The Aesthetical Approach in Urbanism and Architectural Identity in Contemporary Islamic Cities

Abstract

Several cities in Islamic countries had enjoyed by the affluence of aesthetic features. Islam as a religion had the ability to change the ideology of its adherents. Hence, the urban of the Muslims' cities was massively influenced by the religious needs and the Islamic political power and it adopted the Islamic conceptions. Islamic jurisprudence had an important role to identify and modify both the individuals' rights and duties in developing their cities. Different types of architecture, buildings and decoration were implemented to function in the cities' urbanism contexts. Though, a spiritual, unwritten agreement for the Islamic aesthetic conceptions, was framing the identity in these cities, and generating a consolidate identity for the image of these cities. However, the current image of the contemporary Islamic cities had been dramatically altered. The scene of many contemporary Arab cities represents substantial changes resulted from several reasons. The fact that the present meager of the city image, is lacking to the meaning of “image of the city". The metamorphoses guise of the existing cities is a serious question, where is no clear genuine identity. Therefore, these massive changes would affect the social affiliations of the upcoming generations. Cities are always the most productive areas, where society members aim to find better jobs and wealth opportunities. Citizens are considered as a focal component that helps in draw the composition of the city's image. However, they are struggling to survive inside this incommensurate image. The current paper is investigating the Islamic aesthetic approach, that had been implemented in both the architecture and decoration in Islamic cities. Subsequently, the paper will discuss the present image of cities in two different Arab, Islamic countries: Cairo and Doha. Since the paper argues that, although these cities are considered as Islamic cities, but each represents a different image for the city. The paper will discuss the different reasons and the outcomes for marginalizing the inherited and local identities on both; the cities' scene and their users.