Re-reading of Haji Rajabali's Deed of Endowment about Masjid-i Jami of Meybod, in point of view of architectural history

The Haji Rajabali's deed of endowment was written in 1247 AH for the winter Shabistan of the Masjid-i Jami of Meybod and other buildings built by the endower. This deed of endowment is a historical document that contains information from the 13th century AH about the city of Meybod, its places and architecture. The year of its writing coincides with the last decade of Fath Ali Shah's reign in Qajar period. The Jami mosque contains evidence of this period. The deed of endowment is a legal document and Haji Rajabali wrote it with the aim of guaranteeing the life of the buildings he built, though in this research, it has been considered as a documentary source for the study of architectural history. In fact, the potential of an old legal text document for the study of architectural history is examined. The question is: what are the places and architectural evidences that are mentioned in the deed of endowment and what kind of new information does it contain in the field of architectural history as related to the historic city of Meybod? This research has been done by descriptive-historical method, and has been accompanied by re-reading the text of the deed of endowment, combing with field observations and evidence mentioned in historical books. This paper can be considered a documentary analysis since it is focused on a first-hand historical document. The aim of this research is to re-read the evident and hidden aspects of the historical places mentioned in the deed of endowment. The results show that although the deed of endowment is short, it contains important information about the names and dates of places. All the places and buildings that are mentioned in the deed of endowment are related to Meybod, so in the course of the research, by field observation of the relevant place, the original or the remaining structures were identified and observed. A total of 22 sites and buildings were identified and then described. It includes quarters, Qanats, shops, cemeteries, mills, gardens, Houses, and many more. The construction date of the winter Shabistan of the Masjid-i Jami, the mosque and the water reservoir (Ab anbar) in the Karam Square (Maidan), located inside the fortified city of Meybod, is obtained from this deed of endowment, which belongs to the 1240 AH.