Jalal Al-e Ahmad stands as a broad and influential representation of leftist thought in the modern intellectual history of his country. He joined the Tudeh Party in 1944 at the age of twenty and advanced rapidly through its organizational ranks. His membership lasted three years, during which he experienced the party’s internal debates and eventual split. After the division, he aligned himself with the Workers’ Party led by Mozaffar Baghaei, alongside Khalil Maleki and other members who had broken away.
In 1946, under the supervision of Ehsan Tabari, Al-e Ahmad was tasked with launching “People’s Monthly.” At that time, the party struggled with a shortage of experienced theorists grounded in Marxist analysis. By the age of twenty-two, he had become a member of the central committee in the capital and was appointed to manage the internal affairs of the student newspaper “Basher” as well as the party’s theoretical monthly publication.
Following the coup of 11 August, he gradually withdrew from direct political engagement and joined circles of independent intellectuals and critics. He later wrote about Israeli peasant socialism and traveled to Israel in 1962 to observe it firsthand. He died in 1969, reportedly due to excessive tobacco use.
