Samad Behrangi (; June 24, 1939 – August 31, 1968) was a Marxist-Leninist Iranian teacher, social activist and critic, folklorist, translator, and short story writer of Iranian Azerbaijani descent. He is famous for his children's books, particularly '' The Little Black Fish''. Influenced by predominantly

leftist Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social hierarchies. Left-wing politi ...

and

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

ideologies that were common among the intelligentsia of his era‌, which made him popular among the

Organization of Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas The Organization of Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas (OIPFG; ), simply known as Fadaiyan-e-Khalq () was an underground Marxist–Leninist guerrilla organization in Iran. The OIPFG was one of the most important and influential armed groups dur ...

(an Iranian communist organization), his books typically portrayed the lives of the children of the urban poor and encouraged the individual to change his/her circumstances by her own initiatives.

Early life

He was born on June 24, 1939, in the neighborhood of Charandab in the city of

Tabriz Tabriz (; ) is a city in the Central District (Tabriz County), Central District of Tabriz County, in the East Azerbaijan province, East Azerbaijan province of northwestern Iran. It serves as capital of the province, the county, and the distric ...

Imperial State of Iran Imperial is that which relates to an empire, Emperor, emperor/empress, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania ...

. He was from a working-class family, his parents were Sara and Ezzat, and he had two brothers and three sisters. His father was a seasonal worker and his income was never sufficient. His father eventually left Iran like millions of other workers on the move for better life conditions for the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...

and never returned. He finished elementary school and three years of secondary school in Tabriz, before enrolling in a rural teacher training school. He spent two years at the Daneshsarayea-Keshavarzi and finished the program in 1957; thus, only receiving few years of education. At the age of 18, he became a teacher, and continued to be so for the rest of his life, in the

East Azerbaijan Province East Azerbaijan province () is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. Its capital is the city of Tabriz. The province is located in Azerbaijan (Iran), Iranian Azerbaijan, bordering Armenia, the Azerbaijan, Republic of Azerbaijan, Ardabil pro ...

of Iran.

Career

In the next eleven years, while teaching Persian in rural schools of

Iranian Azerbaijan Azerbaijan or Azarbaijan (, , ), also known as Iranian Azerbaijan, is a historical region in northwestern Iran that borders Iraq and Turkey to the west and Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the Azerbaijani exclave of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republ ...

, he attained a B.A. degree in English from Tabriz University. He started publishing stories in 1960, his first being ''Adat'' (English: ''Habit''). He carried on writing stories, along translating from English and Azerbaijani to Farsi, and vice versa. Later, he was dismissed from his high school teaching position, due to a claim that he was impolite, and assigned to an elementary school. Then, as his cultural works increased, he was accused and persecuted, and suspended from teaching. After a while his sentence was called off and he returned to schools. Later, he attended student protests.

Publications

Apart from children's stories, he wrote many

pedagogical Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political, and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken ...

essays and collected and published several samples of oral Azerbaijani literature. His folklore studies have usually been done with the help of his colleague Behrooz Dehghani, who helped publish some of Behrangi's works after his early death. Behrangi also has a few

Azerbaijani language Azerbaijani ( ; , , ) or Azeri ( ), also referred to as Azerbaijani Turkic or Azerbaijani Turkish (, , ), is a Turkic languages, Turkic language from the Oghuz languages, Oghuz sub-branch. It is spoken primarily by the Azerbaijanis, Azerbaij ...

translations of Persian poems by Ahmad Shamlou, Forough Farrokhzad, and

Mehdi Akhavan-Sales Mehdi Akhavān-Sāles, or Akhavān-Sāless () (March 1, 1929 in Mashhad, Iran – August 26, 1990 in Tehran, Iran), pen name Mim. Omid (, meaning ''M. Hope'') was a prominent Iranian modern poet. He is one of the pioneers of Free Verse (''New ...

List of publications

* * * * * * * The Complete Stories of Behrang, publishers, Persian Culture & Art Institute, Vancouver and Zagros Publications, Montreal, Canada

Death

Behrangi drowned on August 31, 1968, in the

Aras river The Aras is a transboundary river in the Caucasus. It rises in eastern Turkey and flows along the borders between Turkey and Armenia, between Turkey and the Nakhchivan exclave of Azerbaijan, between Iran and both Azerbaijan and Armenia, and, fin ...

and his death was blamed on the Pahlavi government. It is believed that an army officer, Hamzeh Farahati, was seen with him when he drowned. Farahati in his book and in an interview with VOAArchived a
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine
(video) has unequivocally denied the claims he and SAVAK murdered him. Ironically in his seminal work ''the Little Black Fish'', the fishes drown a snail for not knowing his place. He was buried in the Imamieh cemetery (or Emamiyyeh cemetery; Farsi:قبرستان امامیه) in the Imamieh neighborhood of Tabriz.

References

External links

Samad's Stories in EnglishSamad Stories: ''The Little Black Fish''Samad Stories: 24 Restless HoursSamad Stories: The Little Sugar Beet VendorSamad Stories: The Tale of LoveSamad Stories: TalkhunSamad Stories: In Search of Faith

{{DEFAULTSORT:Behrangi, Samad Azerbaijani-language writers Iranian children's writers Iranian essayists Writers from Tabriz 1939 births 1968 deaths Deaths by drowning University of Tabriz alumni Poets from Tabriz 20th-century essayists Translators of Forough Farrokhzad 20th-century Iranian translators Iranian schoolteachers