Mahmud Dowlatabadi is the most prolific contemporary Iranian writer, and even though he is mostly known as a novelist, he has successfully published in other genres too: short and long stories, plays, screenplays, a travelogue and a memoir. He was born in 1940 (= 1319 in the Iranian calendar), in Dowlatabad, a village near Sabzevar, a small town in the Khorasan province in north-eastern Iran. His childhood was a mixture of hardships, family problems and poverty, which forced him to work along with his father and brothers on the farm; nevertheless, he fondly recalls the youthful joys of working and living with his family.

Because of limited financial support available to him, on the one hand, and insufficient schooling possibilities at the time, on the other, Dowlatabadi’s official

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Citation: Azadibougar, Omid . "Mahmud Dowlatabadi". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 May 2016 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13745, accessed 28 March 2024.]

13745 Mahmud Dowlatabadi 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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