Journal of Researches in Islamic Architecture

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In recent century, urban development has caused be numerous changes in spatial structure of Iranian cities. One of the most changes has occurred in the relationships between urban elements and effect on grand the mosque functional spatial characteristics. Sabzevar grand mosque is one of the important elements of the historic city with religious and social function and had important role in urban spatial relation and solidarity. But today, this element has lost role as an urban space and isolated other urban municipal functions. From the spatial characteristics of space, mosque is a part of urban opens spaces and interacts with it. The position of the mosque by the spatial configuration analysis and its impact on the use of space, flow and function is explained. Mosque has formed by open spaces and its relationship with city space in a complex system and has changed from a mere physical element, to an element with spatial nature. The main research object is to study of functional and spatial configuration of the city and the mosque and analysis of its effects on grand mosque spatial and functional properties between two historical periods (1907- 2015). The aim of this study is to evaluate the spatial characteristics of mosques and comparison with its existing functions. From Space Syntax theory; situations analysis and how to communicate these points in the city, indicate accessibility, hierarchy and choosing the paths leading to the specific points that have a direct relationship with the routing of these characteristics and mental structure of space urban. The important aspect in this research is topological analysis of urban spaces and their comparison to analysis of functional relationships. In other words; the availability of space or urban areas does not necessarily mean short distance and close it (physically), but the availability and arrangement of space or places dependent on the construction of urban space. Therefore, urban open spaces and the arrangement of the physical elements followed on space topological characters such as integration and choice, and features structural and functional relationship forms. Research is a quantitative-comparative study using spatial parameters as,integration, connectivity and choice which referred in the theory of space syntax analysis. The results showed that despite an increase of integration and connectivity the grand mosque in 2015, the standard deviation of historical mosque in the city has increased. The spatially the grand mosque in 1907, the integration of spatial and physical relationship is better than 2015. The studies of characteristics of the city in two historical periods indicate that the city of Sabzevar in 1907 was more cohesive and homogeneous nature. In addition to the grand mosque in historic period the clarity and intelligibility of the city is remarkable. Therefore; we can say that the element of the grand mosque has remarkable position in the hierarchy of urban space in this period. Analysis of the space a characteristic the show the grand mosque has defined as a place in urban space configuration and performed and indicated as an urban space. The basis of this analysis, evaluation of choice and integration and analysis of correlation of selected parameter that defined topological space characteristics. In terms of space syntax theory, if you have highest correlation between choice and integration, it has important position in urban configuration as functional characteristics. Comparison of results show that the mosque in the historical period, was as part of a system of communication and coordination with the city›s spatially and functionally. Therefore, the high integration and intelligibility caused to turn the grand mosque to a key element, promoting it as a unique space in the city. However, in contemporary times, this relationship is significantly lower than the historical period and shows that the mosque not only as an urban space as a physical element associated with urban space and spatial- functional properties. Finally, in the spatial structure of Iranian cities, the grand mosque was an important element and symbol of the Muslim community due to their position of spatial- functional properties. The grand mosque is not only a physical element that is specified by the fence and the wall surrounding the internal spaces, but rather an active urban element caused to integrated space and the city in global and local level.

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Yazd has an outstanding history of principle and science of agriculture and farming. Water and safety along the ground as the mother of agriculture can be setting up the farmstead on the land. The farmsteads are subordinate or independent inhabitant complex, and they are part of a village or a borough. Inhabited farm as a section that has affected and influenced by social, political and cultural factors in different periods of time, is a living collection with different size and population. Information in multiple sources indicates that the inhabited farms existed in the borough and rural districts since pre-Islamic era to early Islamic period and to the Pahlavi’s dynasty, the farms are identified with titles such as Dastkart, Keshtkhāni castles and complex, farmstead. The government assigned the farms as gifts, fief, Iqta’ (tax farming) and Sivergual (tax farming)

During the research process, many farms in Yazd, Maybod, Mehriz, Taft, Dehshir, Abarqo, Dehnow, Deh Sheikh, Shams Abad, Taraz Abad, Shah Abad, Deh Youk, Khoshk Abad, Khormiz, Ezzat Abad, and Mazraeh Kalantar…were chosen for field studies. Many of these farms are unknown to the public and academic communities, and there are no resources and independent research which include historical backgrounds of inhabited farms. Written and verbal documents show that inhabited independent and subsidiary (minor and major) farms were in the villages of Yazd. The majority of the formation of the administration, economic and political of Yazd until the Pahlavi era with widespread of Waqf (devotion) system, depended on farms and their products to stabilize things and make the interests. And sometimes provided to farm and develop a set of endowments in a region.

 Some of these farms have none construction and only used for producing agricultural products, therefore these farmsteads are uninhabited farms or agricultural farms. No settlement and permanent residence are in these sorts of farms. Yazd's “Qalé Bāq (garden castle) and Keshtkhān (tillage)” are in “agricultural farm” category. Besides the farming, the farm has settlement and residence. These farms are “inhabitant” and contain facilities and places such as a summerhouse, manor, hovel, major and minor residential castles, battlement, water-mill and reservoir, the main avenue. “Yazd's hardship and rural Keshtkhāni (tillage) and castles” are in this category and are remembered as “instance/example of farm” in verbal and written kinds of literature. There are mentions in books such as “Jamé Mofidi, 1363”, “Jamé al-Kheirat 1962”, “Yadegar Haye Yazd (Yazd's memories) vol. 1-2, 1995”, “Tarikh Jadid Yazd (Yazd's new history) 1966” … that refer to these fields and discuss them as “farm”.

With the revocation of manorial in the Qajar era, land reform and owners departure to the other countries and major cities, many of these farms losing their nature and forms and will be destroyed.

Nowadays, there are no understanding and conservation of the historic farms; the international community is paying attention to these farms, conventions, recommendations and international charters (Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, 1972 and the Charter of Florence, 1981) emphasized the important of knowledge, understanding, introduction, registration and protection of the properties that based on the definitions are in the category of the cultural landscape. In addition, there are models of historical farms in other countries. These models can be helpful in understanding the inhabited farms.

The research is trying to examine the subject with the help of the history and historical geography in the artificial and architecture as a tangible heritage which should be protected. And to survey the affected and influenced fields in terms of subject, time and place of the study. So apart from the written documents mentioned in this article that is addressed the inhabited farms in Yazd from authors’ perspective, only oral and palpable documents in the farms can ease the research process. Understanding the historical farms are recognising a large part of the folk culture of ethnic groups. It has the trade systems, tribute and ransom, ownerships, leases and legal, judiciary and administrative system. In 2015 these farms being recognised and has been studying. Yazd, Maybod, Mehriz, Taft, Dehshir, Abarqo, Dehnow, Deh Sheikh, Shams Abad, Taraz Abad, Shah Abad, Deh Youk, Khoshk Abad, Khormiz, Ezzat Abad, Mazraeh Kalantar…. Many of these farms are vulnerable due to various causes.

Particular studies on written and verbal documents, evaluation, measuring, interpretation and explanation can lead us to the perception and explanation of the subject, and so to the approach of the conservation. This leading should be discussed and showed in universities and research institutions.

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Around the controversial subject of Seljuq architecture in Iran, the dominion of such a style in Islamic architecture, not only following the stereotype of "Razi Style"; which was proposed by Prinya, but also includes various irrelevant architectural axis. Further, considering various schools in Islamic architecture like Khurasani, Razi, Azari, and Isfahani, does not match the existence architectural specimens. Although in his book titled “The Architecture of Islamic Iran: The Seljuk Period”, G. Hatam, tried to develop a new attitude towards Seljuk architecture in Iran, his conclusion was a reflection of previous studies in another language, focusing on describing plans and decorations; while, the architectural revolutions of structural developments were not considered. On the other hand, Hillenbrand’s classification of tower tombs and dome chamber do not suffice to clarify tangible boundaries between different regions of Iran. By analyzing architectural revolutions of Iran after Arab invaders, it can be concluded that the political stability was one of the main factors of Seljuq dominion in which for the first time after Sassanid extinction, art and architecture had reached to considerable success. Although Seljuq architecture in Iran has been assumed as a follower of Sassanid architecture style, but the formation of Seljuq dynasty in Northeast Iran territories, the gradual transition of monarchy to west and the selection of Isfahan, as the last powerful capital of Iran during 5th and 6th centuries caused distinguish architectural movements in various parts of Iran which clarifying distinctive feature of that has always been underestimated. According to the historical context, Seljuks were the first dynasty which had expanded their boundaries through Minor Asia and Anatolia for the first time. Hence, by the first half of 11th century, an unprecedented wave of Turkic groups turned to the Northwestern Iran near the Byzantine borders. In other words, the domination of Byzantine world and conquering Anatolians were not possible without having this point of Iran. It's not exaggeration if we consider here (Azerbaijan) as the collection of tombs; since, here is the frontier of Sunnis Muslim to meet the non-Muslim region Anatolia, where conflicts were in its peak. Hence, Azerbaijan was the garrison of Muslims and the presence of memorial buildings was for commemorating the ones killed in “Jihad” (The Holy War) to motivate the others to get involved in the war. So, a building as a mausoleum must be the best reflection of this desire. In this way, the distribution of tombs is considerably prominent from Northeast to the Northwest of Iran. If we titled the Northeast-Northwest axis as the axis of “Military Affairs” of Seljuk court with its powerful architecture focused on the tombs, central Iran would be the “political-religious” axis of Seljuk. Undoubtedly, the high security level of central Iran and the position of populated political cities like Isfahan, the construction of mosques, especially dome chamber shaped the framework of religious architecture there. According to the results, authors have proposed two distinguishable axes for the structure of the domes during Seljuk era. One starts from the most northeastern point of Iran and ends to the most northwestern point of Iran. Emphasizing on double layer domes with conical and pyramid shape and pointed domes in the structures like Lajim Tower, Resget Tower, Chehel Dokhtaran Tower, Radkan Tower in northeastern Iran and Mumina Khatun, Yusif-ibn-Gosair and Gonbad-e-Surkh in northwestern Iran. the outer layer of the latter has reached its maximum height to preserve the structure against its pulverous climate, guarantying the stability of the structure by channeling the forces in a more vertical angle. This axis is in connection with the other one where it starts from Kharragan’s towers and continues its direction to the central Iran in the structures. The character of this axis mainly includes double shield pointed domes whose interval is not considerable compared with the northeast-northwest axis. one important fact about northwestern Iran′s Seljuk structure is the technique of strengthening the join point where two walls meet. Taking the advantages of circular buttresses where tension could damage the whole structure gives one important character to these buildings i.e. the possibility of higher structures by decreasing the width of the wall.    
Considering climatic variations, technical characteristics of different areas as well as the architectural necessities depended on social-political conditions, two different axis including Northeast-Northwest axis with the centrality of Tomb and the central axis which is the “political-religious” axis of Seljuk's emphasizing on dome chamber, would deform the stereotype of "Razi Architectural style" in Iran. From this point of view, spotlighting the architectural technology of Tombs and dome chamber during Seljuk period in Iran would reviews the unity of Seljuk architecture and shed new lights towards Iranian architecture.
Since there has been no critical review about what is known as "The Iranian Stylistics of Architecture" which is proposed half a century before by Pirniya, this project would be the pioneer in this filed.

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Beauty is related to experiencing beauty events, which has different beauty experiences among people due to different circumstances, however, understanding beauty is incredibly difficult. On one hand, the public agree that beauty is considered a value as far as its particular manifestations are pleasing, on the other hand, as it is worth studying, it is considered an educational issue. Moreover, as it is a living object of social development, it is also regarded as a cultural topic. An artistic work, whether a result of one's work or a product of the artistic innovation of a group, appears due to inspirations or advices of a society and necessarily resembles the color of society. Undoubtedly, features of artist's life and even his/her physical features are reflected in his/her artwork, but reflection is not direct, and indeed it can be recognized and measured after passing through filtering of society. The beauty of urban environment as a living space, experienced by a wide range of people every day, is one of transcendental needs of human and functions as a stimulus for his flourishing. Therefore, in forming and designing the environment, category of art and its relation to aesthetics is of high significance and becomes a valuable and purposeful phenomenon in the society. Although aesthetic values differ between various cultures and communities, if these values are in conflict with cultural issues of society, they will create rational, accepted, and emotional norms of society. In addition, considering undeniable relation of any designing and shaping human life environment, like designing environment with art and also the relation of this reformulations with spiritual concepts of beauty, the concept of "aesthetics" which is in fact basis of philosophical and theoretical designs, becomes of great importance. On the other hand, urban buildings and spaces as an identifier of Iranian cities, have been shaped under the influence of Iranian-Islamic artistic and thought patterns over many years and have provided opportunity for public cooperation and interactions and in present era, with evolution of architecture and urbanism, process of designing and creating urban spaces has declined and a defective role of national identity and Iranian-Islamic culture is manifested, which indeed, ignoring these issues in designing has led to lack of originality and validity of the design. Therefore, this study attempts to consider the mentioned importance and answer vital questions of " what is the theoretical position of fundamental aesthetic values in two views of the West and Iranian-Islamic world?! What is practical application of an overview of the fundamental aesthetic values in Islamic-Iranian architecture and urbanism?", Thus, the current paper investigates theoretical concept of fundamental aesthetics values, to identify Iranian-Islamic fundamental aesthetics values and explain functional status of fundamental aesthetic values in creating Islamic-Iranian architecture and urbanism as well. As this paper attempts to deepen fundamental aesthetic values in creating Islamic-Iranian architecture and urbanism, it is considered basic research. Since urbanization is an interdisciplinary field, subject of aesthetics can be examined in the humanities and school sciences (theoretical and practical wisdom) and in science (physical dimensions).
This research is developmental and functional in terms of purpose and approach (characteristics and nature of data) and qualitative nature and methods; it is a description of type of content analysis and in the section of theoretical framework is interrogative. The information is collected by generalizing to field of Iranian-Islamic architecture and urban planning with method of deductive reasoning seeks to explain basic values of aesthetics and provide a new classification appropriate to principles of creating Iranian-Islamic architecture and urban planning. The collection of data and qualitative information in this research is also using written scientific documentary sources and libraries in order to explain conceptual model of research.
In a general conclusion, it can be said that today in Iran, beauty is either imitated by Western models or there are many shortcomings in applying the principles of Iranian-Islamic aesthetics.
This is due to the lack of a true understanding of fundamental values of Islamic Iranian aesthetics.
Therefore, a suitable framework should be created for architects and urban planners, who can extract desired criteria by considering basic values of aesthetics. For this purpose, studies have been done in previous studies and theoretical basis to assess direct relationship of aesthetics factors. These factors show relationship between fundamental values of Iranian-Islamic aesthetics and types, criteria and sub-criteria of aesthetics. Therefore, findings of research on fundamental values of aesthetics in Islam include four main categories:
1. Reasonable aesthetics 2. Sensible 3. Reasonable based on sensible, and 4. Sensible based on reasonable. Furthermore, in order to evolve the fundamental values of aesthetics, types of aesthetics are needed, these include: 1. Logical values, 2. Meaning and codification values, 3. Aspirations and logical ideas respectively and 4. Emotional and moral contexts values. These values which are directly related to fundamental values of Iranian-Islamic aesthetics and Iranian-Islamic aesthetic criteria, are related to practical application of an overview of fundamental values of aesthetics in Iranian-Islamic architecture and urban planning. Since aesthetic criteria are basis for assessment, to identify and select t fundamental values of aesthetics, these criteria include; Harmony (purposefulness, proportionality, balance, order, symmetry, correspondence), meaningfulness and perception (spiritual influence, equation, contrast, free will, disinterestedness), absolute self-existence of God (hierarchy, unity, ideal of embodiment, concentration, harmony, peace, vicinity, sophistication), emotional pleasure (relationships between shapes and forms and colors, pure manifestation of emotions and feelings) and stability and identity (piety, inclusion, freedom, connection with past and future, emergence of nature) and are directly related to types of aesthetic values. Thus, architecture and urban projects can offer new patterns in terms of Iranian-Islamic culture and employ creativity of designers. This was done by creating a logical relationship between aesthetic values and application of values in theoretical field of architecture and urban project.

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