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December 10, 2007
The Work in progress 2, hard hat area
By 1935 Tehran was a city tearing at its seams. Reza shah the new monarch of Iran had tightened his grips on power and had cleared his cabinet , his army and family of all that could harm his regime. He had made deals with the Russians to the North, keeping them outside behind the Aras river, and the English in South were busy exploring Iranian Oil fields, happy that all they would pay the Iranian government was a measly 21% of all the riches they unearthed.
The Germans had agreed to make Iran's first steel factory. The railroad was already in use connecting the warm ports of Persian Golf to the snow covered heights of Zagross in north west all the way to the North in Azerbaijan.
Tehran was expanding its limits, the old Gates have been broken out and new roads were built to connect all the regions from the dry Sahara of Yazd to the rice farms of Gilan by the Caspian sea. Iran's first university was built and the new laws muscled by Reza shah through Maglis was bringing modernization to the Iranian society. Men were ordered to do away with the old clothing of the ghadjar dynasty and wear Frocks and pants. and the Iranian women were prohibited to wear Chador (veil )in the public.
The crown prince Mohamad reza was studying in Switzerland, and many young Iranian were sent to the universities in Europe to study the latest scinece, medicine, and new schools of business. In a way Reza shah was in a feverish rush to bring every thing of modern values to hi people. the hundred twenty years of Ghadjar dynasty had brought nothing to Iran but an sleepy acceptance of a nation weak in its ambitions and scattered in the fumes of the opium that tinted the Ghadjars palaces and had sipped within the conscious of its people. Reza Shah knew of the thirst that the English had for Iran's Oil, and how Stalin desired Iran as a passage way to the Persian golf trading waters, and the uprise of the Third Reich in Germany was also a threat to the stability of the whole world. He knew the time was not on his side, he had to do all he could in stolen passage of the time he had.
The army was fully behind him. He was a man of short sentences, orders that were concise and to the point. empowered by his booming voice, and fierce eyes that looked through the soul of anyone he talked to. His tall strapping figure mostly clothed in his army gear made him the picture of authority, and he used it to the best he could.. There were stories told of his fierce determination, and cruelty. When an English engineer finished a railway Bridge in North of Iran, he ordered him and his family to stand underneath the bridge while the train passed above.
Iranian people who had lived through the shame of the ghadja dynasty, were thirsty for a hero, a man of authority who could show them the way to capture the glorious past of their nation.
Reza Shah perceived his nation as a secular society in tune with all the progress of the west. His early alliance with the clergy who still manipulated the masses in Iran had solidified his power, but the new rules of modernization specifically the prohibition of women wearing veil had angered the clergy, but by now Reza shah had become not only the king but his legend had captured the hearts of many Iranians. They respected him and feared him in the same breath, and all the wealth that the new contract with English and the new trades have brought to the people had made him confident enough to ignore the clergy for now.
Mahmoud's father, Agha Bozorg was one of the beneficiaries of all these changes. His trade in netting wire, Iron, and scrap metals had flourished with all the need in the new Iranian economy. He also dwelled in Antiques. Porcelain french statues, golden Sabres, Russian Cloaks, and gold coins had made him a very rich man. His short ascend to riches had made hm a legend amongst his colleagues in Tehran Bazaars. He was a quite man of medium height. His weathered face with his large nose and lips, his unassuming eyes, always looking down and overshadowed by his thick eyebrows did not make him a handsome man. His long years in the bazaar had made him a suspicious man who rarely trusted anyone. He had a keen sense of measuring people and reading their every move. he could sense hostility, insecurity and betrayal. he knew when to pounce on an opportunity and was ruthless in getting all he could. there were stories about him of how Gypsies had stolen hm as a child and he had fled to the woods how he was raised by the wolves.
Agha Bozorg's name was Ahmad. He was born to a wealthy old landowner, and her young new bride in Brojerd, north west of Tehran. His father passed away shortly after his birth. Agha Bozorg had many older brothers and sisters, who could not stand their father's new beautiful young bride and her son. They decided to murder the new son and his widowed mother, but she fled with her infant son and travelled to Tehran where she had relatives. She was a young beautiful woman and soon she married her cousin and brought Agha Bozorg another set of step brothers and sisters. Haj Amoo became his step father and raised him like one of his own. Agha bozorg started his apprenticeship in Tehran Bazaar ( a community of wholesale dealers of all kind of raw materials, from fabrics, textile, rugs, Iron metal and netting, located in the heart of the old Tehran in a two miles square territory). Tehran Bazaar was the mecca for all the new ambitious young men who wanted to make a name for himself. they came in herds from all over the land and started as apprentices, and one in every hundreds became wealthy and famous, the rest would grow within the hierarchy of the Bazaar based on their potential, and made good living. The work was hard and physical. carrying bales of merchandise, learning the trade, the language of Bazaar, the culture of men who would buy and sell fortunes on a hand shake and passage of ones whisker or Mustache to bind the deal further. persistence, resolve, hard work, obedience, and ambitions were the ingredients
that differentiated the successful ones from the bottom dwellers.
Haj Amoo was a respected merchant, though limited in his ambitions and wealth he was highly regarded amongst his colleagues for his honesty. He was able to find a job for Agha Bozorg easily. At Twelve he was big enough to handle the hard work and ambitious enough to be at work earlier than every one else and leave later than all. Agha Bozorgs mother had thought him how to read and write, and he had learned math from Haj Amoo. Most of the merchants in the Bazaar were illiterate, helped by well paid book keepers in running their business. Agha Bozorg's knowledge helped hm to become the assistant to his bosses, book keeper, and learn the business with more awareness of prices, quotes, orders, sales and future predictions. He saved hs money and his curious nature had made him interested in Antiques, looking for them , taking about them, textile, statutes, silverware, anything with some ware and tarnish would catch his eyes, and soon he started buying some with his saved money. he was on his way to riches beyond his imagination.
Posted by Idinraha at December 10, 2007 11:34 AM