Journal of Researches in Islamic Architecture

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Chahar-Baghis oneof the most famousstreetsof Isfahan and perhaps,Iran.Chahar-Bagh, as agreenstreet, had a certaingeometric pattern which included the rowsof trees, roads,sidewalks and central stream.Chahar-Bagh Street was actually a lineal urban space which stretched from the north to the south, towards Naghsh Jahan square (EmamSquare) as the central urban space of Esfahan and together managed to form and organize the structure of the new Safiavidpart of Isfahan beside the oldSeljuk part of Isfahan. Chahar-BaghStreet of Isfahancould not be considered as the first special green urban street,northe last one.Because it is known that during the early Safavid period, a type of Chahar-BaghStreetwas builtin the city of Qazvin and during late Safavid period, several Chahar-BaghStreets were organized in some cities such as Mashhad, Shiraz, Tabriz and Tehran.Chahar-Bagh Street along with the Naghsh-Jahan urban square was also repeatedafter Safavid time,as a new,valuable and static model for the urban design,in the design ofotherimportantcities.Chahar-Bagh was not onlya particularstreet, but also ageometricpattern garden design, or in other words, it is well-known as a comprehensivemodel or patternofPersian garden design. This pattern divides the garden site or ground in four parts and shapes a cross road between these parts, placing a pavilionin the middle of the cross road. There are very different and opposites viewpoints about the geometric pattern ofChahar-Bagh, such asi) Chahar- Baghpattern is thecomprehensive design of Persian Garden.ii) Chahar- Baghpattern is just one of the kinds of Persian Garden design.iii) Chahar- Baghpattern is just the same as thequartier shape of design.iv) Chahar- Bagh pattern is not due to four partial forms and it only contains the symbolic and memorial aspects of design. This paper will try to penetrate the literal origins of Chahar-Bagh word and discover the practicalmeaning of Chahar-Bagh during the studied centuries, therefore, this paper is specialized only on thelexicaland semantic aspects of Chahar-Bagh and it begins withthe following questions: 1) How deep is the meaning of Chahar-Baghin our culture? 2) What are the background and the function ofChahar-Bagh during our historical resources? This paper studies Chahar-Bagh by gathering thedescriptive dataintwo field of the meaning and function, on the basis of historical evidences.Then, organizes them in diagrams and presents research analysis based on the mentioned findings. The meaning of Chahar-Bagh includes outer and inneraspects and also createsa meaningful complexity.The inner meanings includes words such as: Chahar (four), Char (four),Bagh (garden),Pardis (paradise). The outer meanings includes three sections: Chahar-Bagh and the dictionary meanings,Chahar-Bagh and the symbolic and idealistic meanings, and finally,Chahar-Bagh and the practical meanings. The origin of Chahar-Bagh as a street form might refer to the city of Samarkand during the Timuridperiod. This city was built between Firoozi gate and Del-Gosha royal garden. The origin of Chahar-Bagh as a garden form, on the other hand,is addressed to the city of Pasargadae during the early Achaemenid time. Pasargadae included several complexes such as the fortress, the tomb of Cyrus the great, palaces and gardens and the fire temple.The historicalsourcesindicatethat the origin ofChahar-Baghword is related to Seljuk time and used in “Jame-ol-Tavarich” by “Khaje Rashid aldinFazlollahHamadani”. There were some places as Chahar-Baghbeforethe Safavid period and themostpracticalmeaning of ChaharBaghwas “the rulergarden”and also as a “citadel garden” and ‘the officialcenter”. There was also a new meaning extended for Chahar-Bagh during the Safavid time, at the time when Isfahan was chosen as the capital city of Iran. This meaning indicted Chahar-Bagh asan especial, green, urban street. According to historicalevidences,thestructurofChahar-Bagh hadanautogamy(private) aspect at first, butover time the public aspect was grownand the urbanaspectexpanded. The resources shows that thestructure also had an earthlyand terrestrial aspect and was changed into the heavenly and idealisticaspectduring the time. ChaharBaghwas neverasimple garden or anordinary ruler place or justasimple street, and thementioned meaning of Chahar-Bagh duringthe Safavid period is a strong evidence of this statement. AlthoughChahar-Baghcontains the literal meaning of “four gardens”,yet, Chahar-Bagh term meant a special,great, public,spiritual, celestial and heavenly place or garden.It is very surprisingthatjustoneword could indicate all meanings and functions in Persian architecture and all of the mentioned meanings could be compacted in one word. Perhapsitrepresentsthemagicaland mysticalPersian architectural secret, which is known as "unity”through“diversity".

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In this paper, the management of Islamic cities in the urban economic spaces and also the contemporary cities are viewed from three different looks:

First, the history of urban management through corporate institutions; second,  the modern systems in European and American cities such as BID (Business Improvement District); and third, structural changes and urban management in the business space of the cities during Pahlavi I and II eras. 

Through the first look at the history of the rule of the cities and urban management during the Islamic rule, we encounter structures and institutions whose main characteristic was self-autonomy against the government; sometimes they were also a coordinator between people and the government. Corporate councils and organizations governed the economic system of the cities which had its own special hierarchy such as corporate masters including workers, and students and a trustful elderly acknowledged by the city sheriff deputy and head of the corporate and neighborhoods who was introduced by the city sheriff. These institutions were functioning properly at the time; hence, corporate councils played a significant role in management of the cities and neighborhoods and specially the bazaars, independent of business organizations. These councils which were located near bazaars and mosques facilitated rising of Khums and Zakat or urban tax-collection system.

The first major, and obvious, question in a discussion of BID reforms is what “governance” and “good governance” mean. Despite its popularity the concept of “governance “is highly ambiguous and excessively broad, and has remained so today notwithstanding numerous attempts to clarify it. Indeed the elasticity of the concept is suggested as the key to its attraction, as some thinkers traces the intellectual context of the emergence of “governance” in academic and policy discourse: the notion of “governance” had an a priori attractiveness as it could refer to complexities entailing a good deal more than administration or management, namely the element of political restructuring and the handling of this, while at the same time including the administrative-management dimension. It opened the window for a focus on how “politics” or the political process was conducted and embedded within larger structures. The concept introduces the political dimension into an otherwise technocratic discourse of public issues but in such a way that allows more flexibility than an explicitly political approach. In practice, it enables the user to maintain a camouflage of political neutrality when necessary as governance discussions span the vast space between the political technical continuums and may hence be adjusted more towards one end or the other as circumstances require. The expansiveness of the concept goes further as governance literally can mean many different things to different people. We must summarizes the diverse meanings in the dimensions of substantive content and character. Along the first are those who define governance as basically the rules of conducting public business on one end, and those who see governance as the activities of steering public affairs on the other. The second dimension contrasts those who emphasize governance as process, and those who see governance as results or outcomes of public decision-making. Each of the various meanings – rules, steering, process or outcome – consists of highly variable contents.

To improve the business, corporate, spatial, and local auto governed and participation of all stake holders of the corporate in urban spaces, BID is proved to be effective in European and American countries. Proportionate to such changes, the urban management changed from the traditional methods of the corporate councils to corporate unities and corporate and the relevant state offices and corporate unities played a significant role in management of the corporate sections of the cities.

Since the 1990s, planning engagement with urban governance has sought to theorize space, scale and state strategy through multi scaled analysis of political and economic activity as a series of situated and context specific processes. A focus on multiple spatiality’s of state activities has led to ‘strategic-relational’ consideration of state power as social relations via a focus on the interplay between institutional forms and political forces. This approach shies away from focusing on national institutional structures and/or individual actors or organizations, instead considering ‘local political leadership’ in order to theorize broader structural changes. In reviewing geographical work on Islamic urban regime theory, regulation, growth coalitions and so on, which has considered how urban politics and policy are formed through public-sector and private sector coalitions of power which shape the ruling shows that research has concentrated on ‘functional equivalences’, not comparing institutions/actors but instead comparing similar modes, patterns and processes of governance.

Based on the past experiences of the entities managing economic sections of the cities and incomplete Modernism experience of urban development in the last 90 years, the paper attempts to localize and develop a new approach such as BID based of Iran conditions and experiences in order to assist the management efficiency of Iranian cities

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One of the valuable arts in the Iranian Islamic architecture was Girih which has showcased the beauty of the Iranian art by relying on a unique and unprecedented geometry. The generative nature of such an art coupled with granting style to the woodworks through taking advantage of elegant colorful glass and the use of geometrical carvings has been perfected during the course of history.

Girih are lines (strap work) which decorate the tiles. The tiles are used to form Girih patterns, from the Persian word, meaning "knot". In most cases, only the Girih (and other minor decorations like flowers) are visible rather than the boundaries of the tiles themselves. Girih are elaborate interlacing patterns formed of five standardized shapes. The style is used in Persian Islamic architecture and also in decorative woodwork, it could be applied either as lattice frames, left plain or inset with panels such as of colored glass; or as mosaic panels used to decorate walls and ceilings, whether sacred or secular. In architecture, Girih forms decorative interlaced strap work surfaces from the 15th century to the 20th century. Most designs are based on a partially hidden geometric grid which provides a regular array of points While there are various materials regarding the aesthetic aspects and the incorporeal and theosophical origin of such art as Girih but it seems that the climatic dimensions has been less dealt with. In the present study, there is proposed this presumption that the Girih is not merely an ornamental furnishing art and that it is in a functional interaction with day lighting meanwhile avoiding vanity and uselessness in its architecture and also that it takes advantage of masonry proportionate to the regional climate through its adoption of a vernacular approach. Thus, it looks necessary to find an answer to the question that “whether the Girih used in the buildings constructed based on the Islamic architecture designs can be defined in fields with climatic functions?”

Another question which can be set forth here is that “whether the Iranian architect has been successful in taking advantage of Girih works in realizing and deploying masonries, and making use of the daylight and natural ventilation?” To answer the mentioned questions, there is made use of the qualitative research strategies and the subjective information and data have been categorized in terms of the content they bear through exploiting rational reasoning via performing library studies in order to be able to extract the effective functional factors related to the Girih work from the background literature and then, in the next step, select the main target samples encompassing the residential homes from Qajar era (1-Forugh-Al molk, 2-Asadollah Shojaat Asad, 3-Akbar Javanmardi, 4-Parviz Amooee, 5-Jalal Sahebolamr, 6-Habibi Pishehvari, 7-Hossein Ali Tasmim Haghighi, 8-Dabagh Manesh, 9-Seyyed Mahmood Fateminejad, 10-Aliakbar Asgharzadeh).

In order to be able to evaluate and assess the case samples and finally the Girih application frequency in the case samples and the type of their application can be obtained through making use of various sampling methods.

Related to case studies and comparing them to documents wood and glass is the most useful materials in Girih structure.

After finding documents about quantity of Girih in each case study authors started to explore the Girih area into façade area which showcased by “f”. As authors mentioned “f” is made by dividing Girih area (Ag) multiplied by Girih numbers (Ng) in each façade side into window area (Aw) multiplied numbers of each window (Nw).

The study findings indicated that there exists a significant difference between the Girih frequency distribution rates along the western side in respect to the other fronts which concomitantly accompanied by the use of a pier’s vertical parasol the same as a similar configuration in the modern climatic radiation protection system provide for the unfavorable western side light effective control.

The absence of the Girih along the southern side is due to the need for making complete use of the sun light and radiation in this front because the interior spaces situated along this side of the house were used during the winters. The use of the vernacular or the regional climate-compliant masonries in Girih provides for the walls’ thermal control and the non-accumulation of the thermal and heat load along the western side.

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