Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

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development, no master plans, and no strong legislative controls existed. None of the
apparatuses typical of modem urban planning under an established state were developed.
The modern modes of transportation and systematic intervention and large-scale urban
production under the auspices of a powerful central state seemed, prior to the discovery
of oil, centuries away. Finally, adding new land uses such as houses, commercial uses or
farmland was done only after securing the affected parties' rights.
D. Land Ownership and Distribution.
Settlement growth was slow and simple, residents encroached on raw land as need
arose. Incremental appropriation of new land conformed to the slow demographic pace,
increases in population were occasionally countered by abrupt natural disasters and
random fatal clashes among settlements' populations and or with marauding nomads.
Austere, subsistence economies offered limited financial resources, a factor which
diminished the economic viability of town expansion to the political leadership. Under
such conditions, urban growth was economically irrelevant, for land was perceived as a
social resource, rather than for its exchange value. Moreover, the Islamic principle of
shufah was acknowledged under the Islamic legal code. Under the shufah principle, a
neighbor was given priority to buy next door properties at the given exchange price. As
such, shufah helped form quarters which housed relatives though they belonged to
different incomes categories.
Documentation of growth, legislation and building activity was virtually
nonexistent. Typically, ownership was established once converted into urban or
productive uses. Legal registry of property was seldom needed, if required it was usually
handled by the town's clergy. Property title was based on conventional recognition by the
community. 1 ' 3 Land ownership was identified with its users. If a dispute arose, witnesses
were summoned and the amir or the qadi resolved the dispute. Finally, lots were
irregular, development (e.g. buildings and farmland) determined land layout and,
ultimately, the town's configuration (whereas in modern built forms, lot dimensions are
set beforehand, taking the form of large parcels laid at one time.