[3] He popularized the term gharbzadegi – variously translated in English as "westernstruck", "westoxification", and "Occidentosis" – [4] producing a holistic ideological critique of the West "which combined strong themes of Frantz Fanon and Marx".

[7] After elementary school Al-e-Ahmad was sent to earn a living in the Tehran bazaar, but also attended Marvi Madreseh for a religious education, and without his father's permission, night classes at the Dar ul-Fonun.

[8] He became "acquainted with the speech and words of Ahmad Kasravi" and was unable to commit to the clerical career his father and brother had hoped he would take, describing it as "a snare in the shape of a cloak and an aba.

[14] According to rumors he was poisoned by SAVAK which was vehemently contradicted by his wife who confirmed the official cause of death, pulmonary embolism due to alcohol and nicotine abuse.

[15][16] In 2010, the Tehran Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts Department bought the house in which both Jalal Al-e Ahmad and his brother Shams were born and lived.

So long as we do not comprehend the real essence, basis, and philosophy of Western civilization, only aping the West outwardly and formally (by consuming its machines), we shall be like the ass going about in a lion's skin.

He argued that the decline of traditional Iranian industries such as carpet weaving was the beginning of Western "economic and existential victories over the East.

His message was embraced by the Ayatollah Khomeini, who wrote in 1971 that "The poisonous culture of imperialism [is] penetrating to the depths of towns and villages throughout the Muslim world, displacing the culture of the Qur'an, recruiting our youth en masse to the service of foreigners and imperialists..."[21]and became part of the ideology of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which emphasized nationalization of industry, independence in all areas of life from both the Soviet and the Western world, and "self-sufficiency" in economics.

They "were too independent for the party" and resigned in protest over the lack of democracy and the "nakedly pro-Soviet" support for Soviet demands for oil concession and occupation of Iranian Azerbaijan.

They formed an alternative party the Socialist Society of the Iranian Masses in January 1948 but disbanded it a few days later when Radio Moscow attacked it, unwilling to publicly oppose "what they considered the world's most progressive nations."

[26] Despite his relationship with the secular Third Force group, Al-e-Ahmad became more sympathetic to the need for religious leadership in the transformation of Iranian politics, especially after the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1963.

Since the subjects of his works (novels, essays, travelogues, and ethnographic monographs) are usually cultural, social, and political issues, symbolic representations and sarcastic expressions are regular patterns in his books.

On the invitation of Richard Nelson Frye, Al-e-Ahmad spent a summer at Harvard University, as part of a Distinguished Visiting Fellowship program established by Henry Kissinger for supporting promising Iranian intellectuals.