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The American College of Tehran, 1929–32: A Memorial Album

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Ali Gheissari
Ali Gheissari*
Affiliation:
University of San Diego, USA
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Abstract

This essay introduces a previously unpublished memorial album of the American College of Tehran compiled by a former student during the early Pahlavi period. The album contains a wide range of contributions by College faculty, associates, occasional visitors as well as fellow students and encompasses material on national history, ethics, sports, military service, mathematics and poetry, as well as numerous pencil drawings and art work. In addition there is a wide range of photographs of the College, its faculty and staff, its diverse student body, classrooms, athletics, special occasions and outdoor activities (a list of the album's contents and samples of contributions and photographs are appended to the essay). As discussed in the essay, and in manifold ways, the documentary evidence illustrates how both physically and cognitively the College provided a necessary space for participation in educational reform during the early decades of the twentieth century. Seen from this perspective, it was part of a wider context of modernization with which a broad range of individuals from different social and community backgrounds and generations identified themselves. On the whole, the album offers valuable glimpses into the social and educational aspects of the early Pahlavi Iran.

Type
Research Article
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 44 , Issue 5: Alborz College , September 2011 , pp. 671 - 713
Copyright
Copyright © 2011 The International Society for Iranian Studies

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References

1 Makoui, Mir-Asadollah Mousavi, ed., Dabirestan-e Alborz va Shabaneh-rouzi-ye An [Alborz High School and its Dormitory Section] (Tehran, 1378/1999), 11.Google Scholar

2 Armajani, Yayha, “Alborz College,” The Encyclopaedia Iranica, 1 (1985): 822.Google Scholar

3 For Nikolai Markov, see Daniel, Viktor, Shafei, Bijan and Soroushiani, Sohrab, Nikolai Markov Architecture (Tehran, 2004), 28–39.Google Scholar

4 See Sotoudeh, Manouchehr, “Haftad-o Seh Sal Dousti” [Seventy Three Years of Friendship], Bukhara, 38 (1383/2004): 73–78.Google Scholar

5 The new College campus consisted of two plots of land which totaled 44 acres and was situated outside the city walls, and the Rolestone Hall's foundation covered “2292 square yards.” See Arthur C. Boyce, “Alborz College of Teheran and Dr. Samuel Martin Jordan Founder and President,” typescript, Westminster Gardens, Duarte, CA, 1954, 54 pp., here 18; reprinted in Saleh, Ali Pasha, Cultural Ties between Iran and the United States (Tehran, 1976), 155–234,Google Scholar here 180 (hereafter all references to this source will be given to the latter edition).

6 For College library holdings, see Boyce, “Alborz College of Teheran,” 187.

7 Zirinsky, Michael P., “Render Therefore unto Caesar the Things Which Are Caesar's: American Presbyterian Education and Reza Shah,” Iranian Studies, 26, no. 3–4 (1993): 342.CrossRefGoogle Scholar See also Zirinsky, Michael P., “A Panacea for the Ills of the Country: American Presbyterian Education in Inter-War Iran,” Iranian Studies, 26, no. 1–2 (1993): 119–37;CrossRefGoogle Scholar Zirinsky, Michael P. “Onward Christian Soldiers: Presbyterian Missionaries and the Ambiguous Origins of American Relations with Iran,” in Altruism and Imperialism: Western Cultural and Religious Missions in the Middle East, ed. by Simon, Reeva S. and Tejirian, Eleanor H. (New York, 2002);Google Scholar and Zirinsky, Michael P., “Jordan, Samuel Martin,” in Encyclopaedia Iranica (New York, 2009),Google Scholar http://persica.org/articles/jordan-samuel-martin. For Presbyterian missionary activities in Iran, see Michael P. Zirinsky, “American Presbyterian Missionaries at Urmia During the Great War,” Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies, 12, no. 1 (2008): 6–27, http://www.iranchamber.com/religions/articles/american_presbyterian_missionaries_zirinsky.pdf. For the Presbyterian school for girls, see Zirinsky, Michael P., “Harbingers of Change: Presbyterian Women in Iran, 1883–1949,” American Presbyterians: Journal of Presbyterian History, 70, no. 3 (1992): 173–86.Google Scholar For education in the early Pahlavi period, see Sadiq, ‘Isa, Modern Persia and Her Educational System (New York, 1931);Google Scholar Menashri, David, Education and the Making of Modern Iran (Ithaca, NY and London, 1992).Google Scholar See also Matthee, Rudi, “Transforming Dangerous Nomads into Useful Artisans, Technicians, Agriculturists: Education in the Reza Shah Period,” Iranian Studies, 26, no. 3–4 (1993): 313–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8 Mousavi Makoui, Dabirestan-e Alborz, 20–22; Habib Ladjevardi, ed., Memoirs of M. A. Mojtahedi: Principal of Alborz High School (1945–1979) and Founder of Aryamehr University (1965), Iranian Oral History Project and Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University (Bethesda, MD, 2000), 20–22.

9 Mousavi Makoui, Dabirestan-e Alborz, 292. During the 1979–99 period, the school was presided over by Hossein Khoshnevisan in 1978–79, Hasan Pourzahed in 1979–80, Naser Naseri in 1980–81, Esmail Sadeq-Kazemi in 1981–84, Rajab-Ali Yassipour Tehrani in 1984–86, Naser Molla-Asadollah in 1986, Ali Mazarei in 1986–88, Abbas Feyz in 1988, Hossein Khoshnevisan in 1988–90, Baqer Dezfoulian in 1991–97, Dastani in 1997–98, and Valiollah Sanaye’ Porkar in 1998–99. From 1999 to 2011 the school was presided by Mazaher Hami-ye Kargar.

10 Armajani, “Alborz College,” 821.

11 Mousavi Makoui, Dabirestan-e Alborz, 15.

12 Boyce, “Alborz College of Teheran,” 179.

13 Boyce, “Alborz College of Teheran,” 179.

14 Named after the French military officer Marquis de La Fayette (1757–1834), who had served under George Washington (1732–99) during the American Revolution, Lafayette College is a private undergraduate liberal arts and engineering college which was founded in 1826 in Easton, Pennsylvania. It became affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in 1854.

15 Boyce, “Alborz College of Teheran,” 170–71. The list follows the same order as given by Boyce; teaching position and area changed to lowercase.

16 Boyce, “Alborz College of Teheran,” 170–71.

18 Sadeq Rezazadeh Shafaq (c. 1892–1971) was an author, academic, and politician. In his early days during the Iranian Constitutional movement (1906–11) he collaborated with the weekly Shafaq (Twilight), a nationalist paper published by his father in Tabriz in 1910, which was critical of Russian interference in Iran. He later studied at the Robert College of Istanbul and in Berlin. Following his return to Iran he taught at the Teachers' Training College in Tehran and at Tehran University, served at the Iranian Academy, and was also an active member of the parliament.

19 Yahya Armajani (1908–91) was a former student of Jordan and was “the first Iranian ordained in the Evangelical Church of Iran.” He went on to teach at the College after receiving a doctorate in history from Princeton University. Armajani later moved to the United States and taught Middle Eastern history for many years at Macalaster College, St Paul, Minnesota. See Zirinsky, “A Panacea for the Ills of the Country,” 136; and Zirinsky, “Jordan, Samuel Martin.” At College Armajani also taught ethics as well as supervised junior students at the dormitory. For Armajani's own account of Jordan and the College, see Armajani, Yahya, “Sam Jordan and the Evangelical Ethic in Iran,” in Religious Ferment in Asia, ed. by Miller, Robert J. (Lawrence, KS, 1974), 22–36.Google Scholar

20 Mohammad-Hasan Mirza Farhi (c. 1880–1969) had initially studied at the College and was later invited by Jordan to teach Persian literature and Arabic. In later years he also continued his work at the school under Mojtahedi. See Mousavi Makoui, Dabirestan-e Alborz, 36–37.

21 Ahmad Nakhostin had also become a Christian and translated into Persian a number of texts with religious themes. These included works by the American author and Presbyterian clergyman Henry van Dyke (1852–1933), and also by William Miller (1782–1849) who was an American Baptist preacher and a pioneer of the millenarian Adventist movement in 1830s and 1840s. For Persian titles, see Dyke, Henry van, Setareh-ye Derakhshan, trans. by Nakhostin, Ahmad (Beirut, 1926);Google Scholar Miller, William, Tafsir-e Enjil-e Luqa, trans. by Nakhostin, Ahmad (Tehran, 1313/1934);Google Scholar and Miller, William, Tafsir-e Ketab-e A'mal-e Rasoulan, trans. by Nakhostin, Ahmad (Leipzig, 1932).Google Scholar Ahmad Nakhostin's own writings included, Dastour-e Akhlaq [Moral Law] (Tehran, 1311/1932). Nakhostin also assisted the American Presbyterian missionary William McElwee Miller (1892–1993), who like Jordan had also graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary (in 1919) and was stationed in Mashhad, with the typing of the manuscript of his book on Bahaism. See Miller, William McElwee, Baha'ism, Its Origin, History and Teachings (New York, 1931), 15.Google Scholar

22 Barseghian continued in this position until 1978. See Mousavi Makoui, Dabirestan-e Alborz, 52–53.

23 Mirza Khalil Sotoudeh (1883–1966) was the supervisor of the elementary school and instructor of Persian.

17 Boyce, “Alborz College of Teheran,” 185–87. The list follows the same order as given by Boyce; teaching position and area changed to lowercase.

24 See ‘Abd al-Amir Dashti, unpublished personal notes, referred to in Mohammad-Ali Javedan, “Este'mar-e Farhangi-ye Gharb” (Western Cultural Colonialism), 4 Mordad 1387 (25 July 2008), http://www.javedan.ir/print.php?news_id=23.

25 John Dewey (1859–1952), was an American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer whose ideas were influential in education and social reform in the United States and beyond, particularly during the first half of the twentieth century.

26 See Homa Katouzian's essay, “Alborz and its Teachers,” in the present collection.

27 Spelling as appears on the album's title page.

28 For the tradition of producing scrapbooks, see, for example, Helfand, Jessica, Scrapbooks: An American History (Cambridge, MA, 2008);Google Scholar and Tucker, Susan, Ott, Katherine and Buckler, Patricia, eds., The Scrapbook in American Life (Philadelphia, PA, 2006).Google Scholar

29 I am particularly grateful to the late Iraj Afshar, Sayyed Abdollah Anwar, Mohsen Ashtiany, Farideh Farhi, the late Zein al-Abedin Motamen, Thomas Ricks, Manouchehr Sotoudeh and Michael Zirinsky for their help with identifying some of the photographs and providing additional information on various contributors.

30 Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941), prominent Indian poet and Nobel laureate. During his two visits to Iran, in 1932 and 1934, he was widely received by the Iranian statesmen and literary community.

31 Manosur Zandi, was the mathematics teacher.

32 Rahim Hakim-Eshaq.

33 Arthur Upham Pope (1881–1969), was an American archaeologist and celebrated historian of Persian art.

34 Massoud Farzad (1906–81), writer, poet and translator, with works in Persian and English.

35 Author's signature not clear.

36 Author's signature not clear; possibly Ahmad Nakhostin.

37 No name given for the artwork.

38 Last name and signature not clear.

39 Signature not clear, probably Taqi Ra'isi.

40 No first name recorded.

41 No first name recorded.

42 Probably the writer and poet Gholam-Ali Ra'di Azarakhshi (1909–99).

43 Abbreviation letters “ACT,” for the American College of Tehran, can be seen as decoration on the wall. Indicative of “action,” it was widely regarded as College motto. Occasional guest speakers at commencement ceremonies included the poet, literary scholar and politician, Mohammad-Taqi Bahar (1884–1951), and Sadeq Rezazadeh Shafaq (see footnote 18 above).

44 Hossein Sami’i (Adib al-Saltaneh) (1874–1953) had a long and varied career in public service; in 1932, when this photograph was taken, he was serving as the head of Reza Shah's personal office.

45 Mohammad-Ali Foroughi (Zoka’ al-Molk) (1877–1942) was a prominent figure in Iran's scholarly and political elite during the late Qajar and early Pahlavi periods; in 1932 he was serving as foreign minister.

46 Ali-Asghar Hekmat (1893–1980) was a noted educator and statesman; he was influential in the educational modernization of the early Pahlavi period.

47 Evin.

48 Both of these photographs correspond to earlier periods.

49 The tile work, “Haqiqat ra Khwahid Shenakht va Haqiqat Shoma ra Azad Khwahad Kard” (“You Will Know the Truth and the Truth Will Set You Free” [John, 8:32]), was later replaced with “Dabirestan-e Alborz” (Alborz High School)

50 Photo takes at the Doushan Tappeh Palace, on the then north-eastern periphery of Tehran.

51 Last name not clear, probably Charles.

52 Photo taken next to Moore Science Hall.