Somaiyeh Falahat - Cities and Metaphors: Beyond Imaginaries of Islamic Urban Space

In this book, Somaiyeh Falahat engages in a deep analysis of space in Fez, Tunis and Isfahan. Using the Persian concept of Hezar-to, she shows us how the relationship between spaces and in-between spaces constitutes a unique nature that reveals and conceals reflecting continuity and separation simultaneously. The work provides a significant contribution to the study of abstract space in the Islamic City.

Nezar AlSayyad , University of California, Berkeley, USA

This book is an invitation to take a fresh look at the historic Islamic cities, change our perspective and think about them in a new way. It explores the cities of Fez, Isfahan and Tunis from a phenomenological perspective to capture and describe the experiential and sensual aspects of the urban space, and to become sensitive to their interiority, ambiguity and liminality.

Ali Madanipour , Newcastle University, UK

The importance of this book lies in its authors carefully substantiated argument that the sensually perceived, spatial characteristics of premodern Islamic urbanism have been neglected in scholarship; an oversight she attributes to an excessive reliance on cartographic methods for the comprehension of urban space and an inadequate conceptualisation of this space. Avoiding the first error by proceeding phenomenologically, and the second by unpicking and simultaneously developing, from an emic perspective, the etic concept of the labyrinth, Somaiyeh Falahat opens up new ways of knowing historic Islamic cities.

Simon OMeara , University of London, UK

Routledge Research in Planning and Urban Design is a series of academic monographs for scholars working in these disciplines and the overlaps among them. Building on Routledges history of academic rigour and cutting-edge research, the series contributes to the rapidly expanding literature in all areas of planning and urban design.

Unplugging the City

The Urban Phenomenon and Its Sociotechnical Controversies

Fbio Duarte and Rodrigo Firmino

Planning for Greying Cities

Age-friendly City Planning and Design Research and Practice

Tzu-yuan Stessa Chao

Heritage-led Urban Regeneration in China

Jing Xie, Tim Heath

Tokyo Roji

The Diversity and Versatility of Alleys in a City in Transition

Heide Imai

Cognition and the Built Environment

Ole Mystad

Public Space Unbound

Urban Emancipation and the Post-Political Condition

Sabine Knierbein and Tihomir Viderman

Cities and Metaphors

Beyond Imaginaries of Islamic Urban Space

Somaiyeh Falahat

www.routledge.com/Routledge-Research-in-Planning-and-Urban-Design/book-series/RRPUD

I am indebted to many who have inspired me throughout this work. I am immensely grateful to Nezar AlSayyad, Ali Madanipour, Eduard Heinrich Fhr and M. Reza Shirazi for the numerous talks we had about the idea of the book, and its methodology in particular, and cities and urban life in general. I sincerely thank Simon OMeara, Matthew Gandy, Riklef Rambow, Katharina Fleischmann, Achim Hahn, Inken Baller, Philipp Misselwitz, Amira Bennison, Ash Amin and Eckard Ehlers for their valuable insights during the course of work. For fieldwork assistance, on-site support and providing or preparation of documents, I am indebted to Chiraz Chatara, Sofien Dhif, Omar Gumrahe, Zakariae Moujazi, Yousef Fihri, Eya Mah-rough and Sanae Aljem. A major part of the translation in the section of historic evolution of Tunis was provided by Sofien Dhif. I thank Anton Escher for his generosity in making available the detailed maps of Fez al-Bl. The advice of Hasan Radione, Assia Lamza, Nora Lafi, David Amster, Maryam Ghasemi and Ahmad Montazer gave me an enormously helpful introduction to each of the case study cities and neighbourhoods. I am grateful to them for this, and to Kamal Raftani for patiently responding my questions about Fez. My special thanks also go to Alex Hollingsworth, previously at Routledge, who believed in the book, and Sade Lee, Aoife McGrath and Kerry Boettcher who supported me to its completion. I am also sincerely grateful to Ahoora Baranian, Mohsen Sadeghi, Marie-Louise Karttunen, Cody Valdes and Wael Itani for their valuable help at different stages of the work. My especial thanks also go to the Gerda Henkel Foundation, Berlin Institute of Technology (TU Berlin) and German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for their financial support which made the fieldwork possible. I am thankful to the Iran Cultural Heritage, Handcrafts and Tourism Organization, the branches in Isfahan and Tehran; Association de Sauvegarde de la Mdina de Tunis (ASM); LAgence pour le Dveloppement et la Rhabilitation de la ville de Fs (ADER-Fez); Naghsh-i Jahan Pars Consultation and Isfahan Organic Consultation for providing permission to use their archives and databanks.