A Study of City Gates in Early Islamic Cities of Iran

City gates are among the most significant, but hardly studied, features of pre-modern cities. The present article studies city gates in early Islamic centuries within the Iranian cultural domain. In this research, primary sources are examined to provide data for a historical narrative of the city gates. The nature of gates, their relation to the city and urban life and, to people’s perception of cities and the surrounding world are studied through three different roles that gates could perform: gates as products of activity, gates as instruments of activity, and gates as places of activity. This study sheds light on some aspects of the nature of gates and their status as a threshold in urban space and their role in defining and indicating the city’s territory. The findings of this study show that different elements and spaces of city gates were organized to control transit at different levels depending on the circumstances. Although there was the possibility of transit between inside and outside at the city gates, it was conditioned by the values and rules that defined the city as a territory. City gates had a significant role in the formation of the image of the city and its territory. City gates were crucial to the security of cities. Because of the status of a threshold and their crucial role in definition and indication of cities’ boundaries, city gates and thereabout events gained a symbolic significance. In fact, city gates were indicative of the city as a territory involving all three physical, social, and symbolic layers.