Effects of Government Autocratic Interventions on Urban Structure of Isfahan in Safavid Shah Abbas era

Many factors exercise influence over, and moderate the structure of a city. These factors can be linked to the political, administrative, social and religious structure of society. This paper points out how political power's decision making, affect the structure of a city. It focuses on Isfahan the capital of Iran during Safavid king, Shah Abbas, government (1571–1629a.c.). This is a Historical research with analytical-descriptive method, which tracing structure transformation of the Isfahan through Abbas monarchial regime, from primary and secondary sources. Being a case-study of one city, this paper provides details about the context, actions and development from the study of Isfahan. Finally, article is followed by a typology of different kinds of autocratic interventions of Shah and their modes of operation. This paper concludes Creative interventions, direct interventions on concept and ideology of urban design, intervention through oversight and supervision, Self-glorifying Intervention, and intervention through development of urban public spaces were tools of autocratic controls of king on urban design and development. Being grounded in Isfahan, this typology is not meant to be exhaustive or mutually exclusive. The discussion focuses primarily on examples from Isfahan, but examples from other cultures, contexts and settings will be provided to indicate transfer-ability of the concepts.