طبقه‌بندي آرا متفكران مطالعات شهر اسلامي

The Classification of Thinkers’ Views in the Field of Studies of Islamic City

تعاريف شهر اسلامي در دو سوي متضاد، وجود اين مفهوم را به چالش كشيده است. به صورت كلي مجموعه ديدگاه‌ها در اين رابطه به دو گروه موافق و مخالف وجود شهر اسلامي تقسيم مي‌شود. در دهه‌هاي نخستين قرن 20 م. چنين مفهومي براي نخستين‌بار شكل گرفت. اين گرايش از سوي مستشرقين آغاز شد و در ابتدايي‌ترين شكل خود با نمونه‌هاي غربي و كلاسيك مورد مقايسه قرار گرفت كه بستر مخالفت با مفهوم شهر اسلامي را فراهم كرد. در تعاريف اوليه، وجود شهر اسلامي به دليل عدم انطباق با اين نمونه‌ها توسط برخي انكار شد. موافقان اين مفهوم، با بررسي نمونه‌هاي خاورميانه و شمال آفريقا، به معرفي ساختار و عناصر مشتركي بين شهرهاي اسلامي هدايت شدند. ساختار ترسيم‌شده، كالبدي براي شهر اسلامي تصوير كرد كه به دليل بررسي شهر فارغ از عوامل تاثيرگذار بر شكل‌گيري آن، قابل تعميم به مجموع شهرهاي قلمرو اسلامي نيست. چطور مي‌توان عناصر و ويژگي‌هاي مشتركي براي شهرهاي اين قلمرو متصور شد درحالي‌كه بحث حاضر به يافتن نقاط مشترك بين تمدن‌هاي مختلف پرداخته است. نقاط مشترك در محدوده اسلامي مي‌تواند برخاسته از باورهاي مشترك باشد، همان چيزي كه باعث يكپارچگي اين پهنه شده است. در نهايت نگاه محتواگرايانه به شهر اسلامي كه مجموع اقدامات شهري را زاييده فرهنگ و باورهاي اسلامي مي‌داند مفهوم جديدي در اين موضوع ايجاد كرده است. در اين مقاله، ديدگاه‌هاي مرتبط با مفهوم شهر اسلامي پس از مقايسه به سه گروه صورت‌گرا، ساختارگرا و محتواگرا تقسيم شده است. نظرات صورت‌گرا نگاهي پوسته‌اي و ظاهري به شهر داشته است. نظرات ساختارگرا شهر را با عناصر و كالبد آن معرفي مي‌كند. نظرات محتواگرا شهر را همانند قالبي براي محتوا و مفاهيم اسلامي تبيين كرده است. در تعريف شهر اسلامي با رويكرد محتواگرا، مفاهيم و باورها جامه عمل پوشيده‌اند. اين مفاهيم، محتواي كالبدي هستند كه از پيشينه تاريخي، فرهنگي و اقليمي بستر خود نشات گرفته است.

Definitions of Islamic city have been challenged by two conflicting sides. Generally, views over this subject are divided into two types as pros and cons. Among these contrary views about Islamic city, some have undermined its existence and some have endorsed it by virtue of its features. In some cases, Islamic city have been compared with elements of west city, meanwhile it has been noted for its unique characteristics in some other cases. The one missing thing seems to be the existence of Islamic city as an independent phenomenon and as a whole unit that has been limited by particular attributes and specific samples. In early decades of 20th century, such a concept was established for the first time. This trend was started by east experts and in its most basic form; it was compared with western and classic samples that led to opposition with the concept of Islamic city. In the former definitions, the existence of Islamic city was denied due to noncompliance with these samples. From the pros’ point of view, the studies of middle-east and North African samples have led them to introduction of structure and common elements of Islamic cities. This structure depicted a framework for the Islamic city that is not extensible to all the cities in Islamic districts due the study of the city ignoring the impacting factors of its formation. Is the physic of Islamic city its distinguishing aspect compared to other cities or there are concepts which lead to this difference? How can the formal or structural features of opinions of experts in urban studies be classified? How can we consider common elements and characteristics for the cities of this territory while the current discussion has addressed the common points between different civilizations? The common features in Islamic territory can be raised from common believes which is the unifying factors of this domain. Finally, content-oriented insight to Islamic city, which considers the total municipal actions as the result of Islamic culture and believes, has added new concepts to this subject. Islamic city came into being considering its being affected by cultural, historical, climatic factors of the context in a specific historical period of time. In this article, Islamic city has been categorized into three types named as form- oriented, structure-oriented and content-oriented through the comparing related viewed in the field of Islamic city. The formal approach is a superficial and skin-deep one which compares Islamic cities with western classic cities (as Utopia for western researchers) and cites to the common elements between these two types. Structure-oriented approach has introduced the city with its physical elements and body and has achieved conclusions through studying some of Islamic cities and defined them in specific time and place. These researchers have analyzed limited case studies, generally belonging to specific governing and geographic era, and generalized the deduced features to all Islamic cities in different eras. It seems this kind of part to the whole view in defining Islamic city is not a flawless one. The main goal in Islam is to make a deep and real connection possible between mankind and God. The only different aspect of Islamic cities and other ones is the principles and concepts of the city involved in its formation. Otherwise, the Islamic city would have been a city with non-Islamic elements and be deemed invalid concepts and believes has been fulfilled in content- oriented approach toward defining Islamic city. These concepts are the physical content which have been originated from its historical, cultural and climatic backgrounds and have become applicable by considering time and space constraints. Features of Islamic city has been merged with cultural, geographic and civilization of its context and resulted in a unique city that can be named as Iranian Islamic city, Chinese Islamic city, Indian Islamic city, and etc.