Document Type : Research Paper
Author
University of Qom
Abstract
The holy Quran and Imams’ hadiths as the most important Islamic religious texts which have significant capacity in various fields of human knowledge, but have often been neglected in academic research. Among the issues raised in these Islamic religious texts are the city and its features based on which some studies have been conducted and the concept of Islamic city has been developed.
On the other hand, one of the main problems dealt with in recent decades (especially in the field of urban development) is the development pattern which can be classified into two main patterns: horizontal development and vertical development. But, due to various problems, in recent decades, the vertical development pattern has spread increasingly in most cities, especially in metropolises. Accordingly, this research addresses this problem from the perspective of Islamic teachings (especially Shiite jurisprudence). Therefore, the main problem that is investigated in this article is desirability or non-desirability of vertical development of residential buildings in Islamic city (based on Shiite jurisprudence).
The research method applied in this article is a mixed method. According to the features of various stages of this research, archival research method was used to collect data. Meanwhile, the researcher used logical argumentation and qualitative content analysis to analyze the data. In this way, propositions (especially the jurisprudential hadiths) that are directly or indirectly related to the problem of this research were extensively investigated using qualitative content analysis. Then, research findings were obtained based on the analysis of propositions through logical-argumentative method.
According to the findings, vertical development pattern is not desirable in Islamic cities because of various jurisprudential reasons such as visual dominance and some of Imams’ traditions like star sightings, etc. Moreover, vertical development of residential buildings is in contrast to the content of some Quran verses like: “What, have they never observed the heaven above them, (and seen) how we built and adorned it, leaving no crack?” (Qaf Surah, verse 6); “bear then with patience what they say. Exalt with the praise of your lord before sunrise and before sunset” (Qaf Surah, verse 39); “Therefore, be patient with what they say, and exalt with the praise of your lord before sunrise and before sunset. And in the watches of the night and at the edges of the day, exalt him, so that you will be pleasing” (Taha Surah, verse 130). According to these verses, Islamic city should be built in such a pattern that people be able to see sunrise and sunset and thus vertical development pattern of residential buildings is not desirable in such a city. However, it should be noted that the Islamic city has some other features and horizontal development alone is not enough to make a city Islamic. In addition to the physical characteristics, there are some other features such as city identity that define an Islamic city.
Residential Buildings, Vertical Development, Shiite Jurisprudence, Islamic Teachings
Keywords
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