Editing Esperanto (section)

==== Baháʼí Faith ====
The [[Baháʼí Faith]] encourages the [[Baháʼí Faith and auxiliary language|use of an auxiliary international language]]. [[ʻAbdu'l-Bahá]] praised the ideal of Esperanto, and there was an affinity between Esperantists and Baháʼís during the late 19th century and early 20th century.<ref name="BahaiEnc368" /><ref name="B Ency"/>

On February 12, 1913, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá gave a talk to the Paris Esperanto Society, stating:

<blockquote>Now, praise be to God that Dr. Zamenhof has invented the Esperanto language. It has all the potential qualities of becoming the international means of communication. All of us must be grateful and thankful to him for this noble effort; for in this way he has served his fellowmen well. With untiring effort and self-sacrifice on the part of its devotees Esperanto will become universal. Therefore every one of us must study this language and spread it as far as possible so that day by day it may receive a broader recognition, be accepted by all nations and governments of the world, and become a part of the curriculum in all the public schools. I hope that Esperanto will be adopted as the language of all the future international conferences and congresses, so that all people need acquire only two languages—one their own tongue and the other the international language. Then perfect union will be established between all the people of the world. Consider how difficult it is today to communicate with various nations. If one studies fifty languages one may yet travel through a country and not know the language. Therefore I hope that you will make the utmost effort, so that this language of Esperanto may be widely spread.<ref>{{cite book |last= Esslemont |first= J.E. |author-link= John Esslemont |year= 1980 |orig-year= 1923 |title= Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era |edition= 5th |publisher= Baháʼí Publishing Trust |location= Wilmette, Illinois, USA |isbn= 0-87743-160-4 |page= 165 |chapter= Universal Language |chapter-url= http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/o/BNE/bne-135.html |url= http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/je/BNE/ |access-date= June 6, 2017 |archive-date= May 22, 2021 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210522110030/https://reference.bahai.org/en/t/je/BNE/ |url-status= live }}</ref></blockquote>

[[Lidia Zamenhof]], daughter of L. L. Zamenhof, became a Baháʼí around 1925.<ref name="B Ency">{{cite encyclopedia |last= Smith |first= Peter |author-link= Peter Smith (historian) |encyclopedia= A concise encyclopedia of the Baháʼí Faith |title= Esperanto |year= 2000 |publisher= Oneworld Publications |location= Oxford |isbn= 1-85168-184-1 |pages= [https://archive.org/details/conciseencyclope0000smit/page/134 134–135] |url= https://archive.org/details/conciseencyclope0000smit/page/134 }}</ref> [[James Ferdinand Morton Jr.]], an early member of the [[Baháʼí Faith in Greater Boston]], was vice-president of the [[Esperanto League for North America]].<ref>{{cite web | last = Katz | first = Esther | author-link = Esther | title = Morton, Jr., James Ferdinand (1870–1941) | work = The Margaret Sanger Papers Electronic Edition: Margaret Sanger and The Woman Rebel, 1914–1916 | publisher = Model Editions Partnership | year = 1999 | url = http://wyatt.elasticbeanstalk.com/mep/MS/xml/bmortonj.html | access-date = June 6, 2017 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171011115850/http://wyatt.elasticbeanstalk.com/mep/MS/xml/bmortonj.html | archive-date = October 11, 2017 | url-status = dead }}</ref> [[Ehsan Yarshater]], the founding editor of ''[[Encyclopædia Iranica]]'', notes how as a child in Iran he learned Esperanto and that when his mother was visiting Haifa on a [[Baháʼí pilgrimage]] he wrote her a letter in Persian as well as Esperanto.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.payvand.com/news/12/aug/1166.html |title= Interview with Professor Ehsan Yarshater, the Founder and Editor of Encyclopedia Iranica |date= March 25, 2016 |website= Payvand News |access-date= May 22, 2017 |archive-date= September 21, 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120921061937/http://www.payvand.com/news/12/aug/1166.html |url-status= live }}</ref> At the request of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, [[Agnes Baldwin Alexander]] became an early advocate of Esperanto and used it to spread the Baháʼí teachings at meetings and conferences in Japan.

Today there exists an active sub-community of Baháʼí Esperantists and various volumes of [[Baháʼí literature]] have been translated into Esperanto. In 1973, the [[Baháʼí Esperanto-League]] for active Baháʼí supporters of Esperanto was founded.<ref name="B Ency"/>