Zain Al-Abideen Maraghi

Born 1838; died 1910. Iranian enlightener and writer. Born in Maragheh (Eastern Azerbaijan, in Iran) into an Azerbaijani merchant family. He lived in Russia for about 20 years, primarily in Yalta. His novel Diary of the Journey of Ibrahimbek (vols. 1–3, 1905–08; Russian translation, 1963) played an important role in the development of 20th-century Persian prose and critical realism. The novel sharply criticizes the corrupt government apparatus, the dominant and parasitic role of the clergy, and the very essence of the feudal structure of Iran at the end of the 19th century. The novel was published in many editions in Istanbul, Cairo, and Calcutta, but in Iran itself the book was first published in 1965.