Samad Behrangi (Persian:صمد بهرنگی; June 24, 1939 – August 31, 1968)[1] was aMarxist-Leninist[2] Iranian teacher, social activist and critic, folklorist, translator, and short story writer ofIranian Azerbaijani descent.[3] He is famous for his children's books, particularlyThe Little Black Fish.[4][5] Influenced by predominantlyleftist andcommunist ideologies that were common among the intelligentsia of his era, which made him popular among theOrganization of Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas (an Iranian communist organization), his books typically portrayed the lives of the children of the urban poor and encouraged the individual to change his/her circumstances by her own initiatives.
He was born on June 24, 1939, in the neighborhood of Charandab in the city ofTabriz,Imperial State of Iran.[6][7] He was from a working-class family, his parents were Sara and Ezzat, and he had two brothers and three sisters. His father was a seasonal worker and his income was never sufficient. His father eventually left Iran like millions of other workers on the move for better life conditions for theCaucasus and never returned.
He finished elementary school and three years of secondary school in Tabriz, before enrolling in a rural teacher training school.[7] He spent two years at the Daneshsarayea-Keshavarzi and finished the program in 1957;[7] thus, only receiving few years of education. At the age of 18, he became a teacher, and continued to be so for the rest of his life, in theEast Azerbaijan Province of Iran.
In the next eleven years, while teachingPersian in rural schools ofIranian Azerbaijan, he attained a B.A. degree inEnglish fromTabriz University.[3] He started publishing stories in 1960, his first beingAdat (English:Habit). He carried on writing stories, along translating from English and Azerbaijani to Farsi, and vice versa. Later, he was dismissed from his high school teaching position, due to a claim that he was impolite, and assigned to an elementary school. Then, as his cultural works increased, he was accused and persecuted, and suspended from teaching. After a while his sentence was called off and he returned to schools. Later, he attended student protests.[8]
Apart from children's stories, he wrote manypedagogical essays and collected and published several samples of oralAzerbaijani literature.[7] His folklore studies have usually been done with the help of his colleague Behrooz Dehghani, who helped publish some of Behrangi's works after his early death. Behrangi also has a fewAzerbaijani language translations ofPersian poems byAhmad Shamlou,Forough Farrokhzad, andMehdi Akhavan-Sales.
Behrangi drowned on August 31, 1968, in theAras river and his death was blamed on thePahlavi government.[9][1] It is believed that an army officer, Hamzeh Farahati, was seen with him when he drowned. Farahati in his book[10] and in an interview with VOA[11] has unequivocally denied the claims he and SAVAK murdered him. Ironically in his seminal workthe Little Black Fish, the fishes drown a snail for not knowing his place.
He was buried in the Imamieh cemetery (or Emamiyyeh cemetery; Farsi:قبرستان امامیه) in theImamieh neighborhood of Tabriz.
Milani, Abbas. "Samad Behrangi," inEminent Persians, Vol. 2. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 2008, pp. 838–842
Preface and backcover text from Samad Behrangi,Talkhoon va Chand Ghesse-ye Digar (Talkhoon and other stories), Behrangi Publishings, Tabriz, 1998,ISBN964-90517-2-4.
Khanlarzadeh, Mina (2021). "The stories of rebellious children at the time of the 1979 revolution".British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies.50 (2):450–464.doi:10.1080/13530194.2021.1978280.S2CID239076656.
Tahbaz, Sirous,Samad Behrangi va Mahi-e Koochooloo-ye Daanaa (Samad Behrangi and the Wise Little Fish).
