Factors Affecting the Formation and Change of Urban-Spatial Organization in Ahar City of Iran

Ahad Ebrahimi,Bagher Asl

doi:10.12944/cwe.12.2.09

Abstract

Ahar is name of a historical city located in northwest of Iran. The existing documents and historical writings along with some inscriptions, architectural and archeological monuments within the city and its suburbs all indicate the historic antiquity of this city. From the pre-Islamic period, little information is available about Ahar. Some sites such as the Jame mosque of Seljuk period and Sheik Shahab Aldin Ahary’s complex indicate that it was a developed city in the Islamic period. The aim of this investigation is the identification of the factors affecting on the urban evolution process in different historical periods. The spatial organization of Ahar has been developed within the Islamic period, but the hypothesis of research is the indications of pre-Islamic period are in the present-day location of it. The question of research is: what were the components affecting the formation and development of the spatial-urban organization of Ahar? This investigation is a basic research which utilizes the descriptive-analytic method based on the analysis of historical documents’ contents. The necessary information has been obtained through library and field studies. The research results show the following: the formation of Ahar dates back to the pre-Islamic period. Based on some historical documents and narratives, the location of the initial core of the city is considered to have been in the vicinity of the historical graveyard of the city; and since the reign of Islam, the city has developed around the core, yet at some periods of time in the course of history, the city has undergone locational changes and has developed toward the northern and western grounds.

Highlights

In Islamic written and documents Ahar has been introduced as a developed city and the location of mystics and thinkers
The main issue of this research is to find the features of spatial-urban organization of the city
Archaeological researches According to the researches of German archaeologists, out of the documents related to the centuries before Islam, is the remnants of a castle (Figure 2) 20 kilometers north of Ahar[3].The Seqendel Inscription, (Figure 3), it’s the most significant document that has remained from Urartians in Qarrah-Dagh Region in the slope of Zaghi Mountain

Summary

Introduction

In Islamic written and documents Ahar has been introduced as a developed city and the location of mystics and thinkers. Following the fights with the regional oppositions and eliminating the opposition Khans, which undoubtedly led to the establishment of security in cities and reduction of local fights, the fortifications around the city gradually lost defending significance and the city grew out of its walls During these changes, the most important of which in Qara-Dagh was accommodating nomads in the areas around Ahar up to 1937t , probably the first group which began to construct outside the city’s fortifications and caused the city to develop, were affluent and middle class people who left the small houses within the castle and began building large houses outside it[21]. The architectural characteristic of this period, to be seen in municipality building (Figure 22), some schools (Figure 23), and residential houses of Ahar

Conclusion

Findings

11. Hudud ul-’alam