The Foundation
How it all started
The Nekbakht initiative was started in 1950 by Nekbakht J.E.D. Furnée.
In the early 1920s she became a mureed of Hazrat Inayat Khan. In order to live as close to his Fazal Manzil residence in Suresnes as possible, she bought a house across the street, at 34 rue de la Tuilerie. Already during Inayat Khan’s lifetime, it became the archive of all documents relevant to his mission in spreading the Message of Love, Harmony and Beauty. After Inayat Khan’s early demise in 1927, Nekbakht continued to live and work in her house until her death in 1973.
Nekbakht stipulated that a large part of her legacy should be used to continue and expand the work she had been doing for so long. She set up the Nekbakht Foundation in 1950, as a vehicle for perpetuating the Biographical Department and publishing the Complete Works of Inayat Khan. The Nekbakht Fund was created to oversee the financial support for these activities. In 2020, both activities were concentrated in the Nekbakht Foundation.
The Nekbakht Mission
The mission of the Foundation can be summarized as follows:
- To support the dissemination of the Sufi Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan
- To maintain and enlarge the collection of documents and artefacts
- To publish books and articles on the lectures and activities of Hazrat Inayat Khan, his successors and contemporaries.
Although the Foundation is a registered charity based in the Netherlands, many activities are conducted and coordinated in Nekbakht’s former house, also known as “the Biographical Department”.