Hidāyat, Ṣādiq (1903-1951)

Sadeq (or Sadegh) Hedayat (February 17, 1903, Tehran - 4 April 1951, Paris, France) was Iran's foremost modern writer of prose fiction and short stories. He was born to an aristocratic family and was educated at Collège Saint-Louis (French Catholic school) and Dar ol-Fonoon (1914-1916) in Tehran. In 1925, he was among a select few students who travelled to Europe to continue their studies. There, he initially pursued dentistry before giving this up for engineering. After four years in France and Belgium, where he befriended Sartre, who was to remain a lifelong friend, Hedayat returned to Iran where he held various jobs for short periods, before returning to Paris.