The Blind Owl

The Blind Owl (1930) by Sadegh Hidayat is one of the first works of Iranian modernist literature. Sadegh Hidayat (1903-1951) was the author of many surreal works of Iranian fiction that draw on his studies of traditional Persian literature and modernist European works. The Blind Owl is written in a fragmented, symbolic, dreamlike form from the point of view of an unreliable narrator, who descends into substance misuse and mental and physical decline because of his unrealized desire for a beautiful woman, whom he ultimately murders. The book’s criticism of traditional Islamic practice and the conservative Iranian government led to it being banned in Iran, despite being widely regarded as a masterpiece of Iranian fiction.

This guide uses the 75th anniversary edition of The Blind Owl, based on the Bombay edition of the original story, translated by Naveed Noori and published by the Iran Open Publishing Group and Editorial l’Aleph in 2011.

Content Warning: The source material features depictions of sexual assault, murder, necrophilia, suicidal ideation, substance misuse, and stillbirth. Additionally, the source material uses outdated, offensive terms for mental illness, which are replicated in this guide only in direct quotes of the source material.

Plot Summary

In Part 1 of The Blind Owl, the narrator describes the incident that precipitated his decline. He is painting the same image of a young woman and an old yogi under a cypress tree on pen cases sold by his uncle in India. One day, his uncle comes to visit. When the narrator gets some wine from a high shelf to offer his uncle, he has an ecstatic vision of the scene he has painted repeatedly. After that, he becomes withdrawn from the world, begins drinking and smoking opium, and spends his days looking for the woman he saw in his vision. One evening, the woman from his vision appears outside his house, walks in, and lays down on his bed. He pours some wine into her mouth, and then realizes she is dead. He has sex with her corpse and then spends the rest of the night trying to paint her likeness.

When he finally has an image he is satisfied with, he cuts up her corpse and puts it in a suitcase. He finds an old man who has a hearse. The old man drives them out into the mountains and digs a grave, in which the narrator buries the suitcase. The narrator starts walking back to town when he runs into the old man again; the old man sells the narrator an ancient vase he found whilst digging the grave. When he gets home, the narrator realizes the face on the ancient vase is the same as the face of the woman he painted. The narrator smokes opium and feels compelled to write.

Part 2 of The Blind Owl is the narrator’s account of the same events but told more realistically. The narrator is ill and rarely leaves his room. Out of his window, he can see the butcher at work and an old peddler. He lives with his aunt, Nane-joon, and his wife, whom he hates. His wife is his first cousin whom he married out of love for his aunt, who raised him. His wife refuses to have sex with him, but has sex with many other men. The narrator does not name her but instead refers to her as “whore.”

One day, the narrator runs away outside the city gates and thinks about how he saw his wife naked as a young girl while they were playing near the river. When he returns, he has a nightmare about death. Upon waking, he screams and his wife and aunt run to him. He feels he is dying and smokes more opium for relief.

Later, Nane-joon tells him that his wife is sleeping with the old peddler. The narrator resolves to kill her. He goes to her room to do so, but he is unable to do it and throws away the knife. The next day, Nane-joon brings the knife back to him. That evening, the narrator’s fever breaks. He goes to his wife’s room and has sex with her. In the middle of their intercourse, he stabs and kills her. Then, he goes back to his room. He looks in the mirror and sees he has become the old peddler.

When the narrator has finished writing his story, he looks up to see his ancient vase is gone. He looks for it, then sees that the old man has stolen it. The old man runs out of the room and into the fog with the vase. The narrator gives up the chase and looks down to see that he is covered in blood, dirt, and maggots like a corpse.