Journal of Researches in Islamic Architecture

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Mankind is always interacting with an environment that contains various meanings and layers with each of which the environment behaves differently, and on the other hand, this behavior is effectively reflected back to the environment. In recent decades, experimental environmental psychology has sought to help solve the issues posed to human societies by pursuing two objectives of theoretical understanding of human interactions with the environment and applying this understanding in practice. In pursuit of these objectives, the area of knowledge has succeeded to build theories and achieve practical findings. Nevertheless, applying these achievements in an Islamic society faces theoretical and practical challenges in both "description" and "prescription", which in turn necessitates further investigations about "Islamic Environmental Psychology". The present study aims to present an applied paradigm of environmental psychology in interaction with Islamic thoughts, which can be used to organize "location-behaviors" of contemporary living in order to facilitate the realization of an Islamic lifestyle. In regards, the present study began with the three constituents of "location-behavior" that is, humans, the environment and the mechanisms needed for the human-environmental interaction, and posed three questions: what social, psychological and cultural characteristics of humans, from the Islamic perspective, affect the environment? What are layers of the environment that affect humans under certain circumstances? And finally, what mechanisms are required for a human-environment interaction in Islamic viewpoint? To answer these questions, two frameworks were proposed: The first relies on environmental psychology by accepting the assumption about different layers of the environment (from the objective to the subjective environment) and assesses the effect of sociocultural environment in a comparative study. The second framework relies on the Islamic doctrines and develops a reference framework consisting of both Islamic views and environmental psychology views. Following a survey of the two proposed frameworks, the second one was taken as the reference comprehensive framework in this article. To develop this comprehensive framework, the relation between religious epistemology and experimental science was first discussed. Unlike the modern perspective that sets the religion-science-art trinity against the emotion-intellect-sense one, in respective order, or at most assumes a unity between religion and art by mixing emotion with sense, the Islamic perspective holds that religion rules these three areas, and only one aspect of religion is strongly associated with emotions,which is "faith". In the second step, the Islamic version of environmental psychology debate was analyzed in three areas of the individual-entity system within the framework of the anthropology of religion, the collective-social system within the framework of religion’s attitude toward society, and the body-space system within the framework of religion’s attitude toward the body, not as separate distinctive areas, but as three spatial human-environment experiences. That is to say, the fundamental difference of environmental psychology from an Islamic viewpoint is so vast that it expands from the "bodily area" to the "spiritual aspect" in the individual-entity line, from the "corporeal world" to "incorporeal world (the invisible)" in the body-space line, and from "routine patterns of life" to the debate on the "united ummah as a timeless entity" in the collective-social line. In the final step, a three-layer system was devised to discuss the intended paradigm, which includes collective references to the current state of the society and Islamic texts. The first layer includes identifying "local phenomena" as clear points in Islamic jurisprudence and ethics, whose "position" in religious sources is identifiable in behaviors, rituals, sensory perceptions and spiritual perceptions. In fact, theidentified "local phenomena" have not yet really emerged in environmental psychology within an Islamic framework, and if this layer is the only one concerned, this phenomena can be more or less studied in experimental environmental psychology. For practical purposes, the phenomena can be classified in two areas –"general local behavioral-psychological phenomena", indicating phenomena with no direct relationships with the environment,and may only be affected by it, and "specific local behavioral-psychological phenomena", indicating phenomena with an established bodily-environmental aspect. The second layer, which is the first real step toward an "environmental psychology" within the framework of Islam, seeks to identify the (correlative or causal) "relationship mechanisms" between "general” and “specific” local phenomena in religion that have been identified in the previous layer. Finally, the third layer emerges from linking and creating connected loops of general and specific mechanisms of the second layer and through creating a sub-system, and may have certain concepts and components in common with experimental psychology. According to the results, two approaches are applicable in the development of an Islamic environmental psychology paradigm: a conscious approach and a meta-conscious one. The first approach is informed and based on the rules and regulations of jurisprudence and Islamic orders. In this approach, attempt is made to extract the basic concepts by reference to the original Islamic sources and to understand the Islamic position on man-made environment irrespective of the external determination of the past centuries. The second approach is meta-conscious and normative (relying on values and knowledge), is based on the recommended or prohibited behavioral patterns, provides a system for the regulation of behavior-body relationships, and takes priority over mentalities and even time and place values. Although an axiom of all religious doctrines, this approach has been less emphasized in theorizing, compared to symbolic concepts. Compared to the mainstream "behavioral sciences" as "subjective" perspective on the role of social behavior, this approach proposes a middle perspective in forming architecture and an "objective" perspective, based on the role of the subject and object and the third factor, culture, in relation to the role of architecture in society. The final outcome of the present study, that is the Islamic environmental psychology paradigm, aims at producing theoretical and practical knowledge and addresses four conditions: past conditions, i.e., the quality of life before modernism (the popular culture), present conditions, i.e., the current quality of life, desirable conditions, i.e., the quality of life deserved by humans from the viewpoint of Islam, and possible conditions, i.e., the quality of life that can be handled by humans, in order to create behavioral benchmarks in accordance with Islamic view point. The authors recommend that both conscious and meta-conscious approaches can be used, since the conscious approach is based on jurisprudence and orders and thus acts as a framing shell, prevents distortions to some extent, and is also the doorway to theoretical knowledge and implications. also, the second approach as the meta-conscious one, should ideally create environments that are affected by the recommended behavioral patterns of Islam.

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In traditional architecture, the adherence of architects to the rules and proportions in numbers, geometry and music is present in designing and shaping many public monuments, and mathematical proportions, artistic ratios, or musical proportions are used in geometry of these buildings. Extracting and matching mathematical rules and proportions and examining them in the architecture of the traditional buildings are among complex issues which are well-worth for further analysis. The present article is aimed at finding the link between «architecture and music», «architecture and mathematics» and «music and mathematics» and determining the boundaries and mutual points of these sciences. The objective was to reorganize geometric pattern in Jelokhan of Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque in city of Isfahan and the linkage of its Asemaneh of the dome with music. This is a theoretical research and its theoretical basis is carried out with a historical interpretation method. Logical reasoning has been used in investigating Jelokhan and Asemaneh of Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque in Isfahan. In order to fulfill the purpose of the sudy, the relations between «architecture and music» and «architecture and mathematics» were analyzed in the form of a concept as «music-math» in architecture for adaptation. In examining the relationship between architecture and music, the researchers faced many stances. For instance, some authors believed that architecture is an expression of music in its further development or in its evolution, while some others indicated that architecture is the frozen music in space. Thus, to understand the relationship between music and architecture, you need to understand the language of both along with finding their mutual ties. Therefore, in extracting common principles and characteristics that include criteria, similarities and symmetries while keeping in the mind the relative importance of measuring the relationship between architecture and music, we analyzed it in terms of rhythm, equilibrium, balance, symmetry, high and low points, decoration and beauty of decorations, color, hearing sensation, pleasure, and quantitative role of numbers. In examining the relationship between architecture and mathematics, math is also considered as the purest type of thought and one of the main causes of human closeness to God. That is probably why most traditional architects bring math ideas into architectural designs so as to verify their beliefs about the Creator and the natural world around us. Mathematical expressions in architecture can be expressed numerically, symbolically, philosophically, creatively, conceptually through numerical ratios. Finally, in explaining the concept of «music-math» in architecture, we need to determine the extent to which musical and mathematical uses of architecture are parallel, shared, and reciprocal. In scrutinizing the proportions between architecture and music, architecture and mathematics, principles and common standards such as equilibrium, balance and symmetry, decorations and proportions, hearing sensation, numerical philosophy, numerical proportions, graphic geometry and numerical relations were obtained. In order to elucidate the theoretical findings of the research which are explained by the relation among the concepts of music, mathematics and architecture, we focused on Jelokhan and Asemaneh of Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque in Isfahan. The discovery of a hidden geometry in the depth of Jelokhan combined with Iranian Dastgahi music and mathematics along with finding a harmonic pattern in abstract patterns of the dome of Asemaneh coincided with changes in the frequency of the notes reflects its architect›s adherence to the principles of music and math in the architecture of this mosque. The proportions and rules contained in the musical, architectural, and mathematical Jelokhan of the mosque were analyzed through the fact that most geometric points of Jelokhan from the beginning to the end, the main lines, the lines of symmetry, the vaults, the lines of the Mogharnas, and many of the details of the mosque›s Jelokhan were built based on a pattern which is formed in a modular compendium of mathematics and music using the similarity of the Shur-e Sol Dastgah. Besides, the beautiful harmony of this Iranian Dastgah is seen in Jelokhan of the mosque and the walls of the Naghsh-e Jahan Square. In addition, the harmony of this Dastgah is present in heavenly decoration of mosque’s Asemaneh; decorations that, similar to orthogonal mathematical models are aggregated or opened. These harmonic decorations are a certificate of fine and delicate musical notes or an increase in the frequency of notes in Shur Dastgah.

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Human beings, as a social creature, need others to get their peace of mind and safety. Such needs encourage or force the idea of cooperation and partnership with others, while the formation of interpersonal relations in a society affects people to use a common environment. Today, urban planners and designers, in the form of professional specialists, are trying to engage their users through collaborative design approaches to identify the underlying aspects of the problem, highlighting those aspects, and proposing practical solutions to get public views. Nowadays, it could be said that the designers choose the middle path of independence and its opposite point being conservatism in design; in other words, they knock themselves out of their power position. A good number of studies have demonstrated that the use of user requirements increases the chance of success in the environment as people in the community know more about the needs and requirements of their environment than specialists. Hence, in recent years, popular participation has received considerable attention from theoretical and practical aspects. The present article was aimed at exploring the concept of participation and determining the criteria for attracting participation in the environment by reference to Western and authentic Islamic sources in order to achieve the principles and desirable criteria for participation in the environment while taking into account the shared values, beliefs, and common needs of the ideal society. In this regard, some questions were raised including the differences and the implications of the concept of participation in the environment from the two perspectives of Islamic and Western thoughts. Considering the fundamental-theoretical nature and the qualitative research approach, a collection of data was compiled through an interpretive-analytical method based on documentary studies to answer the question and collecting data and reviewing the literature of the subject. In the first step, the process of participation in Western literature was defined and applied. Then, the application of participation in various areas of environmental design and indicators influencing the participation of individuals in the environment were examined. In the second step, we tried to inspect the concept of participation in the environment from the perspective of Islamic thought. First, issues related to Islamic ethics, ethical principles that are social (not individual), and especially those related to participation in the environment were scrutinized. The available sources of Islamic sciences, especially the Holy Qur'an, hadiths, narrations, and sayings of Islamic scholars were used in this regard. The principles, criteria, and the results were then obtained by studying the verses and hadiths along with the study of the characteristics and manifestations of participation in the environment with a multi-faceted view. In the third step, these principles were determined in a comparative manner to identify commonalities and distinctions by combining the two previously examined categories. The findings indicated that in Western thought, the level of participation in the viewpoint of theorists involves a spectrum of non-participation to spontaneous participation. Besides, many views are formulated in a general way solely with regard to the background of individual mentality and the consideration of the ideals of intellectual and architectural institutions without considering the culture and social beliefs of various societies. Originality aims at the individual dimension and the consent of the parties while individual preferences are prioritized. In Islamic thought, one of the ethical principles of Islam in society for realizing a united nation is participation which has been emphasized abundantly. The principle of participation also has secondary ethics each of which has complementary components in itself that leads to the mixing of the spectra and levels. It could be said that all categorizations and principles were a subset of spontaneous participation and one can achieve the desired participation in the environment by observing them. The results of the adaptation of concepts and manifestations in both Islamic and Western thoughts provided different criteria for participation in the environment. The comparison of the principles pointed out that Western theories differ from the Islamic method in terms of participation of the environment in a fundamental element that is the importance of sensing and reasoning as the sole source of knowledge along with neglecting divine resources as unitary and complete resources. Contrary to the western-oriented view that focuses on individual dimension and satisfaction, the Islamic perspective emphasizes components such as cooperation, endowment spirit, jihad, and charity as high levels of participation. Numerous references to the symbolic crystallization of Islamic values in the physical form of the recommended architecture testify to the claim that the Islamic viewpoints lay down the basis of all works in the reverence of God and in the spiritual dimension of man. This clearly shows that religious and cultural values are preferable to all minor or short-term needs and ideals and norms derived from Islamic values are beyond individual and group needs and preferences.

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Considering request, need and welfare of children has a long record in West and gets back to 19^th century. The idea of child friendly city was adopted in 1996 to make cities liveable for all and its goal was to put the children on top. This is how countries distant themselves from mere concept and utilize CFC principles today. On the other hand, paying attention to child proper spaces has no long record in Iran. Most children`s spaces are external copies of other countries experiences with no regarding to social and cultural context.The research is decided to compare the way in which a child intercommunicates with city environment from two Islamic(Philosophy, Religion and Gnosticism) and Western perspectives, by deduction in qualitative research, studying Islamic and Western theories toward children and compiling effective environmental factors in child and environment interactions. Comparative study includes similarities and differences in two scales: major (child environments) and minor (environmental factors) both in Western and Islamic documents. In major scale, Islamic instructions focus on the environment as a channel to transfer concepts and religious ethics. In minor scale Islamic instructions emphasize on 4 subjects that can`t be seen in western`s: teaching rituals via playing, limiting girls playing outside, limiting girls playing with boys and preventing children from entering infidelital environments. While CFC of west is summarized in participation, equal right with other citizens, mental and physical health; a proper environment for children in Islamic documents, besides proving children`s rights, relief and health as necessities of child growth, emphasizes on values and norms in functional environment. In addition, it advises that a child ought to grow in a place which her temperament does not get hurt to come to relative perfection. Here, an Islamic-Iranian model named “child preceptor city” takes form. 
The research in theoretical part, using the analytical-descriptive method, has presented a theoretical framework. In the first stage (study of relevant texts and identification of the defining components of research), a comparative method has been used. The methods of collecting information and the subject history in this research, in addition to documentary and library studies, will also include field studies that are used to compile the subject literature review and to find the thematic framework. At this stage, by expressing the perceptual concept, the architectural porosity elements as well as the study of its theories, criteria, rules and components are explained. In the second stage, using the criteria and components obtained in the previous one, the classification of porosity elements, the selection of criteria and the facades' porosity effective variables, as well as structured questionnaires to find the relationship between these variables and their impact on each other and the amount of facades' porosity a quantitative method for obtaining it will be presented. In the third stage and in the case study section, the theoretical framework and the porosity assessment method are carried out in relation to the 30 facades of historical houses of Tabriz city and the research data are analyzed based on descriptive statistics.
Based on the findings of the research, the facades have a special feature called porosity number that is unique to it. The structure of the forming elements and the porosity changes of the facades also follow a particular pattern. The research also shows that the main trait of porosity is openness which the space is inside it. Air circulation, light and the connection of internal and external spaces are the major physical achievements of porosity and its spiritual achievement is the space and the raised meaning in architecture. Empty, in spite of the lack of material has an equal value, and sometimes more than full, and how it is created and placed not only increases the physical and spatial quality but also can have an impact in evaluations. Porosity is one of the basic visual qualities, which over time has found a more significant role in the facade. Porosity has a hidden and mysterious pattern that can be the result of aesthetic feedback from architects, observers/residents, and environmental conditions of the region. A certain evident percentage of porosity and a Specific pattern and alignment of porous space arrangement in this study indicate that, at least in Tabriz's environmental conditions, a specific pattern of porosity is a part of the aesthetic preferences of the architects and the residential-historical architectural users of Tabriz city. This pattern and alignment can at least be considered by contemporary architects in this cultural-climatic area as an aesthetic factor. Of course, the generalization of these features to other cities in Iran and beyond requires more and wider research.

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In specialized topics of aesthetics, structure and function, the buildings of Islamic architecture in Iran during certain periods, show the strong presence
of intellectual sciences such as mathematics. The use of geometry as a part of the science of numerical mathematics, which in its intellectual position has
complex calculations, indicates the connection of Islamic architects with the mathematicians of their time. According to the available books and written documents, the architect's personal reference to complex mathematical books in terms of numerical application is a subject that has been seen in lesser power. Accordingly, in this article, the educational relationship between architects and Islamic mathematicians has been examined. Geometry in its numerical position can not be transferred to the architectural structure, and this must be transferred to a specific geometric process in terms of action. How to connect the mathematics of Islamic theology and architecture about geometry, and of a special theoretical or practical type that can be used in the field of architecture is the basic question of research. How Islamic architects have understood theoretical and practical geometry from mathematicians and have applied it in architecture. In this regard, in the present study, the author has examined the research and analysis operations by identifying the fourth to eleventh AH due to the presence of prestigious Islamic mathematicians as well as glorious Islamic architecture from a geometrically known point of view. The study of analysis on manuscripts is very valid in scientific centers. These manuscripts have been analyzed by architecture in the form of face-to-face research and academic communication in the preparation of scanned images. The manuscripts belong to Islamic scholars including Buzjani, Farabi, Ibn Sina, Akhavan al-Safa, and Jamshid Kashani. In order to study geometry in the theories of Islamic mathematicians and to obtain basic information about geometry and mathematics, the deductive method has been used in research, and the contextualist approach has been used in the discussion of historical issues of architecture and knowledge topics of geometry. The research findings show the decision of Islamic mathematicians based on the issues of Islamic belief and thought to meet the practical needs in Islamic society and beyond. Islamic architects are also among the most important learners in the field of building architecture and related matters in terms of geometry. These topics are in the form of converting numerical mathematics into theoretical geometry in its quantitative and qualitative dimensions and practical geometry to achieve practical cases in providing applied geometry for educating architects. These teachings, due to their complexity and the fact that they belong to the mathematical field of equivalence, required face-to-face educational communication. This issue is called the meetings of artists between Islamic mathematicians and architects according to its own process.
In order to understand the knowledge of geometry by architectural experts in the period from the fourth to the eleventh AH, a subject has been created by Islamic mathematicians of that time that may have existed in previous centuries. This is the subject of communication classes created by Islamic mathematicians.
They tried to improve jobs in various fields. In the field of architects, this issue is called Artistics Meeting. Meetings in which Islamic mathematicians, with their vast knowledge and perception, have applied theoretical knowledge to the profession and minds of artists. The method of calculating geometry

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