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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2022
The essay begins with a brief introduction to the early Persianate institutions of learning whose buildings have since vanished, because they were erected using short-lived construction materials. However, a large number of Persianate manuscript paintings of the fifteenth to sixteenth centuries, which depict the practice of teaching in architectural settings, has survived. Is it possible to describe these places where the teachers and children gathered as they are presented in the illustrations? Were they mosques, madrasas, or private residences, or did the artists invent these architectural settings? The article explores twelve selected images, and proposes an explanation of these representations of the elementary schools (maktabs), including the construction methods, and the techniques of inner and outer decoration of these buildings.
The article is dedicated to the memory of Professor Oleg Grabar who shared his extensive knowledge on Iranian art and advised on the contents of this article. The author is grateful to Homa Katouzian and Roham Alvandi for their fruitful suggestions on the first draft of this work, and to William Padgett for his kind assistance with this manuscript.
The term Persianate, Persianate society, or Persified society (Farhang-e Pârsi-Zabânân), refers to a society that is either based on or influenced by the Persian language, culture, literature, art, and/or identity. See ArjomandS.A., “The Architecture of the Elementary School in Persianate Painting of the Fifteenth to Sixteenth Centuries” Studies on Persianate Societies3 (2004/1383): 6.
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