The idea of ??the culture city as a framework for planning the Iranian Islamic city (a case study of Khoy city)

Dissertation for Master Degree in Geography and Urban Planning

Abstract

Today, one of the most obvious problems of contemporary urban planning is the crisis of meaning, both social and physical, in place. After the victory of the Islamic Revolution, the expectation of changes in various cultural fields gradually entered the physical arena and created the desire to restore the native Iranian-Islamic identity. But the Islamic city itself does not have a comprehensive and coherent expression and refers to the cities that were formed in the Islamic lands in the pre-modern era. The purpose of this process is to develop a general framework for Iranian-Islamic city planning. By analyzing the nature and mechanism of the functioning of the psychological parameters of the environment from the point of view of the dimension of consciousness, and using it in urban planning, it is possible to take steps in creating an Iranian-Islamic identity to the existing cities and to build new cities and towns based on it, so that the city can be transformed into an environment where the citizens, by being in it, will understand spiritual concepts with their unconsciousness. The research method is qualitative and analytical-adaptive, and in extracting concepts, rational and logical reasoning and inference have also been used. Documentary method was used in data collection. The field method was also used in the form of presence in the environment and observation and mental perceptions in environmental psychology studies. In confirming and proving the topics, references were also made to Quranic references and epistemological topics of interpretation of the Quran. With environmental psychology studies from the point of view of the element of consciousness, a new look was taken at the Islamic and Iranian-Islamic city. Based on this, the arrangement of positive and valuable uses in the center of the city is conscious and deep mystical foundations have been used. By reviewing and updating its features and indicators, using Quranic teachings and new scientific fields, a framework was compiled under the title of the six principles of the city-culture, which makes the possibility of Iranian-Islamic identification of a biological complex possible by using the factor of spreading awareness in the third dimension of the environment. Shahr-Farhang, with the attitude of "city as a cultural phenomenon", seeks to create an environment that, by transferring positive and spiritual concepts to the unconsciousness of citizens, will raise the level of awareness and control them ideologically from within. Based on this, the Iranian-Islamic city is a cognitive field corresponding to the physical field, where holy concepts with a high pulse are reflected in it. By formulating the principles and necessities of the culture city, and implementing its implementation plan in Khoi city, the way of its operation was also addressed.

Key words: Iranian-Islamic city, urban identity, intellectual field, awareness dissemination, Khoi city.

Chapter one:

Overview of the research

-1- Introduction

The first chapter of the thesis, to the overview of the research is allocated In this chapter, the research problem will be stated first. The issue that is on the agenda and the importance and necessity of dealing with this issue will be explained in brief and in connection with the mentioned issues, questions will be raised that we will seek to answer the issues raised by making hypotheses in the continuation of the process. One of the most important parts of this chapter is to deal with the background of the research and review the researches that previous researchers have done in the field of the topics related to the current thesis. After dealing with the current research method, addressing the major issues and problems in the way of conducting the research will conclude the topics of the first chapter.

1-2- Statement of the problem

The emergence of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula in the middle of the 7th century AD took place in a mostly non-urban environment under the domination of ethnic dispersal powers and common traditions of nomadism (Fakuhi, 1383 and 1383: 74). The fall of the Sassanids was decided in 641 AD in the Battle of Qadisiyah (ibid., p. 371). When Islam opened the Eastern Roman and Iranian empires, urbanization and urbanism were clearly evident in the areas under the control of these two empires, and the urban system and the nationwide network of cities was one of the foundations of the Sassanid and Roman political systems (Habibi, 1387:37). The formation of a city or any biological complex is mainly influenced and emanated from several factors, one of the most fundamental of which is the worldview and thinking of people who build it for their own living. Muslim cities and environment are no exception to this rule, and in the process of their formation, the monotheistic worldview of Islam has had a fundamental impact (Naghizadeh, 1389: 66).

The importance of Islam in the process of formation of Islamic cities is one of the controversial issues in studies related to Islamic cities (Pourahmad and Mousavi, 2019: 3). The ideology of Islam was effective in the transformation of previous cities and caused the establishment and growth of new cities with their own physical structure (Ahednejad Roshti et al., 1392:122). The word Islamic city actually refers to the cities of the Middle East and North Africa. French orientalists were the first writers who used the term Islamic city and classified these cities in a special group (Falahat, 2010: 35). But there is still no comprehensive and coherent expression of its meaning (ibid., p. 44). Urbanization in Iran took a definite form as a result of the historical developments of the Parthian and Sassanid eras, it has played an important role in the process of Iranian civilization (Razavi, 2008: 2). The military expansion of Islam from the end of the 7th century AD and its entry into the Middle East region, especially Iran and India, created a link between Islamic civilization and Sassanid civilization (Fakuhi, 1383: 75) and for this reason, in the construction of cities in Islamic civilization, local traditions and characteristics of pre-Islamic cities have left a significant impact, especially in the eastern lands of the Islamic Caliphate (Hakim, 1381: 22). Today, the identity crisis and the low quality level of citizens' lives are being taken into consideration (Kashi and Doani, 2012: 44). One of the most important crises of modern society and societies in transition is the identity crisis. Therefore, identity crisis is known as one of the most important crises of contemporary societies, especially third world societies (Mirsardo et al., 1387: 78). The occurrence of the Islamic Revolution in 1357 and the establishment of the Islamic Republic system in the country has created the expectation of fundamental changes in various cultural sectors among the majority of activists in this field. These changes gradually entered the physical realms and gradually created the desire to recover the native identity and in other words Iranian-Islamic architecture and urban planning among people, professionals and officials in the years after the revolution (Qalibaf, 1390: 151) and they sought to find foundations to rebuild the current city with criteria resulting from Iranian-Islamic culture and civilization. Because the developments that began in Iran in the 1300s caused the beginning and then the development of the urbanization process, and while passing through different stages, it finally reached the stage of contemporary rapid urbanization. The collapse of traditional relations in the society and the replacement, albeit incomplete, of capitalist relations have been one of the most important factors of urbanization in recent decades (Hossamian and others, 1377:15). In general, one of the most important features of the expansion of capitalist relations in Iran is that this expansion has taken place under the banner of modernization (ibid., 26). The first Pahlavi period (1304 to 1320) is considered the origin of all economic and social developments of the current century. The beginning of urban development and urbanization in its serious sense is related to this period to a large extent (Saeidi Rizvani, 1371, quoted by Anamarad Nejad, 1390:72). The most important physical changes were related to the creation of new streets and squares and the widening of old streets. A development that played the most essential role in changing the image of the city. The common pattern of street construction in this era is creating perpendicular streets (ibid., 72). One of the characteristics of modernity is the clear break between the modern era and the era before it. In fact, the city in its new concept was formed in the modern era and before that, the function and conditions of the body and the content of the city had an obvious difference (Jabri Moghadam, 2016: 53). The city, as the achievement of human collective life, has contributed greatly to the evolutionary process of his civilization (Razavi, 2018: 2), but with the imported model of urban planning, many of the spatial structures of the ancient Islamic city that were established in the land of Iran were transformed (Zanganeh and colleagues, 36:1391). The streets of the traditional city were pedestrian-oriented and for the passage of pedestrians, four-legged and carts, they were formed with their own spatial order and hierarchy, and modern civilization with large machines and under the functioning of the capitalist economy, which needed a space for the circulation of goods, it was necessary to build a street. Currently, traditional Iranian cities are facing many challenges with their physical expansion and the integration of Iran in the process of globalization in the Pahlavi period. Population increase, rural-to-urban migrations, types of pollution, lack of green space, traffic congestion, etc. Currently, the authorities are looking for a foundation for Iranian-Islamic urban planning to solve the problems of the cities. In the Safavid era, a distinct type of urban planning became common, for which today they have made consistent principles and presented theories about the method and philosophy of urban planning, and it is called the Isfahan school of urban planning.