Comparative analysis of the concept of Islamic City in Esfahan during Seljuq and Safavid dynasties

Abstract

Cities are the consequence of mankind civilization, therefore the first step in studying a civilization, is to study the characteristics of the cities. In a preliminary point of view, an Islamic city is a city which demonstrates Islamic values. In other words, the city was the presence of the culture of a society in form of a city. So assigning the characteristic of being Islamic to a city is based upon the features which roots from Islam religion. This investigation studies Esfahan as an urban civilization which ascribes to Islamic period through Seljuq (1037-1157) and Safavid (1501-1739) dynasties. The research progress takes part through a comparative analysis method that compares the characteristics of a geographical context during two different historical eras. Four main topics are being considered in this research; in the first section explains the main research method and theoretical framework. The second section is the studies about Esfahan city and in third section focuses on Seljuq and Safavid period. The final section is the final conclusions based on the first tree parts. Esfahan Islamic city during Seljuq and Safavid dynasties had many similarities. This city had a central urban authority space with various functions and a governmental identity. It was similar to a square that people would have gathered there for different rituals and this form of classification in urban spaces was a sign of equality between people with different religions in an Islamic city. The following research, aims at explaining the main characteristics of Islamic city based on searching in Islamic values of an urban civilization and comparing its features through different eras.