JOURNAL OF RESEARCHES IN ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE
Year:2019 | Volume:7 | Issue:1 (22) |Papers Count:8

The issue of non-observance of privacy in contemporary Iranian clothes and buildings is one of the most important cultural issues in the country due to its lack of proportion to the Islamic culture of Iran, it has brought various cultural and social consequences in contemporary Iranian society; in particular, there are some verses in the holly Qur› an referring to the issue of veiling for women, Like these verses: “ O Prophet, tell your wives, your daughters and the believing women to draw their veils close to them, so it is likelier they will be known, and not hurt. Allah is the Forgiver, the Most Merciful” (Ahzab/59). “ And say to the believing women, that they lower their gaze cast down their eyes and guard their chastity, and do not reveal their adornment except that which is outward (face and hands); and let them draw their veils over their neck, and not reveal their adornment except to their husbands, or their fathers, or their husbands› fathers, or their sons, or their husbands› sons, or their brothers, or their brothers› sons, or their sisters› sons, or their women, or what their right hands own, or such male attendants having no sexual desire, or children who have not yet attained knowledge of women› s private parts; nor let them stamp their feet, so that their hidden ornament is known. And, O believers turn to Allah all together, in order that you prosper” (Noor/31). This research using the historical interpretation method and with reference to documentary sources deals with this question that historically, in the recent centuries of Iran, is there a meaningful relationship between veil abandonment in clothing (especially women› s clothing) and privacy abandonment in building (especially residential buildings)? According to the findings of this research and in response to the above question, it is concluded that in the contemporary history of Iran, veil abandonment and privacy abandonment actions in clothes and buildings are rooted in a common vision which the intellectual school of liberalism, as one of the most important aspects of modernization and modernity, emphasizing the absolute freedom of the individual is the indicator of this insight. In the Pahlavi era, the manifestation of this liberalism in clothing has been interpreted as the discovery of the veil and the absolute freedom of women in dress and veil, as its expression in architecture has been interpreted as extravagance and privacy abandonment of buildings (spatial liberation). In addition to the common insight, the most important aspects of veil abandonment and privacy abandonment in Iranian clothing and buildings is eternality and extension of the government to the people during the Pahlavi era which the evidence of this claim is presented in this study.

Paying attention to the importance of square can be seen in architecture and organization of physical space of Iranian cities in the past, before Islam and also after that in Islamic urbanization. Saheb-Abad square of Tabriz, Shah square og Qazvin and Naghsh_e_Jahan square of Isfahan are samples of past squares which present power of governments and subtlety of governmental kings that build them. Based on recent researches theories, Naghsh_e_Jahan square of Isfahan was built (at the age of first Abbas of Safavi kings, i. e. (998-1038 AH. ), according to Saheb-Abad square of Tabriz which is built before Safavieh era and during Aq-Qounlou era (870-896 AH) and it was influenced by architecture of Saheb-Abad square of Tabriz and because remaining physical structure of Saheb-Abad complex of Tabriz is mainly related to buildings that were made during age of Qajar kings on the buildings of governmental complex of previous eras, acceptance of this assumption resulted in proposing renewing projects of Saheb-Abad with full imitation of now a days physical structure of Naghsh-e-Jahan which is exists now and without paying attention to original structure of Saheb-Abad and when it came to existence and when it was on its tiptop, in the past. Then in this research, based on both Saheb-Abad and Naghsh-e-Jahan research which are studied based on content analyzes historical-comparative guideline appearance, and step by step transformation, in the past. Finally, according to comparative study of mapped schema, recognize of similarities and differences of these two complex were found, both physically and functionally, in four time periods. The results indicate that there are the most common similarities in the history before the construction of the two square and the most differentials in their current state. In the course of historical evolution, two square are very similar in terms of functional and the types of uses than the physical dimensions. Also, the greatest point of physical distinction is the uncertainties of the Sahib Abad field, which has led to many changes and further decline of this collection up to the present. the complete acceptance of this assumption which Naghsh-e-Jahan of Isfahan is a similarity of Saheb Abad complexes of Tabriz, both functionally and physically, cannot be correct and it can be said that the overall structure of the Saheb Abad complex in the peak of its glory (the period of Shah Tahmasb Safavid) could have been the pattern of an urban space with various governmental-political, socio-cultural, religious, and sporting activities for the construction of the Naghsh-e-Jahan of Isfahan.

Many of the Safavid additions to Qazvin have been destroyed, especially those belong to Shah Tahmasb era. The extent of these damages and subsequent changes to such an extent that there is now no understanding of the layout or position of Meidā n-i asb as a royal square. This will undermine the understanding of Qazvin› s cultural significance, and more importantly, it changes our understanding of the Safavid city and also reduces the course of the urban transformation in Iran. In addition, it should be noted that the squares in the Safavid capitals were considered important elements of government in representing the king and court policies and played a role even beyond an important urban space. Therefore, the removal of these elements from the city may lead to a lack of understanding of relations beyond the physical and urban environment. In order to recognize and represent the Safavid Qazvin and its components and its main elements, numerous studies have been carried out and there are different views on them. Some of them believe that the avenue in front of ā lī qapū as a royal portal, which is one of the remaining elements of the Tahmasb era of Qazvin, is one of the squares of the city called Meidā n-i asb. Contrary to this theory, some scholars also believe that the mentioned square is located somewhere in the east of the avenue. In addition to the position and the existence of the squares, the social and political role of these spaces is not well recognized. Therefore, there is a need for a closer look at both the cultural dimension and the spatial organization of the city. In this article, with the study of previous researches as well as the study of primary sources, it has been attempted to provide a more precise interpretation for Dā r al-Saltanah or the royal quarter of Qazvin, which focuses on Meidā n-i asb to answer some questions: How the square was related to the activities inside it, whether it was related to Qazvin› s other square, the Sa› adat square? where it was located and how it was in general, and how it was combined with the elements around it, both new and old? The research method applied in this article is an interpretive-historical method and attempts have been made to depict an image of Dā r al-Saltanah, especially Meidā n-i asb, based on the interpretation of historical descriptions such as poetry of the poet of the court and the texts of the Safavid historians. This image is completed with the help of other sources, and compared to the existing urban context, and the remaining signs, including Ā lī qapū portal, the historic avenue and the Heydariyeh mosque, will be more scaled and more accurate. In this regard, the sources of research, including ʿ Abdī beig-i Shirazi’ s descriptions and Safavid historical texts and drawings by Engelbert Kaempfer, were collected, studied and analyzed. Along with the research and field studies, the signs in the area between Dā r al-Saltanah and the Heydariyeh mosque were also surveyed. The information obtained from the total resources studied along with the study of the social structure of Safavid Qazvin, the behavior of the Shah, the movements and interactions of the court in this paper reveal the layout and the position of Meidā n-i asb as well as its position in the city, and, moreover, clarify how the square is connected to the avenue and nearby important buildings. Accordingly, Meidā n-i asb is not a completely public square, which is a frontage for Dā r al-Saltanah, which is located in the east of the Ā lī qapū portal, south of the Jahan-Nama palace and north of the Heydariyeh mosque, and connects to the northernmost section of the avenue in the south of Ā lī qapū portal. Although this article presents an image of Meidā n-i asb, but a better understanding of the dimensions and layout of this safavid square requires more extensive field studies and excavations that the findings of this paper are their preliminaries.

Educational spaces in Iran took the formal identity of «schools» after «Nezamieh» education centers were introduced by Nezam-olmolk during the Seljukid period. Some structural elements such as cells, porches and courtyards, etc. were included in school buildings and a new kind of structural pattern emerged within them. However, enhancements of architectural techniques in the following historical periods as well as cultural, social and political facts and conditions did lead to some types of changes within the physical structure of school building elements in Iran. The present paper assumes that physical structure of Iranian school buildings has experienced a line of evolution and enhancement from Seljukid era into Ghajar period. The present paper is aimed to explore the characteristics of architectural structure within Iranian Schools at each historical period as well as the trend of changes in those structures. The present paper uses a descriptive, analytical and case study methodology to collect and analyze the data. The data were first collected using library sources and through field studies in some cases. The data were initially presented using a descriptive method and then they were evaluated through an analytical and adaptive method. Study results show that school buildings in each historical period have evolved with certain physical structures while various changes have been applied in order to guarantee that residence place, education space and religious elements of the building are provided more desirably. As some reference, the cells were initially consisted of a single space and were in immediate contact with courtyards. Then they evolved into a multi-partition space which included small size porches and larders. Also porches were initially used as educational spaces and in some cases functioned as religious spaces. However, as the time passed, the porches transformed into wider and lighter spaces as they were needed to facilitate the education through larger rooms for more students. Meanwhile, the porches which were essentially places for worship, were replaced by vaults and naves as worship places within the school buildings. So the significance of worship spaces goes to such a height in Ghajar period that school buildings transformed into a mosque-school identity. As the schools were expanded, the process of admission and entrance to the schools was changed in some ways. In general, the results of the study proved the hypotheses stating that physical structures of school buildings have evolved from Seljukid period into Ghajar period in sense of characteristics of main building elements and the space configuration and patterns.

Tabriz Blue Mosque is a valuable historical monument from the 9th century AH, which has been built during the Kara-Koyunlu of Turkomans rule on northwestern Iran and about 35 years before the beginning of the Safavid Iranian government. This building has some features that make it to be distinguished from other monuments of the Azerbaijan region and even Iran. These features have attracted the attention of many researchers in the field of ‘ historic studies’ and ‘ art studies’ and as well as have led to the publication of various sources about it; the approach of which are mainly to introduce the historical and artistic aspects of the mosque. But, little research has established about its architectural design and discovering its environmental relations. Therefore, there is a gap of knowledge in the understanding of architectural norms of this building that need to be addressed by some systematic and targeted researches. Understanding this fact, the present paper examines some of the ambiguities about this building; such as the way of its interaction with the natural environment. Accordingly, this paper aims at investigating the quality of interaction between the nature and architecture in the process of planning and architectural design of the Tabriz Blue Mosque. The mentioned aim is based on this hypothesis: the interaction of “ natural environment” and “ artificial environment” in the architecture of Tabriz Blue Mosque is based on a systematic approach that in its regulative foundations, the component of politics is dominated other components, especially the component of nature. The necessity underlying this research is to point out this fact that the architect of Tabriz Blue Mosque along with the exciting beauty that created in this building, did he/she also pay attention to natural and climatic aspects? Drawing on what has been said, this research has been done by descriptive-analytical method and data collection was via field study, direct observation, corpus analysis in order to answer the following questions: 1. What are the requirements and necessities of naturalistic architecture in Tabriz› s environmental and climatic conditions? 2. To what extent did architect of the Tabriz Blue Mosque, in the architecture of this building, adhere the principles of convergence and harmony with the nature and climate of the region? 3. What is the reason for the existence of some incompatibility between the architectural design of the mosque and the system of nature and environment? The result of this paper shows that the architectural design of Tabriz Blue Mosque was based on the ambitious desires and motives of a social climber king. The desires required some specific necessities, some of whom was contradicted the natural and climatic requirements of region. These contradictions create some incompatibilities between the architectural design of the building and natural environment. Accordingly, in the architecture system of Tabriz Blue Mosque, political considerations and government accreditation were prior to other components of design, especially the component of nature.

The idea of child friendly city, to reach child welfare, makes urban spaces proper for childrens` activities. Today mant countries apply child friendly city principles, but most designed urban spaces for children in Iran are other countries` preceding examples and experiences, with no regarding to cultural context. However, urban planning does not reach its goals unless all citizens` needs are included. Children need an environment to address and be challenged in it. A place has to encourage children to discover and develop their infornations. Islam not only pays attention to present needs of children, but also considers them in a path named “ Perfection (Kamal)” and presents a plan to cross it. A designed place with attention to Islamic values has to be the equilibrium point of human different needs. In other words, material tools pay the way for reachimg spiritual aims. Islam divides children age range into three 7-years phases. Children need to be free and trained by playing in first 7 years. They need to learn hoe to recite Quran, also scientific lessons in second 7 years. The most effective factor on children behaviors is the environment here which highlights the role of urban spaces in child pedagogy. Third 7 years are the time for asking help from children and teach them Halal and Haram issues. Due to the importance of the relation between child and the environment in second 7 years, this research focuses on 6 to 12 years old children. It is obvious that there is no Islamic Iranian example of urban designing project that considers children as city members and their present and future needs along with growing up in the environment. Hence, this research is decided to find the answer of this question: How can neighborhoods open spaces affect training Islamic religious contents to children, as well as meeting their present needs? Studing religious, gnostic and philosophic resources, as theorithical basis, and by usig deductive strategy to set a theorethical model, also inductive strategy to test the model in field study, an Islamic Iranian model named “ Child Preceptor City” is presented. According to this model, a proper city from Islamic perspective adopts content approach (the nature of childrens` needs) as well as procedure approach (the process of children growth) and these two approaches together turn a city to an active preceptor. Findings show that there are five criteria forming child preceptor city structure: training contents (Responsibility, God-contentment, Endeavour, Moderation, Loving God, Believe in resurrection, Purposefulness, Surveillance, God-obedience); training methods (Theater, Story telling, Contemplation, Field Trip, Encouragement and Punishment, Observation, Having a role model, Kindness, Consulting, Preaching); environmental features that are divided in four categories: Geographical/Physical (Physical realm, Physical desirability, The least physical risks, Natural elements, Affordable setting, Light and shadow), Functional (Priority of function to the form, Interacting with other children, Family motivation to play outside the house), Perceptual (Social support, Presence of an acquainted adult, Considering path and landmark, prior to other cognitive elements, Mental realm, Challenging and complex environment, Discoverable environment), Behavioral (Various behavior settings, Regular freely playing, No restrictive environmental rules); cultural environment; and characteristics of a special age group. The relations between them are defined as: training contents are transferred to children with specific characteristics due to their age range, by training methods; with the help of environmental features, in a cultural bed. Contributed environmental indexes in transferring religious contents to childrens, were ascertained by Delphi method. To answer the research main question, six middle class neighborhoods in Tabriz city were selected in which the relation between environmental indexes and religious contents were studied by indirect observation and semi organized interviews with 72 childrens 6 to 12 years old. As findings show, environment can play role in informal pedagogy and transferring religious contents to children, besides formal pedagogy at school or home. It can be either obstructive or empowering in a way that environmental empowering indexes ought to be identified while obstructive ones need to be omitted. “ Feasibility of having a personal realm” and “ social support” as empowering indexes, have the most frequencies in target neighborhoods; whereas “ various behavior settings” , “ affordable settings” , “ social and physical risks” and “ complex and challenging environment” as obstructing indexes, have the least frequencies. “ Family motivation to play outside the house” , “ the least physical risks” and “ designed park” are environmental superior indexes in Parvaz district. “ Presence of natural elements in parks” and “ the least social risks” distinguish Zaferanieh district from others. “ Physical desirability” and “ Presence of natural elements in the neighborhood” are strength points of Yaqchian. “ Off-neighborhood land uses” in Golshahr, “ Physical risks” in Vilashahr, “ Family dependency on car” in Yaqchian, “ Family having control on children” in Zaferanieh, “ Social risks” in Parvaz and “ Family disagreement with playing outside the house” in Sahand district, are obstructive indexes which limit child-environment interaction and consequently, complicate receiving religious instructions.

Classifications in the residential heritage area of Isfahan have often been carried out with the view of typology and the creation of unity through replication and attention to similarities in the mere architectural face without regard to its meaning and content. Many historic houses are not recognizable in any of the species introduced. What is often found in these typologies is the analysis of the form of the physical organisation that is assumed fixed in any period of history, but in the physical structures of houses that are classified according to typologies in the same category, there are also many variations. Meanwhile, today, many historical houses in the city of Isfahan, regardless of the identification of the aspects of original diversity in the body, their function and content are forgotten and destroyed. Also, the historical cities of the country are often faced with a lack of information and knowledge about the diversity of residential heritage. The lack of precise explanation of the differences and variations in the residential heritage has made it impossible for the management and planning system to preserve the cultural heritage and historical comtext to provide the necessary opportunities for the revitalization and readability of these funds in order to promote the cultural and social identity of historical contexts. This research attempts to answer the question of how to create diverse elements and distinctions in the physical organization of the architecture of historical buildings of Isfahan and explain the diversity of the indicator in order to understand the differences and differences in the physical organization of Isfahan› s housing heritage. The main goal in answering the key question is to analyze the variability of the factors to distinguish the differences in the historic houses of this city in the physical organization and a comprehensive classification for historic homes with diverse indicator. This study has been conducted using descriptive-analytical method with the aim of developmental and using field observation, library studies and also data collection through interview and the findings have been analyzed according to qualitative method and through comparison and interpretation. The result of the research shows that it is possible to explain the diversity and significant differences in the historical houses of Isfahan and give examples of the means of differentiation and diversification in the physical organisation of these houses. Also, the factors of climate, religion, occupation and social status of the owner and ethnic subcultures have an impact on the creation of diversifying elements of the Isfahan residential heritage.