By Humaira Ahad

• Tafresh, an ancient Iranian town, preserves Zoroastrian heritage and historical monuments reflecting its rich cultural and social past.
• Scientists like Mahmoud Hesabi and cartographer Abbas Sahaab advanced Iran’s scientific research in meteorology, physics, and geographical mapping.
• Tafresh has produced influential figures in microbiology, cinema, poetry, and traditional music, shaping diverse aspects of Iranian culture.

Nestled among the hills of Markazi Province, about 200 kilometres from Tehran, lies Tafresh, a town of roughly 24,000 people whose history has helped shape Iran for centuries.

One of the oldest settlements in present-day Markazi Province, Tafresh was once a Zoroastrian stronghold. Remains of Zoroastrian places of worship and dakhmas – traditional burial sites – still stand on the hills surrounding the town and in nearby villages such as Kaburan and Khalchal. Fifty monuments in the region are listed on Iran’s national heritage register.

Successive eras have left their mark on the town. A general known as Delaram of Tafresh is remembered for serving Sasanian Iran during the Islamic conquest.

A nearby village, Delaram, also known as Teraran, is said to preserve his name.

In the 14th century, the historian and geographer Hamdallah Mustawfi recorded Tafresh in his geographical work Nuzhat al-Qulub, describing 13 villages, with Fam and Tarkhuran among the largest, and a predominantly Twelver Shia population.

This long history of scholarship and achievement continued into modern times. When Iran needed its first meteorological station, Seyyed Mahmoud Hesabi, a native of Tafresh, helped establish it. He also contributed to setting the country’s standard time.

When Persian poetry sought a new voice to explore women’s experiences, it found one in Forough Farrokhzad, whose parents hailed from Tafresh.

Nor were Hesabi and Farrokhzad isolated examples. A pioneering microbiologist who led the Pasteur Institute, a cartographer who organised Iran’s first exhibition of geographical maps and a master of traditional Iranian vocal music trained by Darvish Khan all traced their roots to the same county.

Drawing the nation

In 1955, Abbas Sahaab, a native of Fam in Tafresh, mortgaged his house to bring a globe-making ambition to life.

Having seen geographical globes displayed in European shop windows, he believed Iran should produce its own.

He found a manufacturer willing to produce 1,000 globes on the condition that he write the accompanying text. Sahaab agreed, but when the advance payment fell due, he had no money to repay it.

A friend who managed a branch of the National Bank of Iran offered a solution, which was to mortgage his house. Sahaab followed the advice, and the story soon made newspaper headlines. The globes went into production.

The venture marked the beginning of a much broader legacy. Sahaab became a pioneer of modern Iranian cartography, combining geographical knowledge with technical precision and artistic craftsmanship.

In 1960, he organised Iran’s first exhibition of geographical books, maps and atlases at Tehran Teachers’ Training College. Two decades later, in 1981, he produced the first geographical map of the Islamic world.

His body of work grew to include hundreds of hand-drawn and illustrated pieces, many incorporating decorative elements inspired by traditional Iranian art. He also published atlases of the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan.

The institute he led built an extensive library of books, journals, maps and atlases, providing a valuable resource for researchers while maintaining exchanges with geographical institutions abroad.

Father of Iranian physics

Hesabi was born in Tafresh in 1903, and according to his autobiography, the town stayed part of who he was and what he did.

Hesabi’s childhood was divided between Iran and Lebanon. In Beirut, he attended a school run by French priests, while at home his mother taught him religion and Persian literature. He memorised the Qur’an and immersed himself in the poetry of Hafez, Saadi, Ferdowsi and Rumi.

His education was marked by hardship. Financial difficulties and the disruptions of the First World War made progress far from easy.

Yet he persevered, earning degrees in literature and biology before qualifying as a civil engineer. He supported his family through surveying, technical drafting and road construction.

In France, he studied electrical engineering before turning to physics research at the Sorbonne. In 1927, aged just 25, he earned his doctorate with distinction for a dissertation on the sensitivity of photoelectric cells.

Hesabi went on to help lay the foundations of modern scientific infrastructure in Iran. He established the country’s first meteorological station and installed and operated its first radiology machine. He also helped determine Iran’s standard time and contributed to the development of the University of Tehran and its faculty of science.

His work extended to the establishment of the Institute of Geophysics and the Atomic Reactor Research Centre, and he played a role in the creation of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.

His theory on the infinity of particles attracted international attention. Across 25 papers, dissertations and books, he left a substantial intellectual legacy that reflected the breadth of his scientific interests.

Having lived in Beirut, Paris and Tehran, Hesabi died in Geneva in 1992. In accordance with his wishes, he was laid to rest in Tafresh, the town where his story began.

Scientists and thinkers

Dr Abolqasem Bahrami, a native of Tafresh, is regarded as the father of microbiology in Iran. He studied medicine at Dar al-Fonun before joining the Pasteur Institute, where he became deputy director in 1921 and acting head in 1928.

He later led the General Health Department, a body equivalent to today’s health ministry, before returning to the institute to continue his research in microbiology and bacteriology. He died in 1950.

Bahrami was among several Tafresh-born figures who helped shape Iran’s scientific and intellectual landscape. Botanist Ahmad Parsa made significant contributions to plant science, while Isa Behnam helped establish the Tehran Museum of Anthropology and specialised in archaeology and Iranian art.

Ardeshir Ghavamzadeh is recognised for his role in advancing bone marrow transplantation in Iran. Seyyed Abdolhossein Mirsepasi was a pioneer of psychology, while Javad Hajian became a prominent figure in Iranian geology.

Verse, film and song

Ali Hatami, born in Tafresh in 1944, found his way into cinema through theatre and dramatic literature. Drawing inspiration from traditional stories and historical events, he sought to create films with a distinctly Iranian identity at a time when much of the country’s cinema relied on repetitive themes.

His films include Kamal ol-Molk, Mother and Delshodegan. His television series Hezar Dastan remains among his best-known works. Hatami died of cancer in 1996, leaving unfinished a film project about celebrated wrestler Gholamreza Takhti.

Abdollah Davami, born in 1891 in Ta, a village in the Tafresh region, became a master of traditional Iranian vocal music. He studied under renowned musicians Darvish Khan and Aqa Mirza Abdollah, worked with radio and institutions dedicated to preserving Iran’s musical heritage, and trained students who carried the tradition into subsequent generations.

Poet Forough Farrokhzad was born in Tehran in 1934 to parents from Tafresh. Her first collection, Asir (Captive), appeared in 1955, followed by Divar (The Wall) in 1957 and Esyan (Rebellion) in 1958.

Her 1964 collection, Tavallodi Digar (Another Birth), marked a turning point in her literary career. Writing candidly about women’s emotions and experiences at a time when such subjects challenged social expectations, Farrokhzad captivated readers with her striking imagery, directness and keen observation of everyday life. She also directed documentary films.

Her life was cut short in a car accident in 1967, when she was just 32.

Seyyed Mojtaba Heydari, head of the Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Department of Tafresh County, describes it as one of the few counties in Iran with such a concentration of distinguished figures.

From microbiology and medicine to cinema, poetry and music, people associated with Tafresh have left their mark on diverse fields of Iranian life. Their achievements span different generations and disciplines, yet their stories lead back to the same small county in central Iran, a place whose influence reaches far beyond its hills.