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 available documentation (historical, architectural and archaeological), the course will attempt to focus on the main factors that contributed to the definition of urban forms and structures in a number of cities in the Islamic world.
The legacy of traditions and innovations (e.g., the abandonment of the orthogonal model, the introduction of the citadel) will be discussed in the context of major political, economic, social and cultural changes, and an attempt will be made to identify a semiotics of urban and domestic space specific to Islamic societies. A part of the course will be devoted to the study of a great capital, Cairo, from its foundation to the present day; the course will then address the study of other cities caught in specific moments of their history and chosen in relation to the different contribution they make to the theme tackled: Dubai (the "Islamic city" recreated), Palermo (in search of the "Islamic city"), Cordoba (the "Islamic city" rediscovered), Istanbul (the Ottoman creation of the "Islamic city").
The course will also deconstruct the concept of the 'Islamic city' from the 19th century Orientalist view to its contemporary formulations. The contrast between the 'Islamic city' and the 'colonial city' will also be discussed.

Reference texts, to be found on MOODLE platform. Aterisk* optional text

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 (pdf)
M. Apaydin, Islamic city: a rhetorical argument or a political tool?, Al-Machriq V. 89/1, 2015, pp. 313-328 (pdf)
G.Avni, “From Polis to Madina” Revisited – Urban Change in Byzantine and early Islamic Palestine, JRAS, Series 3, 21, 3 (2011), pp. 301–329 (pdf) – one city of choice
J.L. Bacharach, The court-citadel: an Islamic urban symbol of power, in Urbanism in Islam III, Tokyo 1989, pp. 206-245 (pdf)*
A. Bagnera, Lo sviluppo urbano di Palermo in età islamica: nuovi punti di osservazione, in L. Arcifa, M. Sgarlata (a cura di), From Polis to Madina. La trasformazione delle città siciliane fra Tardoantico e Altomedioevo, Bari 2020, pp. 313-328 (pdf)
A. Bagnera, “…wa hiya qaṣaba Ṣiqilliyati.” La città di Palermo in età kalbita: note per una rilettura dell’aggregato urbano tra metà X e metà XI secolo, in L. Arcifa, C. Rognoni (a cura di), La Sicilia e il Mediterraneo fra Tardoantico e Medioevo. Atti del Convegno Internazionale di studi dedicato a Fabiola Ardizzone Lo Bue, Palermo 2022, pp. 207-237(pdf)
D. Behrens-Abouseif, S. Denoix, J.-Cl. Garcin, Le Caire, in Grandes villes méditerranéennes du monde musulman médiéval, Roma, 2000, pp. 177-203 (pdf)*
D. Behrens-Abouseif, The Mamluk City, in AAVV, The City in the Islamic World, Leiden and Boston 2008, pp. 295-316 (pdf)
P. Cuneo, Storia dell’Urbanistica: Il mondo Islamico, Bari, 1986, pp. 368-378 (pdf)
D. 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 (pdf)
H. Inalcik, Istanbul, EI2: paragraphs 2-5 (pdf)
H. Kennedy, From Polis to Madīna revisited: Some Reflections Thirty Years On (2018) (file word) https://books.openedition.org/cvz/23597
D. Kuban, Istanbul, an Urban History, Istanbul, 2010 (library)*
F. Micheau, Baghdad in the Abbasid era: a cosmopolitan and multi-confessional capital, in AAVV, The city in the Islamic world, 2008, pp. 221-248 (pdf)*
M. Mourad, Heliopolis, Egypt: politics of space in occupied Cairo, The Funambulist 10, 2017 (pdf)
K. 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 (pdf)
S. Pradines, Les murailles du Caire, de Saladin à Napoléon, CRAI 2012/II, pp. 1027-1063 (pdf)*
S. Pradines, Archaeological Excavations of Bāb al-Ghurayb Cemetery: Plague Epidemics and the Ruin of Fourteenth-Century Cairo, in Mamluk Studies Review XXIV (2021), pp. 119-170 (pdf)*
A. Raymond, Le Caire, Paris 1993 (library)*
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 (pdf)*
S. Vicari, Che cosa è la città, Dispensa di Sociologia, Milano Bicocca (pdf)
S. Yerasimos, Istanbul, VIII. Monuments, EI2 supplementts(pdf)*
A. 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 (pdf)*

Learning is verified in two complementary ways:
A. 35% of final mark
The student is required to submit an essay (3500-5000 words) 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