Mahmud Dowlatabadi was born in Dowlatabad, a village in Khorasan in 1941
into a modest family.
An avid reader, Dowlatabadi devoured almost every
book on Persian folklore in the prime of his youth including
Forty Parrots,
Hussein the
Kurd from Shabestar,
The Book of Gharshasb
and Amir
Arsalan. His burning passion for
these books and his rustic life fostered and nourished the
imagination of a young mind who would one day become a great writer.
He spent the precious days of his youth in tending the flocks and helping
his father with the farming. He attended high school in Tehran but
failed to obtain a degree. His fate took a new turn when he joined
the Anahita Drama Group. In 1975, he was arrested and spent a year
in prison.
Dowlatabadi largely drew on his personal
experiences in his fictional works and could enrich realistic
literature in Iran. In 1962, he published his first story entitled
The Pit of Night
in the
Anahita Literary Magazine. Afterwards,
he wrote and published other stores and novels. These stories
catapulted him into the limelight as the greatest realist writer of
rural stories.
In 1968, he wrote his novel
The Tale of Baba Sobhan
which was made into a motion picture by Masud
Kimiyayi. In 1977, he wrote the first volume of his magnum opus
Kalidar
which was completed in 1984.
In his works, Dowlatabadi depicts the plight of the benighted people who
have lost their social and spiritual security. Immigration is the
main theme in the works of Dowlatabadi.
In his works Dowlatabadi largely draws on his personal experiences and
produces works to address the whole human community. Using a
mellifluous language, he creates a prose which is both delightful
and down-to-earth. The rich tapestry of his style comes largely from
the capacious memory he has at his disposal.