Jalāl Āl-e-Alddin Sadat Al-e-Ahmad, known as Jalal Al-e-Ahmad, son of Sayyid Ahamad Hoseini Taleghani, was born on Azar 2, 1302 SH, in Nasr-Al-Din district in Tehran. Being the 9th child of the family and the second son, he came into the world after 7 girls. He was Ayatollah Mahmoud Taleghani’s cousin. After he finished elementary school, his father, Sayyid Ahmad Taleghani, did not allow him to continue his studies in high school and wanted him to work in the market (Bazar).
Jalal said: “Dar ul-Funun had evening classes, in which I registered without telling my father. I worked all day, watchmaking, electrical wiring, selling leathers, and so on; and at nights, I studied. Thanks to the income I had from working, I finished that year, and after that, I randomly did some wiring. I was the assistant of one of my brothers-in-law, Javad. I finished high school just like that”. After high school, at the same time with World War II, his father sent him to his elder brother, Sayyid Muhammad Taghi in Najaf to study theology. He was there for a few months and returned to Iran. He described his journey to Iraq in: “It was the summer of 1322 SH, in the middle of war, by the presence of alien soldiers and terrifying circulation of U.K.C.C, and with the roads banned to all people to transport arsenal from Khorramshahr to Stalingrad, I wanted to go to Beirut, where was the furthest place for me, to study, I was to go there from Khorramshahr, Basrah, Najaf, Baghdad, and so on. But I rested in Najaf as a guest of my brother and after three months, I returned from Khaneghein and Kermanshah, frustrated and disturbed by my brother and father.” After coming back, he entered university and he was graduated in literature in 1325 SH.
Publishing "The Pilgrimage" in Sokhan magazine, he stepped into the world of writing in 1324 SH and he wrote a collection of stories, “Visiting”, in the same year. He began working in the Ministry of Culture as a teacher in 1326 and simultaneously, continued his studies in the literature. He met Simin Daneshvar, writer and translator when he was traveling from Isfahan to Tehran by bus and they got married in 1329 SH. He has left behind a lot of writings such as Of our suffering, By the Pen, The School Principal, The Setar, The Tale of Beehives, and translations like Les Mains Sales, Return from the U.S.S.R., Thirst and Hunger, and many travelogues and essays.
The writer and translator, Jalal Al-e-Ahmad, passed away in 18 Shahrivar 1348 SH inside a cottage in Asalem in Gilan, and he was buried in Firouzabadi mosque in Rey, Iran