الناز نجار نجفی

In this article, we want to show how the concern of rebuilding the Islamic city, regardless of past experiences, is the product of a kind of contemporary misunderstanding that has plagued us due to alienation from the concept of the city on the one hand and the meaning of Islam on the other. We will begin with two dominant currents of thought, both of which somehow believe that the Islamic city has not been realized. In the following, we intend to clarify what an "Islamic city" is and what relationship we have with it now. In other words, we intend to add a third to the above two assumptions. In this approach, the meaning of the city and the meaning of Islam are proposed. The city is the perfect manifestation of the historical experience of living in a land, and it has expressed all the achievements of its Muslims in Islamic civilization, and this is what has made the city clear and defined its positions. If we deny the realization of civilization and the city, we are in fact denying all these achievements. The experience of the realization of civilization in each land has been shaped according to its conditions and characteristics, and as a result, it has a different form everywhere and everywhere. Therefore, if we look for a single form of civilization, we will not find it. Iran is no exception; Iranians, by their very nature, have always had a spiritual approach to religion, including Islam. This spiritual approach has been manifested along with the long historical experience of living in the land of Iran in civilization and the Iranian city, the highest example of which is Isfahan. Therefore, in the final section, there will be a discussion about the reasons why we consider Isfahan as an Islamic city.

This paper examines the formation of Shiraz historic fabric in response to its lifelines by employing a methodology that could be replicated in studies of other cities, as well. For this purpose, (i) the formation of alleys in response to topography and irrigation network is explained; and (ii) the impact of the irrigation network on formation of key monuments is reviewed. The subterranean and surface channels of an important irrigation network Kheirat Qanat— is followed between ca 13 century AD to ca 19 century AD as a case demonstrating this paper’s hypotheses. To this end, a literature review ascertains the gravitational direction of irrigation channels. Then, a hypothetical network of alleys is developed based on topography and the irrigation network. This yields a hypothetical direction for water flow connecting key monuments built in 13 century. Reference to existing documentation verifies the existence of a water aqueduct, while a field visit reveals remnants of its flow.
The location of later monuments is thus explained by continuation or disruption of this hypothetical water channel.

Nowadays education has different meanings in different domains of sciences and techniques. According to these meanings there are different methods for educating human beings. Architecture is one of the subject in the domain in art or science, so there are various ideas and discussions on the methods of educating architecture, and sometimes they have contrast. In this context, there is an additional problem in Iran about identity and cultural originality. The one, that puts architecture as a subject of the culture, believes that for achieving the ideal architects we should attend to the culture in the architectural education. In such a way we are facing various educating methods that, in spite of obtaining different understanding about culture, have a common point; they do not clear the object of culture, education, and architecture essentially! This is a main subject of misunderstanding and increased day by day until you could not find a way of reconciliation easily. Considering the idea of our predecessors about the relation between ‘culture’ and education’ one hand, and educating and cultivating on other hand, shows that they had an inter-wrought concept. The similarities and differences between what they understood and what we understand of “culture”, “education”, and “building” could clear some dark and forgotten part of our misunderstandings. By this purpose, I begin with exploring the “culture”; the essence that architecture is a row of it.

Bāburnāma is the biography of Zahir-ed- Din Mohammad Babur (r. 1526-1530), the founder of Mughal dynasty of India. Babur’s attention to his surroundings as well as his accurate records and reports on events and places has turned the book into an informative source for studying the circumstances of his time. Bāburnāma includes various historical, geographical, natural, and architectural information. Moreover, a good many parts of the book sequences are somehow related to garden and garden building, whether they refer to the concept of garden in the mind of author and his contemporaries or those related to the buildings, features, and designs of gardens as well as the way they have been laid out. Probably the most inferreds theme from Bāburnāma is the very concept of "Living in garden". Apparently, so many activities of those living in Babur’s time have been connected to garden in some way.