Complexity of urban fabric in traditional Muslim cities: Importing old wisdom to present cities

Abstract

Traditional Muslim cities were characterised by their complex urban fabric, which resulted in a cumulative process of activities over time. In shaping their homes and environment, people were subconsciously guided by rules of conduct that originated from the Islamic law, Fiqh. These rules that turned into legal mechanisms were, however, documented by Muslim scholars for jurisprudence purposes, a few of which were recently discovered through the study of old manuscripts that were mostly published in Arabic, Persian and Ottoman languages. Therefore, any analysis of urban forms and morphology of Muslim cities must pass through the understanding of these legal mechanisms that form a corpus of hidden rules and a set of social conduct norms in Muslim societies, as well as an informal regulation system. A number of old public manuscripts in which jurists’ legal opinions in relation to urbanism and construction are presented here so that the findings of this paper can be relevant and believable among the academic, urban planning and design community. The objective of this paper is to highlight these mechanisms and to show evidence of their impact on the traditional urban fabric. A morphologic analysis is thus undertaken along a legal approach to help academics recognise this impact. Such an approach is believed to provide architects, planners, professionals and administrators in Muslim countries with new/old tools that may contribute to reforming the present regulatory system, which is mostly alien to local urban practices.