Types of Educational Centers In Iran And Teaching Methods In Them: From The 3rd To The 7th Century

In the current research, our focus is not on the educational philosophy itself, but on special education centers. What centers were in charge of education and training? What were the characteristics of these centers? How was the teaching method in these centers? And what were the conditions for entering these centers? These questions and other such questions led us to investigate the history of Iran in the first Islamic centuries from the perspective of schools and scientific centers. In the present study, an attempt will be made to explain the state of Iran's educational system and evaluate the changes that have taken place in this field by examining the existing educational centers in Iran from the 3rd to the 7th centuries of Hijri. Choosing this time frame and not paying attention to the first two centuries of the arrival of Islam in Iran does not mean that there was no such thing as education in Iran during this period, but only because the amount of information available in this field in The first two centuries were very few and not very reliable.
With the arrival of Islam in Iran, the Iranian society and its various institutions were influenced by Islamic culture and civilization, and many institutions took on an Islamic color. Among the existing institutions in any society, especially in Iranian society, is the institution of education. The issue of schools and educational centers in post-Islamic Iran is important from several aspects. One of the important aspects of this issue is manifested in the types of centers and educational institutions and the characteristics of each of them. As mentioned in the present research, Iran's educational centers were divided into three categories: mosques (MASAJED), schools (MADARES), and Elementary schools (MAKATEB) in the early Islamic centuries. Of course, monasteries (KHANEGHAH) and libraries can also be mentioned as scientific centers, and of course, education and teaching in them was probably a function of other types (mosques (MASAJED), schools (MADARES), and Elementary schools (MAKATEB).
The mosque was a religious-educational institution that, in addition to worship, promoted literacy among Muslims, and its main educational goal was to teach the Quran and religious teachings to Muslims. Therefore, the circle of students of the mosque was exclusive to Muslims. In the history of Islamic education and training from the beginning to the fourth century of Hijri, mosques are mentioned as the most important scientific and educational centers and institutions in the Islamic world. In Islamic Iran, this tradition was common from the second and third centuries onwards. The available evidence indicates that there were teaching areas in many mosques that were established in Iran, including Sistan, Bukhara, Balkh, Herat, Fars, etc. In Neyshabur, which was one of the most important Islamic countries until the Mongol invasion, there are many mosques that were the center of education, such as the Matrazi Mosque, the old Neyshabor Mosque, and the Mani'i Mosque. Special teaching methods were used in mosques. Each of the professors formed circles in the mosques, and in them they taught sciences such as hadith, recitation of the Qur'an, literary sciences, and jurisprudence. This custom was current in all mosques and in them circles were formed for teaching and spelling hadiths and sciences by scientists and famous religious leaders. The importance of these circles depended on the position of the professor and the value of the subject. The school was the most important educational institution after the mosque, which had a deep connection with the mosque in the beginning, and its building was usually attached to the mosques and next to them. From the fourth century onwards, Islamic culture and civilization gradually developed, so that in this century, education and learning were transferred from the courtyard of mosques to independent schools. However, mosques also maintained their educational aspect. Many factors played a role in this transition and separation of schools from mosques. Teaching various sciences and knowledge, that too at a high scientific and reasoning level, was not possible for all classes. On the one hand, the policy of the Abbasid caliphs was to transfer science from the mosque to Dar al-Khilafah, and on the other hand, the expansion of the field of science and knowledge led to the fact that scientists were gradually not limited to mosques alone, and the process of learning science was removed from the monopoly of mosques, and they thought of establishing independent centers. Fall from mosques. In the first half of the 4th century, there were many schools in different cities of Iran. One of the most important features of these madrasahs was that usually each of them was established for a specific sect of Islamic sects and only the jurisprudential and theological topics of that specific sect were taught there. Therefore, followers of other sects were not allowed to enter it. Each of these schools had its own teachers, and in some of them, a special salary was assigned to the teachers and students. Another characteristic of these schools was that the teaching of legal sciences was prohibited in them; because the founders of these madrasahs rebelled to establish the mentioned madrasahs with the intention of the afterlife reward, and naturally they were not satisfied with the teaching of disgusting and forbidden sciences in these madrasahs. The expansion of schools caused attention to non-religious sciences. Although religious sciences were also taught in schools, non-religious sciences were also taught, and two groups of NAGHLI (religious) and intellectual or AGHLI (non-religious) sciences were given attention in schools. Of course, it goes without saying that the madrasahs of this period could not free themselves from the domination of religious sciences in every sense, and in Iran of the first centuries of Islam, we do not know almost any madrasahs that are specifically and separately specific to the intellectual sciences.
The MAKTAB, as a place of education for elementary children, was one of the other educational centers in Iran, where children were taught to read texts, especially religious texts. The MAKTAB was usually reserved for five- to six-year-old children, whose education period continued until puberty. Both boys and girls were taught in the MAKTAB. Education in schools had two general and important features, which are: a) freedom of action: there was no age requirement, no time limit, and no other restrictions to enter the school. At MAKTAB, the curriculum was not set for everyone. Each novice had his own curriculum according to the time he started studying and his talent in learning. b) MAKTAB curriculum: The courses offered in the MAKTAB, although there were differences in different regions, were set based on the two main foundations of religion and culture. The Qur'an was the main teaching book of MAKTAB throughout the Islamic societies.
In an educational system, after the teaching materials, the method of teaching these materials is one of the significant issues. The main educational methods of Islamic scientific centers were divided into four methods of memorization, narration, listening and spelling:

Memorization (HEFZ): Relying on the power of memory was one of the important methods that Muslim scholars and students relied on in acquiring knowledge. The great importance of this method came from the fact that the Prophet (PBUH) encouraged Muslims to memorize the Qur'an. This method had its own advantages and disadvantages.
B) Narration (REVAYAT): In this method, prophetic hadiths were taught to the students in a face-to-face and oral manner.
Listening (SAMA): Sama means listening, it was a kind of oral education. In this way, the teacher narrated his lessons orally and the students learned them by listening to the teacher's words.
Spelling (EMLA): Spelling means writing. The spread of this method was due to the publication of paper and the expansion of the scope of writing. In this way, the professor used to narrate his material to the students with the intention of writing.

Thus, in Iran in the early Islamic centuries, there are three types of educational centers; That is, the mosque, school, and MAKTAB replaced the existing state education system in Sassanid Iran. One of the characteristics of Iranian society in the pre-Islam era and during the Sasanian rule was the CASTE (class) system. The existence of the caste system in this era indicates that the use of the facilities in the society had limitations and not all people were allowed to use all the facilities. Applying such a policy had led to a kind of stagnation and stagnation in Iran's social system; this means that each class monopolized one of the pillars of the society and did not allow other people and classes to enter their guild or class. The education institution was also affected by this policy and many people were deprived from entering the field of education. However, with the emergence of Islam and its new teachings in the field of science education, based on the value and importance of literacy for all Muslims and the emphasis of the Prophet of Islam (PBUH) on the importance of this issue, a new discourse emerged that limited the study of science and literacy to a specific classes did not recognized. The arrival of Islam in Iran and the promotion of its egalitarian teachings disrupted the monopolistic discourse existing in ancient Iran. This issue, especially in the field of education, made everyone find the conditions to enter this field and study science and knowledge depending on their ability. The conditions for entering schools and educational centers in Iran, which were mentioned, rightly indicate the generality of education in Iran after Islam.