A Comparative Historical Analysis of Education Situation in the Timurid Period of Iran According to the Content of the Manshat (Letters)

1. Introduction

              Although the study of the historical periods of education in Iran is not a new topic, but the seven thousand year history of this country still provides many research opportunities for experts in the field of educational sciences. The historical background of education can provide a deeper insight about ups and downs of this system and its social, cultural, political and religious backgrounds and evolution process. Therefore, the purpose of historical studies is not only the history of concepts, but also "concept making" (Shaw, 2010). For example, although endowment of school is not a new phenomenon in the history of Iran education, the concept of "educational endowment" has not been institutionalized among educational policymakers, educators, and the public. According to this thought, the historical study of the educational system has two valuable purposes: First, to identify the "experiences" of the past; and second, the identification of intellectual transactions for the selection of new intellectual and practical paradigms (Scott & Usher, 2010). Therefore, historical understanding can be based on action to combat the challenges in today's education system that our ancestors have to some extent resolved. As a result, the study of historical events is not merely a retelling of past memories, and from "mere description" leads the researcher to "comparison" and "interpretation" (Suddaby, 2016). In this rational process, historical analysis helps the educational historian to find out “which social institutions have influenced the performance of the educational system in the past; how its goals and plans were set; what was the role of educational leadership and how were teachers and students selected and how can answering these questions help solve the challenges of today's education system”. Thus, referring to the past means that educational researchers resort to historical memory to better understand and interpret the situation today.

         One of the historical sources that have received less attention from historians in terms of educational developments is “Letters” (Manshat in Persian Literature). Given the definition of Manshat, accepting them as "educational documents" seems heavy to the mind at first. Nevertheless, the content analysis of the Manshat clearly shows that many of them have valuable information about the educational system and its various dimensions. Manshat were a set of governmental or friendly letters written by the Court of Kings or general authors (Mesahab, 2016). These letters were often written by government officers, belletrist and scholars that already had invaluable books in poetry and prose formats (Mardani, 1998). The authors of Manshat also had direct and objective experience of events in important institutions of society such as the State, religious centers, and military and economic associations. Therefore, the Manshat contain valuable material on social, economic, cultural, educational, religious, political, and class systems of Iran’s society (Manouchehri, 2011; Khairandish 2000; Salehi, 2001). Thus, these letters provide primary and reliable sources about different dynasties of the Kingdom of Iran (Vatabeh, 2000).

          Historical sources indicate the beginning of the emergence and compilation of Persian Manshat from the Ghaznavid period in Iran (Hassanzadeh, 2009). Also, historical studies reveal that the Timurid period is one of the best historical periods in terms of number, content and importance of Manshat. The founder of the Timurid dynasty was devoted to all of them, writers and all of them (Mahjoor, 2014). The founder of the Timurid dynasty valued and respected industrialists and artists. His son, Sharekh also had a passion for spreading culture and helping the scientists, industrialists, artists and scholars.  This growing trend continued during the Ghiasuddin Baysanghar period (1399 -1433). During the Timurid period, Herat schools - as a center of thought and civilization - were full of students and great professors who studied various scientific subjects (Zamchi Asfzari, 2019). Also, the existence of a Minister of Science namely Amir Ali-Shir Nava'i had increased prosperity of educational, scientific and art meetings (Farahani Monfared, 2003).

          In addition, the Timurid era should be considered an important period in the history of Persian literature, because the kings and princes of this dynasty - who ruled in different provinces - supported the poets and literature. Thus, the Timurid period, although not one of the prominent literary periods in Iran in terms of the quality of works, is a distinguished period in terms of the abundance of writers and poets. Persian prose became favorable in the Timurid era and the use of terms, words and simple combinations expanded (Safa, 2004). During this period, a famous group of scholars were appeared such as Abdul Rahman Jami, Maulana Hussein Waez Khashafi, Moinuddin Mohammad Asfzari, Abdul Wase Nezami Bakhrezi and Shahabuddin Abdullah Morvarid and wrote invaluable books (Jihadi, 2014). The method of government writing, charters, decrees and Manshat in the Timurids period was similar to that of the Mongols (Bahar, 1990). In the meantime, one of the documents left from the Timurid period is Manshat.

         The Manshat of the Timurid period can be divided into several groups in terms of the purpose of its compilation and writing: First, governmental letters that have a variety of content are categorized under such headings as private letters, government commands or royal decrees. Vatabeh (2000) considers these Manshat to include rulings, government commands or decrees of kings, and even congratulations and condolences. The most important sources of the Timurid period - such as the Manshat of Khajeh Abdullah Morvarid, the Manshat of Zamchi Asfzari, the Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad book of “Letter of Names” and Manshat of Sharaf- are in this group. The second group is educational Manshat that have been written with the aim of teaching correspondence and writing etiquette. In this type of Manshat, the correct method of writing is taught, learning the science of composition, rules and methods of correspondence, and types of writings - including conquests, decrees, commands, charters and the expression of its elements and conditions - are discussed. In such sources, the works and poems of the great Persian and Arabic literature were cited and the authors used sufficient evidence - in the form of Persian and Arabic poetry and prose - to understand and explain their views (Hassanabadi, 2018). Razmjoo (1995) believes that these Manshat - as a pattern of theoretical and practical writing - have been used by scholars and students. Third type of Manshats is friendly letters which most of them were addressed to scientists, clerics and politicians (Orji & Manouchehri, 2014). These letters include various moral, political, social, mystical, etc. issues, and from them, outstanding historical information can be extracted. In this group, we can name the letters of Noor al-Din Abdul Rahman Jami, Abdullah Qutbuddin bin Mohi and Amir Hussein Ghazi Meybodi (Hassanabadi, 2018).

          The research literature shows that the importance of Manshat has attracted the attention of historians and researchers in various scientific disciplines to study and analyze their content. For example, Khashavarzi (2019), by examining historical Manshat related to royal orders and decrees, found that many Timurid princes supported artists and scholars and built schools to consolidate their power. Hassanabadi (2018) emphasizes the value of re-examining the newly found version of the Manshat. Arefi (2015) examining the position of Manshat and manuscript writing in Iran believes that manshats - as one of the sources of calligraphy education - in the Timurid period was freed from the dominance of Arabic language and instead of that Persian method of writing became common - using simple and clear words and sentences. Allahyari, Fayyaz Anoush & Goodarzi (2015) in the study of the development of educational institutions in the Timurid period mention Khajeh Moinuddin Ali Meybodi (911) who mentions in his Manshat the prosperity of traditional sciences and the weakness of intellectual sciences education in schools. Orji and Manouchehri (2014) emphasize the importance of the Manshat of the Monshi Samarkandi in the historical research of the Timurid period. Jihadi (2014) has also studied the literary aspect of the Manshat in the Timurid period. Modbari, Sarefi, Basiri & Jihadi (2012) have examined the structure of the Manshat from a documentary point of view. Findings of Kavousi (2010); Azhand (2008, 2009),  Sahragard (2008), and Rahnavard (2017) show that in the Timurid period, subjects such as literature, music, architecture, painting, industrial arts and calligraphy, history, poetry, medicine, geometry, architecture (tiling, bedding and inscriptions), astronomy and music were taught in schools. Azhand (2008) believes that in the Timurid period, princes competed with each other in the production of works of art.

         An overview of the research literature indicates that in many cases, one of the main sources available to researchers to analyze the situation of the Timurid period were various type of Manshat (Najari, 2014). However, little attention has been paid to the state of education - which is mainly reflected in the activities of Timurid schools - using a comparative approach and through content analysis of Manshat. In fact, the main premise of the present researchers is that the Manshat contain extensive information about the various dimensions of the educational system - such as the way schools are founded, their founders, teachers, students, curriculum, and teaching methods. Therefore, by adopting an analytical-comparative approach, a deeper historical knowledge of the state of education in the past centuries of Iran can be obtained. Thus, the aim of the study was an analytical-comparative study of the situation of education in the Timurid period according to the content of available Manshat. With this in mind, the research sub-goals are:

• What were the characteristics of Timurid schools according to the content of the Manshat?
• According to the content of the Manshat, what were the similarities and differences between the schools of the Timurid period?

2. Research Method

        The purpose of study was an analytical-comparative study of the situation of education in the Timurid period according to the content of available Manshat. The present researchers used an analytical-comparative research method with a historical approach. In this method, the researcher seeks to determine the facts and draw the results of past events (Hall, 2007). The method of data collection was also documentary method - by examining the Manshat and primary and secondary sources. Primary sources included a variety of Manshat and secondary sources included all books and articles that were selected through purposive sampling method. Given that the available Manshat are very popular among historians, the present researchers did not see the need to use external criticism to determine accuracy and authenticity of Manshat (Howell & Prevenier, 2001). Therefore, in data content analysis, only the internal critique method was used - according to the purpose of the research.

3. Findings

            The findings of study can be divided into several sections: The first section provides an overview of the thematic content of the Manshat. In the second part, the findings related to the educational aspects of the famous Manshat of the Timurid period - which are mainly available to researchers - are stated, such as the name of the Manshat, name of author, main subject and prevailing educational content in Manshat. In the third section, according to the thematic content analysis of primary sources (Manshat) and data from secondary sources, the characteristics of the Timurid education system are explained – dimensions such as names of schools, founders, purpose of founders, famous teachers & students, curriculum subjects, teaching methods, etc. In the fourth section, the similarities and differences between schools are determined in terms of variety of characteristics.

First) External characteristics of Manshat

         As mentioned in the introduction, the Manshat can be divided into several groups according to the subject. However, the analysis of data from primary and secondary sources indicates that there is no definite boundary for observing these divisions, and for example, information related to various topics can be found in one Manshat. For this reason, the present researchers tried to gather information related to the research topic by examining the content of various popular Manshat. The result indicated that the school subject, teaching method and type of schools have been considered by the authors in most Manshat (Table 1). For example, in a thematic analysis of Manshat, the researchers found that if we add the percentage allotted to literary, artistic, and architectural and the endowment - which their authors typically deal with education - with scientific and educational Manshat, about 30 percent of all the letters in the Manshat were dedicated to the subject of education in the Timurid period. Of course, it should not be left out that the content of a large part of administrative and political Manshat is also dedicated to the educational system and its various dimensions. Another important point is that out of 932 letters of this period, 120 letters were written by people who also directly played the role of teacher. People like Nezami Bakhrezi, the author of "Manshalansha", Morvarid, the author of "Manshat Morvarid", Zamchi Asfzari, the author of "Manshat Zamchi Asfzari" and Heravi, the author of "Manshat Sharaf" were among the secretaries, scientists and teachers of schools in the Timurid period.

Table 1: Content, number and percentage of thematic in Manshat of Timurid period

Second) Educational Aspects of Manshat

         Examining the secondary sources of the present study highlights that despite the prevalence of manuscripts in Manshat format in the Timurid period, the exact number of Manshat is not known and many of them have disappeared over time. However, the content analysis of some of the most popular available Manshat, as well as books and articles related to the Manshat, indicate that their authors had a special interest in the educational system and its various dimensions. For example, the subject of a large number of Jami's Manshat letters is related to school endowments, teacher assistance, teachers' personal thoughts, and school competition revenues (Obaidi Nia & Abdol Alipour, 2016). Table 2 contains basic information related to the most important Manshat of the Timurid period in terms of the main topic and educational content:

Table 2: Thematic features and educational content of famous Manshat of the Timurid period

        The analysis of the table data reveals several important points: First, the authors of the Manshat in addition to writing and teaching various subjects in Madrasa, had a government position. Second, the dominant content of the Manshat can be placed in several general political, religious, historical, cultural, scientific and educational groups. Third, due to the knowledge and scientific mastery of the authors of the Manshat in different sciences, Manshat also generally contains educational materials related to various fields of knowledge. Therefore, there are many scientific and educational materials about the common sciences of the Timurid period such as religious sciences, judicial sciences, agriculture, literature, mysticism and philosophy in the Manshat. Also, an analytical study of the Manshat indicates the abundance of emblems related to education and teaching in the Timurid period. The present researchers have found 27 teaching emblems in the Manshat of this period, which can be used in cases such as teaching Rokanuddin Massoud Shirvani in one canopy (Zamchi Asfzari, 2019), teaching in a private endowed school for Amir Sadr al-Din Ibrahim (Morvarid, 2019); assignment of teaching in the monastery to Ahmad Majnoon and teaching in the shrine of Hazrat Ali in Balkh (Nezami Bakhrezi, 1992). These educational emblems are important from various aspects such as how teachers are selected and provided for their livelihood, teachers’ social and scientific status, place of teaching, and the process of evaluation and selection of teachers and students.

Third) Features of educational system of the Timurid period

        Thematic analysis of the Manshat reveals a lot of information about the process of establishing schools and their founders, administrative and financial structures, method of selecting and hiring teachers, student duties, curricula and teaching methods. In the next section, the following are mentioned separately:

1. Process of school establishment and founders: Content analysis of Manshat shows that during the Timurid rule, many educational centers were built. There have been many influential factors in the development of schools, such as security and political stability, economic prosperity, religious freedom, supporting science and scientists, encouraging ministers and officials to carry out artistic activities, extending endowments, tax exemptions, supporting artists, encouraging art competition and construction of workshops and libraries (Allahyari, Fayyaz Anoush & Goodarzi, 2015). Analysis of the content of 37 letters in famous Manshat indicates the effective role of these factors in the development of the school-building movement. For example, we can mention several letters to help schools through endowment (Zamchi Asfzari 2019). However, in the process of building educational centers such as schools, workshops, monasteries, hospitals and libraries, not only the kings but also the ladies of the shrine, princes and ministers participated. The most important of these centers were Madrasas where scholars such as Maulana Saad al-Din Taftazani, Mohammad Tirmidhi Heravi, Hafez Ebro, Maulana Hossein Vaez Kashefi and Abdolrahman Jami taught (Khandmir, 1999). The usual way of building Madrasa was public endowment and determining various competitions to manage its current affairs. In this respect, schools were divided into two groups: general endowed schools and special endowed schools. For example, Sultan Husayn Bayqara Mirza and his minister Mir Ali-Shir Nava'i paid great attention to the endowment of schools and in a special endowment letter for each school, in addition to finances, paid attention to issues such as teachers' qualifications and curricula (Kasai, 2004, 1999; Durrani, 1997, Sabtenli 2015).
2. Selection and employment of teachers: There is a lot of information about the level of education and different specialties of teachers in the Manshat. In the royal and important schools, famous teachers were selected to teach and the decree to teach them was issued by the king. These commands have sometimes been general for teaching in a school and sometimes for teaching a specific subject (Zamchi Asfzari, 2019). For example, in Sultan Husayn Bayqara's decree to teach Mohammad Bahrabadi, only one canopy of the school has been assigned to him (Nezami Bakhrezi, 1992). Of course, sometimes some teachers taught in only one school, such as Amir Mortaz, who Have been taught in Ikhlasieh School until the end of his life and was buried there (Navai, 1984). Also, the analysis of Manshat indicates that some teachers have had other occupations at the same time (Khandmir, 1999). For example, Shams-ud-Din Mohammad Ouhad, a teacher at Braman School, was simultaneously selected as the preacher of Goharshad School (Khafafi, 1961) or Ekhtiar-ud-Din Hassan Torbati, who in addition to teaching at Ekhlasieh School, was one of the judges in Herat (Khandmir, 1961). Another important issue is the living conditions of teachers in historical Manshat and letters of this period. The founder of each school allocated endowments to run it. Sometimes, in addition to endowments, other financial resources were provided to finance teachers. For example, in a decree of Sultan Hussein Bayqara, he promised Shamsuddin Mohammad 15,000 dinars so that he could teach without financial worries (Morvarid, 2019).
3. Teaching and Training: Teaching commands in the Manshat of this period - such as judging emblems - have been more important than other occupations due to their time span and thematic diversity. For example, 27 teaching emblems are mentioned in the Manshat of this period (Zamchi Asfzari, 2019). In these commands, the emphasis is mainly on teaching religious sciences and various techniques (Nezami Bakhrezi, 1992). For example, in the teaching order of Rokan al-Din Massoud Shervani, his duties in the field of lessons, fatwas and holding the Assembly of Science are mentioned (Zamchi Asfzari, 2019). Also, the level of scientific / educational positions of each Madrasa and teachers relationship with government affected the form and type of teaching. Of course, political relations sometimes led to disruptions in school activities, such as the strained relations between Kamal al-Din Abdul Wasi Nezami Bakhrazi - who taught interpretation, hadith, jurisprudence, mysticism and literature in schools - with Sultan Hussein Bayqara's court prevented him from writing his book about history of this period (Mayel Heravi, 1991).
4. Financial structure of schools: Another important issue about schools is how to provide financial resources for matters such as the living conditions of teachers, staff and students. Usually, the founder of each school dedicated property such as shops, houses, land and gardens to cover the running costs of the school (Nemati Limayi, 2006; Farahani Monfared, 2003). Examining the orders issued in Manshat about teachers also indicates the importance of school endowments and observance of endearment conditions (Morvarid, 2019). For example, the method of payment of the salary of Maulana Shamsuddin Mohammad Bahrabadi, his assistant and students has been determined in his teaching permission (Nezami Bakhrezi, 1992).
5. Curricula and materials: One of the topics that is frequently mentioned in the Manshat is the curricula and materials that were offered in schools. For example, part of Mansh al Ansha Abdul Wase Nezami Bakhrezi is dedicated to teaching calligraphy. You can also find a lot of scientific and educational materials about calligraphy, writing, poetry, music, and scientific topics such as hot and cold, autumn, desert, sea and agriculture in Morvarid’s Manshat. Monshi Samarkand Manshat Like a dictionary explains terms related to medicine, accounting, economics, and astronomy. Also various materials can be found in Manshat about the teaching situation of sciences such as jurisprudence, interpretation, law, history, mysticism, architecture, astronomy, medicine, philosophy and mysticism.

Fourth) Similarities and differences between Timurid schools

In this section, two types of similarities and differences are mentioned. First, the similarities and differences between the famous Manshat are determined (listed in Table 2), and then the similarities and differences between the Timurid schools are re-emphasized.

Table 3: Similarities and differences of Manshat according to the subject and educational content

        The analysis of the data in Table 3 shows that according to the volume of the main topic and the prevailing educational content, there are similarities and differences between fourteen famous Manshat studied in this research. The most similarity between nine Manshat in terms of subject and content refers to political content. In the next ranks are literary topics (with similarity of eight Manshat), scientific / educational (with similarity of six Manshat) and cultural (with similarity of five Manshat). Also, the main thematic and content difference between the Manshat is in the religious and historical context. Thus, it can be inferred that the Manshat as primary sources have a valuable place to understand the historical trend of educational developments in Iran. This result becomes especially important when we find that the process of producing Manshat until the end of the Qajar dynasty and before the establishment of new schools in Iran was very common (Mohammadi Baranjeh 2006; Vaheddoost, 2017). Considering these results, we can point out the similarity and differences between Timurid schools in terms of various factors (Table 4).

Table 4: Similarities and differences between Timurid schools in terms of influential factors

         According to the information contained in the Manshat as well as secondary sources, we can see four similarities and five differences between the Timurid schools: First similarity between the Timurid schools refers to the type of founder. Historical sources have focused on the fact that the majority of founders were kings, princes, and courtiers, and that schools rarely were founded by ordinary people. There was also a difference between the founders' intentions to establish a school: some for charity, a group love science and a few seeking greater fame and power. In addition, the results of the previous sections revealed that there were similarities between the schools in terms of the method of establishment, meaning that most of the schools were publicly dedicated. The general endowment of the school had three simultaneous benefits for the founder: First, gaining the reward of the hereafter for doing good deeds; second, gaining publicity and third, tax exemptions. Of course, some schools were also special endowment and the founders and heirs supervised its administration and benefited from it. The Manshat information also indicates that each school had its own criteria for teacher’s selection. The content of the sources shows that many school founders have supervised issues such as teacher selection, amount of teachers' salaries, school subjects and teaching method. This is especially true of schools owned by kings and ministers. Despite these strictures, the content of the Manshat indicates that there is not much difference between schools in terms of student admission and there is tolerance in matters such as attendance hours, teacher and course selection by students. Another important similarity between schools in terms of the content of the Manshat is the use of teaching methods by the majority of teachers such as lectures, questions and answers and group discussions. Naturally, since in the Timurid period, the traditional sciences were more common than the intellectual and experimental sciences, the variety in the use of teaching methods is not great. One of the differences between the schools of the Timurid period is the content of the courses in such a way that there were special schools for different religious sects. The last difference between Timurid schools is related to the administrative and financial structure of the schools. In popular schools - or schools founded by people with political power - there is a more detailed description of the rules relating to different parts of the school (such as type and method of managing school property , incomes and costs methods, share of benefactor and trustees, and methods of teachers selection).

4. Conclusion

          The aim of research was to make an analytical-comparative study of the situation of education in the Timurid period according to the content analysis of the Manshat. They- as a writing method- have had a great position in Persian culture and literature. These sources - in addition to their importance in literature and linguistics - contain useful information about historical, cultural and social events of Iran in different periods. The writing of the Manshat was mainly influenced by the political requirements of the Iran society, because their writers were mainly secretaries and officials who were aware of the current situation of the country and the nation, and naturally recorded the events. The first finding of the research showed that the existing Manshat have a variety of content and cannot be found a sample in which only information related to the educational institution is included. This finding has already been emphasized by various researchers such as Manouchehri, 2011; Kavousi, (2010); Vatabeh (2000) and Khayerandish (2000).

         The present researchers also indicated that valuable information about various aspects of education - such as the process of establishing and dedicating schools, hiring teachers, characteristics of teachers and students, and teaching methods - can be found by analyzing the content of Manshat. This supports results of Azhand (2008, 2009); Rahnavard (2017); Hassanabadi (2018), Sabtenli (2015) and Allahyari, Fayyaz Anoush, and Goodarzi (2015) which referred to the different characteristics of schools based on the content of the Manshat. Another finding of research is the thematic and content division of famous Manshat in five political, religious, cultural, literary and scientific / educational fields. Although previous researchers like Arefi, (2015); Hassanabadi, (2018); Khashavarzi (2019); Jihadi, (2014); and Modbari et al. (2012) have pointed to one of these aspects in the thematic analysis of Manshat, but the present study is more comprehensive.

         From the educational point of view, the findings of this research support the research of Durrani (1997); Kasaei (1999, 2004); Najari (2014); Nemati Limayi (2006); and Vasegh & Gharamaleki (2016) who have considered the role of endowment in the establishment of Timurid schools. Another finding of the research emphasizes that according to the content analysis of the Manshat, there are similarities between the Timurid schools in four aspects: Type of founder, method of establishment, student selection and teaching method. In addition, in five dimensions of the founder's intention to establish a school, type of endowment (general or special), the criteria for selecting a teacher, content of courses and administrative structure, the difference between schools is evident. According to the research findings, it is suggested that the participation of politicians in establishment of educational institutions and vital role of endowment - be given more attention by educational planners in today’s Iran.