The present paper aims for the most part to prove the fact that religious and spiritual places and above all, mosques play major roles within Islamic urban areas. They are in fact the basis of civil infrastructures. A historical analysis focusing on where mosques stand in Islamic urban areas reveals that mosques have always been the center of development and growth and that they must be studied as a cultural and historical component of Islamic Cities. The study also argues that considering mosques as works of architecture in isolation would be a far cry from reality. There are indisputable ties between mosques and historical –cultural developments in such Cities.

Entering modern urban thinking in context of past Cities have caused to emerging so many new spaces that passing time could not create a background for connecting it with urban citizens. At the same time, despite of some structural and physical conflicts with traditional texture, have gradually made relationship with individuals daily life and their enduring values. This research follows urban spatial analytical methods to investigate them accordance with the spirit of the times. It hopes to by analysis these patterns, we can get true perception about impacts of mention phenomenon on “context reviewing”. Indeed, Context reviewing means that contact perception along the time in built spaces can connect with their enduring values and daily life. Urban design is expected to propose a process which leads to changing a context. By the way, different supposition spaces will be produced and gradually they will make contact with own social structural and actions of actors. Mention research aim by using “Phenomenal meaning of authenticity” thesis that simultaneously have been resulted by “subjective spaces” and “objective spaces”. So it contributes to dealing with Islamic cites by considering analysis and interpretation structural as a tool for investigating urban spaces meaning. In conclusion, it can present a new attitude and pattern to explaining and interpreting in urban spaces in all periods regarding as factors and necessary facilities.

Examining historical urban fabric of Iranian desert Cities demonstrates that one of the best responses to the natural laws in the establishment of an appropriate built environment for human life, was considered in these settlements. The principles applied to the establishment of these Cities not only did not impose disturbance and damages to the environment but have also granted perfection to matters.This paper endeavors to recognize those attributes of architecture and spatial organization of Iranian desert Cities which are derived from both peoples beliefs and culture, and in harmony with environmental conditions. These are discussed under the following main titles:- After a. brief introduction, the Islamic points of view on human beings, nature, their relationships, and sustainable development are defined.- The next part of the paper discusses desert Cities and sustainable development through three sections: expressing the principles predominating over nature and human life, introducing historical examples, and the present attitude of Iranian desert Cities in response to the principles.- The final part of the paper is the conclusion in which the main lessons for future are introduced.

Sasanians are inevitably one of the most sensational periods of Iranian history, culture and civilization. The Dynasty's empire started by the time of Ardashir papkan's Coronation in 226 A.D. The empire was built based on thoughtfulness, civilization and culture of the previous Persian empires. The religious essence of this dynasty is absolutely revealed to everyone, so according to the importance of Culture and artificial aspect perusal of a society in its artworks, the importance of study of artwork and Chahar-taqi remains of the period is indispensible, furthermore, different empires have always considered the significant of this city because of its geographical location (center of Iran) but unfortunately because of insufficient number of artworks and buildings related to Islamic period, it has been undervalued by researchers if this period. So this expedition has been started by two goals; first to study the number and types of different Chahar-taqi in Isfahan and evaluating their sprawl among the city. Six Chahar-taqi which are named; Nakhlak, Qale daar, Shirkooh, Natanz, Khorramdasht, Niaasar Found in this province, have been scrutinized in this article. Some of this Chahar-taqis had been studid before and other ones are being introduced and analyzed for the first time. These Chahar-taqis are devided into two types; Simple and complex which Shirkooh, Qaledaar and Khoramdasht are placed in complex type because of having other architectural structures in their environment. And the other 3, Nakhlak, Natanz, Niaasar are completely single, and belong to Simple Chahar-taqis.e social system is able to organize itself to enhance its capacity from previous experiences to better future protection and to improve risk reduction measures.At this article, systematic approach of capacity evaluation model is used. It tries to determine proposed components and dimensions of Islamic resilient Cities by presentation of connection between resiliency, vulnerability and adaptation capacity and also studied frameworks and models around the world.

Introduction: The expansion of urban system in the Sassanid period and the significant increase in the number of teachers did not reduce the prohibition of mass participation in higher education and science education centers, and it was rarely possible for an individual to exceed the limits of the class system, and to a class other than the class of Self Improvement.

Many scholars see Islam as an urban religion, which favors communal practice on individual worship. Although, piety is the only source of appraisal, it is widely accepted that most of Islam's teaching is best practiced in an urban setting. This means that Islam has been a religion with a strong urban orientation. Regarding this, an assumption took shape that, whilst rural peoples or desert anchorites could indeed be faithful Muslims, the good Islamic life could best be lived in an urban community where (as an obvious manifestation of group solidarity) the faithful could gather in a congregational mosque for Friday worship. For this reason, it is not surprising that Islam made particular emphasis on the urban form and design of the city enabling it a greater functionality and responsiveness to meet the socio-economic and cultural needs of the community. From this point, this study investigates the main approaches to the concept of Islamic city to narrow the view to the specific one which encompasses all factors affecting the structure of the Muslims Historic Cities in general. This has been done through literature review and content analysis of them. The results show that the formation of the design concepts of the Islamic city is closely bound up with Islamic cultural values and beliefs. These are mainly rooted in the essence of the Islamic law (the holy Koran and the Sunna–the main source of the Islamic law and its cultural values) which regulates all aspects of the lives of Muslims. From this point, the realization of the Islamic law can be traced in all levels and in all contexts of the built form, which resulted in a particular spiritual dimension with a thoroughly religious character for the Islamic city. Apart from those general notions, the work discussed has made clear that we no longer can rely on the notion of the Islamic city as a typical one for all Islamic lands because each region has different natural and socio-cultural circumstances which require particular approaches namely socio-spatial one. This means that the Muslims historic Cities are highly place specific and its shaping principles and structuring elements need to be conceived from natural laws expressed through weather conditions and topography, religious and cultural beliefs and social principles (social organization of the urban society).

Regarding the key theme of the paper, visual privacy, it is first necessary to review the content of urban studies to find out why/how has privacy been discussed or ignored in urban studies to date. Instead of direct reference to the privacy, the urban studies literature mainly highlights the concepts of territoriality and personal space, two ways in which people create different types of boundaries to regulate their interaction with others in their environment.These two implicitly define the concept of privacy as both have acquired spatial and social dimensions. Alongside these two concepts which were mainly borrowed from behavioral studies, there are some references to the concepts of privacy and community together in urban studies as well. In line with these, privacy is more concerned with private domain or intimate sphere and community with public one. In western culture, changes since the eighteenth century onwards has diminished private sphere as the institution of the family loses monopoly control over its privatized domain and ensured access to the public sphere, thus, the dichotomy of public and private space was mitigated. For this reason, direct reference to the concept of privacy which is more concerned with private domain has been ignored in urban and architectural studies in western culture. On the contrary, within the urban context of eastern culture especially those of the Muslim world the privacy is an utmost concern due to the nature of life was contextualized based on the Islamic law. Based on the holy Koran, as the main source of the Islamic law, the private domain has acquired prime importance because the family unit was recognized as the base of entire socio-cultural structure and a self-sustaining institution which ensures ideological and cultural stability over the entire spectrum of society. It is evident from this review that the concept of privacy is a ritualized and societal concept which has had a great influence on the urban form of the Islamic Cities. Its diffusion throughout Islamic lands and its continuity from the pre-Islamic era made it a timeless and placeless concept transmittable to successive generations. Therefore, we can point out that, the core shaping forces underlying the Islamic Cities are based upon the concept of privacy and its ground rules (internalized structure based on constraints and thresholds), which emanated from Islamic law. This defined a particular urban form in all Islamic lands which differs greatly from that referred to as the Western model. Therefore, in contrast to the thinking of some orientalist scholars, we can recognize that Islamic settlements are neither fortuitous nor amorphous in their organization, but they are expressions responding to patterns of social intercourse and allegiance particular to Islamic society and its natural context. The logical consequence of the concept of privacy and its relevance to the selected context concerns the way this concept and its relevant features determine the organization of space. It mostly contextualized a kind of layout to protect women from the eyes of strangers and to create clear distinctions and hierarchical spaces to highlight the role and the character of women in the building of the Islamic Cities.

Islamic-Iranian urban design somehow is the result of applying all fundamental principles of nature. Complex large-scale wholes are assembled tightly from interaction of components in various scales in a hierarchy narrowed down to the natural structure of materials. Therefore in presented article the hierarchy concept is reviewed as one of the major principles existed in Islamic mysticism and applied in Islamic-Iranian urban design. The mentioned principle is one of the most important criteria for achieving urban coherence. In our old Cities hierarchy was attached to urbanism in various scales from urban structure to single building architecture, but a revision on contemporary urban design practices show that hierarchy has not been applied comprehensively and only some visual and place oriented structures are remained. In fact, the grid and network contemporary urban structures and plans only have got the dream of urban cohesion, because mid-spaces and communal spaces as two main elements of urban hierarchy are missed in such designs and plans. This paper initially outlines the general concept of these principles; also the mystical concept in Islamic-Iranian mysticism is reviewed. On the other hand, different dimension and aspects of hierarchy in artificial environments are surveyed through visual examples from Islamic-Iranian Cities. Eventually, through studying the case of Tehran bazaar region, guidelines for applying these principles in present urban design are delivered.