Maktab Bahman Rajabi




























MAKTAB - Maktabs are an old-fashioned method of education in Muslim majority countries. In common Modern Arabic usage, maktab means "office" while maktabakhaneh means place of study and kuttāb is a plural word meaning "books".

In the 11th century, the famous Persian Islamic philosopher and teacher, Ibn Sina (known as Avicenna in the West), in one of his books, wrote a chapter dealing with the maktab, as a guide to teachers working at maktab schools. He wrote that children can learn better if taught in classes instead of individual tuition from private tutors, and he gave a number of reasons for why this is the case, citing the value of competition and emulation among pupils as well as the usefulness of group discussions and debates. Ibn Sina described the curriculum of a maktab school in some detail, describing the curricula for two stages of education in a maktab school.

Iranian music has the most conservative approach among all art forms in Iran, mostly due to its dependence on historical content and form that is supplied by rules and principles that are strongly rooted in the past, or its quite consistent adherence to traditional modes of education, namely the Maktab. Music more than any other art form in Iran, still adhers to the master-apprentice paradigm and is strictly loyal to the master-apprentice's model of transmission of knownledge of playing and singing.

In a Maktab it is expected that an apprentice be completely devoted to his master, respect is of the utmost importance and can regulate and dictate your status in the school. Transmission is not seen then as the end of the road; instead, it marks the beginning of deeper learning, The hours of daily life shared by the teacher and student are the content of the transmission, and nothing else. That is the real meaning of a Maktab. Sharing all of your time and space and energy to acquire the quintessence virtues, ideally incarnating wisdom, spirituality, strict discipline, individuality, and yet gentle social personality.

In a Maktab, a student learns from lessons taught to other desciples, learns life important matters, learns to make tea for his\her master and cleans the school and washes the dishes if needed, all the while acquiring the nessecery knowledge that is required to become a master musician.

Shirzad is proud to have studied many years under the direct tutelage & Maktab of Grandmaster Ostad Bahman Rajabi.