Ahmad Kamyabi Mask

Ahmad Kamyabi Mask was born in Khusf, a village in the vicinity of Birjand in the east of Iran, in 1944 during the Anglo-Soviet occupation of Iran. He attended university in Mashhad, Tehran and Montpellier and taught as a school teacher. Having earned a doctorat de 3e cycle from Paul Valéry University, Montpellier III, he started as a university professor in 1978 in Tehran. He earned his doctorat d'État (state doctorate) in Comparative Literature and Theatrical Studies in 1999 and is "Professor of Humanities" since then.[2]

Kamyabi Mask authored and translated numerous books and essays in French and Persian and self-published them in Paris[3] and with other publishing houses and back in Iran with various publishers, notable among them the University of Tehran Press.[4] Some of his oeuvre has been translated and published to Anglophone readership; one being his book of interviews with Beckett, Last Meeting with Samuel Beckett translated by Janet A. Evans.[5] This book has been translated into numerous other languages as well.

He is also a prolific translator between French and Persian. He translated into Persian many of Eugène Ionesco's plays, who wrote a preface to Kamyabi Mask's Qu'a-t-on fait de Rhinocéros d'Eugène Ionesco à travers le monde?: Allemagne, France, Roumanie, Iran, Japon, U.S.A.[6] and Ionesco et son théâtre.[7] He also translated plays by Jean Genet and Fernando Arrabal and introduced them to Persian readership. He also translated notable Eastern and Persian works into French: a play by Bahram Bayzai, Le huitième voyage de Sindbad[8] along with works of poetry by Buddha,[9] Ahmad Shamlou[10] and Shokouh Mirzadagui.[11]

Kamyabi Mask received the 1991 award of the Association of French Language Writers for his book Qui sont les rhinocéros de Monsieur Bérenger-Eugène Ionesco?. In 2011 he was named Chevalier of the Order of Academic Palms for distinguished contribution to French literature and culture.[12]

Ahmad Kamyabi Mask is known as an eminent critic of Martin Esslin for the colonialist quality of the latter's critique on French Avant-garde theater.[13][14][15][16]

Some of Kamyabi Mask's books are:

• Kamyabi Mask, Ahmad (1987). Ionesco et son théâtre. Préface d'Eugène Ionesco suivie d'un entretien avec Ionesco. Paris: Caractères – Deuxième édition, 1992, Ed. A. Kamyabi Mask, Paris. ISBN 9782950480637.
• Kamyabi Mask, Ahmad (1990). Dernière rencontre avec Samuel Beckett. Paris: Caractères – Deuxième édition, 1995, Ed. A. Kamyabi Mask, Paris. ISBN 978-2950480651.
• Kamyabi Mask, Ahmad (1990). Qui sont les rhinocéros de Monsieur Bérenger-Eugène Ionesco? (Etude dramaturgique). suivie d'un entretien avec Jean-Louis Barrault, Préface de Bernard Laudy, Illustrations de Günther. Paris: A. Kamyabi Mask (Prix A.D.E.L.F. 1991). ISBN 9782950480606.
• Kamyabi Mask, Ahmad, ed. (1991). Qu'attendent Eugène Ionesco et Samuel Beckett? et qu'en pensent: J.-L. Barrault, J. Mauclair, M. Maréchal, P. Vernois, T. Brown, A. Grodzicki, R. Benski, A. Epstein, R. Lamont, R. Schechner? (Entretiens). Illustrations de Günther et Emeric Davis. Paris: A. Kamyabi Mask. ISBN 978-2950480620.
• Kamyabi Mask, Ahmad (1995). Qu'a-t-on fait de Rhinocéros d'Eugène Ionesco à travers la monde (Allemagne, France, Roumanie, Iran, Japon, U.S.A. ...). Préface d'Eugène Ionesco, Avant-propos et illustrations de Günther et de Taha, suivi des entretiens avec Hamid Samandarian, Ion Lucian, Karl-Heinz Stroux, William Sabatier. Paris: A. Kamyabi Mask. ISBN 978-2910337018.
• Kamyabi Mask, Ahmad (1995). A la recherche d'un ami: d'après Le petit prince d'Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (pièce en trois actes), pour les enfants de 7 à 77 ans. Paris: A. Kamyabi Mask. ISBN 9782910337025.
• Kamyabi Mask, Ahmad (1997). Histoire du Prince Nik et de la fée Golpary: pièce en deux actes d'après un conte en persan pour les enfants. Paris: A. Kamyabi Mask. ISBN 9782910337032.
• Kamyabi Mask, Ahmad (1999). Les temps de l'attente. Paris: A. Kamyabi Mask. ISBN 978-2-910337-04-9.