ABSTRACT
It is well to remember that Teheran's importance is a development only of the last century since its selection as the capital of Persia by Aga Mohammed Shah, founder of the Kajar dynasty. Sir Harford Jones's arrival in Teheran in 1808, coincident with the presence of Sir John Malcolm, representing the government of India, marked, accordingly, only the second British mission to Persia in two hundred years. In Teheran the college, which granted its first B.A. degree in 1928, has come to be distinguished for the increasingly important part taken by its alumni in the political, social and economic life of the country. The extent of this rivalry over the prostrate form of Persia and the course of its development is discussed elsewhere in this work. It is only within recent years that the great physical barrier offered by the Elburz Mountains to communication between the Caspian provinces and Teheran has been opened by roads suitable for wheeled traffic.
