ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Through a Glass Darkly Urbanism of the Historic Islamic Cities "The most mystical, most religious, most wonderful, they are more ordinary than most things" (Alexander, 1979) Historic city discourse in the field of urbanism usually associated with the notions of culture (a framework that recognizes social and historical dimensions of urban life), identity (specific characteristics of place), and authenticity.

These concepts where invented and adopted as the main focus of a retrospective attitude in the confront with modernity and globalization. In the case of Islamic historic cities, questions of culture, identity, and authenticity were often misjudged and misunderstood. Orientalism, which is a kind of Western intellectual authority and a style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient within Western culture, has dominated the area.

Orientalist's knowledge of Islam was superficial; as a result, some concepts were misunderstood, wrongly chosen or incompletely applied. Orientalism was developed during the colonialism era that represents imbalance of power. However, powerless people had some capacity, this reticulation made the process of sorting and differentiation between authentic and exotic, much more complicated.

The history of traditional Islamic cities regarding urbanism, could be categorized into three phases; the early decades after the expedition of Prophet Mohammed (s.a.w), the following two centuries (Umayyad and Abbasid States), and the colonialism era. Urbanism of the Historic Islamic Cities First, it is important to note that Islam, the eternal message, has reformed the lives of Islamic societies, and had great impact on the social life.

It is a religion of action and a system of life, conveyed to guide humanity, so that people march in its light and build life and culture according to its teachings. During the early decades of Islam, cities that witnessed remarkable changes were the cities with majority converters to the new religion. The city of Al-Medina was the first city that witnessed changes. Prophet Mohammed (s.a.w), who was the ruler and the highest authority, established the cornerstone for the city of Medina.