TEHRAN -- Tourists can wander around the Qajar-era shops in modern Tehran from this October, Tehran Municipality announced on Sunday.

Two shopping areas in Bab-e Homayun and Abbas-Abad districts are allocated to extinct occupations of Tehrani people during the Qajar era (1789–1925), the head of Tehran Municipality Welfare, Services and Social Participation Organization told the Persian service of ISNA.

“According to our study, some of these occupations like metal engraving and tile-work and are still profitable so the municipality set up some shops for them,” Farzad Parsian-Hooshyar said.

The streets will house 70 known old profitable occupations in several shops, Parsian-Hooshyar added.

----- Tehran in Qajar era

In the early 18th century, Karim Khan of the Zand dynasty ordered a palace and a government office to be built in Tehran, possibly to declare the city his capital, but later moved his government to Shiraz.

Once again, in 1776, Tehran became the capital of Iran, as done by the Qajar king Agha Mohammad Khan. The capital of Iran has remained Tehran ever since.

Agha Mohammad Khan’s choice of his capital was based on a similar concern for control of both the northern and the southern regions.

He was aware of the loyalties of the inhabitants of previous capitals, Isfahan and Shiraz, to the Safavid and Zand dynasties, respectively, and was wary of the power of the notables in these cities.

He probably viewed Tehrans’ 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.

Moreover, the Shah had to remain within close reach of Azarbaijan and Iran's integral Caucasian territories in the North Caucasus and South Caucasus, at that time not yet irrevocably lost per the Treaty of Gulistan and Treaty of Turkmenchay to neighboring Imperial Russia, which would follow in the course of the 19th century.

After 50 years of Qajar rule the city still barely had more than 80,000 inhabitants.

PHOTO: Marvi Street in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar
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