TEHRAN -- Mansour Anvari, an Iranian novelist best known for his 12-volume historical and war novel series Jadeh-ye Jang (The Road of War), has died after a period of illness.
Born in 1955 in a village near Nishapur in northeastern Iran, Anvari devoted more than three decades of his literary career to documenting contemporary Iranian history and the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, known in Iran as the Sacred Defense.
His best-known work, Jadeh-ye Jang, is an extensive fictional account of Iran’s political and social transformations, spanning major historical developments surrounding the country’s modern history and the war.
His other works include Ghorbangah-e Eshgh (Altar of Love), a collection of biographies of martyrs, Az Eshghabad ta Eshghabad (From Eshghabad to City of Love), Ghalb-e Tapandeh (The Beating Heart) and Bar Faraz-e Ashiane-ye Anqa (Above the Phoenix’s Nest). He also wrote scripts for several television productions.
Anvari received recognition at several major Iranian literary awards, including the Book of the Year Award, the Jalal Al-e Ahmad Literary Award, the Book of the Season Award and the Golden Pen Award.
Following news of his death, Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Seyyed Abbas Salehi issued a message of condolence, describing literature as a lasting repository of a nation’s collective memory and highlighting Anvari’s contribution to preserving Iran’s historical and cultural identity through fiction.
Muhammad-Mehdi Dadman, head of the Islamic Revolution Art Center, also expressed condolences, praising the novelist’s efforts to bring contemporary Iranian history into the realm of fiction.
Khorasan Razavi Governor Gholamhussein Mozaffari described Anvari’s death as a significant loss for Iranian literature and the province’s cultural community.
Anvari’s literary legacy, particularly his monumental Jadeh-ye Jang series, remains an important part of contemporary Iranian war literature.