TEHRAN — Tehran is home to one of the largest cemeteries in the world, “Zahra’s Paradise,” which lies on the southern plains of the capital and is named after a female Shiite saint.

More than 1.7 million people are buried there. One of them is Amir Ashraf Derakhshani, my former neighbor.

Each little community in Tehran has its respected elder, and in the 26-floor high rise where I live, this was Mr. Derakhshani, an engineer who trained in the United States.

Every afternoon, he would carefully walk through the long hall in my building in West Tehran, his daily workout. Rumor had it he was 106. He was not, but we liked to believe it.