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67-464: The American school was established after the director of the Community School, Tehran , Richard Irvine, announced in 1953 that the school was going to limit the number of Americans enrolled to preserve a balance in the cultures among the student body. The U.S. Ambassador to Iran , Loy Henderson , guided the opening of the new American school, which initially had Kindergarten through grade 8,

134-581: A big improvement, but there was a downside. It was located at the end of a dead-end street in a dangerous part of the city where unrest and riots were particularly common during the late 1970s. The class of 1979 was the last and final class to hold a graduation ceremony on the main campus in June of that year, after which its doors were closed forever. Tehran Tehran ( / t ɛəˈr æ n , - ˈ r ɑː n , ˌ t eɪ -/ ; Persian : تهران Persian pronunciation: [tehˈɾɒːn] Tehrân )

201-544: A crisis and the dissolution of parliament . Ahmad Shah Qajar and his entourage decided to leave Tehran and move the capital to another place, sparking fears of rebellion in other cities. During the Battle of Robat Karim , Iranian forces led by Heydar Latifiyan prevented the Russians from taking Tehran, despite the latter winning the battle. This also allowed government functions to be moved to Qom and then to Isfahan, while

268-455: A few of the students were children of missionaries as the number of Iranians and foreign students increased. It was commonly called the "American School" because students were taught primarily in English , with French and Persian as secondary languages. Classes met Monday through Thursday and on Saturdays, eventually switching to a permanent Saturday through Wednesday schedule (with Friday as

335-659: A measure of its importance to the Allied war effort. During the war, the Presbyterian missionary hospital, later to become the Community School campus, was taken over for use as a military hospital. After the war, increasing United States involvement with Iran meant more Americans in Iran, and the Community School was the only school in town for their children's education. In 1953 Headmaster Richard Irvine stated that he

402-513: A religious school in Iran, including government objections and interference, Mr. Hill also moved the school in the direction of a secular international school. I pledge allegiance to my country, and to the United Nations of which it is a part, one world brotherhood of peaceful nations, with liberty and justice for all. —The United Nations Pledge Someone once called the Community School "a laboratory of democracy at work." Besides

469-504: A small church, and walking paths. The Presbyterian missionary school established itself in the early 1900s in Hamadan , Western Persia (as it was known by the West then), growing from a "home school" into a formal school. In the 1930s the school moved to Tehran due to logistical considerations, located on Qavām os-Saltaneh Street and had slightly more than 200 students. By the 1950s only

536-425: 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, he had to remain within close reach of Azerbaijan and Iran's integral northern and southern Caucasian territories —at that time not yet irrevocably lost per the treaties of Golestan and Turkmenchay to the neighboring Russian Empire —which would follow in

603-731: Is home to diverse ethnic and linguistic groups from all over the country. The present-day dominant language of Tehran is the Tehrani variety of the Persian language , and the majority of people in Tehran identify themselves as Persians . However, before, the native language of the Tehran–Ray region was not Persian, which is linguistically Southwest Iranian and originates in Fars , but a now extinct Northwestern Iranian language . Iranian Azeris form

670-403: Is the capital and largest city of Iran. In addition to serving as the capital of Tehran province , the city is the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District . With a population of around 9.4 million in the city as of 2018, and 16.8 million in the metropolitan area, Tehran is the most populous city in Iran and Western Asia , the second-largest metropolitan area in

737-577: The Alborz mountains. In English, it is also spelt " Teheran ", with both variants being used in books since at least 1800, and "Teheran" being the dominant form from after WWII until shortly before the Islamic Revolution. Archaeological remains from the ancient city of Ray suggest that settlement in Tehran dates back over 6,000 years. Tehran is in the historical Media region of ( Old Persian : 𐎶𐎠𐎭 Māda ) in northwestern Iran. By

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804-706: The Azadi Tower , a memorial built under the reign of Mohammad Reza Shah of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1971 to mark the 2,500th anniversary of the Persian Empire , the Milad Tower , the world's sixth-tallest self-supporting tower , completed in 2007, another famous landmark in Tehran is the Tabiat Bridge , completed in 2014. Most of the population are Persian , with roughly 99% of them speaking

871-546: The Golestan Palace , Tekye Dowlat , and Tupkhane Square , were replaced with modern buildings influenced by classical Iranian architecture, particularly the buildings of the National Bank , the police headquarters, the telegraph office, and the military academy. Changes to the urban fabric began with the street-widening act of 1933, which served as a framework for changes in all other cities. The Grand Bazaar

938-534: The Iranzamin School , with Irvine its new headmaster. This parting of ways caused many hurt feelings, and many of the people involved bore strong grudges lasting years. Ms. Sahakian, a school icon, went to Iranzamin School; Ms. Amin, another school icon, stayed at Community School. After the departure of Mr. Irvine, the missionary board hired Douglas Hill as the next headmaster. Given the problems of running

1005-517: The Middle East after Cairo , and the 24th most populous metropolitan area in the world. Greater Tehran includes several municipalities, including, Karaj , Andisheh , Eslamshahr , Pakdasht , Qods , and Shahriar . In the classical antiquity , part of the territory of present-day Tehran was occupied by Rhages (now Ray ), a prominent Median city almost entirely destroyed in the medieval Arab , Turkic , and Mongol invasions. Modern Ray

1072-615: The Mongol invasion . In the 13th century, the Mongols invaded Rhages, laid the city to ruins, and massacred many of its inhabitants. Others escaped to Tehran. In July 1404, Castilian ambassador Ruy González de Clavijo visited Tehran on a journey to Samarkand , the capital of Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur , the ruler of Iran at the time. He described it in his diary as an unwalled region. Italian traveler Pietro della Valle passed through Tehran overnight in 1618, and in his memoirs called

1139-514: The Persian language , alongside other ethnolinguistic groups in the city which became Persianized and assimilated. Tehran is served by Imam Khomeini International Airport , alongside the domestic Mehrabad Airport , a central railway station , Tehran Metro , a bus rapid transit system, trolleybuses , and a large network of highways . Plans to relocate the capital from Tehran to another area due to air pollution and earthquakes have not been approved so far. A 2016 survey of 230 cities across

1206-460: The University of Tehran , in many districts of Tehran across various socio-economic classes in proportion to population sizes of each district and socio-economic class, 63% of the people were born in Tehran, 98% knew Persian, 75% identified themselves as ethnic Persian, and 13% had some degree of proficiency in a European language. Tehran saw a drastic change in its ethnic-social composition in

1273-466: The 1830s. However, it soon served expatriates of all stripes raising children while in Iran. In the late 1940s, the school moved from its original location at Saint Peter Church at Qavām os-Saltaneh Street, to a location at Kucheh Marizkhaneh (Hospital Drive) near Jaleh Street. In the summer of 1979, it was permanently shut down by the new government of the Islamic Republic after the fall of

1340-400: The 32nd capital of Persia . Large-scale construction works began in the 1920s, and Tehran became a destination for mass migrations from all over Iran since the 20th century. Tehran is home to many historical sites, including the royal complexes of Golestan , Sa'dabad , and Niavaran , where the last two dynasties of the former Imperial State of Iran were seated. Tehran's landmarks include

1407-519: The Americans, there were students from prominent Iranian families and children from Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, whose families were living temporarily in Tehran. Their parents were diplomats, exiles, military, professionals, oil industry personnel, etc. CHS represented 28 nationalities and eight religions. Christians , Jews , Moslems , and Zoroastrians blended without a problem. Above

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1474-463: The Iraqi air offensives on the capital. With most major powers backing Iraq at the time, economic isolation gave yet more reason for many inhabitants to leave the city (and the country). Having left all they had and having struggled to adapt to a new country and build a life, most of them never came back when the war was over. During the war, Tehran also received a great number of migrants from the west and

1541-564: The Islamic establishment by restricting Christian religious activities at the school. After the accession to power of Reza Shah , the influence and presence of Britain and Russia increased in Iran despite the pro-axis leanings of the Shah who refused the Allies' use of the trans-Iranian railroad. He was deposed and exiled to South Africa in favor of his son in 1941, three months after the launch of

1608-602: The Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. The American Army's Persian Gulf Command used Iran as a conduit for materiel to the Soviet Union, other routes being far more hazardous. By 1945, 150,000 assembled trucks, jeeps, aircraft, and even fire engines were transhipped from Khorramshar through Qazvin by truck and Tehran by train and then north to the Soviet Union . In 1943, the Allies met for the Tehran Conference as

1675-490: The Shah. After the revolution, the school was renamed Modarres Shahed school which is reserved for the children of the war veterans. The new campus had been an old Presbyterian missionary hospital during World War II where the last Queen of Iran, Farah Pahlavi Diba, was born. After the war, it was returned to the missionaries to be used as the school campus and J. Richard Irvine was hired as its headmaster in 1951. The large, tree-filled shady compound had several buildings,

1742-522: The ancient history of Iranian languages such as "Tirgan" theory and "Tahran" theory folk etymology . Another theory is that "Tehran" derives from Tiran/Tirgan, "the abode of Tir ", the Zoroastrian equivalent of Hermes . The ancient Parthian town of Tiran had a neighbour, Mehran ("abode of Mehr/Mithra", the Zoroastrian sun/justice angel). Both of these were mere villages in the suburbs of

1809-544: The assistance of the UNHCR , but there are still sizable groups of Afghan and Iraqi refugees in Tehran who are reluctant to leave, being pessimistic about the situation in their own countries. Afghan refugees are mostly Dari -speaking Tajik and Hazara , speaking a variety of Persian, and Iraqi refugees are mainly Mesopotamian Arabic -speakers who are often of Iranian and Persian ethnic heritage. The majority of Tehranis are officially Twelver Shia Muslims , which has also been

1876-462: The beginning of a period of economic growth; many Iranians were stimulated to seek a western education for their children. In 1967 there was some tension in the school; the school population was about half Iranian and mostly non-Christian. Although the school atmosphere was open and tolerant, the Presbyterian missionary board thought the school was straying from its charter. By this time Mr. Irvine and board member, Dr. Khodadad Farmanfarmaian had come to

1943-459: The capital of Iran in 1786. Agha Mohammad Khan's choice of his capital was based on a similar concern for the control of both northern and southern Iran. He was aware of the loyalties of the inhabitants of former capitals Isfahan and Shiraz to the Safavid and Zand dynasties respectively, and was wary of the power of the local notables in these cities. Thus, he probably viewed Tehran's lack of

2010-482: The city Taheran . English traveler Thomas Herbert entered Tehran in 1627, and mentioned it as Tyroan . Herbert stated that the city had about 3,000 houses. In the early 18th century, 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 chose Tehran as

2077-476: The city, from old to newly built centres, including mosques , churches , synagogues , and Zoroastrian fire temples . The city also has a very small third-generation Indian Sikh community with a local gurdwara that was visited by the Indian Prime Minister , Manmohan Singh in 2012. The metropolis of Tehran is divided into 22 municipal districts, each with its own administrative center. Of

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2144-550: The common holy day). With the exception of some of the Americans, most of the students spoke two or more languages. The expatriate population of Persia in the early 1900s, in the reign of Ahmad Shah Qajar , was very small and consisted mainly of British people; Persia was in both the British and Russian Empire's sphere of influence during the era (the Great Game ). Some of the expatriate population included Swedish officers of

2211-629: The course of the 19th century. After 50 years of Qajar rule, the city still barely had more than 80,000 inhabitants. Up until the 1870s, Tehran consisted of a walled citadel, a roofed bazaar , and the three main neighborhoods of Udlajan , Chale-Meydan, and Sangelaj, where the majority resided. During the long reign of Naser al-Din Shah (1848-1896), Tehran witnessed Iran's first institute of higher learning , bank , railway line and museum. The city expanded rapidly through multiple development plans The first development plan of Tehran in 1855 emphasized traditional spatial structure. The second, under

2278-525: The early 1980s. After the political, social, and economic consequences of the 1979 Revolution and the years that followed, a number of Iranian citizens, mostly Tehranis, left Iran. The majority of Iranian emigrations have left for the United States , Germany , Sweden , and Canada . With the start of the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988), the second wave of inhabitants fled the city, especially during

2345-582: The early Persian Gendarmerie , and Russian officers of Cossack brigades which largely made up the Iranian military. It was from such a Cossack brigade that Reza Shah came to prominence. The American presence in Persia was small at that time and consisted largely of missionaries. The Presbyterian missionaries had a delicate relationship with the Persian government, which found it easier to appease irritation in

2412-585: The epics as the homeland of the protoplast Keyumars , the birthplace of King Manuchehr , the place where King Fereydun bound the dragon fiend Aždahāk (Bivarasp), and the place where Arash shot his arrow. In 641, during the reign of the Sasanian Empire , Yazdgerd III issued his last appeal to the nation from Rhages, before fleeing to Khorasan. Rhages was dominated by the Parthian House of Mihran , and Siyavakhsh —the son of Mehran ,

2479-529: The face of Tehran and ambitious projects were planned for the following decades. To resolve the problem of social exclusion , the first comprehensive plan was approved in 1968. The consortium of Iranian architect Abd-ol-Aziz Farmanfarmaian and the American firm of Victor Gruen Associates identified the main problems blighting the city as high-density suburbs, air and water pollution, inefficient infrastructure, unemployment, and rural-urban migration. Eventually,

2546-487: The following year. The school initially had 94 students. The senior high school division opened by 1960. In May 1973 the school had 1,400 students. The school's first campus, which opened in 1954, was later named the Sayed Khandan Campus in 1974. A new elementary and middle school campus, Lavizan Campus, opened in the fall of that year. In the fall of 1976, an athletic center and gymnasium opened. As of 1976,

2613-759: The globe by Mercer ranked Tehran 203rd for quality of life . According to the Global Destinations Cities Index in 2016, Tehran is among the top ten fastest growing destinations . In 2016, the Tehran City Council declared 6 October to be Tehran Day, celebrating the date in 1907 when the city officially became the capital of Iran. Various theories on the origin of the name Tehran have been put forward. Iranian linguist Ahmad Kasravi , in an article "Shemiran-Tehran", suggested that Tehran and Kehran mean "the warm place", and "Shemiran" means "the cool place". He listed cities with

2680-471: The great city of Ray/Rhages. Mehran still exists as a residential district in Greater Tehran, as well as Ray, which forms the southern suburbs of Tehran. The official City of Tehran website says that "Tehran" comes from the Persian words "Tah" meaning "end", or "bottom", and "Ran" meaning "[mountain] slope"—literally, the bottom of the mountain (ته کوه), referring to Tehran's position at the foot of

2747-620: The interest that Arabian Baghdad displayed in Rhages, the number of Arabs in the city remained insignificant and the population mainly consisted of Iranians of all classes. The Oghuz Turks invaded Rhages in 1035, and again in 1042, but the city was recovered under the Seljuks and the Khwarezmians . Medieval writer Najm od Din Razi declared the population of Rhages about 500,000 before

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2814-518: The monarchy remained in Tehran. After World War I , the constituent assembly elected Reza Shah of the Pahlavi dynasty as the new monarch, who immediately suspended the Baladie law of 1907, replacing the decentralized and autonomous city councils with centralist approaches to governance and planning. From the 1920s to the 1930s, under the rule of Reza Shah, the city was essentially rebuilt from scratch. Several old buildings, including parts of

2881-597: The parliament passed a law on local governance known as the Baladie ( municipal law ), providing a detailed outline of issues such as the role of councils within the city, the members' qualifications, the election process, and the requirements to be entitled to vote. The then-Qajar monarch Mohammad Ali Shah abolished the constitution and bombarded the parliament with the help of the Russian-controlled Cossack Brigade on June 23, 1908. That

2948-533: The planning organization of Iran in 1948 resulted in the first socioeconomic development plan to cover from 1949 to 1955. These plans not only failed to slow the unbalanced growth of Tehran but with the 1962 land reforms that Reza Shah's son and successor Mohammad Reza Shah named the White Revolution , Tehran's chaotic growth was further accentuated. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Tehran developed rapidly under Mohammad Reza Shah. Modern buildings altered

3015-742: The public use Tehran Book garden ( Baghe Ketab Tehran ), a multi-plex arts, culture, and science education center. The school library had 18,000 volumes. John F. Harvey, a visiting professor at Motahedin University in Vanak , Iran, stated that the American school had "[p]robably the best school library" in Iran. According to Harvey, the American School's library was the first modern school library in Iran. Frontline has reported that historically most students did not have many Iranian friends and "led lives fairly isolated from Iranian society". At

3082-428: The same base and suffix and studied the components of the word in ancient Iranian languages , and came to the conclusion that Tehran and Kehran meant the same thing in different Iranian language families, as the constant "t" and "k" are close to each other in such languages. He also provided evidence that cities named "Shemiran" were colder than those named "Tehran" or "Kehran". He considered other theories not considering

3149-554: The same time, they developed emotional connections to the host country. Community School, Tehran 35°41′39″N 51°26′23″E  /  35.694033°N 51.439627°E  / 35.694033; 51.439627 Community School ( Persian : مدرسه كامیونیتى ) was a boarding school in Tehran , Iran , originally intended for the children of Presbyterian missionaries from the United States who were stationed in Iran since

3216-580: The school entrance, in Persian calligraphy, were the words from the Book of John , 8:32, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Some students learned the United Nations pledge of allegiance to the individual countries and flags and sang the United Nations hymn, the "Song of Peace," set to music by the Finnish composer, Jean Sibelius . The school facilities on the new campus were

3283-531: The school planned to open a new high school campus. At its peak, TAS was the largest American school outside the United States with about 2,000 students. The school closed due to disruptions that developed into the Iranian Revolution . The last superintendent, i.e., principal of the entire school, Dr. William Keough, was seized in the Iran hostage crisis in 1979 in the course of shipping out

3350-495: The second-largest ethnic group of the city, comprising about 10-15% of the total population, while ethnic Mazanderanis are the third-largest, comprising about 5% of the total population. Tehran's other ethnic communities include Kurds , Armenians , Georgians , Bakhtyaris , Talysh , Baloch , Assyrians , Arabs , Jews , and Circassians . According to a 2010 census conducted by the Sociology Department of

3417-476: The son of Bahram Chobin —who resisted the seventh-century Muslim invasion of Iran . Because of this resistance, when the Arabs captured Rhages, they ordered the town destroyed and rebuilt anew by traitor aristocrat Farrukhzad . In the ninth century, Tehran was a well-known village, but less so than the city of Rhages, flourishing nearby. Rhages was described in detail by tenth-century Muslim geographers. Despite

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3484-414: The southwest of the country bordering Iraq . The unstable situation and the war in neighbouring Afghanistan and Iraq prompted a rush of refugees into the country who arrived in millions, with Tehran being a magnet for many seeking work, who subsequently helped the city to recover from war wounds, working for a far lower pay than local construction workers. Many of these refugees are being repatriated with

3551-689: The state religion since the 16th-century Safavid conversion . Other religious communities in the city include followers of the Sunni and Mystic branches of Islam, various Christian denominations, Judaism , Zoroastrianism , and the Baháʼí Faith . In the 2016 "Tehran Survey", when residents of Tehran were asked about the importance of religion in their life, 53.5% considered it to be "very important / important", 31.1% to be "rather important", 10.5% to be "not very important" and 4.8% to be "not at all important." There are many religious centres scattered around

3618-639: The students' transcripts; the transcripts were never sent. The TAS campus subsequently became an Iranian university, Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University (SRTTU). The main mission of the Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University is educating the teachers for technical and vocational education schools in Iran. Today the grounds have been rebuilt for the restricted use of the National Archives and Library of Iran ( Sazman Asnad va Ketabkhaneh Melli ), and

3685-539: The supervision of 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. Tehran was 19.79 square kilometers, and had expanded more than fourfold. Growing awareness of civil rights resulted in the Constitutional Revolution and the first constitution of Iran in 1906. On June 2, 1907,

3752-526: The time of the Median Empire , part of present-day Tehran was a suburb of the prominent Median city of Rhages ( Old Persian : 𐎼𐎥𐎠 Ragā ). In the Avesta 's Videvdat (i, 15), Rhages is mentioned as the 12th sacred place created by Ohrmazd . In Old Persian inscriptions, Rhages appears as a province ( Bistun 2, 10–18). From Rhages, Darius I sent reinforcements to his father Hystaspes , who

3819-421: The urban fabric. The new city map of Tehran in 1937 was heavily influenced by modernist planning patterns of zoning and gridiron networks. During World War II , Soviet and British troops entered the city. In 1943, Tehran was the site of the Tehran Conference , attended by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt , Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin , and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill . The establishment of

3886-460: The view that the Community should be developed into an International school , and should take on the role of secular college preparatory school. They formed a committee to explore the possibility. The missionary board thought Mr. Irvine and Dr. Farmanfarmaian were leading the school away from its missionary charter, and emotions flared up. The need for international schools in Iran was strong and

3953-585: The whole plan was marginalized by the 1979 Revolution and the subsequent Iran–Iraq War . Tehran's most famous landmark, the Azadi Tower, was built by the order of the Shah in 1971. It was designed by Hossein Amanat , an architect whose design won a competition, combining elements of classical Sassanian architecture with post-classical Iranian architecture. Formerly known as the Shahyad Tower , it

4020-432: Was a natural source of conflict and turmoil for the board. At that time, chapel was voluntary, but bible class was required. The missionaries were unhappy: The school had largely become a school for upper-class Iranian children. The missionary board reacted negatively to the committee promoting an International school. Over the summer of 1967, Community School headmaster Richard Irvine and Dr. Farman-Farmanian left to found

4087-617: Was absorbed into the metropolitan area of Greater Tehran. Tehran was first chosen as the capital of Iran by Agha Mohammad Khan of the Qajar dynasty in 1786, because of its proximity to Iran's territories in the Caucasus , then separated from Iran in the Russo-Iranian Wars , to avoid the vying factions of the previously ruling Iranian dynasties. The capital has been moved several times throughout history, however, and Tehran became

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4154-489: Was built to commemorate the 2,500th anniversary of the Imperial State of Iran . During the Iran–Iraq War in 1980 to 1988, Tehran was repeatedly targeted by airstrikes and Scud missile attacks. The 435-meter-high Milad Tower, one of the proposed development projects of pre-revolutionary Iran, was completed in 2007, and has become a famous landmark of Tehran. Tabiat Bridge, a 270-meter pedestrian overpass that

4221-418: Was designed by award-winning architect Leila Araghian , was completed in 2014. The city of Tehran had a population of 7,711,230 in 2,286,787 households at the time of the 2006 National Census. The following census in 2011 counted 8,154,051 people in 2,624,511 households. The 2016 census measured the population of the city as 8,693,706 people in 2,911,065 households. With its cosmopolitan atmosphere, Tehran

4288-440: Was divided in half and many historic buildings were demolished and replaced by wide straight avenues, and the traditional texture of the city was replaced with intersecting cruciform streets that created large roundabouts in major public spaces such as the bazaar. As an attempt to create a network for easy transportation within the city, the old citadel and city walls were demolished in 1937, replaced by wide streets cutting through

4355-424: Was followed by the capture of the city by the revolutionary forces of Ali-Qoli Khan (Sardar Asad II) and Mohammad Vali Khan (Sepahsalar e Tonekaboni) on July 13, 1909. As a result, the monarch was exiled and replaced by his son Ahmad , and the parliament was re-established. During the Persian campaign , Russian forces that were occupying the northwest of Iran marched around Qazvin and approached Tehran, caused

4422-457: Was going to limit the number of Americans at Community School. The school did this to preserve a balance in the cultures among the student body. A separate American School of Tehran was established shortly afterward. President Truman's Point-Four program put a heavy strain on Community School because it brought many more American students. It also brought Iran closer to the US politically, and marked

4489-609: Was putting down a rebellion in Parthia (Bistun 3, 1–10). Some Middle Persian texts give Rhages as the birthplace of Zoroaster , although modern historians generally place the birth of Zoroaster in Khorasan Province . Mount Damavand , the highest peak of Iran, which is located near Tehran, is an important location in Ferdowsi 's Šāhnāme , an Iranian epic poem based on the ancient legends of Iran . It appears in

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