Some of her notable works include:
- The Sense of Unity: The Sufi Tradition in Persian Architecture (1971)
- Sufi Expressions of the Mystic Quest (1974)
- Sufi Women of American: Angels in the Making (1996)
- The Sublime Quran
- Encyclopedia of Muhammad's Women Companions and the Traditions They Related
Dr. Bakhtiar is an Irani-American Sufi Muslim practicing for over 30 years under her scholar, Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr. Dr. Nasr is himself an expert on Islamic science and spirituality and is University Professor of Islamic Studies at George. He too has published numerous books.
Perhaps one of her most notable works is her rendition of the Quran, entitled, "The Sublime Quran". The work was recognized by the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and an issue of support of her translation, from ISNA's President, was issued, which appeared in the Toronto Star. ISNA is an umbrella organization in North America which operates in the United States and Canada. The translation was initially scorned by ISNA (Canada), however, ISNA (US) has requested that the ISNA Canada Secretary General retract his statement that he would consider “banning” Laleh Bakhtiar’s translation of the meaning of the Qur’an and his questioning of Bakhtiar’s authority to undertake such a translation.
The Sublime Quran is forbidden to be sold in the bookstore of the Islamic Society of North America (Canada). The Secretary General of ISNA (Canada) claims the book banning is not that Bakhtiar is a female scholar, but that she was not trained at an academic institution accredited in the Muslim world – he cites the University of Medina in Saudi Arabia. "This woman-friendly translation will be out of line and will not fly too far," he says. "Women have been given a very good place in Islam."
Bakhtiar makes clear that this book is a translation, not a commentary, and has not addressed other potentially divisive issues such as women's dress and modesty, male dominance and polygamy.
The version of the Quran was labored over for seven years and a version that is written from a woman's point of view and is also welcoming to non-Muslim readers. Her work specifically seeks to bridge understanding between non-Muslims and Muslims.
Some of her critics have cited her lack of fluency in modern Arabic as a shortcoming, a criticism that has not been applied to other translators who also are not native speakers of classical Arabic. Others have welcomed Bakhtiar's translation for the consistency of her language.
Sources:
http://www.thestar.com/article/268835
http://www.sufienneagram.com/bio.html
http://www.iranian.com/May96/Arts/Bakhtiar.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laleh_Bakhtiar