An Analysis of the Role of Zohaan Endowments in Rural Sustainable Development

Abstract Zohaan village in Qaenat area, has had important endowments at least since the Safavid Dynasty, and they have played a role in cultural and educational development of the village and also the spread of social norms. If one pays attention to the books highly valued by the Islamic religious school, books donated to the school, construction and repair of the central mosque and other mosques in different places, devoting the revenues of public utility buildings such as bathrooms and morgues, and the attention paid to the poor and foreigners all indicate the high status of endowments in Zohaan rural development. The social points considered in endowment letters clearly show that Zohaan enjoyed a desirable condition in the time and was developing well even though it was a village. There are some other points which show that Zohaan was socially and religiously developed from the Safavid to Qajar Era, including emphasis on scientific terminology and units of measurement, writing some endowment letters bilingually (i.e. in Arabic and Persian), and using verses from the Holy Quran or narratives or poems in texts. Although Zohaan has 113 registered endowments, the endowments reported and studied in this paper are all related to the central part of Zohaan; furthermore, here merely those endowments are discussed which were registered before Zohaan was promoted to an independent town.