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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A review of the history of architectural conservation implies that ontological attitude of scholars and theorists in the field of historic places› conservation is one of the most important principles of conservation theories. Those features of historic places which are considered as more significant at the moment of recognition are often turned into an issue for conservation. However, there is not a clear understanding of such an issue, especially its theoretical basics, in Iran›s today community.
Accordingly, this paper explores the ontology of historic places by relying on Transcendental Wisdom ascribed to Sadr al-Moto›alehin Shirazi and based on the doctorine of «Principality of the Existence» which offers an explication of the existence of material beings. In this line, the mentioned relations between «material and form», «form and meaning» and «extrinsic and intrinsic aspects of things» in the system of Transcendental Wisdom and also the theory of Substantial Motion and its explanation apropos the fluid existence of material beings and finally transcendentalism›s conceptualization of the relation between «existent» and «being» in the world›s system are the main views taken from such a philosophy. In all, since this study is in line with Sadraei›s philosophy it enjoys analytical-philosophical nature and employs logical reasoning and analogical methodology.
Respectively, the historic place is scrutinized from three aspects. The first aspect refers to such a place «as a single measurable totality» whereas the other two aspects regard it «as a changeable totality» and «as an element within the contextual measures».
With respect to the first aspect, the existence of the historic place is considered as a measurable element enjoying several levels of emergence. These levels constitute the triple aspects of meaning, form (and its extrinsic determinations) and material. Also, corresponding to each aspect, the historic place gains some measures. Consequently, regarding the measures of any historic place, we can talk about the measures referring to meaning, form (intrinsic and extrinsic measures) and material.
Moreover, among these levels, each level is more significant than the lower levels representing the existence of the historic place. In other words, the existence of the historic place is manifested in its intrinsic form and meaning more than anything else and the material as well as the extrinsic determinations of the form are simply the manifestations or, in a word, the context for the emergence of the historic place›s existence. However, a historic place is finally a single entity which has existential integrity and the aforementioned levels are not separate from each other in reality.
Then, the temporality and mixing of the historic place›s existence with change is considered. In this respect, relying on the theory of Substantial Motion, the historic place is regarded as a «changeable totality» and evolving issue mingled with time. In this respect, the historic place is a fluid entity, not an object, which is a permanent becoming; it is a gradually-occurring matter and is like an entity scattered in time whose past and future constitute different parts of a single entity. Thus, in reality, we cannot talk about persistence and consistency in the existence of the historic place and just the issue of continuity in its existence can be raised. This continuity is possible due to the becoming on the orbit of measures referring to its particular existence. But the question that other than the measures of the historic place in the mentioned triple aspects what other measures referring to its particular existence can be found paves the way for paying attention to another aspect of its existence.
In this aspect, the historic place is considered not as a single totality but as a part of its surrounding world which can be the world in the broadest scope. It is argued that simply recognizing the elements within the existence of the historic place cannot provide full knowledge of it and it is necessary to consider its inevitable relation to the environment or more general context. Accordingly, the historic place as an entity becomes the manifestation of «being» and its validity depends on such a manifestation. In this aspect, the historic place becomes the manifestation (relatively speaking) of the names and attributes of the being and the regularities originated from it and, consequently, it is located under the existential systems of the world and its manifestations in the natural as well as the cultural world. These systems or orders have some manifestations in the nature such as a number of laws referring to qualitative and quantitative aspects of the place (meaning, form and material). In this respect, the cultural measures and orders receive their validity via corresponding to existential systems and thus they can be used as a criterion for the existence of the historic place.
In general, from the perspective of this study, the historic place is first and foremost an «integrated totality and objective measurable entity which changes permanently» while its particular measures (in the triple levels of meaning, form and material) are located under the existential systems manifested in the natural as well as cultural rules. It should also be considered that the validity of the historic place›s existence depends on its capacity to manifest the existential systems. Thus, the constant and necessary matter in it is the very orders or existential measures manifested in it which can be called «the aspect of being» or «Allah›s aspect» in a word.
 

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Today's Islamic Iranian city must be an appropriate place to meet the diverse needs of citizens where relations between citizens together, and with the natural and artificial environment around them is set based on the values and Monotheism teachings of the religion of Islam. In fact, it seems that the ultimate goal of the Islamic Iranian city as a habitat is to pave the way of man towards the divine grace. In the ancient Islamic Iranian city, public spaces have always been a place for the crystallizing the unity of the Islamic Ummah, holding communal religious practices, trading, establishing social interactions, and communicating with the natural environment. Defined public spaces, lively, flexible, thriving, environmentally friendly and with a special meaning, this study refers to them as place, and their creation defines the Islamic Ummah, not merely the accumulation of human beings. The places that need for them in today's Islamic Iranian cities are felt more than ever. Certainly an excellent example of such spaces in the past Islamic Iranian cities has been the space and the courtyard of historical mosques. In fact, the mosques were on the one hand a venue for worship, and on the other hand, the place that organized the social life of the neighborhoods inhabitants and resolved the affairs of the people. Mosques have always played a role in various fields such as strengthening social cohesion, promoting public participation, increasing social security, building functional diversity and enhancing the sense of belonging. Leading the city's path into the courtyard of mosques turned these spaces into urban public spaces. The presence of such spaces in the fabric of cities and urban neighborhoods brings a vitality and social life to the Islamic cities. Therefore, this research seeks to identify the effective factors to make and develop places in the Islamic Iranian cities through the analysis of the physical, semantic and functional characteristics of mosques as the most excellent example of public place in the Islamic Iranian cities. In this regard, two historical mosques in the city of Shiraz (Atiq and Nasir al-Mulk Mosques), which have unique semantic physical characteristics, have been selected as a case study. Atiq Jame' Mosque, as the oldest mosque in Shiraz, has always played a central and pivotal role in the religious, historical, cultural, social and political structure of Shiraz city and with many general and historical areas of Shiraz, such as the bazaar, historical neighborhoods, Shah Cheragh, Now Mosque (the New Mosque), and the city entrance gate have a spatial-physical continuity. The sixth entrance of the mosque, located on the different sides, is a testimony to the unique prosperity and performance of the mosque in the past as a throbbing heart in the old Shiraz fabric, a communication space and a place for gathering and establishing social relations between citizens. On the other hand, many studies refer to the present position of the Nasir al-Mulk historical mosque as a space for communication and social interaction of citizens, a place with unique physical, social, and perceptual characteristics to induce a sense of belonging to citizens and with influential physical attributes to strengthen the sense of spirituality and the imposition of semantic load to the citizens. These signs point to the contemporary role of the courtyard of the mosque as an urban space. Also, the present study uses a descriptive-analytic research method in the field of theoretical framework analysis; and the causal-comparative research method and content analysis and review methods of video documentation and interviews with experts and the Analytic network process (ANP) for ranking the rules and analyzing case examples. Formation of network structure, formation of comparative matrices and compatibility control, binary comparison of the main criteria, binary comparison of internal dependencies of the main criteria, binary comparison of the sub-criteria of each main criteria, the binary comparison of the sub-criteria of internal dependencies, the calculation of the final weight of the sub-criteria, the binary comparison of the preferred options and the choice of the optimal option are the main steps of the network analysis process. The statistical population of this research in interviewing and completing the process of hierarchical analysis was architecture and urban planners of the universities of Iran that among them, based on the snowball sampling method, 25 people with urban and architectural specialties were selected as the sample group of the statistical population. The results of this research show that form component (with indicators: attractive elements of attention, orientation and perception capability through different senses), activity component (with indicators: behavior, body language, and culture sociality), meaning and imagination component (with indicators: memorable, spirituality, Meanings and values and emotion), and ecosystem component (with indicators: tree and plant, water, natural light, and coherence with the climate), affect the formation of the place in the Islamic Iranian city. Also, in this research, along with analysis of case studies, strategies and policies have been presented to make place in the Islamic Iranian city, based on the developed components and key criteria.    

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Today, concepts such as place attachment, sense of place, meaning of place, place identity, and ... has devoted many studies in literature of architecture and urban design particularly in the field of environmental psychology. ImamZades, as a religious building, can help to the religious teachings. ImamZades were built in all over of Iran in different architectural styles. They during the course of history caused social unification and make the spiritual life of pilgrims and other people. Some of these buildings have been rehabilitated in recent decades due to various reasons such as the damage caused by the war or the effect of destructive natural disasters. The shape and space organization have been effective in terms of the level of place attachment. Any changes in the physical and mental dimensions of the building could have influenced its sense of place. Some ImamZades have been damaged in western and southern provinces during wartime or natural erosion, which has led to the rebuilding. The change of body, form and spatial systems can be effective on the spiritual senses of pilgrims and their geography of memory. The authors focus on understanding the relationship between physical-functional changes and sense of place, with the aim of examining the concept of the sense of place to recognize the most important indicators affecting its creation and promotion in ImamZades. The research question is what factors influence the formation of a sense of place in religious monumental buildings like as ImamZades? Two ImamZades in Ilam were selected and studied. In this regard, SPSS software was used for data analysis. To measure the relationship between variables, Pearson Correlation Method was used and Simple Linear and Multivariate Linear Regression tests were used to determine the relationship and intensity and direction of the relationship between independent and dependent variables. The Path Analysis was used to determine the direct and indirect effects of variables on the sense of place. According to the results, physical, perceptual, and social components have the most impact on Imamzadeh's sense of place, and the functional component has less effect on the sense of place enhancement. Also, variables of visual diversity, social communication, vitality and spirituality are directly affecting the sense of place, and the variables of previous memories and attachments, spatial quality and activity are indirectly influenced by other variables on the sense of place in the imamzades. In other words, in order to promote the sense of place in the buildings of the religious shrine, physical interference should be minimized and changes made to changes and creation of communal spaces.

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Mosques have been the oldest, most important and uncompetitive religious element of Iranian cities. Unfortunately, mosque formation patterns and principles and symbolic perception, have been forgotten recently, especially at neighborhood mosques level. recovery of Iranian-Islamic architectural and urbanization identity is main responsibility of architects and urban planners, and this is the main object of current research. We will look forward achieving these goals by field survey and local condition analysis of cultural, social and even economical needs of social classes of these locals. Also, considering determined goal, research looks for its answer, can be   stated as following: whether value systems of different social classes of local habitants influences belonging sense among these neighborhood mosques. In the current research, the influence of sensory perception models have been investigated on the sense of belonging to place at Qazvin city by survey method. And also after specifying models and components of sensory perception, evaluating criteria effective on increasing belonging sense to mosque, extracted, then questionnaire prepared based on Likert spectrum by Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), which it analyzed the relations among variables and their impact amount on Haft-Darb mosque as an old texture and Javad Al-aemah as a new texture. research findings, shows a meaningful relationship among the components of sensory perception and the sense of belonging to place at neighborhood mosques, which in it the impact of cultural indicators and social system in the neighborhood is more than other indicators. Also regarding sensory patterns in designing mosques forming elements, promotes satisfaction sense which this leads to creating and strengthening of adaptive sensory architectural patterns in religious places. As a result, it is suggested to pay special attention to residents complementary role at mosques designing, because this matter cause more adaptability about neighborhood mosques architectural patterns. Also, recreating the sensory patterns of Iranian-Islamic architecture of mosques undoubtedly plays a vital and significant role in developing and deepening religious values, cultural, social and economic relations and also increases the motivation of worshipers to continue attending neighborhood mosques.

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There are close relationships between hidden structures of mosques and unseen concepts embodied in Persian language and literature of Iran that show that construction of famous mosques in Iran, especially in Isfahan Style are immortal and timeless.  A question arises in this context as to what factors have led to the manifestation of unseen concepts in the architecture of Isfahan mosques objectively? In this regard, this research aims to answer the questions raised, especially in the mosque of Isfahan and tries to address the factors that led to the manifestation of the unseen in this building. The research method is the qualitative and describes the case study by introspection and grounded theory. The method refers to the unseen sources of Persian literature of Iran Hafez's and Mulavi's lyrics to extract unseen concepts then introspective descriptions of case study are presented as internal perceptions of the manifestation of concepts in the architecture of the mosque of Isfahan.The emergence of The Unseen Nature of existence is Divine Hidden Manifestation in the mirror of architecture of the place-time of worship can be a container of intuition of unseen realms of existence. The paradigmatic allegorical immortal language of unseen architecture in Jamé Mosque of Isfahan is full of glimpses of witnesses in different periods, in desire to intuit unseen realities. In this mosque, concepts derived from the Hafiz's and Mulavi's poems as persons who have indwelled in unseen realm and speak about the realities allegorically that can be employed as esoteric meanings of architecture with their manifestation in place and time. This research is done with hope to use the unseen meanings in mosque architecture to upgrade them as reminder of unseen realities and in a higher level as unseen places.

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The discipline of the structure of a complex has a direct relationship with the observance of hierarchy in it, because the architecture of mosques is no exception to this, and this principle has been observed in the structure of these buildings. The value of this sequence, in addition to creating spirituality in a non - verbal way, provides the ground for human excellence and leads him to his goal.
The importance of this sequence in accordance with the functional and physical characteristics is effective in strengthening the mental image of a person and he can feel this issue in a tangible way in different stages of passing from inside to outside the mosque. During his motion to the correctness Mosque of hierarchy caused him to Effect on his activities and the mental image formed in him to establish an emotional connection between him and the place, which is interpreted as a sense of place. The sense of place is formed to a degree that, based on the discovery and decipherment of the hierarchy created, will create a sense of remembrance and belonging. Sense of place is the product of human exchange with the environment and vice versa, which has a great impact on behavior and performance and will provide the basis for his familiarity with the surrounding place. The more physical symptoms in the environment, the better the viewer can relate to the environment.
Physical elements are so important that they can turn space into a place to show a new structure. The difference between space and place produces a character that the viewer can better understand by understanding the difference. Acquiring such cognition creates more permanence in the individual chr('39')s mind and creates a sense of place.
Components such as body, activity, and mental image represent the place model. The body is a representative of human tradition and thought that can organize the space. With the correct understanding of the body, space can be better understood. Grutter states that the body should be chosen to represent the content and idea of the design, and to express spiritual bodies, a suitable visual body should be chosen that is understandable, and these interpretations point to the importance of the language of the space body.
Codes received from the body are effective in orienting people in the environment. Without guidance in the environment, a person can be guided to the destination and reach the goal with his first presence based on perception of the body. It can be said that the person is constantly decoding in order to better understand the environment. Human interaction with the physical environment will tell him what behavior he has shown in the environment and how to take advantage of the non-verbal communication of the environment.
According to canter chr('39')s model, in order to better understand the physical elements, we turn it into three physical components: horizontal, vertical and opening, and analyze them. The analysis makes it possible to see the hierarchy in such a way that it understands the codes and signs manifested in it and based on the signs obtained from the hierarchy, its activity is as stillness, movement or Do silence with movement in the mosque.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the changes in the sense of place in mosques and the answer to the question how time has affected this sense in mosques? To study this question in more detail, the mosques of three historical periods of Qajar (Safar Ali and Seyed Hamzeh mosques), Pahlavi (Nabi Akram and Tabatabai Hakim mosques), Jomhuri Eslami (Vali - Asr mosque and Tabriz University mosque) were studied. In the research method section, the question is examined qualitatively and using library resources such as books, articles, technical documents of mosques and field work and by presenting a research model based on the physical form of mosques and evaluating it based on hierarchy and analysis of physical elements. Affecting the sense of place studied.
The findings indicate that some of the physical elements in the mosques have changed over time and this has diminished the physical richness of the hierarchies. In addition, the elimination of hierarchies in some mosques does not make sense of place and the user cannot perform the required activities in space That user inactivity will not provide the mental image needed to create a sense of place. The results show that change or elimination of hierarchy in Tabriz mosques with other parts of Iran was not unexpected because the difference in climate in Tabriz caused this difference On the other hand, hierarchies and sense of place in the mosques complement each other so that changing the sequence of hierarchies in each period causes the user activity to change from static to move less mental image of space and the link between the hierarchy. And it will diminish the sense of belonging.

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