Shaded and lit streets, hotels and commercial malls Imran the Islamic city

Speaking about France in the eleventh century AH/16 CE; The American historian of civilizations Will Durant (d. 1402 AH / 1981 AD) described - in his famous book 'The Story of Civilization' - the utter darkness in which she was engulfed by "the [French] cities that are still not lit at night", especially the capital Paris!!

The same was the case in Italy, where "the main streets in the cities  were rarely lit at night"!! As for the Islamic metropolis, to the west and east, they were - as will come from his testimony in his texts - full of lights in the darkness of their nights  shaded streets during their daytime migration!!

No time traveler can surmise the profound amazement that will befall him when he tours the history of the urbanization of the Islamic city. Muslims knew the concept of “city” at a very early age with the Prophet’s diaspora, and understood how it constituted the basic building block for the establishment of a major central state, as no civilization and a state that moves at a breathtaking speed and civilized flourishes - as it actually happened - will not exist without a deep urbanization and urbanization basis.

From the start; The call to emigrate towards “Madina” and abandon the desert was from the Prophet’s guidance that is binding on the majority of those entering Islam, as well as civil awareness was present in planning and construction from the moment the Prophet, peace be upon him, disembarked from his she-camel “Al-Qaswa” while he was planning the construction of the new city! His interest was directed towards twinning between the mosque and the market, and controlling the demographic balance by integrating the immigrants and the Ansar in a brotherhood of faith and civil neighborhood that the Arab metropolis had not known before.

The Islamic city is a human space in which the human, urbanization and perfection are employed in an aesthetic reciprocal manner that achieves each other, as the mosque erects a beacon that overlooks the city, and inspires the movement of its residents in its disciplined streets paved for traffic, with what this means is the removal of harm from it. Islam considers it among the peoples of faith, and during that The movement of clean water through the systems of fountains, fountains, and groups of waterers!

Although the military dimension was present in the emergence of many Islamic cities during the conquest era; Militarism did not defeat the civil spirit in Kufa, Basra, and Fustat, where civil awareness remained predominant in science circles, thought councils, and literature forums, so arts arose, knowledge and sciences were codified, flags emerged in every discipline, and imams of every sect and current were at the fore.

With the transformation of the Islamic state from agriculture to trade; Markets and industry workshops became pillars of urbanization. The movement of money and goods became active, crafts and industries flourished, religions and cultures converged, and sects and sects coexisted.

Who is around that and for the benefit of all? Endless arrays of public utilities were organized in the form of government departments, scientific institutions, health facilities, and service centers. And that, in short, is the story of this article that he tells you in a way that we claim is new in its substance and intensity.

An inspiring experience

The goal of Islam from urban urbanization to the consolidation of the principle of brotherhood and solidarity; Before the emigration, the city was divided into separate residential quarters, between forts for the Jews and sites for the Aws and others for their opponents the Khazraj. Thus, the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, “came to Medina and its people were mixtures: among them were the Muslims who were united by the call of Islam, and among them were the [Jews] who were the people of the circle (= arms) and the fortresses, and among them were allies of all the two neighborhoods, al-Aws and al-Khazraj. )"; According to Al-Waqidi (d. 207 AH/822 AD) in his book 'Al-Maghazi'.

The first urban activity undertaken by the Messenger of God, peace be upon him, was that he “built his mosque and residences” for his wives around him; According to Ibn Hisham al-Himyari (d. 213 AH / 828 AD) in 'The Prophet's Biography'. Then he, peace be upon him, began settling people in spaces of space near the mosque, so that it would be their qiblah and a symbol of their unity. Al-Dur”, each of the neighborhoods was inhabited by members of one tribe or clan.

With this purpose, the urban planning features of the Islamic city model have become evident since the era of the Prophet, which is the harnessing of urbanization to combine the strengthening of ties of kinship and the dissolution of tribal differences, so that the mosque is the ideological and social symbol of its inhabitants. Around him, their homes and neighborhoods are adjacent to each other, and with him their personalities and their groups meet, and in its vastness their ranks and their hearts unite.

The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, was also keen that the whole city would have one market so that Muslims would be freed from economic dependence on the Jews of Madinah who were the masters of life in trade and industry before the migration; It was stated in “Imta’ al-Asma’” by al-Maqrizi (d. 845 AH / 1441 AD) that the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, came to “the place of the Nabet, and he said: This is your market! So Ka’b bin Al-Ashraf (leader of the Jews, d. 3 AH / 625 AD), entered it and cut its cords (= the ropes of its tents) The Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, said: There is no crime (= no doubt), because we will move it to a place that is more annoying to him than this, so he moved it to the place of the city market, then he said: This is your market!

The city’s topography included roads linking its neighborhoods and areas with the Prophet’s Mosque, according to what we find in the expression “a railroad of the city” mentioned in some hadiths of the Musnad of Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal (d. 645 AD) he used to "roam the city's railways" to check on the parish; According to Ibn Shabbah (d. 262 AH/876 AD) in 'Tarikh al-Madina'.

It was from the arrangement of the administrative organization of the city that the Prophet, peace be upon him, allocated a house in it for the guests of individuals and delegations of the tribes, so he placed it in one of the spacious houses that was owned by Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf (d. The guest house"; According to Ibn Shab also.

The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, paid special attention to the water security of the inhabitants of the first capital of the Islamic state. He urged the owners of money from among the Companions to buy fresh water wells and make them a public benefit dependent on the general Muslims, which is what Caliph Othman bin Affan (d. Did you know that the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, came to Madinah, and there was no water in it to torture except for the well of Rumah? The Messenger of God, peace and blessings of God be upon him, said: Who would buy the well of Rumah and put his bucket with the buckets of the Muslims for something better for him in Paradise? So I bought it from my solid money.” (Sunan al-Tirmidhi).

New eras

after the death of the Prophet, peace be upon him, and the beginning of the Islamic conquests at the end of the era of Caliph Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq (d. 13 AH / 635 CE), and the expansion of the activity of these conquests in the era of Caliph Omar Ibn Al-Khattab on the fronts of Iraq, Persia, the Levant and Egypt, the need has become urgent to establish cities that serve as advanced military bases for the Conquest armies.

The beginning of the era of "Islamic cities" in southern Iraq was the establishment of Kufa and Basra, which Imam al-Tabari (d. 310 AH / 922 AD) dates to their founding in the year 17 AH / 639 AD; The urban planning in them - by order of Caliph Omar Al-Faruq - was a quotation from the prophetic model for the planning of Medina, which is the model that will follow - to a large extent - the builders of new cities in Islam during the first century AH / seventh century AD, such as Fustat (21 AH / 643 AD) and Kairouan (50 AH / 671 AD) and Wasit (75 AH / 695 AD).

Rather, the ancient cities that the Muslims conquered and settled in - such as the cities of Persia, Khorasan, the Levant, and Egypt - the conquerors marched in them, imitating the urban prophetic approach in sending fighters and soldiers to the ruined plans and establishing the new ones, without interfering with the plans of the original inhabitants; For example, the city of Homs was divided “plans among the Muslims until they settled in it, and settled them [and its ruler] in every rejected (sic?) and perhaps: inhabited) its people (= displaced) or an abandoned square”; As the historian Al-Baladhuri (d. 279 AH/892 AD) tells us in 'Futuh al-Buldan'.

After the era of the Rightly-Guided Conquests and the subsequent increase in new Muslim groups, and the transformation of the cities of the conquest armies - such as Kufa, Basra and Fustat - into civilized cities in which social, cultural and religious currents mingle, and their mosques spread Sharia sciences and literature, and crafts and industries flourish in their markets; There was a need to establish new cities that accommodate all these variables, and other developments that sometimes took a political and security nature to maintain power in new cities that were closer to the mentality and function of castles, away from the grievances of opponents of opinion or revolutionaries with weapons.

Thus, the capitals of the Islamic Caliphate and its independent states during the subsequent centuries, such as Baghdad, Cairo and Mahdia in Tunisia, Al-Zahra and Al-Zahra in Andalusia, Fez, Marrakesh and Rabat in the Far Maghreb; It became a new model for the political Islamic city until the dawn of the modern era, as it was established primarily to be royal cities, outside its walls, a group of suburbs and neighborhoods inhabited by the public grew, and in the middle were palaces and castles of the ruling class, away from the centers of political turmoil and the ancient capitals of opponents and opponents.

In addition to the military and political capitals, and the economic cities that served them, often stationed on the coasts of seas and rivers; The geography of the Islamic world has embraced the holy religious capitals represented by Makkah Al-Mukarramah, Al-Madinah Al -Munawwarah and Al -Quds Al-Sharif , which has been distinguished by its great and multiply position in the hearts of Muslims since the dawn of Islamic history, given that the holiness of two of them (Mecca and Al-Quds) preceded the advent of Islam by many centuries.

A civilized system,

despite the diversity of the functions of these cities and the varying political status of them in size and civilizational contribution; All of them remained united by common factors that made them - to a large extent - suggest the existence of an urban and civilizational system derived from a single religious reference. Thus, we will find in the subsequent paragraphs what united these metropolises - regardless of their cities and hurricanes - in terms of planning, management, facilities, services, lifestyle and outlook on life.

The issue of attention to religious, social, health and other public facilities has been linked to the responsibilities of the ruling authority - in the first place - since the early period of Islamic history, those functions defined by Islamic political theory with the necessity of achieving “the purposes of Sharia,” which are based on creating and preserving the “interests of the people” in its three degrees: Necessities, necessities, and enhancements/luxuries.

The Umayyad Caliph Al-Waleed bin Abd al-Malik (d. 96 AH / 716 AD) was “one who increased and built mosques, so he built (= expanded and developed) the Grand Mosque, the Mosque of Medina, the Mosque of Quba, and the Mosque of Damascus, and the first to dig water on the road from Mecca to the Levant, and the first to The work of bimaristans for the sick", according to Ibn al-Faqih al-Hamdani (d. 365 AH / 976 AD) in his book 'Countries'.

Proceeding from those responsibilities and the powers they mean; The attention of the caliphs, princes and governors to public utilities and services of all kinds was evident within the Islamic cities preceding Islam and emerging in it. City.

The regulating philosophy of urbanization in the Islamic society required that it be centered around the mosque as the expression of the supreme goal among the “objectives of the Sharia,” which is the goal of religion, which means the existence of a supreme legislative reference to which everyone is judged. Its various departments, which sum up: self-preservation, money development, and what is related to the realization of those interests from homes, markets, and official administrative, security and service institutions (educational, health and relief).

When the city of Kufa was established in the year 17 AH / 639 AD, the first "thing was written   [in it] and built - when they decided to build - the mosque." Then, Saad bin Abi Waqqas (d. 55 AH / 676 AD) placed the public treasury next to the mosque to be guarded by everyone, So he made the "houses of money from it to the end of the palace (= the house of the emirate)"; As Tabari mentions in his history.

And when the construction of Baghdad was completed in 149 AH/767 CE, the palace was built in the “middle of Rahba” (= the central square) the palace.. Next to the palace was the Jami Mosque, and there was no building around the palace.. the police, and in the other the owner of the guard”; According to the historian Al-Yaqubi (d. 292 AH / 905 AD) in his book 'Countries'.

Central components

Moreover, each of these cities was distinguished by the presence of a central square in its midst, in which the central official institutions of society, governance, and administration were often stationed, on top of which were the university mosques and the palaces of rulers, and next to them were state institutions such as the headquarters of the guard and the police, and the financial administration such as the “Bait Al-Mal” institution and Dar al-Darb, which is the mint authority or the central bank in our words today.

The traveler merchant Ibn Hawqal al-Mawsili (d. 364 AH / 975 AD) tells us about the minimum level of the components of the local administration in the cities he visited other than the capitals; He says, for example, that the cities of Khorasan in the days of the Samanid state, each of them “was not without a judge, a postal owner, a Bandar (= wholesaler), a helper (= a police chief)  and owners of news (= spies) and hail who finish (= deliver) their news. (= employees) to the owner of their side (= district official), and collectors for kharaj and guarantees” i.e. government financial resources.

We often find a broad and clever description of the types of public facilities - governmental and private - in travel books from the third century AH / ninth century AD until after the eighth century AH / 14 AD, in which the "Sheikh of the Travelers" Ibn Battuta Al-Maghribi (d. 779 AH / 1378 AD) took care of monitoring what He saw it from service facilities in the East and West of the Islamic world for three decades, and so he often describes - on his journey - a city he visited with such a sentence: "Its huge benefits, many corners, schools and mosques, it has good markets."

Among the texts that show the diversity of public facilities facilities that were contained in Islamic cities throughout the ages, and their juxtaposition in a clear indicative harmony in its combination of religious and worldly interests; What Al-Maqrizi provides us - in “Al-Mawā’at wa’l-I’tibar” - speaking about Cairo, he says that it included “orchards and landscapes (= parks), palaces and houses, quarters (= shops), and qaysar (= malls), markets, hotels and inns ( = small hotels/hostels), bathrooms, streets, alleys, paths, plans, lanes, hills (= plural hekr: endowed from property/land), mosques, mosques, nooks and crannies, sights, schools, soils (= cemeteries) and shops.”

These cities would not have been stable and continued except by ensuring water security for their residents and the availability of water in them at all times; Therefore, they are either cities built on rivers, such as Baghdad on the Tigris, and Cairo on the Nile, or they are close to springs and wells, such as Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem and others, and for this reason people expanded in exploiting the sites of their cities, and if they were on the rivers, the profession of waterers spread to bring them water from the rivers. to the general public.

We found in “Baghdad Roundabout” built by the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mansur (d. 158 AH / 776 AD) the “Warriors’ Railroad”, which extended from Bab al-Basra in the south to Bab Khorasan in the east. Among the scholars, one of the oldest among them was Bahr ibn Kunaiz al-Saqqa al-Bahili (d. 160 AH / 778 AD).

Ibn al-Faqih al-Hamdani talks about the city of Samarra - which was the capital of the Abbasid state between 221-279 AH / 836-892 AD - he says that "a group of those in it drank from the Great River, and I might have seen it - if it was very hot and the diaspora  - and the narrator (= a bag) water) in some places at times at two dirhams (= today approximately three US dollars) and more.

Water networks,

as the Persian traveler Nasir Khusraw (d. 481 AH/1088 AD) - in his journey 'Safarnama' - tells us about the watering system in Fatimid Cairo during the forties of the fifth century AH / 11 AD; He says: "Drinking water is fetched from the Nile, brought by bartenders on camels, and wells near the Nile have sweet water, and those far from it have salt."

The number of these waterers has expanded over time with the increase in the population in the cities; Nasir Khusraw conveys what the people say that “in Cairo and Egypt fifty-two thousand camels on which the bartenders carry narrations, and these are except for those who carry water on his back in copper jars or sacks, and that is in the narrow alleys in which camels do not walk.”

Despite the significant decline in their numbers after the Khosrow era; It remained huge, as we can see from the traveler Ibn Battuta’s estimate of their numbers when he visited Cairo in the year 726 AH / 1326 AD, he said that there are “of the waterers on camels twelve thousand, and that there are thirty thousand miscreants (= beasts).”

It is striking that some Islamic cities had advanced networks of underground water channels that supplied the homes and shops of these cities with fresh water, which was addressed by Ibn Khaldun (d. 808 AH / 1405 AD) - in the 'Introduction' - talking about how to bring water to the cities and deliver it And their introduction into homes through the "channels leading to (= leading) to homes".

Ibn al-Faqih al-Hamdani provides us with accurate details about the engineering of Baghdad's aqueducts, and he says about one of them that it "enters the city and runs through most of the streets (= neighborhoods/suburbs) that run in summer and winter. The city of Nishapur, the capital of Khorasan, also possessed an advanced network of “cannabis that flows underground, cold in the summer  that appear in the desert and you water it, and some of them appear in the country and circulate in the shops (= neighborhoods)”; According to Ibn Hawqal.

And the Andalusian traveler Ibn Jubayr Al-Balancey (d. 614 AH / 1217 AD) - in his book of his journey - mentions that when he visited the city of Alexandria in the year 581 AH / 1188 AD, he found that "water from the Nile penetrates all its homes and alleys underground, so the wells connect to each other and extend each other."

The forts and cities of Andalusia - especially those that were not built on rivers - were famous for the ease of digging their wells and the proximity of their waters to the surface of the earth, such as the coastal city of Malaga on the Mediterranean, which was "many wells   and its people drank from wells", as well as the impregnable fortress of Bashtar - which was far About 150 km away from Cordoba - his area was “drilling wells with the easiest work and toil”; According to Ibn Abd al-Moneim al-Humairi (died after 710 AH / 1310 AD) in 'The Characteristic of the Island of Andalusia'.

Security efficiency

In order to preserve people’s blood, honor, property and trade, and to protect public security. The security aspect gained great importance when establishing these cities; The establishment of the police apparatus - since its first seeds in the era of the Rightly-Guided Caliphate and its aftermath - had its central place in protecting the internal security in Islamic cities, whether established by Muslims or the ancient cities that they annexed to the countries of Islam during the era of conquests.

Within these cities, permanent police stations were allocated, one of which was known as the "Police Council", which is often located next to the city's prisons institution , as we find in Al-Yaqubi's description - in the 'countries' - of Baghdad's layout; He stated that the "greatest street" in it included "the police council and the great prison, people's homes and markets on this street on the right and left." He also linked the "police rail  and the railroad of al-Mutabbaq, which contains the greatest prison, which is called the "Mutabbaq", a well-built and well-built fence."

Streets may have been named after the police headquarters in which they are located, as is the case of the “police rail” in Baghdad, which was located “from the gate of Basra to the gate of Kufa”; Also according to Al-Yaqoubi. In the fourth AH/10th century AD, “Muawiya’s green house [in Damascus] was his house [turned into] the police council and the beating house”; According to Al-Hasan Al-Azizi (d. 380 AH / 991 AD) in his book 'The Paths and Kingdoms'.

With the passage of time, the capabilities of this apparatus were strengthened to pursue thieves and criminals and to seize their gangs. In the succession of Harun al-Wathiq al-Abbasid (d. 232 AH / 847 AD) it happened that in the year 231 AH / 846 AD, "a people of thieves excavated the house of money that is in the public house in the hollow of the palace, and took forty-two thousand Of the dirhams (= today approximately 60 thousand US dollars), and a few dinars, so they were taken after, and their taking was followed by Yazid Al-Halwani (d. after 235 AH / 849 AD), the owner of the police”, that is, the general manager of its institution.

It seems that the levels of the functional hierarchy in the police force were clearly defined, as indicated by the details of the arrest story of the Abbasid Emir Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi (d. 224 AH / 839 AD), who declared himself a caliph in 202 AH / 817 AD, then disappeared as a chaser until he was arrested in the year 210 AH / 825 AD, and he mentioned an incident The arrest of Ibn al-Atheer (d. 630 AH / 1233 AD) and Ibn Khaldun in their two histories.

According to the events of that story; The responsibilities of the police force started with the “guards” or “the owners of the steel” (street patrols), who reported or arrested them to the “owner of the armed forces” (the checkpoint), and then transferred them to the “bridge owner” or the “police council” (the security center in the region). ), to complete the follow-up procedures and review the higher authorities, including the Caliph himself.

The accumulation of security expertise led to the development of the management of the police force, which was now entrusted to a director general of security whose title was changed from “the owner of the police,” so it became called “Shinah al-Madina” or “the Shankiyah,” and one of the most famous statesmen in Baghdad was Imad al-Din Zangi (d. 569 AH / 1173 AD), and his assumption of responsibility in the year 521 AH / 1127 AD was the first step in his fame and leadership, and what led to his founding of the Zangid state based on his imitation of the Wilayat of Mosul in the year 522 AH / 1128 AD.

Flourishing markets

and the keenness of the builders of the new Islamic cities to allocate places for markets and the movement of trade and economy ; The markets were mostly located near the mosques; Where large areas or squares were allocated to it, some of which were roofed, and some were open to all merchants, and the Caliph Al-Faruq believed that “the markets are according to the Sunnah of the mosques, whoever precedes to a seat is his until he gets up from it to his house or finishes selling it”; As al-Tabari tells us.

But later on, these markets became designated plans, lanes, sheds, and hotels, and we see the responsibility for this planning on the shoulders of the caliphs, governors, and public officials; The geographer al-Ya’qubi tells that when the Abbasid Caliph al-Mansur established Baghdad, he called his statesmen, so he explained to them “what he decreed for shops and markets in every neighborhood (= neighborhood/suburb), and ordered them to expand in the shops so that in every quarter there would be a university market that brings together trade.”

When Yazid bin Hatim Al-Muhallabi Al-Azdi (d. 170 AH / 786 AD) came as Abbasia governor of the Islamic West region, starting from Tunisia, and entered Kairouan in the year 155 AH / 773 AD, what he reorganized was that he “arranged its markets and singled out a place for each industry”; According to Al-Nasiri Al-Salawi (d. 1315 AH / 1898 AD) in 'The Investigation of the News of the Far Maghreb'.

And when the founder of the Idrisid state in the Far Maghreb, Prince Idris I bin Abdullah Al-Alawi (d. 177 AH / 793 AD) established the city of Fez in the year 172 AH / 798 AD, then he created the enemy of the villagers in 192 AH / 808 AD “Bani Al-Qaysariyya (= a mall / mall) next to the mosque the mosque, and managed the markets around it.” According to Slaoui.

The greater the capacity of cities throughout history - with the increase in population and urbanization - the greater the movement of trade, and the need to establish new specialized markets; Thus, "the transformation of the Caliphate in the eighth and ninth centuries AD (= the second and third Hijri) from a military agricultural state to a non-local global state with intensive commercial and industrial life, [which] led to the growth of large cities and the concentration of capital and labor , and the Islamic city turned From a military city to a market and “bourse”, it also turned - in due course - into a center of a thriving and diverse urban culture; According to the book 'Summary of the Islamic Encyclopedia' issued by the Dutch Brill Foundation.

Examples of the great expansion of commercial movement within Islamic cities include; What al-Maqrizi mentions - in 'Al-Moawa'at wa al-I'tibar' - is that "the city of Egypt (= Fustat) and Cairo and its outward appearances of the markets were very many, most of them had vanished; (Outside the walls of Western Cairo): Fifty-two markets, which we realized are full, in which there are about sixty stores (the sum of these markets’ stores = 3000 stores!!). ".

In light of these enormous economic and commercial data - which pertain to the capital of one Islamic country - one understands what the American historian Will Durant (d. 1402 AH / 1981 AD) concluded regarding the supremacy of the ancient Islamic civilization to the world in the field of finance and business, when he says - in 'The Story of Civilization' - It was “Baghdad and Cordoba in the ninth century (AD/3rd AH) centers of industry and trade exchange, almost matching the speed and madness of their movement, any of the metropolises these days (= the twentieth century)!!”

Knowledge development

and reconstruction was not limited to educational, health and relief public facilities, road networks and their various services; Rather, we saw great interest in aspects of cognitive development, and at the forefront of its efforts was the establishment of schools with diverse scientific disciplines and sectarian and sectarian affiliations.

Durant also tells us admiringly of the great spread of educational institutions throughout the Islamic world; He says that "Cairo, Alexandria, Beit al-Maqdis, Baalbek, Aleppo, Damascus, Mosul, Homs, Tus, Nishapur - and many other cities - were proud of their great schools, and in Baghdad alone in 1064 AD (= 455 AH) thirty schools of this type, to which the king's regime (the minister) added Al-Saljuqi d. 485 AH/1092AD) .. Another school that surpasses it all in its capacity and the grandeur of its construction and equipment, and one of the travelers describes it as the most beautiful building in the whole city!!

Durant describes the regular school in Baghdad - which opened its doors to students at the end of the year 459 AH/1066 AD - and the comprehensive facilities and services it was provided with; He says: "This last school contained four schools of Islamic law (= the four schools of jurisprudence) separated from each other, in which students find education, food and medical care for free, and each of them is given on top of that a golden dinar (= today approximately $200) for what he needs. Among the other expenses. The school had a hospital, a bathroom, and a library, open doors for free for students and teaching staff!!

In fact, the regular school was only a link in a series of many schools established by the reformed minister Nizam al-Malik , who brought about a major historical renaissance in the field of education that covered the most important cities of the Seljuk state with an extension of about 5000 km. Baghdad, Basra, Mosul, Nishapur, Isfahan, Merv, Herat and Balkh.

Related to the field of knowledge development is the establishment of public libraries that were either linked to or independent of schools in mosques or private places. The major “official” libraries in the Islamic world became famous in this regard, such as the “House of Wisdom” founded by the Abbasids in Baghdad, the “Dar Al-Ilm” established in Cairo during the Fatimid days, and the “Treasury of Science” that adorned Cordoba in the Umayyad state in Andalusia.

These libraries offered their various services (internal reading and external borrowing) to the public even in remote cities; This, for example, is the Buyihi minister Bahram bin Mavenah (d. 433 AH/1043 AD) who is establishing in the city of “Firouzabad (= located today in western Iran) a bookcase containing seven thousand volumes ”; According to Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 597 AH / 1201 AD) in 'Al Muntazim'.

When the Mufti of Baghdad, the scholar Shihab al-Din al-Alusi (d. 1270 AH / 1853 AD), visited Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire in 1262 AH / 1846 AD; He mentioned - in his book 'The Oddities of Alienation' - that it alone contains a total of "five hundred and eighteen schools and thirty-five libraries"!!

Health care The health care

centers were among the greatest public service facilities that characterized the capitals and major metropolises of the Islamic world, east and west. The ancients called these hospitals names of Persian origin, calling them “the bimaristans” or “maristans,” and sometimes they called them “the house of healing” or “the house of the sick.”

The statesmen gave their care to establish these health institutions, which provided free treatment services for all diseases (both physical and mental) to their visitors, regardless of their groups and affiliations, which made a great Western historian such as Will Durant admit - in the 'civilization story' - that "Islam led The whole world is preparing good hospitals and supplying them with their needs!!

The historian Al-Maqrizi, for example, provided us - in “Al-Mawwa’at wa’l-I’tibar” - with the names of the number of major marsats/hospitals that were established in the Egyptian capitals - from Fustat to Cairo - during four centuries until his era, noting that some of them were studied before his time, and all of them were established by princes, sultans and ministers. The practices he mentioned are in chronological order:

Maristan al-Maghfir, whose establishment was ordered by Al-Fath bin Khaqan (d. 247 AH/861 AD), the minister of the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mutawakkil (d. 247 AH/861 AD), and Maristan Ibn Tulun, which was built by Prince Ahmed bin Tulun (d. 270 AH/883 AD), founder of the Tulunid state, and Maristan Kafour Al-Ikhshidi (d. 357 AH). /968 AD) the last of the actual rulers of the Ikhshidid state, and the Al-Mansuri Marstan, which was established by the Mamluk Sultan Al-Mansur Qalawun (d. 689 AH / 1290 AD), and the Al-Muayyad Marstan, which was established by the Sultan Al-Muayyad Sheikh Al-Mahmudi (d. 824 AH / 1421 AD).

Durant provides us with historical data summarizing the greatness of these institutions and their services in four major Islamic capitals, stressing that "in all the large Islamic cities there were sanatoriums for people with mental illnesses"; He says that "the Bimaristan, which was established by Nur al-Din (Mahmoud Sultan of the Zangiah state, d. 569 AH / 1173 AD) in Damascus in 1160 AD (= 555 AH) has been treating patients for three centuries without payment and providing them with medicine without a price, and historians say that his fire [in which he prepares food and medicine] The patients] have been burning for 267 years!!

He says that "when Ibn Jubayr came to Baghdad in the year 1184 AD (= 580 AH), he was astonished by its great Bimaristan, which was above - as high as royal palaces - on the shore of the Jella River, and who was feeding the sick and providing them with medicine without a price!! In Cairo, Sultan [Mansur] Qalawun began in 1285 AD (= 684 AH) the construction of Bimaristan al-Mansur, the greatest hospital of the Middle Ages at all!!

Regarding this hospital of the Mamluk Sultan al-Mansur Qalawun, Durant provides very accurate and surprising details; He says that "it contained separate sections for various diseases, and others for convalescents, analysis laboratories, pharmacy, outpatient clinics, kitchens, bathrooms, a library, a mosque for prayer, a lecture hall, and places for people with mental illnesses that were provided with views that please the eye."

He added that "patients were treated in it without pay, whether they were men or women, rich or poor, slaves or free men, and every patient was given upon his discharge - after his recovery - a sum of money so that he would not have to work to earn his living immediately after leaving it, and it was Those who suffer from insomnia listen to calm music, professional storytellers, and are sometimes given historical books to read “to gain knowledge or to pass the time!!”

Urban structure

and in the field of urban infrastructure services; The Muslims took care - when establishing cities - in planning streets and alleys as the public space that must be suitable for the movement of residents and passengers; When the Muslims began building the city of Kufa in the year 17 AH / 639 AD, the Caliph Omar al-Faruq specified for them the dimensions of the width of its main and medium streets and its small alleys.

In this, the Andalusian geographer Abu Obaid al-Bakri (d. 487 AH/1094 AD) - in 'The Paths and Kingdoms' - narrates that Al-Faruq ordered his rulers in the new cities that "the [great] road should be forty cubits (18-20 metres), and twenty less than that, and the alleys Seven arms, and nothing less than that.. So the people of opinion gathered in appreciation" to implement those directives.

Perhaps Al-Faruq took comfort in putting the minimum width of the streets in the hadith of the Prophet, peace be upon him: “If you differ on the road, its width will be made seven cubits.” (Sahih Muslim). The fuqaha’ stated that this hadith relates to “the courtyards, if the people in it want the building, then their path is made seven cubits wide for loads and loads to enter, exit and meet”; According to Imam Al-Nawawi (d. 676 AH / 1277 AD) in 'Sharh Muslim'.

In the same way, al-Mansur al-Abbasid proceeded in planning the streets of Baghdad, but he increased the width of the streets beyond what was determined by al-Faruq in anticipation of the different times and circumstances of the new capital from the cities of the Futuh era. So he ordered the engineers “to make in every quarter of the rails and paths the window (= open at both ends) and the one that is not in the window, what equals the houses…, and he limited them to make the width of the streets fifty cubits (= 25 meters)…, and the paths sixteen cubits”; According to Yaqubi.

The streets and alleys widened as the walls surrounded the cities; As the walls affected the determination of the area of ​​the walled city, its narrowness had an impact on the construction of public facilities that usually need large areas outside the walls, for example, the Eid chapels, cemeteries, parade grounds, places for organizing public celebrations and sports games , and weekly markets whose locations are closely related to a large extent. Inside the city through the main streets and their outer gates.

The walls of the cities were taken to defend them from external invasion; Therefore, it was provided with watchtowers, the number of which was determined by the geographical location of the city and how close it was to the danger centers. The historian Ibn Taghri Bardi (d. 874 AH / 1469 AD) - in the 'Brilliant Stars' - describes the city of Cordoba - the days of the Umayyads in Andalusia - saying that "with its wall there were three hundred towers"!!

These walls were also equipped with gates that allow cities to communicate with other countries and metropolises, for example, that the city of Istanbul had a wall that was "high in general and it has today - approximately - twenty-eight doors"; According to the scholar Shihab al-Din al-Alusi in his book 'The Oddities of Alienation'.

Paving and shading

The paving or paving of the streets has been associated with the emergence of Islamic cities since the time of the Companions, although it remained uneven - in its presence and types - from one city to another. Perhaps the first events in its creation were those that witnessed in Madinah during the era of Muawiyah bin Abi Sufyan (d. 60 AH / 681 AD), when “Marwan bin Al-Hakam (the governor of Medina and the fourth Umayyad caliph, d. 65 AH / 686 AD) laid the tiles by the order of Muawiyah” in the areas surrounding the Prophet’s Mosque. .

The interest in paving the streets continued on a large scale, so that not large cities got their luck, as we find it in the Tunisian city of Gafsa, whose streets were in the third century AH / ninth century AD “furnished with tiles and surrounded by many buildings”, according to Al-Yaqoubi in his book 'Countries'.

in the following century; The traveler Ibn Hawqal - in his book "The Image of the Earth" - monitors the phenomenon of paving the streets - to the point of dressing and dressing - in a number of major cities that he visited during his thirty-year trips, and he says, for example, about Alexandria: "It has roads furnished with types of marble and colored stone." He informs us that "all the roads of Homs - from its markets and railways - are paved with tiled stones."

Rather, they were not satisfied with paving the streets, but sought to roof them to protect passersby from the heat of the sun; This historian Will Durant tells us - in his book 'The Story of Civilization', quoting the Persian traveler Nasir Khusraw - that in Fatimid Cairo, "the great streets were shaded by the glow of the sun" at the height of the emigration!!

They also dealt with the problem of rainwater and the like on the roads, using methods that are generally included in the procedures of the "sewage and sewage system"; The historian Al-Samhoudi (d. 911 AH / 1505 AD) tells us - in his book 'Wafa al-Wafa' - about the problem of rain water gathering in Medina, especially around the Prophet's Mosque. around the mosque to fill those sewers, so that in front of the mosque’s doors it becomes like great treachery.”

Al-Samhoudi then explained how this problem was solved; He said that ""the guardian of architecture" (= the chief government construction official) dug a swarm (= a ditch) for those cesspools that are at the doors of the [Prophet's] mosque, and connected them to the swarm in which the dirt of the [aquatic] eye ​​travels; thus, he achieved the ultimate benefit, and the water did not stand still. After that, the doors of the mosque.

Spotlights

and street services include lighting them at night with lights for those walking in them. Lighting was of multiple sources and types, including candles, torches, small and huge lanterns, and colored glass lamps; Many of the homes of the rich who were located in the streets were equipped with means of lighting hanging from the sides of the houses, their balconies, and their roofs, and their strength and density were sufficient for their lights to flood the streets and alleys around them.

One of the oldest images of this in the major Islamic cities is what Yaqut al-Hamawi tells us - in “Mu’jam al-Buldan” - about “Alley of Lanterns” in Cairo and the reason for calling it this; He says that "it was called so because it was [in] the houses of the nobles (= notables of society) and there were lamps at their doors, and [in the beginning] it was called 'The Alley of the Nobles'" because it was inhabited by the state and the people.

And it was stated in the translation of Al-Qadi Ayyad (d. 544 AH / 1149 AD) by the hadith Imam Abu al-Walid al-Baji al-Andalusi (d. 474 AH/1081 AD) - in 'Taran al-Madarak' - that he "hired himself for the period of his stay in Baghdad [seeking knowledge] - as I heard extensively - to guard the path (= Street), and he used his rent at his expense and his light for his reading!!

This text informs us of important matters; Including the presence of lighting in the paths, the strength of which is such that science books with fine lines can be read on them, and the existence of the profession of “guarding paths” carried out by guards who guard the entrances to the streets, especially in high-end residential neighborhoods, and that it was a profession open to strangers - students of science and others - as well It is available to the people of the country.

With the sailing of Islamic civilization; Its capitals have reached a great level in lighting their cities and lighting their streets, which is confirmed by this highly significant text narrated by trustworthy people and depicting the breadth of the illumination of the city of Cordoba in the days when it was the capital of the Islamic state in Andalusia. The historian Abd al-Wahed al-Marrakchi (d. 647 AH / 1249 AD) said in 'The admirer in summarizing the news of Morocco': "I heard in the country of Andalusia - without one of its sheikhs - that the walker used to light the saddles of Cordoba three leagues (= approximately 15 km) from which the light does not stop." !!

What Al-Marrakchi told about the intensity of the lights in the streets of Cordoba seems to be - as exaggerated as it may be - it has become accepted by Western historians without denial or skepticism; This historian Will Durant describes - in his book 'The Story of Civilization' - the Umayyad Cordoba in the fourth century AH / 10 AD, saying: "The streets were paved, each with two lanes (= two sidewalks) on both sides, lit during the night, and a person could travel at night ten miles. (= 16 km) by the light of street lamps, and between two uninterrupted rows of buildings!!

And the civilizational significance of what Durant proved - admiring him - about the lights of Cordoba will not be complete unless we realize what the cities of Europe were after six centuries. In his talk about France in the eleventh century AH / 16 AD; Turning to talk about "cities that are still not lit at night," especially the capital, Paris!! As well as in Italy, where "the roads were rugged and very dangerous, and the main streets in the cities were paved with tiles, but they were rarely lit at night"!!

Al-Maqrizi tells us - in several places in 'Al-Muawa'at wa-I'tibar' - that at the end of the same century and the beginning of the next, the Fatimid caliphs in Egypt continued to oblige the general people in Cairo "to light lamps in the rest of the country on all shops, the doors of the houses, the shops and the street (= open) The two parties) and other than the lawful , so they debated (= competed) over it and took a lot of it in the streets and alleys , and the people in Cairo and Egypt all night long in buying and selling, and they also increased the fuel of great candles!!

Public spaces.

The multiplicity of streets and their intertwining led to the name of many types of naming between the normative and arbitrary. If we take Baghdad as a model, we will find that its historian Al-Yaqubi mentions - in his book 'The Countries' - dozens of streets/railways that were named by adding them to the institutions they were located, or famous people from every sect who lived near it. The Haytham rail, the Mutabbaq railroad (= prison), the women's rail, the Sarjis rail, and the Hussein railroad!!

Perhaps the authorities intervened and set criteria for naming streets, which seem to have been politically motivated; As happened when the Abbasid Caliph al-Mansur ordered the administrators of his capital, Baghdad, to “name every path after the leader who descends on it, or the prophet who descends it, or the people of the country in which they inhabit”; According to Yaqubi.

It is remarkable to allocate public squares in Islamic cities - in the middle or at their edges - that represented a common space among their inhabitants. Indeed, Ibn Khaldun made their presence a health requirement for people, and linked their absence with the large number of diseases due to air pollution in cities; He believed, “The permeation of the emptiness and the desert between urbanization is necessary for the air to ripple [so] it removes what occurs in the air of corruption and mold by mixing with animals, and brings the right air, and for this also the death (= many deaths) is in cities that are more urban than others” due to pollution its environment.

In addition to the health and environmental factor in the presence of public squares in Islamic cities; It had other social functions because of the major official and popular celebrations that were organized in it, similar to that huge military parade organized by the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad Al-Nasir Li-Din Allah (d. 622 AH / 1225 AD) in front of the envoy of the Tatars in the year 617 AH / 1220 AD to demonstrate the strength of the caliphate.

Imam al-Dhahabi (d. 748 AH / 1347 AD) - in 'History of Islam' - touched on the facts of this review, in which he stated that "they did not leave in Baghdad a horse, a camel, or a donkey until they mounted it as a man with some weapons and most of them with flags", and among them was "created They are playing with oil and throwing hazelnuts (= small balls) in the glass with oil, and the wilderness is filled with fire" and the people around it are watching.

Also, these fields sometimes hosted sports competitions that the caliphs and sultans might have participated in or oversaw its organization. The green square in Damascus was designated by the Zangids, the Ayyubids, and the Mamluks for competitions in the game of "qabq", one of the shooting games.

Rather, the Mamluks established - in their state - a field outside the northern walls of Cairo, which they called "Al-Qaqb Square", and dedicated it to shooting games, fencing, and horse and camel racing. According to the historian Ibn Taghri Bardi in 'An-Nujum al-Zahirah'.

Gardens and parks,

with public squares, and the breathing space they provided for city dwellers in the busyness of their lives and work; Islamic cities were famous for the abundance of their lush gardens, whether those were private in the homes of caliphs, ministers and the wealthy in general, or those that were public ones that were a gathering of people - of all groups and classes - in their outings and social meetings.

The historian Al-Masudi (d. 346 AH / 957 AD) tells us - in 'Morouj al-Zahab' - that "Al-Qaher (Abbasid Caliph d. 339 AH / 950AD) had in some fortresses an orchard of about 1500 square metres, in which was planted Citrus aurantium (= a kind of Lemon), and it was brought to him from Basra and Oman from what was brought from the land of India, its trees were intertwined, and its fruits appeared like stars of red and yellow, and among that were the types of seedlings, winds and blossoms, and he made with that in the bowl the types of birds (= birds)  from what had been brought to him from kingdoms and cities, and that was very good!!

Al-Maqrizi elaborates extensively on the picnic spots in Fatimid and Mamluk Cairo; For example, he talks - in his book 'The Behaviour' - about what its residents used to "hit tents on the Nile shore on the island and other places for a picnic." And he describes - in 'Prayers and Ethics' - the parks of the "Gulf of Egypt" and says: "And this gulf has remained a park for the people of Cairo who cross in it by boat for a picnic , and the saddles (= jellyfish) on its sides at night are an attractive view, and the people of the veil often watch it" from notables the society.

Indeed, Al-Maqrizi - who is the jurist and judge - refers to a strange phenomenon in its civilizational significance; It is the establishment of public gardens near mosques and mosques and opening them to people for hiking and viewing, as is the case in the “Al-Taybarsi Mosque” which was established in 707 AH / 1307 AD “on the shore of the Nile in the land of an orchard…. It was one of the best and oldest parks in Egypt…, and people ride boats. For watching from this mosque  two elevators and two ramps in the Nile, and people gather in this mosque for a walk, and times and delights pass through it that cannot be described!!

Although the movement of trade, buying and selling, and the arrival of travelers and visitors to these cities - for different purposes - was linked to ancient road networks, on which rest stations or small hotels called “khans” were located and linked between the regions of the Islamic world; It was natural to find major hotels within cities to receive merchants and emergency travelers, and to provide the facilities they needed for housing and rest, and warehouses for storing goods and merchandise.

These hotels were built of two floors or more, with a courtyard in the middle. As for the upper rooms, they were intended for the accommodation of merchants and travelers, and the lower rooms were for storing goods and travel animals. Rarely is a city devoid of these hotels and khans for which certain areas of the city or one of its suburbs may have been allocated, as it is understood from the words of the traveler Ibn Jubayr that the Syrian city of Hama “is large, with khans and houses, and has shops in which the traveler hastened his need to emptied into the city."

Ibn Hawqal told us - in “The Picture of the Land” - about the hotels of the city of Nishapur, the capital of Khorasan in his time, and their different types according to the different merchants staying there, in a way similar to the difference in our hotels today in their luxury and the classes of their guests, and in their classification - accordingly - by the number of their stars.

In that he says: “And within these markets there are khans and hotels inhabited by merchants with trade… for sale and purchase, so each hotel is meant by what it is known that prevails over its people in terms of trade, and few hotels among them do not match the largest markets of their sex, and these hotels are inhabited by left-wingers from those in That is the way of trade, and the people of large goods and abundant wealth (= abundant), and for those without access to hotels and inns inhabited by the people of professions and the owners of trades in the populated shops, the inhabited stones and the charged shops.”

Miscellaneous services

As the Andalusian Jewish traveler Benjamin Al-Tatili (d. 569 AH / 1173 AD) states that Alexandria “was brought to it from India by spices and perfumes of all kinds, so Christian merchants would buy them, and the merchants of every nation had their own hotel, and they were in a commotion, selling and buying”!!

Statistics on these hotels and khans in the cities of Islam varied according to their prosperity, but a French painter who visited the Iranian city of Isfahan in the Safavid era in the year 1084 AH / 1673 AD stated that “there was in the city and its suburbs .. 1800 khan” dedicated to merchants; According to Durant in 'The Story of Civilization'.

Since the means of transportation in those eras was based on four-legged donkeys, mules, horses and camels, places were allocated for these animals to rest or to land the goods they carried to the markets. And the “climates” of camels in separate areas of Islamic cities.

These stations were often stationed on the outskirts of these cities or some of their major squares. Indeed, the Fatimids dedicated a diwan to them that they called the “Diwan of Climates”; According to Al-Maqrizi in 'Al-Moawads and I'tibar'. And Imam Al-Suyuti (d. 911 AH / 1505 AD) informs us - in 'Hasan al-Mahazar' - by defining the nature of the function of "viewing the stables" in Egypt, saying that it was "the owner of the hadith on the types of stables and climates, their fodder and the livelihoods of their servants and what was bought for them."

It was necessary for public baths to be established in every city, whether large or small, and these baths differ from our concept today, which confines them to the emptiness. The city of Tiberias is a hot spring that evaporates in summer and winter and does not stop, so the hot water enters their bathrooms and they do not need fuel.” According to the historian Al-Yaqubi in 'Al-Buldan'.

Damascus and its countryside were distinguished by their rivers, and the residents of Ghouta and its villages were able to conduct "water in the common areas of their homes, railways, and bathrooms"; According to the geographer Istakhri (d. 346 AH / 957 AD) in 'The Paths and Kingdoms'. The traveler al-Maqdisi al-Bashari (d. 380 AH / 991 AD) admired the Yemeni city of Zabid and saw that "their wells are sweet and their bathrooms are clean", and he described the city of Ramle in Palestine as having "elegant bathrooms".

Al-Muhaddith Imam Al-Khatib Al-Baghdadi (d. 463 AH/1071 AD) - in 'History of Baghdad' - presents us with staggering numbers about the number of bathrooms in Baghdad, and its historians have complained about the decrease in these numbers in close reigns. And if we take the lowest of those numbers and more close to the reasonable - despite the enormity of it - we will find that "in the days of Add al-Dawla (Sultan al-Buwaihi, d. 372 AH / 983 AD) there were five thousand pigeons!!"

Expressive numbers and

According to statistics about the baths in the cities of Islamic civilization - during different eras and different regions - were included in the Dutch book 'Summary of the Islamic Encyclopedia', which was based on the books of the histories of Islamic countries; In the sixth century AH / 12 AD there were “the baths of Aleppo.. [in] a total of 195.. Likewise, the baths of Damascus were 116 in total.” As for the baths of Cordoba at the end of the fourth century AH/10 CE, they were “ranging between 300 baths.” .. and 600”, while there were “a hundred pigeons” in Fez during the tenth AH / 15th century AD.

The same source states that Istanbul’s baths were “a total of about 150 baths” in the 11th century AH / 17th century AD, a number close to its counterpart presented - two centuries after that - by the scholar Shihab al-Din al-Alusi in 'The Oddities of Alienation'. The number of its public baths was estimated - When he visited it in the year 1262 AH / 1849 AD - it was "one hundred and thirty pigeons".

If we realize this dynamic and continuous movement in the roads, markets, mosques, halls, baths and hotels of the Islamic city, in the East and West; It was necessary to ask about the hygiene system in these cities and the ways of disposing of the daily rubbish that was the product of the movement of goods, food, etc.

We have found workers dedicated to collecting rubbish, such as the “garbage collector,” “the plow,” and the “sweeper”; Ibn al-Faqih al-Hamdani mentions - in his talk about Baghdad during the first half of the fourth century AH / 10th century AD - that a friend of his was dumped at his house, so "the garbage of the bathroom came and he sifted it and provided (= carrying) what was in it, then he went."

Perhaps the authorities in one of the cities have resorted to organizing popular campaigns to participate in the cleanliness of the city’s streets, squares and public facilities; The historian al-Maqrizi documents for us - in 'Ita'az al-Hanafa' - the launch of two of these campaigns in Fatimid Cairo. One of them was in the year 391 AH / 1002 AD when the authority ordered people to "sweep the roads, dig and clean the resources", and the second when it demanded them in the year 395 AH / 1006 AD "to sweep alleys, streets and doors" The role is everywhere, so it was done.”

Due to the large number of these garbage and their abundance, they were thrown in places remote from the cities, so “the house of the Romans was a dump for the people of Kufa in which rubbish and sacks were thrown (= sweepers) until he deducted it for the follower Anbasa bin Saeed bin Al-Aas (died after 100 AH / 719 AD) from Yazid bin Al-Malik bin Ab (d. 105 AH / 724 AD), so I cut it off and moved its soil.” According to al-Baladhuri in "Futuh al-Buldan"

It is interesting that the volume of garbage is an important indicator in the status of cities and the expansion of their urbanization, and a remarkable criterion in the balance of trade-offs and bragging between cities; The "Caiman of Cairo" - which is the hills of the remains of dust and what they mean by the remnants of household rubbish and used markets - reached a great extent in the eras of the Ayyubids and Mamluks.

Al-Maqrizi tells us - in 'Al-Moawads' - that he heard from some of the sheikhs of his time that they were "boasting about Egypt (= Cairo) the rest of the countries and saying: Every day a thousand gold dinars are thrown into Egypt (= today approximately 200 thousand US dollars) on the caiman (= the collection of com The mounds) and the dunghills, by this they mean what dairy, cowardly, and cooks use of the red chafers (= earthenware pieces) in which milk is placed, in which cheese is placed, and in which the poor eat food in chefs’ shops. These mentioned items, if they are carried from the markets and what is in them is taken, will be thrown into the sheds.”

A pivotal contribution

If Muslim rulers - since the time of the Prophet and after him - gave real estate plots to civilians and soldiers inside the new cities or their suburbs for construction and housing, and the rulers and rulers legislated the establishment of mosques, palaces, prisons, markets, defensive fortifications, and public institutions; The common people, on their part, have been creative in exploiting these new plots or neighborhoods, not only in building their homes, homes, palaces and their own projects, but also in serving the general community in a desire for the afterlife.

Thus, endowments were the secret word in the development of the Islamic city throughout its ancient history and to this day; The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and the Companions and the nation’s benefactors after them endowed many endowments, so the confinement of real estate - from cultivated land or wells and the like - became benefited from its proceeds that are spent in charitable causes, and these endowments became the key to the major development revolution in the various eras of Islamic civilization.

These endowments served urban and urban communities with huge funds that were spent exclusively on educational and health institutions and caring for the poor and strangers. The role of these endowments was reinforced by the fact that they were independent from the organs of power, and protected from their interference in them when it was legally decided that the affairs of endowment funds are “delegated to judges at all.  and there is no difference in that between private and public endowments, because private endowments will go to the public.” According to the judge of the judges, Imam Badr al-Din bin Jama`ah (d. 733 AH / 1333 AD) in 'Tahrir al-Ahkam'.

This judicial supervision of endowments had the greatest impact on the expansion of the urbanization of Islamic cities and the prosperity of their civil institutions and their civilized production. This only abounds in the new cities in terms of construction over the length of the period of the countries, following them.” As decided by Ibn Khaldun in the 'Introduction'.

Ibn Khaldun gives historical examples and from the reality of his time on the interconnected relationship between urbanization in its urban and constructional expansionist sense, and the flourishing of civilization, especially the sciences and arts; He says: “And consider (= test) what we have decided on the case of Baghdad, Cordoba, Kairouan, Basra, and Kufa, when Islam abounded in its urbanization and civilization settled in it, how the seas of knowledge abounded therein, and they mastered the conventions of education and the categories of sciences and elicited issues and arts, until they advanced over (= they excel) The late ones died."

And he adds: "And when its urbanization decreased and its residents panicked (= dispersed), that rug collapsed with what it contained in a sentence, and knowledge of it and education was lost, and it moved to other cities of Islam. Its construction is ambiguous, and its civilization has been entrenched for thousands of years, so crafts have perfected and excelled in it, among which is the education of science.

This was not the great role played by the private endowments funds to obtain the status of sultanic urban roles that were of great strategic value, given the sensitive historical context in which they came, and the far-reaching impact they had in determining the fate of the center of the Islamic world, and pushing again the countries of its regions towards civilizational effectiveness.

Decisive changes

In the sixth century AH / 12 AD; The Levant region witnessed the establishment of the Zangid state, which gave great attention to the urbanization movement, within the comprehensive renaissance project adopted by Sultan Nur al-Din Mahmoud bin Zangi to launch the movement for the complete liberation of the countries of the region from the Crusader occupation .

In pursuit of this ambitious project; He "built the walls of all the cities of the Levant and their castles , and built the many schools of Hanafi and Shafi'i schools, and built the Nuri Mosque in Mosul, and built bimaristans (= hospitals) and khans (= resting stations) on the roads, and built Khankahats (= zawiyas) for Sufism in all the countries, and he stood on everyone standing many"; According to Ibn al-Atheer in al-Kamil.

In the same context; Sultan Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi ( d. 589 AH / 1193 AD) - who inherited the legitimacy of the throne of Nur al-Din and his resistance project - was interested in strengthening this urbanization movement, and even extending it to broader civilized horizons, and geographically wider, which included - to the whole of the Levant - Egypt, Hijaz, Yemen and part of the lower Morocco (Libya). today).

The Andalusian traveler Ibn Jubayr was astonished when he visited Alexandria in the year 578 AH / 1182 AD when he saw the large number of “schools and guards (= rabats of the corners) placed in it for the people of demand (= students of knowledge) and worship. The art that he wants to learn, and a procedure (= salary) that he does in all cases. The Sultan [Salah al-Din] took care of these emergency strangers, until he ordered the appointment of baths in which they would bathe whenever they needed to, and set up a practitioner for them to treat those who fell ill.

And if we take the testimony of a great historian such as Ibn Taghri Bardi in “The Shining Stars”; We can judge that the urbanization of Cairo reached its historical climax during the era of the Mamluk Sultan Baybars al-Bandaqdari (d. 676 AH / 1277 AD), and in that our historian says that Baybars “was built in his days in the Egyptian lands unless it was built in the days of the Egyptian caliphs (= nor the Fatimid sultans: the Fatimid sultans). Of the buildings, quarters, caravanserais, al-Qasir, houses, mosques, and baths and all of that is due to his abundance of justice and fairness to the subjects and consideration of their affairs.”

The urbanization of Cairo - since the beginning of the Ayyubid era with the end of Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi of the Fatimid state in Egypt in the year 567 AH / 1171 AD - was not restricted to the authority only, but that most of it remained linked to the endowments, whether the endowed was a sultan or a commoner, as we mentioned; That is why “they multiplied building schools, corners and ties, and endowed high-end endowments on them… so endowments multiplied for that.. and people traveled to them to seek knowledge from Iraq and Morocco, and the science markets spent (= popular) with them and teemed with their seas”; According to Ibn Khaldun.(Muhammad Shaban Ayoub)