Zod village madrasa

In the village of Zod (its first name was Bashkalafa from the 3rd–5th centuries to the end of the 14th century (1387–1388), until the beginning of the 15th century (1400), and Veliagha in 1813–1814) of the Basarkechar district of the Goycha district

Basarkechar district – since 11.06.1969 Vardenis, Zod village – since 09.04.1991 Sotk

Architecture

The madrasa, the village's religious and cultural center of knowledge, was burned down by Armenians in 1918-1920.

`As early as 1885, a modern school was operating in Zod alongside the madrasa, and Samand Agha, who took on all the expenses of this school, not only took care of religious education in the village, but also created conditions for talented young people introduced by European-educated intellectuals - Mirza Asker, Mirza Beyler and Haji Alish Agha - to study in the most prestigious higher educational institutions in Russia and Europe, and paid their education expenses. The madrasa was located on one of Samand Agha's estates in the village. The same enlightened personalities also organized the publication of the magazine "Mola Nasreddin" in Goycha. Naturally, with such comprehensive development, by the beginning of the 20th century, Zod had become a cultural center and unofficial administrative center for the Turks of the Yeni Beyazit district in general.

According to some sources, “zod” means “a people settled in a harsh, impassable high mountainous place, a place of settlement” in ancient Turkic languages. The Albanian historian Musa Kalankatlı, speaking of the middle of the first century AD, mentions the Armenian Savdey / Tsavdey among the tribes living in Albania, and the Armenian author Moisey Khorenatsi of the 5th century mentions the Sod tribe and notes that it was a descendant of the Albanian king Eren. This ethnonym/tribe name is reflected in the toponym Zod in the Goyche region.