PORTRAIT OF IRAN

All the gardens are covered by rose leaves. All the mountains have put on their holy dress. A thousand years ago, the poet Ferdowsi sang the praises of spring among Persia's mountains. Today, the people of Iran still look to their mountains for water, precious water for the high arid plain on which most of the people live. But too often, rivers flowing down from the snows disappear in the great central deserts of Iran. East and west lies Turkestan in the days when it was known as Persia. From this vast throne room, part of his renowned capital Persepolis, King Darius ruled over the first great empire in history. The Hall of a Hundred Columns, the harem for the many royal wives, and a wonderful sculptured stone stairway were among the marvels here. Focus of the sculptures was the life-size carving of Darius himself, seated on his throne, receiving tribute from the peoples he ruled. From Europe, Africa, and Asia came men bearing gifts. In the procession were Syrians bringing golden bowls, bracelets shaped like horseshoes, and small horses from what is today Arabia. This was sort of tax day 25 centuries ago. There were Medes, there were Scythians from what is today southwest Russia. There were sheep from what is today Turkey. There were vessels with exotic shapes full of precious liquids. There were humpback cattle from what is today India. All these part of the Persian empire in its days of greatest glory. There was a chariot like those of the pharaohs. Even Egypt was ruled by this Persian king. And there was a Bactrian camel from what is today Afghanistan. The tax collectors were the men of his mighty army. And on these golden tablets, Darius inscribed, "I am Darius, king of kings. The great god Ahura Mazda has given me the rulership of all races. This is my kingdom." Here in gold was outlined the empire which was handed on to Xerxes, his son. Xerxes, at the head of vast armies, extended Persian rule to the limits of the known world. The Persian armies met defeat in Greece at the Battle of Marathon. Under Alexander, Greeks pursued the Persians back to Persepolis. Through this gateway, Alexander the Great strode in triumph. Conquerors of a different kind came a thousand years later. From the Arabian Peninsula, claiming sword and a fiery new faith. As this new faith of Islam grew and mellowed, the followers of the prophet Muhammad built great churches called mosques. The Masjid-i-Shah, the royal blue mosque of Isfahan, was completed in the 17th century by Shah Abbas. He ruled during Persia's second golden age. Polo was developed in Isfahan and played in the great square, while the Shah watched from this porch over the palace gateway. From his palace, Shah Abbas ruled a reborn, expanding Persia. He built roads, irrigation systems, and great bridges like this one. But even his empire finally crumbled. Centuries later, in 1925, Reza Shah rose to power and a new era began marked by a turn from old customs toward western ways of thought. Under Reza Shah's son, needed land reforms are changing old patterns and bringing hope to the people. The young Shah's palace is typical of the architecture of modern Tehran. Former rulers lived in the Golestan, or rose garden, palace. In its mirror throne room is one of the world's most fabulous objects, the Peacock Throne. This golden seat of state was designed so that its occupant cross-legged with his back against a bolster crusted with pearls and rubies in gold settings. Built for the great mogul of India, it was captured by Nadir Shah and brought to Persia 200 years ago. Above is the jewel peacock from which the throne gets its name. Tehran is the capital of Iran, located in the north with the Elburz Mountains in the background. Tehran is a modern city with roots in the past. The great Muslim religious college of Sepahsalar is one of the intellectual centers of the Islamic world. These young men are studying to become mullahs, religious leaders. Their tranquil cloisters contrast with the busy life of the city. A woman wearing the enveloping chador is a reminder that even here in this modern city, are strong links with eastern tradition. New buildings and modern apartments are among the visible signs of progress in Tehran. At their national university, young are becoming the doctors, teachers, engineers, and leaders of the future. Isfahan is the art and craft center of Iran, as it was in the days of Shah Abbas, when her people boasted, "Isfahan is half the world." Much of the imperial splendor survives, and in the bazaar, the ancient crafts like coppersmithing continue little changed. Modern machinery has come to Iran, but it still is far less difficult to hire a skilled hand craftsman by the day than to find capital to buy an imported machine to do his job. The hands of Isfahan craftsmen turn with special skill to the creation of fine articles of silver. Machinery will never be able to replace artist craftsmen like these silversmiths. Their skill is not easily acquired. For 50 years, these hands have guided tiny chisels, none over a tenth the size of a finger. With never-ending taps of his hammer, one of the world's great silver masters, Muhammad Zufan, creates things of lasting loveliness. This small case is ornamented with figures of legendary heroes hunting lions in a scene from a Persia of long ago. The shop windows of Isfahan display other traditional arts. Here are miniature paintings. Themes used today are little changed from those of the time of the great Shah Abbas, and the technique is also little changed. Men sit all day seeming scarcely to move a muscle. His brush, three camel hairs, and this is some of the work he does. The best known product of Isfahan hands is, of course, the Persian rug. An average rug is made up of at least a million tiny knots, every one of which must be tied by hand. The knots make the woolen tufts, or pile, of the rug. The warp, or foundation, of the rug consists of cotton threads wound between large wooden rollers. Rug industry wages are low. One of these skilled weavers earns less in a week than an average American laborer receives for two hours work. After a few rows of knots have been tied, they are pounded tightly together with this comb-faced hammer. Children's tiny hands tie the smallest knots of the most delicate designs, although employment of children in rug factories is discouraged by new labor laws. As modern industry like this textile mill come to Isfahan, mill owners and workers alike face the problems of sudden adjustment to the machine age. Shiraz is the capital of the province of Fars, from which Persia took its name. The monumental city gates and the princely palace of the Qashqai suggest the beauty of Shiraz, whose history is full of the names of astronomers, philosophers, and poets. The climate is agreeable here. Oranges grow near reflecting pools in which Muslim poets saw the tranquility they sought in their faith. With this monument, Shiraz honors its most beloved son, the poet Saadi. 700 years ago, he wrote poetry of such beauty that it still is the basis of the living Persian language of today. The people of Shiraz are among the most progressive in Iran. Behind the caravan still used for transport, rises their modern grain elevator. They built a fine new technical school where young men are learning to use machine tools and thus reduce Iran's dependence on foreign manufacturers. They point with special pride to their rapidly expanding medical school in which young people are being trained to fill the serious shortage of doctors. Some of the students are women, evidence of change disturbing to the conservative Muslim clergy. Medical care has not yet reached much of rural Iran. About 90% of the people live in villages like Kinare. Kinare exists because it has water, water drawn by this primitive hoist. Three centuries ago, elaborate irrigation systems operated. The land fed twice its present population. Today, this hoist reaches only 60 ft. Its capacity, two goatskins, about 8 gallons of water a minute. Here the people of the village come to wash their clothes. And in this same water, they do their dishes. They see nothing wrong about having the sheep and goats come to drink at the same source from which they draw their water to take home for cooking and drinking. A girl named Zara carries on her head the quart of water she's walked half a mile to get. There is no school in Kinare, so Zara has not heard of the dangers of bacteria in drinking water. Kinare is cold and dusty in winter, hot, even dustier, and much more uncomfortable in summer because of the flies. At home, Zara's mother makes bread from wheat flour that was the family's share of the crop. The landlord owns the fields and also the house in which Zara and her family live. Sickness breeds easily here. It comes from dust, flies, unclean drinking water, and often just from too little soap because soap is expensive. Main food is bread. Only occasionally are there vegetables and a little goat milk. Meat is scarce, so the diet is mostly bread and not much else. Yet, for all their poverty, these people are kind and decent, honest, honorable, and friendly. Their bedding is the most precious thing they own. They have a copper samovar, a broken kerosene lantern, a teapot, a few cups and saucers, a mirror, and a picture of the Shah. Together with their clothing and cooking utensils, these things are all that this hardworking family owns. The house has two rooms, a sleeping room upstairs and a cooking room downstairs. This is the only stairway. Mother is baking bread this morning. Although Iran is rich in oil, oil products are still too expensive for this family. So, mother walked 50 miles to gather twigs for her fire. As Zara's father, Mustafa, walks to work, he realizes that he is neither much better nor much worse off than his neighbors, or neither much better nor much worse off than most of the 16 million people of Iran. And as he works in the fields with the landlord's oxen, he knows that little has changed in Kinare in 25 centuries. There is still the old system of land ownership, which sometimes requires the tenants to pay 80% of their crop for the privilege of working the owner's land. The only change is Mustafa's clothing and now a steel tip on the wooden plow. Like most people of the Middle East, Mustafa wants the benefits of mechanized civilization. Change is coming as the great natural resources of Iran are developed. The most important resource is oil. At Abadan is one of the world's largest refineries, built to serve customers of many nations. Developed by British interests, Iranian oil has been the subject of bitter dispute. With no tradition of mechanical experience, Iranian technicians are developing skills to operate complex machinery. High industrial wages have attracted men from all over the country to work in the unfamiliar tangle of technical equipment. Men from the highland tribes, men from the city bazaars, have put on the workman's helmet. This, then, is the new man of Iran, a man who looks with hope to the time when, with further development of industry and her great natural resources, Iran may know again some of the glory it knew when Darius ruled from Persepolis over the mightiest empire the world had ever known. >> [bell]