This thesis critically examines the creation and development of the concept of the Islamic city in the discourse of twentieth century Orientalism and Islamic studies. Based largely upon the urban theories of Max Weber, French Orientalists working in the first half of the twentieth century developed a standardized and ideal model of the Islamic city. This model remained unchallenged until the late 1950s when Eliyahu Ashtor-Strauss and Claude Cahen began to question some of its fundamental assumptions. The revisionist trend continued into the 1960s and 1970s with the innovative work of Samuel Stern and Ira Lapidus. Contributions from fields outside traditional Oriental studies such as anthropology, sociology, and geography also helped to paint a more complex and diverse picture of the city in Islam. By the 1980s, thanks in part to the influence of Edward Said's book Orientalism, the old French model of the Islamic city was thoroughly discredited. In its place emerged a new understanding of the Islamic city in which scholar increasingly saw Islam as just one of many forces which have helped to shape the urban form. Moreover, cities are increasingly regarded as dynamic and constantly evolving entities, and therefore they can longer be simply represented in idealist and essentialist terms.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.30171 |
| Date | January 1999 |
| Creators | Goddard, Cedrik Christopher. |
| Contributors | Little, Donald P. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Institute of Islamic Studies.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001746521, proquestno: MQ64153, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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