Islamic city and urbanism, an obvious example of sustainable architecture and city

Abstract

Abstract. Urbanism entered a new phase by the arrival of Islam so that the formed foundation of urban life changed in the Sassanid era. Urban communities experienced major developments in accordance with Islamic rules in social and economic dimensions. Also, establishment of mosques resulted in physical alteration of cities. By gradual dominance of Islam in Iran, the fields were ready concerning rapid growth of cities and creation of new cities with transformed form and modern culture. Following these changes and in accordance with comprehensive ideology of Islam and its philosophical principles, the concept of “ Islamic city and urbanism” was raised as a new topic in urbanism worlwide and in particular in Islamic countries. This concept is tangibly apparent in the theory of “physical development of construction and designing new cities”. On the other hand, introduced in the late twentieth century and followed by sustainable cities, the relationship between human, sustainable environemnt and development has seriously started in architecture and urbanism in order to create balance between diverse biological levels and perception from the environment. The objective of this paper is to introduce and compare sustainable urban development indicators and urbanism. It tries to answer whether or not Islamic city is an abvious example of sustainable city. In this regard, general principles of sustainable developmnet, theoretical framework of sustainable city, and principles of Islamic city are first studied. Research method is descriptive-analytical and it is based on library data and resources. The research results show that taking advantage of special Islamic principles and values, Islamic cities have been able to follow indicators which are taken into account in sustainable cities.