Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

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E. Home Ownership
In traditional towns, homes were built by residents according to simple building
practices utilizing mostly available and locally produced building materials. As the size
of a household increased, rooms or new dwellings were built, and if space was available,
attached to old ones. Conversely, following the death of a head of a household, family
members were allowed to subdivide a house, or an estate, between those eligible under
the Islamic legal system of inheritance. If the will stipulated a partition of property
among family members, a large house was converted into smaller units. Consequently,
new afniah (e.g. courtyards and semi-private spaces abutting the house) and alleys were
made to provide for accessibility to the new units. Willy-nilly, this accounted for the
modifications of already built buildings resulting in the tree-like, tortuous passages, and
the numerous cul-de-sacs feeding clusters of residential units in a typical Muslim city.
Occasionally, a gate was installed at the beginning of a cul-de-sac leading to a cluster of
homes belonging to an extended family.
In the case of the construction of an annex or a new house, family members,
relatives and neighbors helped both physically and financially in the construction effort.
As in the case of marriage, a household head could borrow from individuals to help pay
for the needed material or labor. No loaning institutions (e.g. banks or public agencies)
existed. In central Arabia, houses were built using millennia-old construction methods
(load-bearing walls of sun-dried mud bricks and tree trunks, branches and palm reeds).
Construction took a relatively short time, for example, fifty days for a mid-size house. 11
Better off households could hire a professional builder to do the construction.
F. Public Land Use and Infrastructure
"In traditional societies," Eric Monkkonen wrote, "individuals shared enough
central cultural conceptions to create and maintain an operating vision of order." 12 In
traditional Muslim towns, inhabitants maintained their neighborhoods. Cities that served
as seats for princely powers and centers for a larger periphery, were endowed with
economic advantages and tax income. They were bestowed with public baths, street
lights, paved roads and waste water disposal systems, such as sewers, which were largely
paid through imposed fees and taxes. Also, provisions for public facilities, such as
mosques, water, shelters and schools were largely made possible through voluntary