Mohammad-Ali Jamalzadeh

Seyyed Mohammad-Ali Jamalzadeh (1892 – 1997) was a prominent Iranian writer, translator, and researcher, and the son of Seyyed Jamal al-Din Vaez Esfahani, an activist of the Constitutional Revolution. As a teenager, he went to Beirut and then to France and Switzerland for his education, where he studied law. Jamalzadeh spent most of his life in Geneva and worked for many years at the International Labour Organization, yet he maintained his intellectual and literary connection with Iranian society and literature until the end of his long life.

The publication of the short story collection 'Once Upon a Time' (Yeki Bud Yeki Nabud) in 1921 is considered a turning point in the history of Iranian fiction. The book's famous preface is recognized as the 'Manifesto of Modern Iranian Fiction'; a preface in which Jamalzadeh emphasized the necessity of freeing Persian prose from the affectation and complexities of the classical tradition and paying attention to the language of ordinary people. By employing humor, proverbs, and folk expressions, he presented a new model for realist fiction writing.

Among his other important works are 'The Lunatic Asylum' (Dar al-Majanin), 'Two Ends of a Single Cloth' (Sar o Tah-e Yek Karbas), 'Qoltashan Divan', 'The Peasants' (Sahra-Karan), and numerous translations, including Molière's 'The Miser'. His thought was founded on social pathology, simple prose, and the critique of superstition and dogmatism, and his works had an ennobling influence on subsequent generations of Iranian writers.