The Madrasa al-Ghiyathiyya is located in Khargird, a village 147 kilometers southwest of Mashad in Khorasan province. The madrasa takes its name from its founder Pir Ahmad, who was Shah Rukh's (1405-1447) vazir, under the title of Ghiyath al-Din, from 1417 until his death in 1447. Inscriptions reveal that the madrasa was designed and built mainly by the engineer Qavam al-Din Shirazi between 1438-1444. However, he died before its completion, at which time another architect took up the remaining work. The calligrapher, Jalal al-Din, was the same man who worked on Gauhar Shad's madrasa at Herat....
