Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Roozbeh (talk | contribs) at 13:57, 15 April 2004. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Tehran or Teheran

I believe it is Tehran, not Teheran, my source being Teach Yourself Persian. But the Persian script doesn't distinguish the two.

The original Persian spelling

The original Persian spelling of Tehran, as I have seen in many sources, was with a Tah (ط), and not a Teh (ت). That can be confirmed by visiting some Persian pages like , , , , , , , , , and , the latest of which is a letter from Mohammad Mosaddegh himself (search for the word طهران on the pages). Although the current Arabic language spelling is the same as the older Persian spelling, anti-Arabic advocates shouldn't be allowed to ignore the history of the word. I will revert the removal of the original spelling by the anonymous user 69.111.53.180, which was clearly labeled "originally", if no valid opposition comes up here (in, lets say, 48 hours). I seriously believe that bias against the Arabic language should not come in the way of undisputed facts. I also volunteer to find older official documents referring to the city as "طهران" if the need arises. "Nobody that I personally know of, spells Tehran that way" is not proof enough that Tehran was never spelled that way: Nobody I personally know of speaks Swahili either. Does that mean Swahili has never been spoken? Roozbeh 22:52, 14 Apr 2004 (UTC)

My enquotion of "original" was in jest. The name Tehran is NOT an Arabic name. When the Arabs conquested Iran, they used to arabicize (both in spelling and pronounciation) all Iranian words and names. Later when the Arabic language flousirshed further, many people, including Iranians themselves, would intentionally arabicize as many words as they could in their writings, as a sign of "high education" and how "arabic literate" they are. This trend continued all the way until the end of the 19th century. They would even write french words such as "consul" with the stupid arabic Q as Qonsul. Fortunately, Iranian intellectuals put an end to this stupidity. Sadly, however, even to this day there are people like you in Iran who call this "anti-arabism". It is YOU who is trying to perpetuate something that is clearly WRONG. Furthermore, this is English Misplaced Pages, why do you take your toolbox and go from page to page to page and put your little "in Persian" mark on all articles? And as if that isn't bad enough, you want to even include old, WRONG, arabic spelling of words and names, too!!! and this is ENGLISH Misplaced Pages.

I want to mention in the article that Tehran was officially called "طهران" for some time, without trying to guess the reason (which is disputed). Is there anyway to do that in a way acceptable to you? BTW, Persian speakers in Afghanistan still spell and pronounce "consul" with a Ghaf (ق) officially. Letters, languages, spellings, and preferences shouldn't be called stupid, IMO. Misplaced Pages is here to document, not to prefer a certain reform in language or spelling. Roozbeh 13:57, 15 Apr 2004 (UTC)