Gholam-Hossein Sa'edi

Gholam-Hossein Sa'edi was born in Tabriz and graduated as a medical doctor and psychiatrist from the University of Tehran, practicing medicine in the impoverished southern slums of Tehran. Using the pen name Gohar Morad, he brought deep psychiatric insight, anthropological field research, and magical realism to Iranian literature.

Sa'edi was the most prolific and influential playwright in modern Iranian history, authoring over thirty plays and screenplays that exposed rural superstition, urban poverty, and political paranoia. His short story collection The Mourners of Bayal was adapted by Dariush Mehrjui into the 1969 landmark film The Cow (Gaav), which launched the Iranian New Wave cinema and won international festival acclaim.