Abol Ghassem of Tous: The Epic Journey of Abol Ghassem Bakhtiar, M. D.

Abol Ghassem Bakhtiar, M. D., a Bakhtiyari from the village of Borujen in Chahar Mahal, Iran (Persia), was a man of great character who struggled to obtain knowledge, who loved science and poetry, a man solid as a rock, a spiritual warrior of high moral character. His life bore witness to one's ability to accept the farr, often seen as the divine right of kings to rule, and transform it into the divine right of each individual to rule over himself. While living all of his life under the rule of a monarch, he himself concentrated on transforming the concept of the farr into a personal democracy. He completed his medical training in the United States at the age of 55, returning to Iran in 1931, as the first Iranian to be an American trained physician. He returned to Iran with an American wife, Helen Jeffreys. Helen, 22, when she married Abol Ghassem, was the first American to marry an Iranian in the United States and move to Iran. Her story is told in Helen of Tus: Her Odyssey from Idaho to Iran. Abol Ghassem died at the age of 99.