12 Facts About Javad Nurbakhsh

Javad Nurbakhsh was the Master of the Nimatullahi Sufi Order from 1953 until his death.

Javad Nurbakhsh was a psychiatrist and a successful writer in the fields of both psychiatry and Sufi mysticism.

Javad Nurbakhsh was initiated into the Nimatullahi Sufi order at the age of sixteen and appointed its sheikh at twenty.

Javad Nurbakhsh studied at University of Tehran's medical school, receiving his doctorate in psychiatry in 1952, from the Sorbonne.

Javad Nurbakhsh began his professional career as a medical doctor at the age of 26 when he became head of a local hospital in the southeastern town of Bam, Iran.

Javad Nurbakhsh left Iran following the Iranian revolution in 1979, first for the United States, where he established several Sufi centers known as khanaqahs, then moved to Britain in 1983 and settled there.

Javad Nurbakhsh was an honorary member of the American Psychiatrists' Association.

Javad Nurbakhsh supervised the World Congress of Psychiatry for the World Psychiatric Association when it was for first hosted in Iran.

Javad Nurbakhsh produced 37 scientific works in the field of psychiatry, as author, editor and translator, along with many articles in scientific journals and a compendium of instructional brochures for the use of researchers, professors and students.

Javad Nurbakhsh died in his retreat in the English countryside near the town of Banbury, Oxfordshire, where he spent his final years, and is buried there.

Javad Nurbakhsh was succeeded by his son, Alireza Nurbakhsh, a doctor in philosophy from the University of Wisconsin and a practising lawyer in London.

Javad Nurbakhsh was survived by his widow, Parvaneh Daneshvar Nurbakhsh, three sons, and two daughters.