were jailed in 1937 under the regime of Reza Shah for communist activities. Alavi himself claimed that he was not involved politically at the time and simply was in a group of literati, who among other things read communist writings. He was given a 7-year sentence, but was released after 4 years in 1941 after a general amnesty following the Allied control of Iran. Upon his release he published his Scrap Papers of Prison and Fifty Three Persons, and continued his political activities, becoming a founding member of the communist Tudeh Party of Iran and serving as editor of its publication Mardom (People). Alavi was in Germany when the 1953 Coup d'état overthrew the government of Premier Mossadegh and resulted in massive arrests and imprisonment. Alavi stayed in exile in East Berlin, teaching at Humboldt University, until the fall of the Pahlavi dynasty and the emergence of the 1979 Iranian Revolution. In spring of 1979 he returned briefly to Iran after 25 years in exile and was warmly received by the Iranian Writers Association, including such writers/poets as Ahmad Shamlou, Mahmoud Dolatābādi, Siāvash Kasrā'ie and others. He returned to Iran a year later in 1980 for another short visit and was dismayed by the repressive turn of the revolution. He continued to live and work in Berlin, visiting Iran for the last time in 1993. He died in Berlin in 1997. In 1936 he had married Margarita (Gita) Scheineson from Brussels, who later was a source of inspiration for his novel Chashm'hā'yash. Before his exile, he married his cousin Fatameh Alavi (daughter of Seyyed Abolfath Fadai Alavi, Secretary-General of the Ministry of Finance, and Merafagh Tabatabai) and had a son, Mani. In 1956, he married Gertrud Paarszh in Germany who stayed with him until his death. Selected works Major Works: Chamedan (The Suitcase) (1934) Varaq Pareh'ha-ye Zendan (Scrap Papers from Prison) (1941) Panjah-o Seh Nafar (Fifty Three Persons) (1942) Nameh' ha va Dastan'ha-ye digar (Letters and Other Stories) (1952) Cheshmhayash (Her Eyes) (1952) Other Writings: Div ... Div (Demon ... Demon), in the collection Aniran (Non-Iranian) (1931) Uzbakha (The Uzbeks) (1948) Kämpfendes Iran (1955, Berlin) Geschichte und Entwicklung der modernen persischen Literatur (1964, Berlin) Salariha (The Salari Family) Mirza Translations into Persian: Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard Samuil Marshak's The Twelve Months George Bernard Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession J.B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls Friedrich Schiller's Jungfrau von Orleans Theodor Nöldeke's