Mehdi Sahabi

{{infobox writer  | image = | imagesize = | alt = | caption = | death_date = November 9, 2009 (aged 66) | death_place = Paris, France | occupation = translator, painter, and author | language = Persian | nationality = Iranian | name = Mehdi Sahabi | birth_date = February 1944 | native_name = مهدی سحابی | native_name_lang = fa | birth_place = Qazvin, Iran }}

'''Mehdi Sahabi''' (Persian: مهدی سحابی; February 1944 in Qazvin (Iran) – November 9, 2009 in Paris (France) ) was an Iranian intellectual, translator, painter, and writer. Born in the provincial Iranian capitol of Qazvin in 1944, Sahabi translated novels originally in English, French, and Italian into Persian.<ref name="TT">{{cite news|url=http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=207739|title=Iranian translator Mehdi Sahabi dies at 66|date=November 11, 2009|work=Tehran Times Culture Desk|publisher=Tehran Times|accessdate=2009-11-11}}</ref> He left his studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Tehran University and Rome University of Fine Arts unfinished.<ref name="TT" />

His translation of Marcel Proust's ''In Search of Lost Time'', which he spent 11 years on, is considered his finest.<ref name="TT" /> He also translated Gustave Flaubert's ''Madame Bovary'' and ''Sentimental Education'', Charles Dickens' ''David Copperfield'', ''All Men are Mortal'' by Simone de Beauvoir, Stendhal's ''The Red and the Black'', ''The Baron in the Trees'' by Italo Calvino and Louis-Ferdinand Céline's ''Death on Credit''.<ref name="TT" />

Sahabi was awarded Iran's Book of the Year award, after which no translator won for 18 years.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}} He died in Paris of a heart attack on November 9, 2009. His funeral took place in Tehran.<ref name="TT" />

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sahabi, Mehdi}} Category:1944 births Category:2009 deaths Category:20th-century Persian-language writers Category:20th-century Iranian translators Category:Iran's Book of the Year Awards recipients