Table of Contents

1. Introduction Amira K. Bennison The Genesis of ‘Islamic’ Cities 2. An Urban Structure for the Early Islamic City: An Archaeological Hypothesis Donald Whitcomb 3. The Foundation Legend of Fez and other Islamic Cities in Light of the Life of the Prophet Simon O’Meara 4. The City of Sultan Kala, Merv, Turkmenistan: Communities, Neighbourhoods and Urban Planning from the Eighth to Thirteenth Centuries Tim Williams Power and the City 5. Power and the City in the Islamic West from the Umayyads to the Almohads Amira K. Bennison 6. Ceremonial and Sacred Space in Early Fatimid Cairo Jonathan M. Bloom 7. Fîrûzkûh: The Summer Capital of the Ghurids David Thomas 8. Fathpur Sikri and Isfahan: The Founding and Layout of Capital Cities in Mughal India and Safavid Iran Stephen P. Blake The Impact of Religion on Urban Life 9. The Water Supply of Tinnîs: Public Amenities and Private Investments Alison L. Gascoigne 10. Health, Spirituality and Power in Medieval Iberia: The Mâristân and its Role in Nasrid Granada Athena C. Syrakoy 11. Commerce and Spirituality: The Urbanism of Ridwân Bey Nicholas Warner

About the Author

Amira K. Bennison is Senior Lecturer in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge. She has worked extensively on the history of the Maghrib and Islamic Spain. Her list of publications includes Jihad and Its Interpretations in Pre-Colonial Morocco (London: Routledge, 2002).

Alison L. Gascoigne is the holder of a British Academy post-doctoral fellowship in Islamic archaeology at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge University. She has worked extensively in the field on the archaeology of urbanism in Egypt and Afghanistan.