Journal of Studies on Iranian Islamic City
Year:2017 | Volume:7 | Issue:26|Papers Count:8

In the literature of basic urban studies research, elaborating on the essence, type and quality of Waqf has not been proposed under a scientific and coherent view. In doing so, its structures, features and functions were also analyzed. Studying the emergence and evolutionary processes of Waqf in the ancient Iranian city, reveals perspectives on the similarities and differences of Waqf in the Islamic period and afterwards. The method of research, is qualitative and based on the historical strategy. To explain the relationship of Waqf and city, the study has used a four layer inductive model supported by determinative and inferential evidence. This study indicated latent existence of the three early prototypes of Waqf in this period. Meanwhile, In the ancient Iranian city; the ‘Metaphysics’, the ‘Place’ and the ‘Time’ were supplementary elements for these formations. The prototypes encompass a time range from prehistoric times of Iran until the end of Sasanian period. The prototypes were independent entities with multiple aspects, and as a dependent religious element had been a unique ritual along with other elements that had been raised from religious Worldview of the old city. Its features composed of four layers including religious, social, economical and physical. Interest and belief in the afterlife, sketches for worshiping Gods, and morality, were crucial and effective elements of religious features of these prototypes. The evolution of these prototypes and its main elements proceeded from simple patterns to complex ones. The functions of these structures were also on sacred, political, religious and civic scopes. Consequently, the research gap in this area has been filled and also a better perspective on the functionality of Waqf in the ancient Iranian cities was released. Finally, the Early prototypes of Waqf and its fundamental components were separately identified and explained and being exemplified as well.

Monotheistic world view is based on the principles and values, through the body and meaning in Islamic city features, portrays guidelines for all aspects of human life. The role of the religion in a muslim city is more prominent than the military and economic aspects and armed with the principle of Tawhid, an Islamic city is trying to unite the various elements of body of art, to reconcile with the nature of Islamic Philosophy. Neighborhoods in Islamic cities as the spatial crystallization of socio-economic conditions, hold specific consistency and homogeneity and general elements of the local public, gathered in its gravity center. In this study, through inspecting the physical and conceptual characteristics, we analysed the expression of the principle of unity in diversity of Abbasali Square surrounding elements as the center of the Square neighborhood, one of the old neighborhoods in Gorgan.The research method is qualitative, comparative and analytical standards, as well as the combined expression of the principle of unity and multiplicity unity in diversity based on the criteria of the Islamic city center neighborhood, which at the end, these criteria through comparative and analytical method, matching with the Center Square neighborhood, one of the old neighborhoods of the city of Gorgan. The results show that the spatial design and organization of this center of neighborhood, seeks to realize the divine wisdom based on the importance of unity and diversity through the establishment of spatial and physical balance.

Culture, as a dynamic concept, has always been influenced by several elements and its constituents transforming by various indicators. In present societies, cultural changes are clearly visible and factors affecting these changes have become a controversial topic. Given the importance and role of knowledge of urban planning in improving the quality of life and promoting urban culture, the need to study how the physical environment affects culture, is clearly tangible. This paper aims to study the effect of urban physical aspects on culture. A “mixed” methodology is applied, thus content analysis is used in theoretical parts and then, direct and indirect observation –field study, surveying and testing- is used in the case study. In testing method, the effect of urban physical aspects, as independent variable, and elements of culture, as dependent variables, were measured. The concept of “culture” is divided into material and immaterial dimensions and includes four components of “language”, “beliefs”, “values” and “norms”. The concept of “urban physical aspects” is also divided into two “natural” and “artificial” dimensions, however, Manouchehr Mozayyani’s categorization is considered as the study’s framework in which urban physical aspects are divided into three scales of “city face”, “city image” and “city statue”. The assumptions were tested based on the analytical model of the research, and the findings presented. To prove that the hypotheses and findings are reliable, charts were measured using SPSS for being significant; results show that, most elements of culture are affected by physical aspects of the environment. Other results suggest that physical aspects have high, and very high effect on most people in the historical context, medium to high effect on residents in old context, and medium to low effect on people in modern context, and moving from historical context to the modern context, people’s values and norms are less affected by the city image. Moving from historical context to the new and modern one, the context of location has less effect on beliefs, and also strong elements such as religion and beliefs are more affected by education and family circumstances than the urban physical aspects. Urban physical aspects are more influential on external elements of culture such as lifestyle change, ethics and how to practice norms, etc.- and just over time, they affect the language of culture.

“Place” is defined in urban research as “any space which people have made it meaningful”. There are different ways in which citizens ‘make places’, for example, by naming them, or modifying some elements in the urban environment to supply their needs. Sense of place, is a distinctive collection of urban qualities and characteristics – mental, visual, cultural, social, and environmental – that provide meaning to a location. Sense of place is what makes one place different from another, but sense of place is also something makes our physical surroundings worth caring about. Sense of Place has been known as an important variable in creating and developing urban public spaces. It is a phrase used to describe a building or space of special significance or meaning. It is obvious that as a quality, sense of place contains various aspects of interaction between human and place and the impact that urban spaces have on citizens. In Urban areas, sense of place is an important aspect of public life. Having a sense of place improves participation and encourages involvement within the community and helps citizens create better cities. In fact, it persuades them to be involved, to enjoy, and interact more with their surroundings. Some urban spaces, however, have been given stronger meanings, names or definitions by society than others. Places said to have a strong “sense of place”, have a known identity and character that is deeply felt by local citizens. Nowadays, lack of attention to sense of place in the new development of cities, has led to reducing the various urban qualities such as identity, vitality and sense of belonging. As our cities and their communities grow, the less and less social interaction and social capital we may actually have. For many people, the feeling of belong to a society, is becoming a thing of the past. Places that lack a sense of place are sometimes referred to as place-less or inauthentic. Some of today’s most emergent environmental problems, such as low social interaction, the lack of a sense of belonging, public spaces destruction and social problems are rooted in ignoring sense of places. The need to resolve these problems has led to new approaches that consider the sense of place. This paper defines the concepts of sense of place and describes the factors that affect it in urban residential districts in both historical and new districts of city of Yazd. The research method here, was survey type and it is a kind of applied study in which techniques such as, library documents and references as well as Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, multiple regression and Pearson’s Correlation Test, were used. Findings of the research indicate that components such as the identity in historical districts and spatial qualities in new districts, directly increase the sense of place in neighborhood centers.

Ancient textures were endowed with unique and valuable treasures that can newly be approached as to restoration and identifying their important factors, including context -orientedness, in order to challenge the realm of the rich Persian architecture, and finally to reset the architectural elements of the past and integrate them with contemporary architecture. The research method of this study is descriptive-analytic, based on the field and library studies.The purpose of this text, is to attaining context-oriented Architecture, as in earlier periods and to the principles and elements of their architectural design, and providing living spaces matching with the modern life, that would make continuity and connection between the past and present, possible. For this purpose, in order to provide architectural components of Kurdistan, valuable examples of a certain period were studied which followed by examining Vakil mansion, a work in Qajar period, in which the principles of Iranian architecture, ecology and introspection is quite obvious. The main problem of this study is that, how can we recreate and identify the characteristics of this region, according to the characteristics of Kurdish areas architecture and cultural influences that affected building of houses in these areas? According to the vernacular architecture of Sanandaj houses, it is possible to reproduce and restore the principles and standards of these houses through the components of context- orientation, also in the contemporary times architecture in the old areas based on the values of some parts of Sanandaj, is possible. The findings of this study indicating of contextual factors in classes, plans, wind direction, direction and form a plan, skylights, etc. in the body of Sanandaj houses.

Promotion of social interactions in the neighborhood is one of the most important images of achieving sustainability in cities. The present study describes the socialization in both traditional (Jolfa) and modern (Sepahanshahr) neighborhood, using residents opinions to extract and suggest some approaches to recover and read-out sociability in neighborhoods. In modern and traditional neighborhoods, the research approach was qualitative and discursive, and it’s strategy was discursive and correlative, and was of comparative study type, in which, by extracting effective indexes on social interaction of neighborhood from documentary and content analysis, social correlation and sustainability of each neighborhood with the quantitative methods, have been investigated. It can be focused on the affecting factors in these indicators (on human index in the modern neighborhood and focus on other indices in the traditional neighborhood), to promote sociability of every neighborhood. On this account, it can be claimed that, life in neighborhood at present and future depends on human presence and his/ her interaction with the environment. In this regard, neighborhood is responsible to provide human needs for his/her presence in neighborhood space to spend leisure time, purchase, etc. So, depending on the complexity of contemporary urban issues and that the neighborhood is the original cell of social life of people, attention to the social aspects of neighborhoods is inevitable. The effective components in the neighborhood sociability, extracted out of the views and opinions, were investigated in the article. In this study, attitudes and perceptions of residents about the affecting factors in sociability are important in order to organize present status and prepare suitable solutions and strategies for promoting sociability. Traditional and modern neighborhoods in today’s Iran culture can not provide favorable conditions for sociability. New essential strategies should be considered in traditional and modern neighborhoods. However, modern neighborhoods within the context of modernity, are demanding more modernity.