Journal of Researches in Islamic Architecture

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Title “sustainable society”, was first time propounded in the format of the conceptual framework of sustainable development as the final objective of social aspect of sustainable development. By now, many researches have studied this point that what specifications and characteristics a sustainable society should have and how urban planning can help creation of a sustainable society. However what have been ignored is local relation of these specifications in the shadow of the dominant ideology and the cultural bed of our society. It is clear that using each global pattern in local coordinates requires some changes proportioned to the cultural field of that place. According to this, using global pattern of “sustainable society” in the bed of Islamic culture requires redefining specifications of a sustainable society from the view of Islamic ideology. Therefore, the main problem of current writing is the way and how the indicators of sustainable society in Islamic ideology affect the urban planning tradition of Muslims. According to this, the main questions of this paper can be explained as: “what are the indicators of a sustainable society in the view of Islam”? and “what effects have had these indicators on urban planning tradition in the cities of Muslims”? The objective of this paper is to achieve a conceptual pattern from sustainable society in the bed of Islamic culture in a way that it can be used in promotion of urban plans and programs by the Islamic-Iranian approach. For this, while investigating the texts and documents in two fields of Islamic ideology and tradition of Muslims’ cities, the codes relating to social sustainability were extracted and categorized by help of “content analysis” method. Then the proportion of Islam’s social principles and its effects on urban planning tradition of Muslims was explained in a matrix. At the end, the conceptual framework of paper which responds to the primary questions and in which the process of design and planning of an urban planning place provided by emphasis on social principles in Islam’s ideology are compiled.

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After the industrial revolution, men intended-more than ever-to use energy, specifically the fossil fuels. Moreover the quick growth of population have added considerably the speed of the critical status of environmental affairs. The side effect of industrialization result many problems such as the depletion of natural resources, the increase of polluting levels in surroundings, extinction of many species of animals and plants and the environmental crisis. Due to the above mentioned problems human approach toward nature has been changed. The approval of Stockholm Declaration in Environmental Conference of United Nations Organization is a turning point in formal human attitude during history towards natural resources and the utilization systems of ground. The mentioned declaration and 1974 Declaration of KOKOIK have confirmed the complexity and seriousness of social- environmental crises. Furthermore, they have emphasized upon the necessity of devising and demonstrating healthy environmental strategies in order to upgrade socio-economic and fair environmental developments. Also these affairs led to the "earth Commission" in 1992. During the mentioned commission, the 21 Declaration and Rio Declaration about environmental and development were approved. On the other hand religion have many instruction about protecting nature. In Abrahamic religions' view, the question about what has intrinsic value, is presented based on innate belief in God. That is, the intrinsic value in the universe belongs to God and value of other creatures is definable based on it. Therefore, all parts of the universe obtain value based on this relation and human being is responsible to provide proper care for them. It can be stated the criterion for an action in this view is consisted, which God is considered as human responsibilities (Abedi, Shahvali and Mohaghegh Damad 2007, 65). Islam as a universal and holistic religion claims is able to answer variable needs in every epoch and have deterministic laws for all relations and ranks of human. However, it does not mean that it is defined clear laws for every specific and contemporary subject. It contains very general laws, which specific laws can be deducted for each subject. One of the subjects is “environment”. By looking in Islamic texts and the Quran it can be understood that environment and caring about it is considered as important subject in Islam. Many of Quran's verses imply about it. In addition, many of Quran's chapters have name that is the name of natural phenomena and even many times swear an oath is on a natural phenomenon. Human begin is invited to think and contemplate about them. Editing environment's law is long history in Islam. A set of Muslim scholars' fatwas about environment preservation, ancient monuments, city interconnections, the quality of operation, architectural structures, using passageway, drainage bases, public places, installing windows, place of industrial buildings, cleaning the urban passageway, and behaving with animals are evidences of this claim (Pak 2008, 141). This paper presents a comparative study of Islamic approach with the contemporary approach in dealing with the environment. In this research, with comparing these two approaches, common aspects in contemporary conservationists’ statements based on Islamic visions, are revealed. The main question in this research is: why and how religious sources in various fields including environmental issues could be the solution? Do these instructions cover contemporary concerns in the field of environmental crises? After dealing with contemporary environmental crises, the need to change attitudes to the nature was realized by human. This is while the Islamic instructions have a lot of teachings in the case of conserving environment from 1,400 years ago. Therefore, the aim of this research is to expose the necessity of deeply studying the Islamic texts again and applying them in the related realm of natural environment such as architecture. A combinatorial research method is employed in this paper, which is based on the logical reasoning and quality approach. After studying the Islamic texts that is related to the natural environment and contemporary approach in this realm, the adaptive studying method of “Jorj F. Berdy” is employed for comparison of these two approaches. This method has four levels: description, interpretation, adjacency, and comparison. The items which is described and interpretation are environment, nature, balance of nature, development, avoiding damage of nature and components of nature. In addition, the defined criteria in this comparison are determined by documents studying and experts surveying of the “Delphi” approach. The final criteria is classified in three category: paradigm level, field level and component. After documents studying, adaptive studying, and analysis of these two methods in this research, the necessity of extracting the Islamic instructions and approaches for natural environment conserving is revealed. Besides this research shows that practice of Islamic instructions which are communicated to humans regardless of the particular time and place would have prevented the current environmental crisis and also shorten many ways that mankind had chosen according to his experience and avoid a lot of damages to the environment.The closer examination of these doctrines can open new horizons for the completion of these theories.

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If one looks with the eye of discernment upon the extremely varied manifestations of Islamic art over vast expanses of space and time, the question arises as to the source of the unifying principles of this art. What is the origin of this art and the nature of this unifying principle whose dazzling effect can hardly be denied? The question of the origin of Islamic art and the nature of the forces and principles which brought this art into being must therefore be related to the world view of Islam itself, to the Islamic revelation, one of whose radiations is directly the sacred art of Islam and indirectly the whole of Islamic art.
there is an inner nexus between Islamic architecture and Islamic cosmology and angelology. The Islamic cosmos is based on the emphasis upon God as the Unique Origin of all beings, on the hierarchy of existence which relies upon the One and is ordered by His Command, on the levels of existence which relate matter to the subtle world, the subtle world to the angelic, the angelic to the archangelic, the archangelic to the Spirit or al-ruh and the Spirit to God's primordial creative act. This cosmos is based on order and harmony which is more than the result of the direct manifestation of the One in the many.
By examining the past works of architecture and urbanization, we can see the traces of the manifestation of the imaginary universe in the artwork. One of the examples for these works are Safavid dynasty monuments, such as Imam's mosque in Isfahan, which is an example of the application and expression of the other world in architecture.
Iranian-Islamic culture and knowledge are a rich treasure of the principles and Criterions in all social, economic, cultural and other fields of life. By Looking at Islamic history and civilization, we can always find the reflection of religious and cultural ideas in all aspects of life, including architecture and urbanization. However, one of the issues that is less contemplated in contemporary urbanism, which has led to an identity crisis in the present era, is to provide an opportunity to combine the art of designing urban spaces with Islamic spirituality and art. this kind of art can illustrate the example of the other world by revealing the signs of world of imagination on earth and always point out the beliefs of the people. Hence, the present study aims to derive the applied principles from among these theories. at first we have discussed and categorized theories related to the subject of perception, the imaginary world and the imagination. these theories have been brought up from the point of view of the Islamic Philosophers and Theorists. then it has been examined how these principles are applied in the Iranian-Islamic urban design. The present paper has a qualitative approach and the research is based on "interpretiveism" paradigm. The research method is "analytical-comparative" and it tries to transform fundamental ideas into applied theories. In this regard, in order to clarify the subject, the Qibla Square of Mashhad has also been selected as a case study and finally, a design framework has been developed. The research results show that the universe of imagination and its manifestations have always been considered in the views of great Philosophers; and its appearance in urban spaces can be expressed as different kind of elements, which most notably are light and geometry. For this purpose, one of the most important principles in the world of imagination is "duality", which is based on the four principles of "light and darkness", "inside and outside", "motion and motionless" and "symmetry and asymmetry". These principles are presented in a comparative manner with urban qualities in the form of "hierarchy, unity while plurality, emphasis, contrast, parity, balance, proportions, integrity, and inclusiveness, etc", as well as the solutions below each.

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In Islamic thought, imagination has a special importance and place in artistic creation. The nature of imagination has created such opportunity to realize this fact the each spiritual affair to be imagined should occur partially and tangibly in imagination. In fact, the imagination is the interface between meaning and material and its images, on one hand, are similar to the matter and on the other hand, are separated from the body and spirit. With regards to such nature and capability of this power, using the imagination in the creation of valuable art and architecture is highly effective. The artist, like all other human beings, enjoys all aspects of perception, but uses his imaginative perception in artistic creation more than others. The artist expresses his mental concept, within the words or images or changes them into the sound, or makes it with brick and stone. In all of these creations, what the sacred artist creates in his mind is free of sense and the physical world. Even, when he recreates the nature in his works, it is not the same as nature, but his imagination and creativity power are reflected in his work. What is formed in the artist’s mind is partial with an image and hence is in the imaginative perception area. For this reason, what is created by artist is fully dependent on his imaginative power.   
Like other arts, meaning in Islamic architecture is a fundamental and necessary concept which visualizes an imagination of the meaning world in a matter world by physical and non-physical factors. But, despite the critical role of meaning, current studies have not discussed such issue. In fact, the architect perceives the real world, but in his creation, he does not only imitate, but tries to manifest that fact. Hence, he starts recognition from the matter, but the more he progress, he makes his recognition deeper, separates from the mater and achieves the concepts and rationales. This process occurs in imagination world which is separated from the real world and the wisdom world perception is attained.
The present study aims at explaining the imagination position as the interface for manifestation of meanings in architecture design and its role in architecture design process. In this research, the background related to the imagination in Islamic thought in areas of imagination world and its steps, imaginative perception and sacred art and creation are investigated. By descriptive – analytic method focusing on the rational inference and reasoning, this study deals with the data and collected materials.
To start the design from meaning area, it is necessary to take areas of meaning into account. Meaning area in architecture is the same as the mental concepts of designers which is related to the culture, innate feelings and values of designer. Therefore, starting the design from the architectural qualities like life and presence in space paves the way to achieve the ideas with meaning substance. Trend of meaning manifestation in architectural works (architectural space and form) is made with the help of imagination. Accordingly, each concept or meaning should initially takes and imaginative aspect to become evident in the real and tangible world. Meaning comes from the designer’s entity and the imaginative images of meaning are manifested in architectural space and form. Enjoying the meaning movement is design process is: paying attention and achieving the concepts and meanings (meaning), transforming these meanings into the intellectual images and ideas creation (imagination), recreation of these images in tan bilge world while conforming with both the imagination world and limitations of tangible world (architecture work). Movement of the meaning of the tangible is understood by artist and movement of the tangible to meaning by the audience. For this reason, artist and audience, communicate through affecting each other.
 

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