Shokatieh School

🕰️When was it built?

It was built on the order of Amir Esmail Khan, the first Shokat al-Molk, between 1308 and 1312 AH (1890–1895). Later Mohammad Ebrahim Khan Alam, the second Shokat al-Molk, turned it into a school. It was added to the National Heritage List in 1977; the exact date it became a school is not known.

🏛️What was it built for?

Shokatieh is one of the buildings tied to the beginning of modern education in Birjand. Lessons such as Persian, Arabic, French, mathematics, natural sciences and hygiene were taught here. The central courtyard and the cells around it joined the old hosseiniyeh space to a place of learning.

👀What you will see

• The entrance portal is decorated with a pointed arch and muqarnas; look at the details above the doorway before you go in.
• The courtyard is paved with brick and has a pool in the middle, with a low platform at its centre.
• The tall iwan stands beside the cells around the courtyard; notice how much higher it is than the rooms around it.
• The kolah-farangi in the middle of the hall's dome is decorated with rasmi-bandi and is part of the roof over the space.
• The vestibule and entrance passages link the lane to the courtyard; there are two entrances, on the south and west sides.

💡Something interesting

To encourage families to send their children to the new kind of school, poorer pupils were given financial help. The fact that Sheikh Hadi Hadavi, a local cleric, sent his own son to the school also helped win people's trust and made it thrive.