Poe’s World in Hidāyat’s The Blind Owl

This article engages two precursors of modern fiction in the United States and Iran: Edgar Allan Poe and Ṣādiq Hidāyat in light of possible influences of the former on the latter or affinities between the two. Many believe that Hidāyat, who is arguably the first modern writer in Iran, had been influenced by Western authors, including Poe. In this article I attempt to shed some new light on the matter by analyzing the massive scholarship, especially on Hidāyat. The result of this study shows that remarkable similarities in Hidāyat are not necessarily the result of being influenced by Poe, but an indication that similar mentalities find similar outlets.