Jafarabad School, an Unknown Monument of the Safavid Era

Jafarabad School is located in the ancient Borkhar plain 50 kilometers to the north of Esfahan. It was first discovered by the authors of this paper. This descriptive and analytical research aims at finding answers to the following questions: When was this School built? Why was it built in Jafarabad? Why was this spot in the town chosen for building it? How is it related to other monuments? Accordingly، this school was registered and documented carefully after conducting a superficial archeological study of Jafarabad''s remains and cultural data. In the second part of this research the historical texts and written sources especially some old itineraries، local geographical and historical texts related to the Safavid and Qajar eras، as well as some contemporary sources were studied. The relationship between Jafarabad and other dwelling places in the Borkhar plain was also taken into account. Results indicate that Jafarabad School was built in the last years of the Safavid Era، probably during the Sultan Hossein Safavi reign. The reason it was built in Jafarabad was that this area had great urban importance as well as being so special in terms of its location in comparison to other dwelling places in the Borkhar plain during the Safavid era. The school''s spot in town is an indication of Jafarabad''s urban development during the Safavid era and also a measure to increase economic capacities for meeting the cost of running the school and preserving its life.