Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

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found intimate, lasting bonds of kinship and belief. Physically, quarters could be found as
subdivisions within the city, walled and have their own gates. Lapidus points to the
neighborhood community as the central aspect of Muslim urban life. The urban quarters of
medieval Islam, remarked Lapidus,
were small, integrated communities, by quasi-physical isolation, close
family ties, ethnic or religious homogeneity, strong group solidarity,
economic and administrative unity and spokesman elites, they were
analogies of village communities inside the urban agglomeration. 53
In Lapidus' comment on the intrinsic qualities of the traditional Arab-Muslim city, the
Muslim city is organized around socially homogeneous quarters based on ethnic or tribal
origin, religion, trade or the clienteles of political and religious leaders. The absence of
Western-like independent associations was equaled by strong ties in the quarters, a colloid
of different groups was conditioned more by social bonds, exemplified in the tribal and/or
religious association, than by income. Social relations constituted multiple personal ties, a
network of social relations between individuals and families within the discrete quarter.
Within the city, social relations constituted the major logic that shaped the organization of
its parts and outcome. Under Islamic Shariy'ah, residents enjoyed substantial authority
and control over their quarters, including the construction of their houses, the creation and
definition of semi-private space versus the public. Only in cases of disagreement among
neighbors was legal arbitration sought by the contending parties.
Fuad Khori argued that Western-born urban social ecology theory- whereby a core is
ringed by concentric circles of stratified residential belts comprising the totality of the cityis
not applicable within the Middle Eastern context. The twisted streets mirror social
agglomerations interwoven by kinship and traditional ties of neighborhood, rather than
income. He states that "Buildings are erected on plots subdivided according to inheritance
patterns. It is the social assemblage that matters more than the physical design; the urban
society is fitted into a social map, not a spatial one." 54
Islamic principles and practical reckoning with available materials and climate can also
be seen at work in the design of dwelling units. The elementary configuration of living
space was uniform, but not perpendicular (orthogonal). For example, in Saudi Arabia,
there are at least four traditional types of houses. They are: (1) the open-courtyard rural
house, which was incorporated into new urban areas, (2) the Madinah House, comprising