[MIDDLE EAST - IRAN] Topographische Bemerkungen zur Karte der Umgebung und zu dem Plane von Teheran. Mit einer Karte/ Separatabdruck aus den Mittheilungen der k.k. Geographischen Gesellschaft in Wien [Topographical Remarks on the Map of the Surrounding
POLAK, Jakob Eduard, Dr. (1818-1891).
Wien: L.C. Zamarski, 1877.
Complete title: [MIDDLE EAST - IRAN] Topographische Bemerkungen zur Karte der Umgebung und zu dem Plane von Teheran. Mit einer Karte/ Separatabdruck aus den Mittheilungen der k.k. Geographischen Gesellschaft in Wien [Topographical Remarks on the Map of the Surrounding Area and the Plan of Tehran. With a Map. An Offprint from the Annals of the Imperial and Royal Geographical Society in Vienna].
Octavo (ca. 23,5x15 cm or 9 ¼ x 6 in). 8 pp. With a folding lithographed map at rear. Original publisher’s wrappers. Paper slightly age-toned, otherwise a near fine copy.
Very rare imprint with only four paper copies found in Worldcat (Harvard University, Columbia University, State Library of Berlin, State Library of Württemberg). An offprint of an article in the official magazine of the Imperial Austrian Geographical Society, published in a limited number of copies (Mittheilungen der k.k. Geographischen Gesellschaft in Wien. 1877. Vol. 20, pp. 218-225).
Historically significant, first European publication of August Krziz’s map of Tehran and its environs, showing the city in its mid-19th century borders, still enclosed by the historic citadel walls, which underwent the major development in 1869-1874, during the rule of Naser al-Din Shah (reign: 1848-1896). The map was compiled by a Bohemian artillery officer and cartographer, August Karl Krziz (1814-1886), during his service for the Persian government, and lithographed in Tehran in December 1858, quickly becoming a rarity. It was first published in Europe, together with the map of Tehran environs, by an Austrian physician Jacob Polak, who lived in Iran in 1851-1860, teaching medicine at Dar al-Fonun, the first modern institution of higher education in Iran, and serving as personal physician of Naser al-Din Shah. In the accompanying text, Polak provided detailed commentaries to both maps.
The map of Tehran environs covers the area from the foothills of the Alborz mountains to the Shah Abdol-Azim Shrine in the town of Ray, thus covering central part of the territory of modern-day Greater Tehran. The map marks royal palaces and residences, forts, tombs, city squares, gardens, main roads and nearby villages.
Overall a beautiful well-preserved copy of an important map, showcasing the urban development of Tehran before its major reconstruction in the early 1870s.
“Encouraged and supported by ʿAliqoli Mirzā ʿEʿteżād-al-Salṭana, the chief director of Dār al-Fonun, Kržiž embarked on a pioneering work to construct a large scale (1:2880, the Austrian scale of land-registering) “Map of the Capital City Tehran” Tehran. When working on this project, he encountered two major difficulties. Firstly, the complex structure of the city, which had grown without any planning and consisted of countless winding and narrow alleys, presented situations hostile to his undertaking. Secondly, it was not possible for a stranger, and even less for a non-Muslim, to enter any residential quarter and property inhabited by Muslims. Consequently, Kržiž was forced to send two of his Muslim students, Ḏu’l-Faqār Beyg and Moḥammad-Taqi Khan, to survey the residential areas. They were not even allowed to use any tools and instruments, due to the residents’ objection, and distances had to be measured by footsteps at the expense of poor accuracy in delineation. The task could be pursued and completed only with the help of an edict (farmān) by the imperial court. Kržiž’s map was finally lithographed in Tehran in December 1858; its very existence was enough to excite the admiration of Nāṣer-al-Din Shah and his courtiers (Polak, 1876, p. 1).
In the 1850s, Teheran covered an area of about 4 sq. km, of which 280,000 sq. m. were occupied by the imperial and governmental buildings, called the Arg quarter, which had its own rampart, moat, and drawbridge. The city wall with six gates, built in 1554 on the order of Shah Ṭahmāsb I Ṣafawi (r. 1524-76), was about 8 km long, with 114 towers equal to the number of the chapters of the Qurʾan. The city had four further quarters: ʿUdlājān, Čāl Meydān, Bāzār, and Sanglaj, each divided into smaller districts. All these features have been clearly shown on the Kržiž’s large (76,5x93 cm) and colored map, centred on 35°40′ N and 49°02′ E of Greenwich (inscriptions in Persian). The title and detailed geographical information were placed in the mid-upper part, the scale diagram in the mid-lower, and the legends in both lower corners of the map.
This map remained in use as the only official map of Tehran until a major expansion of the city was ordered by the Nāṣer-al-Din Shah in 1869. The urban expansion was completed in 1874, requiring a new map, which was printed in 1891.
A “Map of the Environs of Tehran” (Karte der Umgebung von Teheran) inscribed in Persian, was surveyed and drawn by Kržiž and six of his students in 1857-58. It was later corrected and transcribed into German by Jakob Eduard Polak and lithographed on a scale of 1:108,000 in 1877 in Vienna. The historical and archeological value of this map is worthy of note (Polak, 1877), as it shows the expanded site of the present metropolis of Tehran and beyond. It measures 34x38 cm, with Tehran as prime meridian. The old borders and the new wall erected after the expansion of the city in 1874 have been clearly marked. A miniature (size: 18x 5 cm; scale: 1: 20,700) and simplified version of the Kržiž’s map, entitled “Plan der Residenz Teheran,” appears as an inset in the upper right corner of the sheet” (Kržiž, August Karl// Encyclopaedia Iranica online; https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/krziz-august-karl/).