Tehran: formation of a 200 year-old capital, a critical way-finding to cope with the existing problems

The first hint of Tehran in Persian historical texts extends back to the 9th century AD (884 AD) in which one of the famous Iranian clerics of that time died. He was called: “Abu Abdollah Mahmoud ibn Hammad At-Tehrani Ar-Razi”.As the predecessor of Isfahan, the previous Iranian capital of two of the greatest Islamic Empires, the Seljuks and the Safavids, Tehran has a rather short background as a capital and a shorter one as a worldwide well-known megalopolis. On one hand as one of the ten largest cities all around the world, Tehran is faced with all the problems that other metropolises already have. On the other hand it is faced with another fundamental problem: despite many of other cities in its scale or even lower, it has been benefiting from no permanent river in its terrain. Being employed in this research, studying the past is a possible way of simulating the future conditions, predicting it and planning for it. It could provide an approach to problem solving. This paper will therefore survey the formation process of Tehran as the capital city of Iran with the aim of targeting the existing problems and addressing the possible solutions to treat them. In this way, first of all it focuses on the backgrounds of the city, its context, the possibilities and the restrictions. Then, to comprehend its growing pattern, it will take account of major historical events and periods in which the city has got a distinctive qualitative or quantitative leap. Focusing on the past trend of development, the paper will afterwards have a brief look on the existing situation of Tehran. It will finally conclude some general recommendations which would be a framework for further researches to find the most likely executive actions to treat ever-growing problems of this modern megalopolis.