The minister of education agreed to his proposal and approved the version completed by the end of November 1932; he planned to have it reviewed by a committee before it was submitted to the Council of Ministers and the Majles by the court minister. An “unforeseeable event” destroyed these intentions abruptly: on 23 December 1932 the minister of court Teymurtash was dismissed; on 17 January 1933 he was placed under house arrest; and a month later he was officially arrested, before being sentenced to three years of prison on 18 March. Sadiq had always had good relations with Teymurtash, who had acted more than once as an intermediary for him.
Whereas Sadiq nevertheless kept his eyes on the goal without surrendering his zeal and persevered with the reorganization and expansion of the Teachers College and the plans for the university, the minister of education Qaragozlu, who had been one of Teymurtash’s oldest and closest friends, fell into depression and lethargy. Sadiq claims to have reminded him several times of the draft, but Qaragozlu did not react and conjured up excuses before finally expressing the fear that the government would change in the near future and consequently his work would fall apart.
Even before the change of government Qaragozlu was dismissed early in June for reasons of health. Prime Minister Mehdi Qoli Hedayat Mokhber al-Saltaneh resigned in September after more than six years in office. Teymurtash died in prison two weeks after the appointment of the new government, when he supposedly succumbed to a heart attack. Sadiq was the only one who did not give in – the loss of his old friends and combatants seems not to have deterred him from pursuing of his goals.
The Teachers College as the nucleus of the University of Tehran: the contribution of ‘Isa Sadiq
