Journal of Researches in Islamic Architecture

One of the symbols and symptoms that identify Islamic civilization is the Islamic Urbanization as a place for dwelling and activity. Urban areas and structures by manifestation of custom values should identify society’s civilization. And help them to achieve their purposes and ambitions. an Iranian Muslim architect ‘s belief has always been a priority for all of his works And to create his works all functional rules are under consideration of his belief principles. One of these belief principles is subjectivism and privacy life. As from the long past we see tendency to covering in Iranian civilization and tradition and one of the beliefs of Iranian is importance of privacy and indoor life. Subjectivism meaning is related to man placement in Islamic thought. Islam has always wanted mankind to recognize its essence and its identity as a god created. Because in this case man can recognize it’s high values and it’s prominent place in this world. That’s why the Quran introduces human mind as a special cognition resource and express that who has known its god, has known itself. So Islam wants people to pay attention to their indoor and behave without any trace of Self-glorification also prevent people including man and woman of showing themselves by a pretense. As we mentioned, most of the time Iranian’s believes and cultures influence on their architecture. So we see manifestation of subjectivism in Iran traditional architecture elegantly that it has impressed significantly on space organization and also on planning different functions on sites. Subjectivism as a feature that presents in buildings such as houses, mosques, schools and public bathrooms, generates from philosophy - social principles of this country. For example in these houses we have indoor and outdoor yards. Indoor yards separate private life from the public one. This organization has been possible by arraying rooms around the yard and also separating men living space from women living space. With respect to these principles we can see private, semiprivate, public and semipublic realms. We can infer that in Iranian architectural culture essence and man indoor has the actual value and the outer shell is protecting this reality.

In this article our research method is Qualitative. And By studying Islamic texts and documents related to the study conducted by the Iranian market and urban spaces, we are going to express individual and social points of subjectivism. And it’s manifestation in Iranian bazaars. So in the first step we study Islamic texts and investigate documents related to this topic and specify the research principles and processes. Then we try to analysis the factors that lead Iran traditional bazaars to subjectivism and study how these factors effect on bazaar’s functions. The Hypothesis proposed is that, the influence of subjectivism is not merely on our architecture, but also it influences on people behavior patterns in urban spaces.

Bazaar is one of these urban spaces that means place to buy and sell goods. In fact bazaar is a place to exchange and it has been organized by a human activity. So bazar has a both economic and cultural and social aspect that has formed cultural interactions between citizens from the past. These interactions and behaviors are different in every culture. Finally we will approach to factors, effecting the Iranian bazaar’s introversion in both the humanity and social aspects. Factors such as privacy and the need for solitude and privacy for those in the bazaar so that unlike the function of western street as a place for staying together and looking at people and being looked at by people, our urban streets in Iran often have been places for seeing people and not having desire to be looked at by others. This is a kind of privacy that is a personal right for everyone. Prohibition of causeless attendance in public areas in Islamic texts view is one of the reason that our sidewalks have become a place to move currently and cause to minimize the time spent in these spaces. People do not spend in this space for a long time and that’s why they feel that they don’t have any ownership in this place and they are not belonged to urban spaces. On the other, they feel comfortable at their homes and do their necessary activity related to outdoor and hope to come back at home, where they have it as a private realm. As we said, our sidewalks have become a place to move currently and not a place to stop, to eat or speak for a long time. The low width of the bazaars and lack of space to sit in them confirm this. As in the days of holding, that there were crowds in sidewalks, people moved difficultly. Years ago especially at night’s people rarely were passing in urban streets, it shows those nights and days passes effects urban designs. In Islam spending time with family members at nights is more desirable than spending nights out with others. That’s why Iranian bazaars have been  more active in days in compare with nights and also were  a place for exchanging activities more than leisure and exhibitive. Stability and strength of the family has an important place in the Islamic value. and also the value which Islam serves for family and its people and introduce it as a place for relaxation and comfort, make our home a holy place that should have a private realm for its members.. This caused many religious orders in Islam texts. So we see that the kindness and leisure activities would be with family members more than people who we know out in the society. These activities done by family members, Strengthens the foundation of the family comes. Overall, Beyond the effect of introversion and it’s manifestation in architecture and structure, it effects on people presence in urban spaces such as bazaars. We infer that introversion or in a more accurate concept, human indoor or essence has deep sense in compare with its architectural meaning. Islam special respect and emphasis on internal states, is one of the reason to paying attention to humility and preventing from Self-glorification, Behaviors that influence on our urban streets. That we study about them in this article.