IMC 2007: Sessions

Paper a: By re-innovating ancient methods and expressing them in the time, Al Buyid government caused lots of social movement in space organization field of their governing city so much that this period is called source of urbanization and urban thought in Iran. City texture is based on a square in the middle around which hall of audience, markets, and mosques are located and city localities are expanded around the central unit and market without any ethnical and religious priority.
In contrast with free thinking city of Buyid government, in court government of Seljukian, city is constructed based on belief and social order. Space order of city, with the concept of ancient district division, are located beside each other as governing centers, grandness and nobles localities, returned city market and localities and city localities based on social, economical, and cultural conditions. This paper studies on the two periods regarding organizational order, city texture, and body.
Paper b: Following the conquest of Istanbul a new cultural, social and political process had begun in the city. Istanbul presents a unique case to accommodate changes and also continuations in its social, political, architectural and cultural aspects. This situation is well represented in the city fabric and silhouette. One of the examples of continuation is the transformation of Cosmidion as the holy shrine of Constantinople to Eyup Sultan, the holy place of the Ottoman Istanbul. Thus, the main function of the city continues in spite of the radical change in the city's history. This paper aims to discuss how powerful the myth, beliefs and also the history of the place to define the patterns of worship, cults, pilgrimage and cultural exchange in the case of Eyup Sultan, the principle holy shrine and pilgrimage site of the city throughout the history.
Paper c: In general, the physical growth of the Anatolian cities recently conquered, was often supported and directed by the Ottoman sultans by constructing a külliye as a socio-cultural nucleus of a new residential district in the urban fringe. These külliyes were complexes, including several buildings that provided a variety of social and welfare services in and for the mahalle (quarter) where they were situated. The urban growth of Bursa was realised by establishing five imperial külliyes between 14th and 15th centuries as icons of imperial power and legitimacy. The conquest of Constantinople marks an irreversible change on the physical growth of Bursa, so the city's perimeter remained approximately the same until the beginning of the 20th century. The mainly purpose of this paper is to shed light on the reasons of this transformation through all the available sources.
Paper d: The Iranian urban centres during the medieval era in the 7th to 11th Centuries were mainly small settlements with semi-independent governance system. These are the early cities of the Islamic period in Iran. Both structure and morphology of these cities are influenced by the political system and the new cultural milieu. Establishment of the new urban nucleus adjacent to the earlier pre Islamic period urban centres is the pattern in this period. The paper would enlighten on structure and urban elements as well as the morphological patterns of the new urban settlements during this era.