What Does Make a City Islamic?
Sevket YILDIZ

Abstract
Since 19th century, urban historiography has become common as a discipline and gained importance; as a result, several urban theories have emerged. These theories are mainly based on observations on western cities born after the Age of Enlightenment. Besides, such theories, which are constituted on modern paradigms, have developed certain frameworks deemed available for cities that have emerged in earlier ages and different civilizations. Within the studies of urban history, the Islamic cities have been treated within this perspective, and several approaches have been exposed. However, the modern western urban typologies have had difficulties for forming appropriate and satisfactory frameworks for Islamic cities. Therefore, Islamic cities have to be re-observed taking their characteristics into account, and certain classifications suitable for those cities have to be developed.

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