2024 - Qajar Madrasas: Architecture, Society, and Change
Dr. Maryam Heydarkhani has been awarded The Barakat Trust Postdoctoral Scholarship to transform her doctoral research on Qajar madrasas into a comprehensive monograph. These 19th-century religious-educational complexes, often combining mosques and schools, played a crucial role in the religious, social, and political life of Qajar Iran.
While Qajar architecture is sometimes dismissed as derivative or transitional, Dr. Heydarkhani’s research reveals the madrasas’ complex roles as centres of learning, community, and political contestation. Her work demonstrates how spatial organization, decorative programs, and urban placement reflected evolving religious and social dynamics in Iran’s late pre-modern period.
During her fellowship at the Khalili Research Centre, University of Oxford, she will also expand her research to explore connections with Safavid madrasas and examine how changing political climates shaped madrasa architecture. Her project will offer an important contribution to Islamic architectural history and heritage conservation.


















