Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

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So, Islam's perception of dunia antithetically runs counter to cultures such as the
Greek, the Roman, and post-Medieval city builders. Islamic teachings belittled the dunia
phase. 71 A saying of Prophet Mohammed states: "If the dunia (first life) value to Allah is
equal to the value of a mosquito wing, Allah would have not given any of it to a
nonbeliever."
It is this great emphasis on the religious doctrine which I believe consitutes the major
reason behind the indifference and lack of zeal among Muslim rulers toward the
embellishment of their cities. This overriding societal influence of religion during Medieval
Europe has rendered the European city similar to the traditional Islamic city's form, both
espoused organic built forms. 72 This helps explain the great similarity between its physical
organic order and tortuous road system, as shown in the centrality and eminence of the
Cathedral, and the meandering layout of the towns. Both the medieval European and the
traditional Islamic cities were also technologically lacking. In both, religious concepts
played a major factor that conditioned its society and influenced forms. 73 On the other
hand, European medieval towns had a political autonomy not characteristic of Muslim
ones.
SUMMARY
From the previous review and analysis, it appears that several factors shaped and
conditioned the traditional Arab-Islamic physical environment. These factors can be
divided into two groups, Islamic-related factors and non-Islamic related factors. The
factors that have to do with Islam are first, attitudinal as perceived by Islamic teachings and
traditions: life, dunia, is considered as a sojourn, a short stay that should be sacrificed by
one who is expecting to live another life which is portrayed as much more worthy. To
achieve the heaven (utopia), a Muslim should model his/her lives according to the Prophet,
who explicitly shunned luxury, warned against cupidity and perceived the personification
of riches as wrong (sinful). Muslim rulers were discouraged from squandering public
resources on the beautification of buildings, the building of monuments, and statues or the
construction of sepulcher for the reason of seeking self-glorification.
The second Islamically-related factor is legislational: the documentation of the Koran
and sunnah by the early Muslims and the subsequent development and elaboration by
Muslim scholars resulted in a specified legal body that, while relegating substantial