Tehran Nameh

Following the era of myth, the knowledge of man was so limited that one person could be an astrologist, a mathematician, a philosopher, and a physician at the same time. However, today a person can become a specialist in one of the fields, such as medicine, only. Nowadays man’s knowledge improves twice as much every two or three years, and we have to try hard in order not to fall behind.

Tehran experiencing an explosion of changes has swallowed over one hundred surrounding villages and is reshaping rapidly. Therefore, it is essential to record the belongings of the culture of the capital which is deteriorating and changing.

Tehran Nameh is a collection which covers various material and spiritual aspects such as geographical, historical, political, economic, social, aspects of Tehran in a geography beyond the capital. Tehran Nameh is not a dictionary or encyclopedia, but because of its special nature is a source that provides the readers with the subjects in a systematic way.

Goals of Tehran Nameh:

1. Orientation of the city:

The old Tehran was small, but belonged to the people of Tehran. Today Tehran has increased in size but belongs to nobody, has no master, because people in Tehran are not familiar with the history and identity of the city. As a result, there is no logical relation between the people and the city.

Orientation of the city includes the origin of the city, the trend of its growth and development in the past periods, introduction to the topography and main mountains, rivers or floodways, agricultural lands, plant coverage, animal coverage, wind, roads, foods, clothing, and the culture of the people.

Orientation of Tehran means knowledge about air pollution, traffic, social pathology (beggars, under- aged labor, addiction, etc.), problems of the city in relation to earthquake, flood, fire, water resources, and channeling surface water.

2. Another goal is to register and record anything which may go out of mind. Tehran Nameh is a museum for keeping all those things.

3. History and biography of all the stratums of the society, not only the kings and politicians, and not only from the view point of the biography of celebrities and men of distinction, but also generally those who are well known.

4. Recording the news about women at the same standard as of that of men, something that is unprecedented in the sources.

5. Making standards in order to skip dualism.

6. Recording all the titles of Qajar dynasty. Therefore, a person such as Aminosoltan who has the name and titles of aminolmolk, Atabak, Atabak-e-Aazam, Aliasghar, Mirza Aliasghar, and Sahebjam, can be found easily by any of these titles in Tehran Nameh because there is a separate entry for any of them.

7. Studying the primary residents of Tehran: Such as tribes of Kordbache, Zafaranlou, Pazouki, Gharghaniha, Kashaniha, Shambyatiha, Arabs, Armenians, Bajmanlouha, jewes, Ghomiha, etc.

8. Imamzadeha (Monuments for the tombs of the off spring of Imams), gardens, etc.

9. Surveying the national and important events such as Persian Constitutional Revolution, happenings in the city and areas such as the rebellion of women in Chalemaydan by the leadership of Kalantarkhanom Masjedhozi against the Triky Baker.

10. Behavior, customs, expressions… of the original people of Tehran such as Two Persons Sharing a Plate of food (because they cannot afford a full plate), arena, fortune telling by peas, puppetry, entertainment, etc.

11. Etymology and studying the evolution of the words.

12. Studying fables, stories, verbal history, sayings and maxims, folklore, facetiae, and more all in Tehran Nameh.