Today, Karaj is one of the most populous cities, while a few decades ago, there was no sign of buildings and such there. In the year 1308 when we migrated there, it wasn’t even called Karaj; it was a rural area in the southwestern part of the Agricultural College. The current Karaj was a desert; the road that went from the west to Tehran and passed through it was a very narrow street.
The place that is now known as Imam Square used to be just a small three-way intersection. The Chalous Road didn’t exist at all; there was a road that went to Tehran from the brick bridge, and another road came from Qazvin, which led to the Agricultural College; they called it the Garden, and before that, it was the Falahat School. Around that three-way intersection, there were about eighteen shops. On Tehran Street, which is the current Chalous Road, there was no building at all except for a caravanserai and a building that belonged to the old customs; there was a narrow road that went from behind the mosque to Bilqan. To the north of that three-way intersection was the Zaki Khani farms where wheat was usually grown. On the Qazvin road, towards Qazvin, there were two guesthouses; one became the Fadak shopping center, and the other was the Narimani shopping center. To the west, there was nothing but agricultural land. The caravanserai on Chalous Street was a place that mostly served travelers from Mazandaran; it belonged to Sheikh Mohammad Oveisi and that’s why they called it “Agha’s Caravanserai.” Apart from these, there was nothing, no mosque, no bathhouse, nothing. If the shopkeepers wanted to go to the bathhouse, they gathered in groups and went to the Hesar; there was an old bathhouse there that belonged to the villagers, and it had a pool. We use to go in groups for safety reasons because part of the road was unsafe; they would rob people near the bridge. Sometimes we went to Deh-e Karaj; there was a castle there with two gates, one in the south and one in the west; most people entered from the western gate, and the southern gate was for cattle and sheep. The Falahat School was in the eastern part of Deh-e Karaj, and there was a road that went towards the dormitory; that’s where the Agricultural College’s garden ended. In that area, there was also an Imamzadeh and a cemetery. People went there for pilgrimage, and there was a very large plane tree where they would set up tents and rest. One of our fellow villagers sent his son to pick up a baby crow from top of the plane tree, and it fell down and died. From there to Bilqan, it was all desert. In Azimiyeh, there were absolutely no buildings; above that, there was a place that later became known as Asbi Square; there was a small water source and a plane tree, and nothing else. In the areas that later became known as Islamshahr, at that time, there was no sign of life. They called the current area of Karaj “Sar-e-Pol” because there was a bridge on the Tehran road, and it had become famous as such. In the vicinity of 1310 and 1311, gradual urbanization began; they demolished the narrow street that went towards Tehran and rebuilt it, expanding its width to twenty meters. They gradually built one-story and two-story buildings; before that, there were no houses in that area; shopkeepers often slept in their shops, and their houses were either in the Hesar or in Deh-e Karaj. Our house was in Deh-e Karaj, but most nights, we stayed in the shop. My father had a cousin who mostly managed the shop; he also lived in Deh-e Karaj. After some time, he got married to my aunt, and he left from there. After him, my uncle managed the shop. One summer night, my cousin and I were in the shop; I hadn’t fallen asleep yet when I saw someone seemed to be opening the door in front of the shop. In the summer, they usually didn’t lock up the shops; they just roll down a mat. I woke up my cousin and said, “Someone wants to come in.” He said, “Don’t say anything.” We waited, and eventually, the person entered. He slowly went towards the cash register to steal the money. My cousin suddenly jumped and caught him, and I turned on the lamp to see what was happening. At that time, there was no electricity; we had an oil lamp. The guy said he thought the place was abandoned and he came in to urinate. My father’s paternal cousin was strong and didn’t let him escape. We took him to the side of Karaj Bridge and handed him over to the police; my father’s cousin was strongman, so he couldn’t run away. At that time, it was not safe; there was no one, neither secuirty guard nor police. In those years, the government decided to build a sugar factory in Karaj, and they did it. Some time later, in Chamran Boulevard, near the bridge, they started a chemical factory, and a little later, they began animal husbandry in Heydarabad, and then they organized the Hesarak serum production; shortly after, an iron smelting factory was established. Buying straw became a thing; they would mash old papers, mix them with straw, and make cardboard. A couple of times, my father sold straw to them, and there were about twenty camels loaded with straw, and I delivered it to them.
These factories had to hire workers, so the attention of people from villages was drawn towards Karaj. Workers, who were mostly from the Hesar or Deh-e Karaj, slowly began constructing houses near the factories, especially the sugar factory. On the outskirts of the surrounding streets, they built shops and houses behind them. In 1315, the government decided to establish an iron smelting factory in Karaj, which was a matter of national importance and had a widespread impact; this issue attracted many people from nearby cities to Karaj. In summary, these factors caused Karaj to gradually flourish and grow; at that time, many construction projects were taking place there, and the population had reached about ten thousand.