Mohammad-Ali Azarshab, a renowned professor of Arabic literature and language, that since contemporary Persian novels have been welcomed in Arab countries, Mahmoud Dowlatabadi’s Kelidar has been translated into Arabic and published in Cairo.
Kelidar is story of a nomadic Kurdish family, who moved to a village in the outskirt of Sabzevar city in Khorasan Province, northwest Iran.
The story of the novel was written based on real life of the main character, Kolmishi Gol-Mohammad, who was a known hero in Sabzevar during Dowlatabadi’s childhood. The story happened during a highly volatile political situation in Iran after World War II, between 1946 and 1949.
Kelidar, which has its name after a mountain near Sabzevar, where the story happened there, is unknown in terms of pronunciation for many people. Although Dowlatabadi himself pronounced it “Klidar,” the novel is being pronounced Kelidar.
Despite the fact that the novel has been written based on a real story, Dowlatabadi added fiction to the novel anywhere needed in order to turn the story into a coherent and impressing one.
Some are of the opinion that Kelidar is the second longest novel in the world after the French novel of “In Search of Lost Time,” a novel in seven volumes written by French author Marcel Proust.
Dowlatabadi spent 15 years to write Kelidar in more than 950,000 words. Iran’s Farhang Moaser Publishers published Kelidar in 10 volumes between 1978 and 1984. The first six volumes of the novel were published concurrent with the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, which became popular among people very soon. The last volumes have also been welcomed by literature-lovers and the elite paid heed to the interesting novel.
A shortened German translation of Kelidar by Sigrid Lotfi was published in Zurich in 1999.
Dowlatabadi wrote in Kelidar: The stone endured roar of the sky, sunlight and cold nights. The stone is stuck, because immobility is part of its nature, so it can be silent till the end of the world. But Human-being? Impulses do not leave him alone even for a moment. A thing, an unknown thing, moves him constantly. He cannot conceal his inner excitement forever. His endurance cannot be limited or spread. In the end, the excitement springs out.