Journal of Researches in Islamic Architecture

Abstract

Human beings have always been in an interaction with Nature in accordance with their own ideology and the interface between them has become a rich source of inspiration for most studies. The impact of human beings on Nature is anchored in the ideology or philosophy of life The ideology has exerted so powerful influence that some people believe a typical Islamic city is grounded on and is physical manifestation of the Islamic philosophies and the merely way to be familiar with the ecology of Islamic cities is to comprehend its principles and laws.  In that connection, the way the cities in human civilization formed and constructed have always embodied the ideology reigned over those societies as a result, it is not surprising that in the geographical heterogeneous environments, cities with assorted roles, different levels of significance, and with uncoordinated and disparate development have been formed.

Over the past decades, the attention towards the requisite revival of Islamic values in Muslim cities, or at least the awareness of the fact that Muslim complexes which had their own specific identity in the past have lost their identity nowadays has been augmented. In Iran with the advent of Islamic revolution, whose Islamic features have made its cultural characteristics outstanding, and with the awakening of other Islamic nations, the hope for constructing complexes based on the Islamic principles, values, and philosophies has boosted.

The Iranian Islamic urban Planning and Design should be grounded in the theoretical basics and theories pertaining to the principles and values which are required to be employed in the design, planning, and the development of a life environment suitable for Muslims and to reign over Human's relationship with the environment (natural and artificial environments) and the interaction of Human's beings with each other. These principles and values will be derived from the Islamic instructions, and likewise they encompass prominent aspects of national culture, those of which do not go against the Islamic instructions. It is worth briefly noting that the primary sources of principles governing all Muslims’ deeds, including their urbanization, are the Holy Quran and traditions of the prophet Muhammad.

The meaning, concept, and essence of the elements and characteristics that form Iranian-Islamic cities, the settlement of these elements, and their relationship with people’s habitations are grounded on numerous systems, such as consecration and consecrated urban elements including mosques, bathhouses, etc., trade corporations such as Trade and Business managers, urban administration systems and organizations, religious education systems, ‘shariat’ and Islamic rights, and symbolic systems of some cities.

Urban elements, architectural units, and Iranian-Islamic cities can be framed within several categories: Residential spaces, including single family houses, multi-family houses, joined single-family houses with open spaces and shared services, downtown caravanserais, and suburban caravanserais. Religious elements, including mosques, monasteries, religious schools, holy places of worship, sacred tombs and shrines, ‘Hosseiniyeh’ ­, ‘Tekyeh’ and covered and open consecrated spaces for lamentation and mourning ceremonies. Individual and cooperative business units, including the shopping plazas ‘Timcheh’, inns, ‘Qeisarieh’, shops, etc., and the spaces attached to them such as landing-places, warehouses, and stables. Production units, including trade-related workshops, factories and shops for the distribution of raw materials, and suburban workshops. Public Service Units, including libraries, cisterns, public bathhouses, cemeteries, coffee shops, tea houses, and restaurants. Public services and communication networks, for directions (avenues and streets, Bazaars, squares, alleys, paths, dead ends, for water supply and services (aqueducts, cisterns and curbs), and for sewage disposal and water supply through joined underground channels and culverts.

One of the Geographical spaces that always had reflected the ideology of the ruling systems is the phenomenon of the city. According this, the Iranian Islamic city should be a reflection of thoughts on Islam in all aspects. in order to manifest the Islamic values in the city construction, the identification of the values absolutely required that can and should demonstrate and assure the Iranian Islamic identity in an Islamic city are. The purpose of this study is to identify the values, principles and indicators of Iranian Islamic urbanism and Conceptual refining and implementation of the strategies that described them

So for this purpose, the study was conducted on the documents also Delphi technique was used in two stages in order to refine the components, criteria and sub-criteria. In early studies and  from the perspective of experts, four principles of mosque-based, introversion, neighborhood-based and naturalism are the priorities that was considering as the most important and the basic principles of Iranian Islamic urbanism: so by refining their theoretical roots, the mosque-based index at 2 dimension, 7 criteria and 15 items, the naturalism index at 2 dimension, 8 criteria and 12 items, the introversion index at 2  dimension and 8 items and the neighborhood based index in 3 dimension, 7 criteria and 20 items were presented. This research in its realm was studied the Iranian Islamic city in the framework of common indicators in Islamic cities. Basic indicators could be based in all cities with the majority of Muslims. Hence, the context of this study does not mention the separation of Iranian and Islamic city and their definitions and concepts.

It is more than one century that the issue of Islamic city and then the Iranian-Islamic city has been noticed systematically and scientifically by the researchers and scholars. The study of the Iranian-Islamic city has been in the intersection of different kinds of scientific systems so that a large number of researchers including geographers, architects, historians, linguists, orientalists, urbanization experts, Islamists, urban planners and etc. have studied the issue of the Iranian-Islamic city and its characteristics. Due to the large number of these researchers, it is essential to categorize these studies to perceive the main trend in this field and also to recognize the concerned research vacuities. One of the main problems in this field is the large and basic discrepancy and disagreement in the studies. It is necessary to do the pathology of Islamic city studies in general and the Iranian-Islamic city studies specifically. These circumstances have caused ambiguity and confusion for the researchers and sometimes have made the conception and comprehension of the Iranian-Islamic city issue difficult. Most of the basic questions about the Iranian-Islamic city issue have been unanswered and subsequently there has been no substantial procedure in this issue. Therefore, it is of much significance to have a comprehensive approach toward the Iranian-Islamic city studies. Making a recent and original foundation in this field is not possible without the comprehensive analyses in the past studies and recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of them. Delavar believes that any researcher who intends to develop a specific science should first identify and study the previous studies carefully (Delavar, 2008, 97-99); Whereas the issue of the Iranian-Islamic city has been noticed by many professors and students in recent years, according to the large number of the articles, theses, and dissertations about this issue, this research has been assigned to study the scientific articles on the Iranian-Islamic city.
The main question of this research is the diagnostic study of doing the scientific researches about the Iranian-Islamic city, analytical conclusion, and suitable approaches. The main object of this research is the meta-analysis of the Iranian-Islamic city issue to conclude and categorize the latest findings of the scientific researches about this issue. The method of doing this research is meta-analysis. The systematic review and evaluation of practical researches in the field of the Iranian-Islamic city indicates that to achieve the scientific attention and concentration, such meta- analyses are essential. Therefore, in this study, ninety-two articles on the Iranian-Islamic city issue from 1974 to 2016 have been recognized through these scientific databases: Noor Specialized Magazines Website, Scientific Information Database, Magiran Information Database, Comprehensive Portal of Humanities and Cultural Studies. The information domain of this research is the articles that studied one or more factors of the Iranian-Islamic city issue specifically. Hence the specified factors were divided into two categories of nature and existence. In the nature dimension the fundamental and identifying attributes were surveyed and in the existence dimension the manifestation of existential factors and personal and public functions (SajadZadeh & Mosavi, 2014; Babich, 2003) of the Iranian-Islamic city were emphasized. The method of sampling in this research is to count the whole available samples. This matter is significant because the national identity of Iranian due to the cultural overlapping has been influenced by three kinds of civilizations including: Persian cultural identity, Islamic cultural identity and western cultural identity. Many questions have been propounded about the nature and existence of the Iranian identity and its attributes and different scientific systems have surveyed it from different points of view and have attempted to explain it so that it is the reflection of misinterpretations and disarrangements about this fact and different topics and goals relating to it. On the other hand, by the advent of obscure thoughts of modernism in Iranian culture and literature not only its conceptual demonstration but also the concrete demonstration of the modernism has been entered in the Iranian-Islamic architecture and urbanization so that the fundamental elements of the present Iranian-Islamic city are losing their identity. Moreover, the western culture and planning has affected these elements and has caused them to lose their identity and urban coherence and stability. This instability is called development and modernity and is increasing day by day. Therefore, the nature and identity of the Iranian -Islamic city has faded because of the economic, social, and cultural evolutions and the unthinking impressions of the western symbols and the modern urbanization patterns. To apply them correctly the necessary approaches for the contemporary issues of the cities and also making the foundation of the comprehensive theories of the Iranian-Islamic city, the critical and pathological point of view of these studies are needed. Accordingly, in this research the most important factors of the Iranian-Islamic city studies are the meaning and conception of the Iranian-Islamic city; the identity of the Iranian-Islamic city; the historical features of spatial organization of the Iranian-Islamic city; the principals and patterns of the Iranian-Islamic city; the identity of the Iranian-Islamic city; the urban space of the Iranian-Islamic city; the social-cultural revolutions in the spatial formation and structure of the Iranian-Islamic city; the impacts of modernism on the Iranian-Islamic city; devotion , and finally the fundamental elements of the Iranian-Islamic city such as neighborhood, mosque, square, and bazaar.