Sadegh Hedayat

Lore & Background

Hedayat was born on 17 February 1903 in Tehran 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, with two older brothers and three sisters. His great-grandfather Reza-Qoli Khan Hedayat Tabarestani was a well-respected writer and government worker.

Hedayat's sister Anvar al-Moluk married Haj Ali Razmara, an army general and later Prime Minister of Iran. Another sister married Abdollah Hedayat, also an army general. Hedayat began primary education at Elmieh School in Tehran in 1908. In 1914, he started secondary education at Dar ol-Fonoon, where he published a wall newspaper titled Nedaye Amvat.

Due to a severe eye ailment, he left Dar ol-Fonoon in 1916 and continued at Collège Saint-Louis, a French Catholic school, where he first became acquainted with world literature. At Collège Saint-Louis, he developed a deep interest in occult sciences and metaphysics, began practicing vegetarianism, and published his first book, Man and Animal (1924), followed by The Benefits of Vegetarianism in 1927. In 1925, he traveled to Europe to study, first engineering in Belgium, then architecture and dentistry in France.

In 1927, he attempted suicide by throwing himself into the Marne but was rescued by a fishing boat. He returned to Iran in summer 1930 without a degree and held various short-term administrative jobs. He subsequently devoted his life to studying Western literature and Iranian history and folklore. He traveled to India from 1936 until late 1937, learning Pahlavi from the Parsi Zoroastrian community in Bombay, taught by Bahramgore Tahmuras Anklesaria.

In Bombay he completed and published The Blind Owl, which he had started writing in Paris as early as 1930. The book was praised by Henry Miller and others. On 9 April 1951, he committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning in Paris. He is widely remembered as a major symbol of Iranian nationalism.

Aristocratic Roots and a Restless Education

Sadegh Hedayat was born on 17 February 1903 in Tehran, the youngest son of Hedayat-Qoli Khan, a northern Iranian aristocrat. His mother was Zivar al-Moluk, and the family included two older brothers and three sisters, one of whom would marry a man who later became Prime Minister of Iran. The Hedayat name carried literary and governmental prestige across generations; his great-grandfather Reza-Qoli Khan had been both a respected writer and a government official.

Hedayat's schooling began at the Elmieh School in 1908, then moved to Dar ol-Fonoon in 1914, where he produced a wall newspaper called Nedaye Amvat. A severe eye ailment forced him out in 1916, redirecting him to Collège Saint-Louis, a French Catholic school. There, world literature first opened before him, and a deep fascination with occult sciences and metaphysics took hold.

In 1925 he was chosen among a select few students sent to Europe, where he drifted through engineering in Belgium, then architecture and dentistry in France, never completing a degree. A romance with a Parisian woman named Thérèse marked those years, as did a harrowing 1927 suicide attempt in the Marne, from which a fishing boat rescued him. He returned to Iran in summer 1930 without a diploma.

A Prolific Literary Life and The Blind Owl

After returning to Iran, Hedayat devoted himself to studying Western literature and investigating Iranian history and folklore. The works of Rilke, Poe, Kafka, Chekhov, and Maupassant captivated him most deeply. Over a relatively short literary career, he produced a remarkable range of writing: numerous short stories and novelettes, two historical dramas, a play, a travelogue, satirical parodies and sketches, literary criticism, Persian folklore studies, and translations from both Middle Persian and French.

He is widely credited with elevating Persian-language writing into the orbit of international contemporary literature. A pivotal chapter unfolded between 1936 and late 1937, when Hedayat traveled to India. In Bombay, he immersed himself in learning Pahlavi, the Middle Persian language, under the tutelage of Bahramgore Tahmuras Anklesaria, a distinguished Parsi Zoroastrian scholar and philologist.

It was in that city that he completed The Blind Owl, a novel he had first begun drafting in Paris around 1930. The book earned praise from Henry Miller, André Breton, and others, and scholar Kamran Sharareh has described it as one of the most significant works in the Persian language. Hedayat is also broadly regarded as a pioneer of literary modernism in Iran, a distinction that underscores how far ahead of his peers he was in embracing new narrative forms.

A Lifelong Compassion for Animals

Vegetarianism was not a passing phase for Hedayat; it was a lifelong conviction rooted in his youth. Interviews with his brother Mahmud and former schoolmates confirm that his concern for animal welfare began early. His education at the Catholic Collège Saint-Louis exposed him to European philosophical thought, particularly the writings of Arthur Schopenhauer, which shaped his thinking about the bond between humans and other creatures.

At just twenty-one, in 1924, he published Man and Animal, an essay on animal welfare that he later expanded into The Benefits of Vegetarianism while in Berlin in 1927. In that work he argued that humanity's ultimate progress depended on a natural, plant-based way of life, warning that meat-eating and artificial civilization would drag humankind toward destruction. He coined the Persian term nabātīkhār for plant-eater and distinguished it from nabātīkhārī-yi muṭlaq for a fully vegan diet.

His vegetarianism extended beyond food to include sobriety and a rejection of processed products. He also gave voice to animals through fiction—a donkey narrating its own abuse, a stray dog's tragic existence, and a butcher cast in a grim light within The Blind Owl. In early twentieth-century Iran, such advocacy was rare, and Hedayat cited European scholars like Jules Lefèvre to support his case.

Despair, Final Days, and Enduring Legacy

Hedayat's life ended in a manner that mirrored the darkness he explored in his writing. In 1951, consumed by despair, he left Tehran and traveled to Paris, where he took a rented apartment. In the days before his death, he tore up all of his unpublished manuscripts.

On 9 April 1951, he sealed every door and window of the apartment with cotton, then turned on the gas, ending his life by carbon monoxide poisoning at the age of forty-eight. Yet his influence outlived him by decades. As one of the first Iranian writers to embrace literary modernism, he opened a path that subsequent generations would follow.

He is widely regarded as the father of the atheist movement in Iran, a designation that speaks to how his intellectual independence challenged the religious and cultural norms of his era. His body of work—spanning novels, short stories, dramas, translations, folklore studies, and satirical sketches—remains a cornerstone of Persian literature. The Blind Owl, in particular, continues to be studied and celebrated internationally, a testament to a writer who, despite a turbulent and ultimately tragic life, managed to place Persian letters firmly within the global literary conversation.

Reader's Guide

Hedayat was a vegetarian from his youth. He used the Persian word nabātīkhār to describe a vegetarian, meaning not eating meat but allowing animal products like milk and eggs; for a vegan diet he used nabātīkhārī-yi muṭlaq. His view of vegetarianism included sobriety and limiting processed foods. At age 21, he authored Man and Animal (1924), an essay later developed into The Benefits of Vegetarianism (1927).

He wrote short stories on animal welfare from the point of view of animals, such as The speech of a donkey at the time of its death and The Stray Dog. His novel The Blind Owl portrays a butcher in a negative light. His works include fiction collections (e.g., Buried Alive, Three Drops of Blood, The Stray Dog), dramas (Parvin dokhtar-e Sāsān, Māzīyār, Afsāne-ye āfarīnesh), travelogues (Esfahān nesf-e jahān, Rū-ye jādde-ye namnāk), and studies (e.g., Rubā'iyāt-e Hakim Omar-e Khayyām, Ensān va heyvān, Favāyed-e Giyāhkhāri, Neyrangestan).