Jabbar Baghtcheban

Jabbar Baghcheban
Born	Jabbar Asgarzadeh 9 May 1886 Yerevan, Russian Empire (now Armenia)
Died	25 November 1966(1966-11-25) (aged 80) Tehran, Iran
Occupation	Teacher of the deaf
Children	3 (including Samin, Samine, Parvane)
Website
www.baghcheban.net

Mirza Jabbar Asgarzadeh (Persian: میرزا جبار عسگرزاده) famously known as Jabbar Baghcheban (Persian: جبار باغچه‌بان) was an Iranian inventor. He is well known as someone who established the first Iranian kindergarten and the first deaf school in Tabriz.^[1] He was also the inventor of Persian language cued speech. He was the father of the late Iranian composer Samin Baghcheban. In total he had three children.

Biography

Mirza Jabbar Asgarzadeh was born in Yerevan. His grandfather was from Tabriz or Urmia. The first kindergarten he established was called the baghche-ye atfal (باغچهٔ اطفال) which means 'children's garden'. That is why he was given the nickname baghcheban (باغچه‌بان) which literally means 'gardener' in the Persian language.

He founded a school for the deaf in 1924, located next to his kindergarten. In 1928 he wrote the first Iranian children's book in Persian. The book was called baba barfi (بابا برفی) which means 'snow father' in Persian.

References

1. Guity, Ardavan (April 2022). Esharani Grammatical Sketch: An Initial Description of the Lexicon and Grammar (PhD thesis). Gallaudet University. doi:10.1075/sll.00077.gui.