جست و جويي در چيستي بناي مدرسۀ ضيائيه يا زندان اسكندر يزد

A Search into What the Zia’iyeh School or the Eskandar Prison in Yazd Actually Is

بنايي كه امروز به مدرسۀ ضيائيه و زندان اسكندر شهره است، در محلۀ فهادان يزد و در محوطه اي قرار دارد كه پيرامونش قبۀ دوازده امام، حسينيۀ فهادان، و برخي بناهاي ديگر و خانه هاي تاريخي واقع هستند. اين بنا دو ميان سرا و سه ايوان دارد و گنبدخانۀ آن متصل به ايوان شرقي است و باقي عناصر كالبدي آن پيرامون ميانسراي بزرگ انتظام يافته اند. تحقيق جدي و مستقلي دربارۀ اين بناي مشهور انجام نشده و تحقيقات پراكندۀ انجام شده بيش تر مشتمل بر توصيفي از فضاهاي معماري و عناصر و اجزاي كالبدي بناست و «چيستي» آن تاكنون معلوم نشده است. مؤلفان تواريخ يزد هيچ كدام بناي زندان اسكندر را در كنار مدرسۀ ضيائيه معرفي نكرده اند. جعفري و كاتب مورخان قرن نهم، اشارۀ مستقيم به بناي زندان اسكندر ندارند، اما، بافقي مورخ قرن يازدهم از موض عي به نام زندان اسكندر نام مي برد. از طرفي ايشان در كتاب جامع مفيدي مانند جعفري و كاتب، مدرسۀ ضيائيه را با ذكر كامل نام باني، سال ساخت، مدرسان، و ويژگي هاي كالبدي معرفي مي كند. همچنين آيتي، مؤلف كتاب تاريخ يزد در سال 1317ش از زندان اسكندر همچون محوطه اي در درون يزد ياد مي كند و نامي از مدرسۀ ضيائيه به ميان نمي آورد. به نظر مي رسد زندان اسكندر و مدرسۀ ضيائيه دو بناي مجزا هستند. سؤالي پيش مي آيد و آن اين كه بنايي كه امروز در مجاورت قبۀ دوازده امام است، مدرسۀ ضيائيه است؟ يا زندان اسكندر؟ يا هيچ كدام؟ يا هر دو؟ بناي مد نظر كتيبۀ احداثيه و سال ساخت ندارد و گزارش باستان شناسي قابل اتكايي براي شناخت آن وجود ندارد. لذا با بنايي روبه رو ايم كه نمي دانيم «چيست؟». هدف اين مقاله شناخت چيستي بنايي است كه مختصري درباره اش خوانديد. جست وجو در كتاب ها و اسناد مكتوب تاريخي و تحقيقات ميداني براي پاسخ به پرسش تحقيق راهگشا بوده است. شواهد نشان مي دهد كه بناي موسوم به مدرسۀ ضيائيه هيچ نسبت و نشاني از مدرسۀ ضيائيۀ شهرستان) مندرج در تواريخ يزد ندارد. از طرفي با توجه به اطلاعات موجود امكان تشخيص زندان اسكندر همچون يك بنا ميسر نيست. با وجود اين، به نظر مي رسد محوطه يا بناي زندان اسكندر با استناد به شواهد متني و اشتهار آن ميان اهالي فهادان، حدود موضع كنوني بنايي باشد كه كانون اين مقاله است.

The building which is known as the Zia’iyeh School and Eskandar Prison is located in the Fahaadan neighbourhood of Yazd and in an area where the dome of the twelve Imams, Fahaadan Hosseiniyeh, som ehistoric houses and other buildings surround it. This building has two courtyards and three iwans with the copula being connected ot the eastern iwan and the rest of the physical elements are ordered around the large courtyard. There is no serious and independent research for this famous building and the scattered research up to now is mostly descriptive of the architectural spaces and physical elements and components. an‎d it is not known what the building actually is. The historic authors in Yazd have never mentioned the Eskandar Prison alongside Zia’iyeh School and have never considered them the same. Jafari and Kateb, the fifteenth century historical authors do not directly mention the Eskandar Prison building, but Bafghi, a seventeenth century historian names a location called the Eskandar Prison. On the other hand, in Jame’ Mofidi he, like Jafari and Kateb, introduce the Zia’iyeh School with the full name of the patron, date of construction, the schoolmasters, architectural and physical descriptions. Alo, Ayati, the author of the book of History of Yazd in 1938, mentions the Eskandar Prison as a space within Yazd and does not mention the Zia’iyeh School. it seems that the Eskandar Prison and Zia’iyeh School are two separate buildings. The question that comes to mind is whether the building near the dome of the twelve Imams is the Zia’iyeh School? o‎r the Eskandar Prison? o‎r neither? o‎r both? The building in question does not have a patron inscription and the year of construction and there are no dependable archaeological reports at hand that pertain to this building. So we are faced with a building that we do not know the nature of. The goal of this article is to know what this building is. Search within books and written historical evidence as well as field research have been useful to answer the research question. Some evidence shows that the building known as the Zia’iyeh School in this article is not at all related to the Zia’iyeh School (province) noted in the history of Yazd which had a very long minaret and many adornments and was a ruin in the Safavid era; on the other hand using the existing information there is no possibility for recognising Eskandar Prison as a building since the Yazd historians have not given any information apart fro the fact that the building hand a dark dome in the basement. Despite that, based on the evidence within the texts, and its fame amongst the Fahaadan residents, it seems that the Eskandar Prison building is within the same approximate location of the building we are currently discussing in this article. It is not yet possible to give an opinion on whether this building is Eskandar Prison, or it used to be another building which was replaced by this one is not possible.