ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Through a Glass Darkly Mahdism Doctrine and Urbanism The basic concept of Mahdism is that the just ruler and the virtuous awaiting Imam Al-Mahdi (a.s.), the twelfth Imam of Ahlul-Bait (a.s.), will appear in the future -in an unknown time- to fill the earth with justice and equality as it would have been filled with oppression and injustice.

At that time, humanity would reach highest levels of integration and amalgamation, so everything would be ideal and perfect in that ideal Islamic state. The idea of 'filling the earth with justice and equality' suggests a global system and regulations that rules the earth under the tenets of Islam, which could be called as 'Islamic globalization'.

The term 'globalization' refers nowadays to a global system based on the increasing integration of economies around the world, particularly through trade and financial flows. It also refers to the movement of people (labour), knowledge (technology) across international borders, in addition to the broader cultural, political, and environmental dimensions.

The most dominant fields are the economic and communal globalizations, which are critiqued for encouraging domination, unparalleled growth, and increased inequality, because the strongest gains have been made by the advanced countries only. In urbanism, globalization refers to the adaptation of urban forms that are out of their native habitats. It has been the material of debate and conflict between urban designers in the last fifty years.

It is strongly rejected and critiqued for it's by products like domination, segregation, placelessness (diminishing importance of place), isolation, and insertion. At the same time, urban designers are in favour of a retrospective view that recognizes the social and cultural dimensions of urban life and maintains the authenticity and identity of place. This paper discusses globalization phenomenon from the urban design perspective, which is related to social policy.

The paper first reviews the literature of urbanism in the historic Islamic cities, and discusses the preliminary arrangements and tools necessary to build the future State of Al-Mahdi (a.s). Then the paper explores issues of globalization and culture, aiming to contribute to this growing literature by bringing together diverse themes to be discussed in conjunction with one another.