Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

35
duties including the supervision of actual building processes, as was the case in Tunisia
where the qadi, or his representative, walked through the city and assured that threatening
walls be demolished even though no complaint was delivered to the court. In Madinah, the
qadi's duties included the measurement of streets' widths in front of houses to be built to
assure compliance with set standards and neighbors' rights of access and privacy. Judges
were reported to consult, ahl al-Khibrah (the experts) in matters of technical knowledge and
advice on damage, ownership disputes and assessment of transactions, rents and the
rebuilding of waqf (property donated as charity). 40
The mohtasiVs duties included the implementation of religious practices, such as the
supervision of the moral behavior of residents as well as worldly tasks. In the market
place, he was responsible for the protection of consumers through, for example, the
checking on the quality of goods. A1 Hathloul points that the "...muhtasib could intervene
on his own accord and he was at liberty to deduce principles of decision from custom (u'rf)
as distinct from revealed law (shara')." 41 In Morocco, amin-ul-mustafad collected taxes
and zakat (alms) on manufactured products and other goods, supervised the cleanliness of
the city and other civic tasks. However, another officer, the nazir, oversaw the provision
of drinking water for towns and built aqueducts and public fountains 42
B. The Role of Social Factors in Shaping the Design of
Neighborhoods and Dwellings
In Islam, the issues of privacy play a major role in its adherents' lives. Islamic
teachings discourage mingling between opposite sexes. Only those designated as mahrarn,
that is relatives who by Islamic instruction are prohibited from marrying the opposite sex,
are allowed to have access to the inner circle within a Muslim family dwelling and establish
social contact with its women 43 Such emphasis on the privacy of one's dwelling was
explicitly laid out as a precautionary measure to deter sexual interaction that might sway a
Muslim into an illegal sexual relationship, outside marriage. It is common in Muslim
tradition that not only unwanted harm is prohibited, but also the means and circumstances
that might lead to or encourage such practices. 44 Such discouragement has resulted in
physical division within the residential unit.
In an economically able Muslim family house, a duality of spatial organization is
discernible, the house is divided into three sections. The inner circle, harem (the family