THE CITY IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD

This is one of the interdisciplinary courses (C) that are part of the master's degree programmes in Language and Civilisation of Asia and Mediterranean Africa (Near and Middle East, Indian Sub-continent); Ancient Civilisations: Literature, History and Archaeology; History of Arts and Conservation of Artistic Heritage. This course aims at broadening the student's knowledge of cultures and societies in the Islamic Near and Middle East, the Arab world in particular, through the study of the formative process of some cities in the area and the learning of the necessary tools of analysis and criticism.

The student will acquire knowledge and skills that will enable him/her to understand the urban forms examined, identifying the main elements of formative dynamics in the light of political, economic and cultural changes. He/she will also acquire the necessary skills to deconstruct the interpretative models developed in the long history of studies and understand their genesis. He/she will be able to conduct independent research on these topics.

The course does not require specific competences.

Through the analysis of the documentation available at present (historical, architectural and archaeological), the course will try to focus on the main factors that have contributed to the definition of urban forms and structures in a number of cities in the Islamic world.
The legacy of the tradition and the innovations (for example: the abandonment of the orthogonal model, the introduction of the citadel) will be discussed in the context of the new society shaped by major political, economic, social and cultural elements. An attempt will be made to identify a semiotics of urban and domestic space specific to Islamic societies. The detailed study of four major capitals will make it possible to analyse a broad spectrum of forms and dynamics: Cairo, Dubai, Istanbul, Cordoba.
The course will also deconstruct the concept of the 'Islamic city', from the nineteenth-century 'orientalist' vision to its contemporary formulations. The contrast between the Islamic city and the colonial city will be brought into focus

Reference texts, to be found on MOODLE platform:

J. Abu-Lughod, The Islamic City: Historical Myth, Islamic Essence, and Contemporary Relevance, International Journal of Middle East Studies 19 (2) 1987, pp. 155-176

M. Apaydin, Islamic city: a rhetorical argument or a political tool?, Al-Machriq V. 89/1, 2015, pp. 313-328

Gideon Avni, “From Polis to Madina” Revisited – Urban Change in Byzantine and early Islamic Palestine, JRAS, Series 3, 21, 3 (2011), pp. 301–329

Jere L. Bacharach, The court-citadel: an Islamic urban symbol of power, in Urbanism in Islam III, Tokyo 1989, pp. 206-245

D. Behrens-Abouseif, S. Denoix, J.-Cl. Garcin, Le Caire, in Grandes villes méditerranéennes du monde musulman médiéval, Roma 2000, pp. 177-203

Doris Behrens-Abouseif, The Mamluk City, in AAVV, The City in the Islamic World, Leiden and Boston 2008, pp. 295-316

P. Cuneo, Storia dell’Urbanistica: Il mondo Islamico, Bari 1986, pp. 368-378

Deeba Haider, The growing pains of Dubai: a city in search of its identity, in AAVV, The city in the Islamic World, Leiden and Boston 2008, pp. 1063-1084

H. Inalcik, Istanbul, EI2: solo gli argomenti trattati, e cioè paragrafi 2-5

H. Kennedy, From polis to madina. Urban change in late antique and early Islamic Syria, Past and Present 106, 1985, pp. 3-27

Hugh Kennedy, From Polis to Madīna revisited: Some Reflections Thirty Years On (2018) (file word) https://books.openedition.org/cvz/23597

Doğan Kuban, Istanbul, an Urban History, Istanbul, 2010 (biblioteca)

Keith Olroyd-Robinson, The urban architecture of al Bastakiyyah, in Salma Samar Damluji (ed.) The architecture of the Arab United Emirates, Reading (UK) 2006, pp. 179-196

S. Pradines, Les murailles du Caire, de Saladin à Napoléon, CRAI 2012/II, pp. 1027-1063

André Raymond, Le Caire, Paris, 1993 (biblioteca)

Sharon Rotbard, White City, Black City: Architecture and War in Tell Aviv and Jaffa, London 2015: capitoli scelti.

A.F. Sayyed e R.-P. Gayraud, Fustat-Le Caire à l’époque fatimide, in Grandes villes méditerranéennes du monde musulman médiéval, Roma, 2000, pp. 135-156

Serena Vicari, Che cosa è la città, Dispensa di Sociologia, Milano Bicocca

S. Yerasimos, Istanbul, VIII. Monuments, EI2 supplementi

Alan Walmsley, Urbanism at Islamic Jerash: new readings from archaeology and history, in Achim Lichtenberger, Rubina Raja (eds) The archaeology and history of Jerash, Turnhout (Brepols), 2018, pp. 241-256

Learning is verified in two complementary ways:
A. 35% of final mark
The student is required to submit an essay at least one week before the day of the oral examination, on a city of his/her choice with the previous agreement of the teacher.
In this work the student will have to show that he/she has acquired the necessary critical skills and tools to face the study of a city in the Islamic world, and to define its characteristics in relation to the interpretative models that had been proposed.
B) 65% of final mark
At the oral examination the student will be required to illustrate the topics treated in the course of the lectures, with the help of images.
This part of the exam aims to verify that the student has acquired a basic knowledge of the history of the studies, of the development of the four capitals examined in detail and about the main problems related to them.

Frontal lessons will be illustrated with images, available on the MOODLE e-learning platform. Part of the course will be seminar-based, and students will be asked to contribute to discussions on specific topics and to prepare a presentation.

Italian

An essay (or a presentation) should be submitted to undertake the oral examination. See above for details

oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "International cooperation" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development