Tehran

“ At length, in the twelfth century, an enemy more devastating than the Parthian hordes, more vindictive than the earthquake, swept over pleasant Khorasan and turned the fertile province into the wilderness it is to this day. Tartars from the uttermost ends of the earth left no stone of Rages standing, and the great Median city vanished from the history of men. A few miles to the north-east Tehran has sprung up to be the capital of modern Persia—a Persia to whom the glorious traditions of the past are as forgotten as the strength of Phraortes’ walls. ”

“ There are hundreds of these jovial beggars scattered over Persia, and many of those in Tehran find their employment so lucrative that they are enabled by it to live in well-appointed houses, and to eat of the fat of the land. They have a chief who disposes to a certain extent of their gains, and who assigns to each dervish the post he is to occupy on the annual occasion when the house of each wealthy person in Tehran is besieged by a member of this brotherhood, who refuses to quit his position outside the door until he has received his contribution. ”

“ We concluded our first march away from Tehran more successfully than I had hoped for in the face of the troubles lowering ahead at the first start. My guide, Shukrullah Beg, has been most energetic and willing, and promises to turn out a good conductor. He is a blunt, plain-spoken man, with sharp intelligent features, a [416] freckled complexion, and bristly red beard, and has none of the polish and love of finery so characteristic of the Persian of Tehran, though he is equally impressed with the necessity for ceremony and show. ”

“ Don't look at the part of Tehran where, on the face of it at least, things have been put in order, take a look at the other part of the city. Go look at those pits, those holes in the ground in which people live, dwellings you reach by descending about a hundred steps into the ground. What a terrible place to live! Homes that people have made from rush matting or clay so their poor children can have somewhere to live. Yes, I am talking about Tehran and not some remote village or town; this is how things are in Tehran. ”

“ Let’s remember that the first peaceful protests in the region were in the streets of Tehran, where the government brutalized women and men, and threw innocent people into jail. We still hear the chants echo from the rooftops of Tehran. The image of a young woman dying in the streets is still seared in our memory. And we will continue to insist that the Iranian people deserve their universal rights, and a government that does not smother their aspirations. ”

“ But unfortunately for me, I did not meet with a dying druggist and a piece of his paper every day; and feeling myself reduced to live upon the reputation of this one miracle, which I perceived to my sorrow daily diminished, I made a virtue of necessity, and determining to make the tour of Persia, I immediately left Tehran. To whichsoever city I bent my steps, I managed matters so adroitly, that I made my reputation precede my arrival there. ”

“ The careful observer in Tehran cannot fail to be struck with the religious tolerance shown to non-Mohammedan Persian subjects in the 'shadow of the Shah.' Amongst these, other than Christians, may be mentioned the Guebres (Parsees) and the Jews. Persecuted in the provinces, they receive liberal treatment in Tehran, and it is to be hoped that the late Shah's gracious example will in time be followed by his Majesty's provincial governors. ”

“ And there is no power and no strength save in God, the Most High, the Great And surely we are God's and to Him we shall surely return As we are gathered here, according to the information reaching us, all the major cities of Iran such as Tehran, Tabriz, Mashhad and Qum are closed down. Some cities, such as Qum, are completely closed down while in others, the bazaar and other centres of activity are closed. We hear that the bazaar in Tehran is completely closed except for a few merchants who may have some connection with the regime. ”

“ It did not lie along the routes frequented by the chief caravans, and its industry was purely agricultural. Shah Tahmasp, the son of Hussein, took refuge with his harem at Tehran, during the Affghan invasion. That prince there received an embassy from the Ottoman Porte. The city was besieged by the Affghans, and was almost entirely destroyed by those ruthless invaders; but Tahmasp, whom they wished to secure, was able to effect his escape. From this period onwards the name of Tehran [9] appears frequently in the annals of Persia. ”

“ Anonymous pamphlets are also widely spread in Tehran as before. A number of them are printed at Baku, and are remarkable for their inflammatory character. The Tehran pamphlets are chiefly directed against the Atabeg-i-Azam and the Government." June 18. "The financial condition of the Government is, if possible, worse than ever. The police of the capital are on strike; it has been found almost impossible to scrape together money enough to induce the Tehran troops to leave for the scene of the rebellion." ”

“ Isfahan [6] is invested with the traditions of a former importance; about Shiraz linger the vestiges of a still mightier antiquity; Casvin lies a hundred miles nearer to the Caspian; Tehran is only a modern seat of government called to importance by the arbitrary will of the present race of sovereigns.
Many gates lead into the city, breaking the level of the mud walls, with their arches and turrets, which are decorated with tiles of faïence set into patterns and pictures and inscriptions. The space enclosed by the walls is a large one, but it is not by any means filled with houses. ”

“ A few miles below the site of these cinnabar-mine operations there are ancient gold-washing workings, and within thirty miles are heavy veins of quartz.
Tehran displays a marked advance in many of the resources of civilization; houses of an improved style are springing up, the roadways are better attended to, and there is a great increase in the number of carriages. The Prime Minister's new house, near the British Legation, is situated in beautiful gardens, set off with pretty lakelets and terraced grounds, which give slopes for flowing waterfalls. ”

“ In a year or two this bridle-path across the hills will have joined the long roll of things that were; no more will travellers entering Persia climb the narrow track which was the Shah’s highway; no more will their horses’ feet slip among pools of mud and ring out against the solid rock; the Russian Government have taken the highroad to Tehran into their hands, and are even now constructing a broad carriage-way from the Caspian to join the Persian road at Kasvin. ”

“ The desert about Tehran is renowned for the beauty of its gardens. The Shah possesses several, others belong to his sons, others to powerful ministers and wealthy merchants. Sometimes across the gateways a chain is drawn, denoting that the garden is Bast—sanctuary—and into these the [33] European may not go; but places of refuge for the hunted criminal are, fortunately, few, and generally the garden is open to all comers.
Perhaps the most beautiful of all is one which belongs to the Shah, and which lies under a rocky hillock crowned with the walls and towers of a palace. ”

“ The people of Tehran of those times are said to have lived in a constant state of insurrection against their sovereign, waylaying those who passed by the neighbourhood, and retiring to their caves when pursued. ”

“ Then, after a pause, he said, 'It is dull living alone, even for a week, and Tehran is a city full of enjoyment. If there is any service that I can perform, I will do it—upon my eyes, be it.'
'May your kindness never be less! My business is with the Mollah Nadân.'
'There is no difference between him and me,' said he. 'I can facilitate any business you may have; and, praise be to Allah, you will be served to your heart's content. We have at our disposal of all sorts and all prices.'
'I am not a merchant,' said I.
'There is no necessity to be a merchant,' said he ”

“ Men to whom travel and intercourse with foreigners had given a semblance of Western civilization, exchanged their acquired garb for a pilgrim’s cloak, and set forth on the long journey to Mecca. The air was full of rumours. It was whispered that the mollahs were working upon native fanaticism, and pointing to the presence of Europeans as a primary cause of evil which must be straightway removed. To-day an incredible number of deaths were reported to have taken place in Tehran during the last twenty-four hours, to-morrow the news would run from lip to lip that the Shah himself had succumbed. ”

“ Iran took dozens of Americans hostage in Tehran, murdered hundreds of American soldiers, Marines, in Beirut, and was responsible for killing and maiming thousands of American service men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan. ”

“ You are thus aware of the present situation in Iran. You can appreciate what this man has done to this nation during the past few days. Even now it would not surprise me if at this very moment some confrontation or conflict is taking place between the people and the Shah's agents, although we have not yet in fact received any reports to this effect. What we do know however, is that agents of the regime have attacked the forecourt of the Shah Mosque in Tehran and have forced a few shops there to open up for business, but the Tehran bazaar as a whole has not surrendered. ”

“ Type of government: theocratic republic
Capital: Tehran
Administrative divisions: 25 provinces (ostanha, singular -
ostan) ; Ardabil, Azarbayjan-e Gharbi, Azarbayjan-e Sharqi, Bushehr,
Chahar Mahall va Bakhtiari, Esfahan, Fars, Gilan, Hamadan,
Hormozgan, Ilam, Kerman, Kermanshahan, Khorasan, Khuzestan,
Kohkiluyeh va Buyer Ahmadi, Kordestan, Lorestan, Markazi,
Mazandaran, Semnan, Sistan va Baluchestan, Tehran, Yazd, Zanjan
Independence: 1 April 1979 (Islamic Republic of Iran proclaimed)
National holiday: Islamic Republic Day, 1 April (1979)
Constitution: 2-3 December 1979 ”

“ Such fear laid hold of the people of Tehran.
The Persian doctors, whose duty it was to distribute medicines among the sufferers, shut up their stores, and were among the first to leave the stricken city; masters turned their servants into the streets and the open fields, if they showed symptoms of the disease, and left them to die for want of timely help; women and little children were cast out of the andaruns; the living scarcely dared to bury the bodies of the dead. ”

“ In Tehran?”
“Oh dear no! It wasn’t till we got to India. And then we were driven into it. People kept making the most stupid mistakes—insisting on giving us the same room, and all that sort of thing. Of course it was a mad thing to do, to trail off like that with a man I had never seen or heard of the week before. But I [Pg 237] was just wild to get that emerald. And Peter was such a sport—not like the rest of you old fogies in Tehran. And then out there in Persia, in sight of the war, things didn’t look just as they would here. ”

“ We are convinced that the Allied nations which at Tehran and San Francisco have acknowledged the principles of self-determination and equality of nations, will not refuse to acknowledge the independence of Vietnam. ”

“ In this Council it soon became evident that the Government could control the leaders of the reform movement, and that the sympathies of the great Mujteheds were not heartily with the popular movement. All was outwardly quiet in Tehran, but in the provinces the people of Shiraz and Resht had taken violent measures to prevent the reappointment of the Shah’s sons as their Governors, and the movement in both cases was successful. ”

“ I found the Shah still encamped at Sultanieh, although the autumn was now far advanced, and the season for returning to Tehran near at hand. I presented myself at the grand vizier's levee, with several other couriers, from different parts of the empire, and delivered my dispatches. When he had inspected mine, he called me to him, and said aloud, 'You are welcome! You also were at Hamamlû? The infidels did not dare to face the Kizzil bashes, eh? The Persian horseman, and the Persian sword, after all, nobody can face. ”

“ The ruler of Herat agreed to pay tribute to the Shah, and Mahomed Meerza returned to Meshed, and proceeded to Tehran, where he was pronounced the heir-apparent to the throne, and appointed to be governor of Tabreez. The removal of the crown-prince from the scene gave fresh hope to those who had intended to dispute with him the accession to the regal dignity, and, from the feeble health of the king, men were prepared soon to witness the miseries of civil war. ”

“ I had resumed my post as sub-lieutenant to the chief executioner, and was busily engaged in disposing of the men under my command, that the best order might be preserved during the march, when I was commanded to send off a messenger to Tehran, with orders that the bazigers, the dancers and singers, should be in readiness to receive the Shah on his arrival at Sulimanieh. This place, as I have said before, is a palace situated on the banks of the Caraj, about nine parasangs from the capital. ”

“ He was now on the road to Constantinople, with several mules laden with the merchandise of Bokhara, Samarcand, and the east of Persia; and having disposed of it there, it was then his intention to return to his native city, Bagdad. He expressed, however, his intention to remain at Tehran until the spring caravan should assemble, in order to enjoy some of the pleasures of an imperial residence, after having lived so long among savages, as he called the Turcomans, and he inquired from me how he might most agreeably pass his time. ”