A Study Of Isilamic Cities In The Middle East

Islamic urban civilization is an indispensable part of Islamic civilization in the Middle East. But there are few studies on it both at home and abroad. Based on the above-mentioned situations, the author takes cases of Cairo, Istanbul and Tehran to display the track and features in the evolution of cities in the Middle East from an distinctive aspect. This dissertation includes three parts: preface, the main body and the conclusion.In the Preface, the author mainly explains the aim and meaning of her subject, summarizes the relevant achievements, states the main concepts and introduces the trains of thought, writing methods and studying features of this dissertation The main body includes five chaptersIn Chapter One, the author traces back to ancient urban civilization in the Middle East and analyzes the causes that form Islamic urban civilization .It is assumed by the author that the amsars(fort), Islamic cities coming from original cities and capitals built by Caliphs are three main parts composing the Middle East urban civilization. Furthermore, the dissertation specially analyzes the amsars, which are important in Islamic urban civilizationIn Chapter Two, the author compares three cities, which belong to above-mentioned three forms. In this part, the author take Fustat-Cairo as an example of the amsars and capitals, Istanbul of Islamic cities coming from original cities and Tehran of capitals built by Caliphs. According to the historical method of investigation, the author analyzes the historic evolutions of the three cities in chronological order so as to display achievements and glory of Islamic cities in the Middle EastIn Chapter Three, the author gives systematic analyses of social functions of Islamic communities in the Middle East, which comprise religion, city forms, the system of administration, guild, communities and the minorities, the structure of urban class and urban society, the relation between cities and countryside etc. Thenshe draws some conclusions as follows: Unharmonious economical structure of cities represented that rich in interests of business and more will of invest in business than industry result in shortage of factors that transmit capital from business to industry hinders the production and development of modern industry; low-level social classification and low efficient of cities in accommodating agriculture people that cannot provide enough space for spare agriculture people bring about that social structure cannot work well and industry is short of back-up; A large amount of non-productive people crowd in cities and form a huge consumer group. It is not good for capital original accumulation; Merchants give up outside business that fails to form huge outside markets just like what European cities do during the period of the origin of capitalism. All these factors interact and make Islamic cities in the Middle East lose the historic chance of transform into a capitalist society prior to the west. Meanwhile, the comparative independent system of administration lose Islamic cities the chance for free development; Same-feature and comparative close hold back the consolidation of civilian, which make cities keep the chance and situation of self-governing outside; There is no strict economical and social classification and the class struggle among different class can not lead to the collapse of guild; There is no civilian in sheer sense and distracting factors in the feudal society, etc. These factors affect the formation and development of capitalism in the cities in different degree, while these factors are mostly related to Islam and social structure of Islamic cities. So the modernization of the Islamic cities in the Middle East is the modernization of thought and one of urban social structure firstly.In Chapter Four, the author studies the historic evolution of the three cities and concludes that the three cities take on their modernization that is promoted by the foreign powers' invasion and their modernization improvements. These three cities see great changes in the...