Journal of Studies on Iranian Islamic City
Year:2017 | Volume:8 | Issue:29 |Papers Count:9

It seems that the role of Islamic urban planning research, same as other scientific domains, is critical and strategic for its realization. Nonetheless, misunderstandings of urban planning’s viewpoints from the religious knowledge’s statements are one of the challenges that not only can toughen up the failure of Islamic urban planning in practice, but also can lead other researchers toward a wrong direction. Given the mentioned threat, which is the research problem, the research question is how it is possible to research about Islamic urban planning and at the same time have the minimum errors and misunderstandings? With the aim to help for a more structured research about Islamic urban planning, and with descriptive-analytic methodology, this paper develops a systematic structure for doing research about Islamic cities. It also evaluates the understandings of seven selected articles about Islamic urban planning with the five criteria which are elicited from the mentioned system. Besides, information and data for this research are gathered through the content analysis, the case studies are selected by four criteria, and the results analyzed with comparative method. The results demonstrate that the macro understandings of Islamic urban planning are not different form mentioned criteria and in most of the cases are coordinated and consistent with each other. Meanwhile, it revealed that some misunderstandings such as the “unnecessary use of religious resources” or “no correlation between used statements and understood viewpoints” have led to different conclusions. Such these misunderstandings, have sometimes increased the difference between conclusions continually. The results also show the use of the Holy Quran as the main source in understanding the urban planning principles and less attention are made to other sources.

Change of a vehicular road in to a fully pedestrian may create traffic problem and conflicts in neighboring streets. One should understand that the whole circulation pattern should work together. Most of Iran’s internal projects are blind imitation of what has happened in west without proper realization of their urban planning and design process and their location and site analysis. It’s much better to realize the process and methodology of converting a street in to pedestrian than blindly make a decision for any such conversion. In this paper, various case studies such as: “Jorg” Street in Sidney, “Bervard” Street in Sharlot, “Saf” and “Derakhti” street in Tehran have been study to realize the proper methodology suitable for various terms and conditions. This will hopefully helps the urban planner and designers to work in accordance with the terms and conditions of various climate condition of Iran in order to improve pedestrian street projects. This is actually the objective aim of this research. Finally it is concluded that: the urban planning and design process of Pedestrian Street includes 2 major steps. The first is: formation of initial recognition and vision or goal; scope of studies and design; deep analyses; final vision or goal. The second major step is: formation of objectives; policies and action goals; development impact assessment and policies conforming; specification of implementation management, participation and urban design framework for various urban pedestrian streets.

Holding different custom and rituals in every society strengthens the social ties of that society.Meanwhile, in Shi’a culture, Muharram mourning ceremonies have been valued semantically and create the basis for a set of rituals which gradually found diverse social functions and became part of popular culture. During Qajar period, unlike the previous periods, due to the role of religion and religious ceremonies in the social life of this period, special places were crated for holding these ceremonies, most important of which were Ashura rituals. In Nain, the space system of Husseinieh square (consisting of bodied squares and the physical form of Husseinieh) was influenced by these traditions during the Qajar period. The present study, as a case study seeks to explain how ceremonies and rituals interact especially Muharram and Safar mourning ceremonies as an identity and cultural factor of the city of Nain. Results of the questionnaires along with theoretical analysis, showed that in the interaction between the Ashura rituals and the city of Nain in terms of physical characteristics, they created certain elements and spaces in the Qajar period in Nain (Heptad Husseinieh squares) which are considered as the most important spatial and ritual elements which formed urban space and central neighborhoods and also considered as an important factor in the structure of the spatial system and its physical integrity. Also, mourning ceremonies have influenced the spaces associated with it due to their accordance with the beliefs of city’s resident and was effective in the identifying the spaces and their sense of belonging. Performing these rituals is carried out in all aspects with the role and participation of people, and as a result of the experience of this group work in working together, provides the basis for creating social consistency and local integrity in the course of holding such ceremonies.

Buildings and religious sites, especially mosques in Islamic cities like Khartoum and Shiraz, have similarities and differences. The historical past of these two cities shows that in the context of spatial and temporal (from the nineteenth century to the present), due to the domination of the colonialism of the mosque, the great mosque has broken its traditional features. In the continent of Africa, especially in Sudan, with the domination of colonialism and French, Russian and English imperialism, there has been profound and profound changes in the culture of urbanism and the indigenous nature of the building and Arab-Islamic places. But Iranian-Islamic mosques, especially the Atiqh Mosque, have not experienced such a past. In addition to the differences that indicate the dimension of urban identity, the similarities between the two mosques are evident with an emphasis on the dimension of worship. The purpose of this article is to investigate and identify the indices of the differentiation and similarity of the high Khartoum and Atiqh mosques in Shiraz. The method of research in this article is based on the rational reasoning (concept to the case). For this purpose, at first, the theoretical bases of the mosque in two dimensions of worship and urban isolation have been investigated, then the characteristics of each mosque in two cities of Khartoum and Shiraz have been investigated and, finally, their differences and their similarities have been identified. The results show that there is a high similarity in terms of dimensions of worship, such as unity, interconnection, and justice in the valuation of spaces.The results, as well as the theoretical foundations, indicate that the indexes can serve as a basis for the sharing of Islamic mosques in both Iranian and Arabic dimensions, as well as in terms of urban identity, two mosques have a significant differentiation.

Relations of Waqf as a venerated tradition with the city, in spite of various functions in “the Islamic period cities”, have not been studied appropriately as a serious topic among domestic scholars. The aim of this research is to present an explanation into why and how shaping and performance of Waqf was built in the early and the Middle centuries history of Iran until the Safavid period. In this study we are trying to find an appropriately theoretical model for linking entity of wagf and city and also we are searching for forces and motions of waqf, prevailing sketches of Awqaf and various functions and aspects of wagf. In this study, we have used a four layer inductive theoretical model based on mixed research approach and Exploratory method. Historical research strategy and content analysis technique were main guidance of research. The results indicated that the Waqf has been shaped in a historical context and has been influenced by various religious, cultural, political, social, economical and physical factors. In the Exploratory model, we first introduced Waqf as a dual nature with dependent and independent character and then the model is relied on the three-layer of ‘macro’, ‘meso’, ‘micro’ level which was also based on theoretical famework of research. Moreover, The Exploratory model has been enhanced by The ‘Einstein General Theory of Relativity’ Assumptions and ‘Pierre Bourdieu’ thougths. Meanwhile, the Dependent nature of Waqf was effected by three main domains including ‘cultural-religious elements’ of the Islamic period cities, ‘motivator factors’ and ‘indigenous changes’. Also, independent nature of Waqf was based on a ‘field’ which is constituted of various factors and agents in a ‘gravitational Orbit’ of Waqf. In mentioned centuries, the most emphesis of Awqaf were on buliding the mosques and villages were prevailing waqf endowments. Multiple Dimensions of Waqf have been focused on religious-schools, economical and physical, respectively. The ‘religious-schools functions’ were also most notable functions of Waqf in the old Iranian city. With internal perspective, ‘integrating function’ of Waqf had the greatest influence for synerging on shaping factors of the Waqf. Moreover, the function of Waqf for the state was ‘political’ and function for the city and its hinterland was ‘sustainability’. Thus, new dimension of this powerful religious institution is identified and its place in the history of the old Iranian-islamic city is being precise and the research gap is filled.