Táherzadeh-Málmírí, Adib (1921–2000), historian of the Baháí Faith, was born 29 April 1921 in Yazd, Iran, youngest of two surviving sons of the four sons and four daughters (three of whom had been killed during a massacre of Baháís) of Hájí Muhammad-Táhir-i-Málmírí (c.1852–1953) hand-weaver, an early disciple of Baháulláh (founder of the Baháí Faith), who became eminent during his lifetime as a historian and teacher of the Baháí religion, and Liqáiyyih Khanum, daughter of a Baháí family from Nayriz. He was educated in his hometown of Yazd and later at Tehran University, where he obtained a B.Sc. in electrical engineering. Hájí Muhammad-Táhir-i-Málmírí left a number of manuscript works, including his History of the martyrs of Yazd and his Memoirs, which were to become a rich source for his son's researches.
Adib Táherzadeh-Málmírí arrived in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1949 and moved to Ireland in August 1950 to assist with the administration of the fledgling Irish Baháí community. He secured employment with Hughes & Coyle, a small Dublin electrical firm, where he worked till he retired in 1984. He became an Irish citizen in 1955 and never returned to Iran. His earliest writing experience in English was in assisting and cooperating with the author and founding figure of the Irish Baháí community, George Townshend (qv), in the latter's work, and thereafter he achieved recognition internationally in his own right as a Baháí scholar.
For twelve years from 1960 he was elected annually to the nine-member National Spiritual Assembly of the Baháís of the British Isles (Baháís have no clergy, and this was the national administrative council). In 1972 a separate national assembly was established for the Baháí community of the Republic of Ireland, to which he was elected annually and served as chairman till 1976. In 1976 Táherzadeh-Málmírí was appointed to continent-wide responsibilities on the European Board of Counsellors and held this position for 12 years before leaving Ireland to take up residence in Haifa, Israel, following his election, in 1988, as one of the nine members of the Universal House of Justice, the supreme international administrative body of the Baháí Faith.
Táherzadeh-Málmírí lectured internationally on the history and administration of the Baháí Faith and on the early believers in Iran. He was one of the first scholars to work from previously unused manuscript sources, in both Arabic and Persian, for the history of the Baháí Faith. Over the last thirty years of his life he published Trustees of the merciful (1972), The revelation of Baháúlláh (1974–87), a four-volume study of the Baháí scriptures which is now a standard reference work, Covenant of Baháúlláh (1992), and Child of the covenant: a study guide to the will and testament of ‘Abdú′l-Bahá, which was published posthumously in 2000. Immediately prior to his death, he was working on the translation and publication of some of his father′s work. He died in Haifa, Israel on 26 January 2000 during his third five-year term on the Universal House of Justice, and is buried in the Baháí cemetery on Mount Carmel. His papers are in Haifa.
Táherzadeh-Málmírí married Zarintaj Moosezadeh (c.1925– ), daughter of ‘Abdúl Karim Moussazadeh-Kohen (c.1890–1938), a financier of Mashhad, northern Persia, and his wife Badri Ismailoff (c.1907–April 1995), in Tehran on 8 October 1946. Their son Ronald Tahir Táherzadeh-Málmírí was born in Glasgow on 7 February 1950, and their daughter Bahiyyeh Vida Táherzadeh-Málmírí was born in Dublin on 3 September 1953. The family lived initially in Braemor Road, Churchtown, and later at 4 Cambridge Villas, Rathmines, Dublin. Adib and Zarintaj Táherzadeh-Málmírí were divorced in 1960. In 1972 he married Lesley, daughter of Thomas Gibson, pharmaceutical chemist of Belfast, and Margaret Gibson (née McRoberts), who later became a Baháí. Their daughter, Maryam, was born on 28 November 1974 and their son Bahhaj Vahid was born on 16 July 1977, both in Dublin.