The Blind Owl

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death by suicide.

Sadegh Hedayat (1903-1951) was born to a wealthy, highly educated, well-connected family in Tehran, Iran. His father was a literary historian. Hedayat was educated in a French-language school in Iran and in 1925 went to Belgium and France to pursue university studies in civil engineering. Later, he also studied French literature. His progress in university courses was poor and he was unable to complete his degree.

In 1930, Hedayat returned to Tehran, where he worked at a bank and was active in the Iranian literary community. From 1936 to 1937, Hedayat lived in Bombay (now Mumbai), India where he studied Middle Persian with the Zoroastrian community and produced his self-published edition of The Blind Owl. The work is marked with these Indian and Zoroastrian influences from that time period.

In 1941, Reza Shah Pahlavi, the conservative leader of Iran, was forced to abdicate following the invasion of Iran by the Allied British and Soviet forces. He was replaced by his son, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, who became the last shah of Iran. The abdication of Reza Shah created opportunities for greater freedom of expression in Iranian cultural production, which Hedayat took active part in as a writer and editor of the literary journal Soḵan.