Editing Tehran (section)

=== Early modern era ===
Italian traveler [[Pietro della Valle]] passed through Tehran overnight in 1618, and in his memoirs called the city ''Taheran''. English traveler [[Sir Thomas Herbert, 1st Baronet|Thomas Herbert]] entered Tehran in 1627, and mentioned it as ''Tyroan''. Herbert stated that the city had about 3,000 houses.<ref name="britannica1911">{{cite EB1911|wstitle= Teheran (city) |volume= 26 |pages = 506&ndash;507: final para |last1= Houtum-Schindler |first1= Albert |author-link= Albert Houtum-Schindler }}</ref>
[[File:Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar, painting, ca. 1840.jpg|thumb|upright|left|A portrait of the Shah of Iran [[Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar|Agha Mohammad Khan]], at London's [[Victoria and Albert Museum|V&A Museum]]]]

In the early 18th century, [[Karim Khan Zand|Karim Khan]] of the [[Zand dynasty]] ordered a palace and a government office built in Tehran, possibly to declare the city his capital; but he later moved his government to [[Shiraz]]. Eventually, Qajar king [[Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar|Agha Mohammad Khan]] chose Tehran as the capital of Iran in 1786.<ref name="books.google.nl">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xdFu7X2UtpAC&pg=PA12 |title=Pivot of the Universe: Nasir Al-Din Shah Qajar and the Iranian Monarchy, 1831–1896 |access-date=26 December 2014 |first=Abbas |last=Amanat |date=1997 |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |isbn=9780520083219 |archive-date=1 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180101191554/https://books.google.com/books?id=xdFu7X2UtpAC&pg=PA12 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Agha Mohammad Khan's choice of his capital was based on a similar concern for the control of both northern and southern Iran.<ref name="books.google.nl" /> He was aware of the loyalties of the inhabitants of former capitals [[Isfahan]] and Shiraz to the [[Safavid dynasty|Safavid]] and Zand dynasties respectively, and was wary of the power of the local notables in these cities.<ref name="books.google.nl" /> Thus, he probably viewed Tehran's lack of a substantial urban structure as a blessing, because it minimized the chances of resistance to his rule by the notables and by the general public.<ref name="books.google.nl" /> Moreover, he had to remain within close reach of [[Azerbaijan (Iran)|Azerbaijan]] and Iran's integral [[North Caucasus|northern]] and [[South Caucasus|southern]] [[Caucasus|Caucasian territories]]<ref name="books.google.nl" />—at that time not yet irrevocably lost per the treaties of [[Treaty of Gulistan|Golestan]] and [[Treaty of Turkmenchay|Turkmenchay]] to the neighboring [[Russian Empire]]—which would follow in the course of the 19th century.<ref>{{Cite book |author=Dowling, Timothy C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KTq2BQAAQBAJ |title=Russia at War: From the Mongol Conquest to Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Beyond |pages=728–730 |publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]] |date=2 December 2014 |isbn=978-1-59884-948-6 |access-date=18 March 2016 |archive-date=12 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171012040129/https://books.google.com/books?id=KTq2BQAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>
[[File:Golestan Palace Album No. 132-31.jpg|thumb|A modern street in Tehran at the end of the 19th-century. (Golestan Palace Collection)]]
After 50 years of Qajar rule, the city still barely had more than 80,000 inhabitants.<ref name="books.google.nl" /> Up until the 1870s, Tehran consisted of a walled citadel, a roofed [[bazaar]], and the three main neighborhoods of [[Oudlajan|Udlajan]], Chale-Meydan, and Sangelaj, where the majority resided.

During the long reign of [[Naser al-Din Shah Qajar|Naser al-Din Shah]] (1848-1896), Tehran witnessed Iran's first [[Dar ul-Funun (Persia)|institute of higher learning]], [[Imperial Bank of Persia|bank]], [[Tehran–Rey Railway|railway line]] and museum.<ref>{{Citation |title=Chisholm, Hugh, (22 Feb. 1866–29 Sept. 1924), Editor of the Encyclopædia Britannica (10th, 11th and 12th editions) |date=1 December 2007 |work=Who Was Who |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u194658 |access-date=26 September 2024 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u194658 |archive-date=10 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200810090706/https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540891.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-194658 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/9780230270510 |title=The Statesman's Year-Book |date=25 August 1922 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-0-230-27051-0 |editor-last=Scott-Keltie |editor-first=John |location=Basingstoke |doi=10.1057/9780230270510 |doi-broken-date=11 December 2024 |editor-last2=Epstein |editor-first2=Mortimer }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |title=IV. KARL BAEDEKER UND SEINE ERBEN – REISE-INFORMATION |work=Baedeker & Cook – Tourismus am Mittelrhein 1756 bis ca. 1914 |date=2010 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.3726/978-3-653-00471-7/6 |access-date=26 September 2024 |publisher=Peter Lang |doi=10.3726/978-3-653-00471-7/6 |isbn=978-3-631-59581-7 }}</ref> The city expanded rapidly through multiple development plans<ref>{{Cite book |last=Chisholm |first=Hugh |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.18648 |title=Britannica year-book, 1913 - a survey of the world's progress since the completion in 1910 of the Encyclopaedia Britannica |date=1913 |publisher=Encyclopaedia Britannica |location=London |doi=10.5962/bhl.title.18648 }}</ref> The first development plan of Tehran in 1855 emphasized traditional spatial structure. The second, under the supervision of [[Dar ul-Funun (Persia)|Dar ol Fonun]] in 1878, included new city walls, in the form of a perfect octagon with an area of 19 square kilometers, mimicking the [[Renaissance]] cities of Europe.<ref name="Vahdat Za-2011">{{cite web |url=http://jph.sagepub.com/content/12/1/49 |author=Vahdat Za, Vahid. |title=Spatial Discrimination in Tehran's Modern Urban Planning 1906–1979 |year=2011 |work=Journal of Planning History vol. 12 no. 1 49–62 |access-date=11 April 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016094735/http://jph.sagepub.com/content/12/1/49 |archive-date=16 October 2015 }}</ref> Tehran was 19.79 square kilometers, and had expanded more than fourfold.<ref>Shirazian, Reza, Atlas-i Tehran-i Qadim, Dastan Publishing House: Tehran, 2015, P. 11</ref>