Teheran
Teheran names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below. 1 of them is described by more than one encyclopedia.
Teheran or Tehran, the capital city and metropolis of Persia
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
or Tehran, the capital city and metropolis of Persia. It is situated on a plain sixty-six miles south of the Caspian. East and west travel, that might otherwise have built up a city at the south end of the Caspian, is thrown to the south by the Elburz mountains and passes through and builds up Teheran instead. Lofty peaks, one of them rising to a height of 20,000 feet, may be seen from the city. Teheran is an ancient center of the caravan trade. The old walls have been leveled to build promenades and new walls have been constructed to inclose an area of about ten square miles. Camel routes enter twelve gates and continue as streets to a central bazaar. The characteristic architectural feature of the city is the Mohammedan mosque. The palace of the shah with extensive grounds, adorned with trees, flowers, and fountains, is connected with a citadel by walls. This royal inclosure is known as "the Ark." Water is brought from the mountains by improved conduits. Gas was introduced in 1902. Tramways connect various suburbs with the city. An east and west railway is expected, in the near future, to connect Teheran with Calcutta and Constantinople. There are manufactures of rugs, silk and cotton goods, and implements. The merchants of the bazaars display a tempting variety of Persian and foreign goods. Coal is mined in the vicinity. Teheran is a market for fruit, wheat, barley, and rice. Teheran is, as Persia goes, a revolutionary center. The citizens have forced the shah to grant a constitution. They take pride in the fact that Harounal-Rashid was born here, and they are not insensible to the marvelous remains of former Persian architecture. In the heated seasons the wealthy reside in a suburb in the foothills of the Elburz range. The British legation occupies a palatial building in the city. The Moslems maintain a celebrated Koran school. There is also a polytechnic college taught by European professors. The German government has subsidized a German school, now attended by 700 students. Europe, particularly Germany, is acquiring an influence that cannot fail to revolutionize Teheran and Persia. The population of the city, 1910, is about 280,000.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
or TEHRAN, the capital of Persia: 70 miles S. of the shore of the Caspian Sea; on a wide plain, dotted here and there with mud-built villages, and pierced with many circular pits, which reach down to the great subterranean watercourses, on which, in this region, the life of animal and plant is altogether dependent. To the N. runs in a general E. and W. direction the lofty range of the Elburz mountains, rising in Demavend to the height of nearly 20,000 feet above sea-level. The wall and ditch (4 miles long) were leveled in 1868, and the space thus gained made into a much needed circular road or boulevard. Fortifications, consisting of a bastioned rampart and ditch, were at the same time commenced on a much more extended scale. This enceinte, with its 12 gates and inclosing an area about 10 miles in circumference, was completed in 1873. The town rapidly extended beyond its old limits, more especially on the N. side, where many fine streets, gardens, and buildings soon made their appearance, among which may be specially mentioned the handsome buildings and grounds of the British Legation. The Shah's palace, entirely reconstructed since 1866, occupies the citadel, and is both spacious and cheerful, its large courtyards being laid out with gardens and numerous fountains. Besides his town palace, the Shah has five others in the immediate neighborhood, which he occupies at different seasons of the year. The foreign legations and rich natives are also in the habit of resorting in summer to the cool slopes at the foot of the Elburz, where many of them have commodious houses and fine gar- The bazaars, some of which are very handsome structures, are filled with every kind of native and foreign merchandise. From Teheran lines of telegraph radiate in almost every direction to the extremities of the kingdom, by far the most important being the lines of the Indian Government I Indo-European Telegraph Department and those of the English Indo-European Telegraph Company. In 1886 a short line of rail-
Teheran or TEHRAN way was constructed from Teheran to Shah Abdul Azim
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
or TEHRAN way was constructed from Teheran to Shah Abdul Azim, a shrine and place of pilgrimage about 6 miles S. of the town. Tramways were also laid down in different parts of the city; and gas was introduced (by a Belgian company) in March, 1892. In the vicinity of Teheran are the ruins of Rei, the "Rhages" of the Book of Tobit, known in the time of Alexander the Great under the name of "Rage" and the birthplace of Harun-al- Raschid. In 1913 the police were placed under the direction of Swedish officers. Swedes are chiefly in command of the Persian troops. Pop. about 220,000.
Teheran or TEHRAN expressed in noble forms
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
or TEHRAN expressed in noble forms, entitle him to He rank among the greatest poets of his H time. He died in Wexiö, Sweden, Nov.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When Aiton's put Teheran's population at "about 280,000" in 1910 and Collier's at 220,000 in 1921, it was still a walled caravan city of twelve gates and a single central bazaar; the city proper now holds roughly nine million people, with some 15 million in the wider metropolitan area, and the 1873 ramparts are long gone. Persia itself was renamed Iran in 1935, and the shah whom the citizens had "forced to grant a constitution" was succeeded by the Pahlavi dynasty, deposed in the revolution of 1979 that made Tehran the capital of an Islamic republic. The east-west railway Aiton's expected to link Teheran with Calcutta and Constantinople never came; instead the Trans-Iranian Railway, running north-south from the Caspian to the Persian Gulf, was finished in 1938, and a metro system opened at the turn of this century. The old account's geography still holds -- Damavand, nearly 20,000 feet, still looms to the north, and the wealthy still climb toward the cooler Elburz slopes in summer, now in the northern districts of a sprawling, smog-bound megacity.
Written for this edition, 2026.