Bathroom and its Social Functions in the History of Iranian middle Ages

Bathroom, as opposed to dominant belief, has not been just a place for people to get cleaned and purified, but, due to its capacities, it has had some social and even political functions all through the history of Iran. These functions bring testimony for the fact that bathroom, as an effecting construction, has had a significant place in the history of the Iranian social changes, especially in the Islamic Mediaeval periods. Now, this paper aims to raise such a question as to what sort of functions the bathroom had in the middle Ages of the Iranian history. The results show that the bathroom, due to its special geographical situation in the rural areas and the cities, and thus as a place for people to gather together, has been a main place for social interactions. This included giving public information, counting public population, having the medical function and even acting as a social etiquette, as well as showing its social function. Moreover, the bathroom has sometimes been a special place in which great scientists made their debates; hence, it shows the cultural-scientific function of the bathroom in the given history of Iran. Therefore, having taken a descriptive-analytic methodology as well as using reliable sources, this paper tries to discuss the different aspects of the bathroom in the middle periods of the Iranian history.