Jalal-ud-Din Muhammad Akbar (Persian: جلال الدین محمد اکبر ‎ - Jalāl ud-Dīn Muḥammad Akbar), also known as Shahanshah Akbar-e-Azam or Akbar the Great (14 October 1542  – 27 October 1605), was the third Mughal Emperor. He was of Timurid descent; the son of Emperor Humayun, and the grandson of the Mughal Emperor Zaheeruddin Muhammad Babur, the ruler who founded the Mughal dynasty in India. At the end of his reign in 1605 the Mughal empire covered most of northern and central India. He is most appreciated for having a liberal outlook on all faiths and beliefs and during his era, culture and art reached a zenith as compared to his predecessors.

Akbar was 13 years old when he ascended the Mughal throne in Delhi (February 1556), following the death of his father Humayun. During his reign, he eliminated military threats from the powerful Pashtun descendants of Sher Shah Suri, and at the Second Battle of Panipat he decisively defeated the newly self-declared Hindu king Hemu. It took him nearly two more decades to consolidate his power and bring all the parts of northern and central India into his direct realm. He influenced the whole of the Indian Subcontinent as he ruled a greater part of it as an emperor. As an emperor, Akbar solidified his rule by pursuing diplomacy with the powerful Hindu Rajput caste, and by marrying Rajput princesses.

Abar Radi (Persian: اکبر رادی‎) who was born in the city of Rasht in 1939 completed his studies at the University of Tehran in social sciences. He published his first story Rain in 1959.

The 68-year-old playwright whose works have been compared with those of Anton Chekhov and Henrik Ibsen died in a Tehran hospital on Dec. 24th, 2007.

'Melody of a Rainy City', 'The Descent', 'The Fishermen', 'Death in Autumn', 'The Glorious Smile of Mr. Gil' and 'Beneath the Saqqakhaneh Passage' are among his well-known works.