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Sadegh Hedayat | |
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 The last photograph he posted from Paris to his relatives in Tehran, 1951. | |
| Born | (1903-02-17)17 February 1903 |
| Died | 4 April 1951(1951-04-04) (aged 48) |
| Cause of death | committed suicide |
| Resting place | Père Lachaise Cemetery |
| Alma mater | Dar ul-Funun St. Louis School University of Tehran |
| Known for | Writer ofprose fiction and short stories |
| Notable work | The Blind Owl (Bufe kur) Buried Alive (Zende be gur) The Stray Dog (Sage velgard) Three Drops of Blood (Seh ghatreh khoon) |
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Sadegh Hedayat (Persian:صادق هدایت,Persian pronunciation:[ˈsɑːdɛq-ɛhɛdɑːˈjæt]listenⓘ; 17 February 1903 – 9 April 1951) was anIranian writer, translator, satirist, and poet. Best known for his novelThe Blind Owl, he was one of the earliest Iranian writers to adoptliterary modernism in their career. He is widely considered to be the father of the atheist movement in Iran.
Hedayat was born on 17 February 1903 inTehran to a northern Iranian aristocratic family. His father was Hedayat-Qoli Khan (E'tezed al-Molk) and his mother was Zivar al-Moluk. He was the youngest son in the family, with two older brothers, Mahmoud and Issa, and three sisters.
His great-grandfatherReza-Qoli Khan Hedayat Tabarestani was a well-respected writer and worked in the government, as did other relatives. Hedayat's sister, Anvar al-Moluk, marriedHaj Ali Razmara, an army general and laterPrime Minister of Iran underMohammad Reza Pahlavi.[1] Another sister was the wife ofAbdollah Hedayat, who also served as an army general.[2][3] Another one of his sisters was the wife ofAbdollah Hedayat who was also an army general.[4]
Hedayat began his primary education at the Elmieh School inTehran in 1908. In 1914, he started his secondary education atDar ol-Fonoon, where he published a wall newspaper titledNedaye Amvat (The Call of the Dead). However, due to a severe eye ailment, he left Dar ol-Fonoon in 1916 and continued his studies atCollège Saint-Louis, a French Catholic school. It was here that he first became acquainted with world literature.
At Collège Saint-Louis, Hedayat developed a deep interest inoccult sciences andmetaphysics. During this period, he also began practicingvegetarianism and published his first book,Man and Animal (1924), which focused on animal welfare, followed byThe Benefits of Vegetarianism in 1927.
In 1925, he was among a select few students who traveled to Europe to continue their studies. Initially, he studiedengineering inBelgium, but abandoned it after a year to pursuearchitecture and laterdentistry in France. During this period, he became acquainted with Thérèse, a Parisian with whom he had a love affair.[5] In 1927, Hedayat attempted suicide by throwing himself into theMarne but was rescued by a fishing boat. He finally returned to Iran in the summer of 1930 without receiving a degree and held various short-term administrative jobs.[6]
Hedayat subsequently devoted his whole life to studying Western literature and to learning and investigating Iranian history and folklore. The works ofRainer Maria Rilke,Edgar Allan Poe,Franz Kafka,Anton Chekhov, andGuy de Maupassant intrigued him the most. During his short literary life span, Hedayat published a substantial number of short stories and novelettes, two historical dramas, a play, a travelogue, and a collection of satirical parodies and sketches. His writings also include numerous literary criticisms, studies in Persian folklore, and many translations fromMiddle Persian and French. He is credited with having brought the Persian language and literature into the mainstream of international contemporary writing.
Hedayat traveled and stayed inIndia from 1936 until late 1937 (the mansion he stayed in during his visit toBombay was identified in 2014). Hedayet spent time in Bombay learning thePahlavi (Middle Persian) language from theParsiZoroastrian community of India. He was taught by Bahramgore Tahmuras Anklesaria (also spelled as Behramgore Tehmurasp Anklesaria), a renowned scholar and philologist.[7][8] Nadeem Akhtar'sHedayat in India[9] provides details of Hedayat's sojourn in India. In Bombay Hedayat completed and published his most enduring work,The Blind Owl, which he had started writing, in Paris, as early as 1930. The book was praised byHenry Miller,André Breton, and others, and Kamran Sharareh has called it "one of the most important literary works in the Persian language".[10]
Hedayat was avegetarian from his youth and authored the treatiseThe Benefits of Vegetarianism whilst in Berlin in 1927.[11]
In 1951, overwhelmed by despair, Hedayat leftTehrān and traveled to Paris, where he rented an apartment. A few days before his death, Hedayat tore up all of his unpublished work. On 9 April 1951, he plugged all the doors and windows of his rented apartment with cotton, then turned on the gas valve, committing suicide bycarbon monoxide poisoning. Two days later, his body was found by police, with a note left behind for his friends and companions that read, "I left and broke your heart. That is all."[12][13] He is widely remembered as "a major symbol of Iranian nationalism."[14]
The English poetJohn Heath-Stubbs published an elegy, "A Cassida for Sadegh Hedayat", inA Charm Against the Toothache in 1954.
In November 2006, republication of Hedayat's work in uncensored form was banned inIran, as part of a sweeping purge. However, surveillance of bookstalls is limited and it is still possible to purchase the originals second-hand. The official website is also still online. The issue of censorship is discussed in:
In life there are certain sores that, like a canker, gnaw at the soul in solitude and diminish it.
— The Blind Owl, Opening line
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