'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎301] (342/714)

mmm
TEHERAN
Whatever its origin, Teheran must have been for long a small and
insignificant place, for neither of those indefatigable geographers
El Istakhri and Masudi, whose travels illumine the tenth century
allude thereto, although they have much to say of the adjacent
Ehey. The earliest irrefragable mention is in the pao-es of Abu
Abdullah Yakut in a.d . 1179-80. His account, which is borne
out by several native historians, 1 represents the primitive Teheranis
as troglodytes, living underground in a semi-savage state, at war
with their neighbours, and in revolt against the sovereign. How-
ever this may be, the locality soon became quite famous for its
rivulets and gardens, and a more normal and respectable citv
sprang into existence. Hamdallah, in the fourteenth century, de
scribed it as a town of some magnitude and importance, and as
preferable, both for climate and water-supply, to Ehey. Don Rny di
Clavijo, the Spanish ambassador to Timur, halting here on July 6,
1104, delivered himself of a somewhat balancing opinion : 2
The city of Teheran was very large, but it had no walls ; and it
was a very delightful place, well supplied with everything ; but it was
an unhealthy place, according to the natives, and fevers were very
prevalent.
Shah lahmasp, the second of the Sefavi dynasty, seems to
have been the first to favour it with a royal patronage ; but Shah
Abbas the Great, having fallen ill there from a surfeit of fruit,
vowed he would never enter the place again. By him the province
and city were placed under the government of a Khan.
At this time Teheran was visited by more than one European ;
and the descriptions of the Italian, Pietro della Valle (1618), and of
Teheran the Englishman, Sir Thomas Herbert (1627) are so
under *1 \ / j
Shah curious as to be worthy of reproduction. I quote from a
Abbas translation of the former that appears in ' Pinkerton's
Travels';—
Teheran is a large city, more spacious than Cashan, but not well
peopled, nor containing many houses, the gardens being extremely
large, and producing abundance of fruit of various descriptions, of
such excellent quality that it is sought for by all the circumjacent
1 For a list of them, vide a note by M. Langtes, in vol. viii. p. 1G4 of his edition
of Chardin.
2 Narrative of Embassy (Hakluyt Society), p. 98. Watson {History of Persia,
p. 62) must have been unaware of Clavijo when he wrote that Delia Valle was the
first European to visit Teheran.