Ameena Begum

Ameena Begum
Pirani Ameena Begum
Born	Ora Ray Baker 8 May 1892 Albuquerque, New Mexico, US
Died	1 May 1949 Paris, France
Known for	Her influence helping Sufism spread to the western world
Spouse	Inayat Khan
Children	Noor-un-Nisa, Vilayat, Hidayat, and Khair-un-Nisa (Claire)
Father	Erastus Warren Baker
Relatives	Pierre Bernard (half-brother)

Pirani Ameena Begum (Hindustani: अमीना बेगम / امینہ بیگم; born Ora Ray Baker; 8 May 1892 – 1 May 1949)^[1] was a writer and poet who was the wife of Sufi Master Inayat Khan^[2] and the mother of their four children: World War II SOE agent Noor-un-Nisa (1914–1944), Vilayat (1916–2004), Hidayat (1917–2016) and Khair-un-Nisa (Claire) (1919–2011).^[3]

Baker first met Inayat Khan in New York in 1911 when her half-brother and guardian, Pierre Bernard, engaged the master musician and mystic to teach his ward Indian music. However, he forbade the marriage and Khan sailed for London. Baker found his Indian home address among Bernard's papers when cleaning his desk; the letter was forwarded and she sailed for England alone. They married in 1912 or 1913 in London, at which point she took the name "Ameena Begum".^[4][5] After living in London and then Paris, they traveled to Moscow, where she gave birth to Noor (January 1, 1914) the new family returned to Paris in July. World War I started in August and they left for England where they remained for the duration of the war. She left a collection of 101 poems, "A Rosary of one hundred and one beads". Some poems were lost during World War II, but 54 have been preserved and were published in 1998. She has sometimes been reported to be the cousin of Mary Baker Eddy, however this does not seem to be the case.^[6][7][8][a]

Hidayat Inayat Khan wrote: "In 1926, Hazrat Inayat Khan gave my Mother an exceptional initiation as "Pirani", which was only to be given to her. That special initiation was not to be given to any one else in the Sufi Movement, either in the present or in the future".^[10] Hazrat Inayat Khan said in his autobiography that without Ameena Begum's help he would never have been able to bring his Sufi Message to the Western world.^[11]

• "A Mother's Revelation". The Sufi. Vol. I, no. 1. February 1915.
• "Women's Seclusion in the East". The Sufi. Vol. I, no. 3. September 1915.
• "The Children of Today". The Sufi. May 1917.
• "Poems from Thy Rosary of a Hundred Beads". Caravanseari. November 1988. pp. 31–34. Collection of poems.
• "Poems from Thy Rosary of a Hundred Beads". Once upon a time... Groningen. November 1988. pp. 53–87.
• Rosary of a Hundred Beads. Petama books. 2008.

• Basu, Shrabani (2007). Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan. Omega Publications. ISBN 978-0-930872-78-6.
• Curtis, Edward E. IV, ed. (2008). The Columbia Sourcebook of Muslims in the United States. Columbia Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0-231-13957-1.
• Fuller, Jean Overton (1988). Noor-un-nisa Inayat Khan: George Cross, MBE, Croix de Guerre with Gold Star. East-West Publications. ISBN 978-0-85692-067-7.
• Helminski, Camille Adams (2003). Women of Sufism: A Hidden Treasure. Shambhala. ISBN 978-1-57062-967-9.
• Keesing, Elisabeth E. (1974). Inayat Khan: A Biography. East-West Publications. ISBN 978-0-7189-0243-8.
• Khan, Hidayat (1979). Biography of Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan. London: East-West Publications. ISBN 978-0-85692-013-4.
• Khan, Hidayat (1998). Once Upon a Time. Early Days Stories About My Beloved Father and Mother. Groningen.
• Love, Robert (2010). The Great Oom: The Improbable Birth of Yoga in America. Viking. ISBN 978-0-670-02175-8.
• Melton, J. Gordon; Clark, Jerome; Kelly, Aidan A. (1990). New Age Encyclopedia. Gale Research. ISBN 0810371596. OCLC 20022610.
• Melton, J. Gordon (1999). Religious leaders of America. Gale Research. ISBN 0810388782. OCLC 41000889.
• Witteveen, Hendrikus Johannes (1997). Universal Sufism. Element. ISBN 1-86204-093-1.
• Russo-Indian Relations in 1900-1917 (in Russian). The Oriental Literature (Russian Academy of Science). 1999. ISBN 5-02-018155-2.

• bbc.co.uk/timewatch "Noor Inayat Khan: Life of a Spy Princess", bbc.co.uk; accessed 24 September 2016.