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The history of the Islamic world includes many unique cultural, religious, scientific, and architectural developments. Among these was the evolution of the Arab Muslim city, which occurred during the rapid expansion of the Muslim empire in the seventh and eighth centuries A.D. In this probing volume, Nezar AlSayyad examines the extraordinary characteristics of Islamic urbanism and the process by which cities and towns were absorbed and physically transformed by Islam. The early leaders of the Muslim empire--caliphs, amirs, and other rulers--had a lasting effect on what the modern scholar would call their cities' urban form. AlSayyad demonstrates that the stereotypical model of the Muslim city is inadequate, not only because individual rulers in regions of the empire were different, but also due to various cultural influences that were indigenous to conquered areas.
After a prologue, the study begins with a historiography of the concept of the Muslim city and how it was paralleled by the development of its physical form. Garrison towns, established as military camps by early Arab conquerors, are examined next by AlSayyad. His research shows that building methods and urban form in the Arab cities were products of Islamization and consolidation of Caliphal power. New capital towns and cities, AlSayyad maintains, were also results of elaborate personal expressions of politico-religious authority by certain Muslim rulers. The book ends by suggesting that the Arabs' and their leaders' changing view of the role of architecture was a major factor behind the fluid urban forms of Muslim cities. This significant contribution to the study of the Arab world and its cultural history will be of great value to Middle East, urban, and architectural historians, anthropologists, and archaeologists, as well as to students of Islamic history and urbanism.
List of contents
Preface
Prologue: The Study of Muslim Urbanism and the Problem of the Muslim City
The Typical Muslim City: A Historiography of a Concept
Urban Creations of the Early Muslim Arabs: The Garrison Town as a Prototype
Urban Transformation in Early Islam: Arabization or Islamization of Existing Cities
Planned Capital Cities: Ideal Constructs or Imperial Palaces
Epilogue: The Arab Muslim City and the Genesis of Urban Form: Religious Ideology Versus Caliphal Authority
Notes
Appendices
Bibliography
Index
About the author
NEZAR ALSAYYAD is Professor of Architecture and Planning and Chair of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of California—Berkeley. He has been director of the International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments and chief editor of its journal, Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review since 1988. His published books include Cities and Caliphs (Greenwood, 1991) and Forms of Dominance (1993).
