Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

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guild, all regulated in the light of Islamic Shariy'ah which were set in illustrative, simple
and clear spoken language. The extended family was a strong kinship unit, and the
individual duly encouraged, if not threatened, to maintain strong ties and reverence for it.
Tribal loyalties and family affiliations continued to play a strong role in the shaping of the
ecological and social structure of the Islamic city. Non-Islamic factors have had their
influence on the structure and form of the city as well. In pre-industrial societies, physical
forms were governed by the limitations of their technology. Moreover, environmental
factors and pre-Islam's influence also played major role in shaping the traditional Islamic
city.
The above picture has lost strength with the advent of colonialism, nationalism, and
technological know-how (modernization). But prior to these latest historical processes, it
is clear and widely acknowledged that Islam played a significant role in conditioning the
built environment in societies where Muslim populations comprised a majority. The term
"Islamic City" connotes both temporal and historical meaning. Geographically, it
distinguished a certain architecture and morphology that was shaped by residents' beliefs
and concepts of space as stressed under Islamic Shari'yah (the prescribed rules of conduct
based on Islamic teachings). Temporally, the concept of the "Muslim City" refers to a
distinct period of time from the seventh century A.D. to the onset of colonialism and the
adoption of nation-states during the 20th century.
Under the influence of external factors, first colonialism and later the integration of
most Arab-Muslim countries' economies to the world political economy, the Middle
Eastern cities of today have passed through radical historical processes that caused their
morphology to lose their predominantly, pre-industrial, Muslim-shaped traditional character
to the "contemporary city of incoherence" of today. 75 The new metropolis is characterized
by a physically decentralized structure that lacks reference to the past and is in a permanent
state of transition.