Mr. Al-Hajj

Sadegh Hedayat (1951 - 1903) born in Tehran and began his education there then completed his studies in Europe. Sadegh Hedayat was prolific, and his writings varied between long and short stories, satirical lyrical monologues, plays, critical writings, and literary essays, as well as writings on history, scientific investigation, and translation from Pahlavi heritage, in addition to being a painter. He paid great attention to folklore and popular heritage, and prepared a radio program about folk tales presented by himself, and he was the first person to document folk tales and traditional stories. He also translated from French some works of Kafka, Sartre, Chekhov, and others into Persian. He also translated literary works and studies about Pahlavi. But his most important contribution remains in the field of the novel: he was the first to write a modern novel in Persian, and thus deserved to be considered the founder of modern Persian novel despite his short literary life, as he died at the age of forty-six. Translated from Persian: Ghassan Hamdan