Investigating the features of urban form in the Kurdish city of Erbil (old part) regarding the traditional Islamic principles of built Environment 

Hooshmand Alizadeh1 

Rezgar Karimi haji pamoq2 

Somayye Shahmohammadnejad3 

Sina Ostowar4 

DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.31972/ISCHKK19.010

Abstract 

In the literature, not much has been reported on the Kurdish spatiality in general and urban form of the cities of Kurdistan in specific, reason why their particularities have largely remained unnoticed in the urban concerning the Kurdish people and the Middle East region. Considering this gap in the knowledge of Middle East cities, this paper examines the features of urban form in the Kurdish city of Erbil (old part) regarding the traditional Islamic principles of built environment has been conceptualized in the research work of Hisham Mortada (2003). The main aim of this study is to identify the points of similarity and difference with other Islamic cities. The results of this comparative analysis will reveal that how the urban form of Erbil’s old part is in line with the morphological features of the Islamic city in general and which features are specific to the Kurdish city of Erbil. This will also give us some notions concerning the built form of Kurdish cities as well for further research in other cities in Kurdistan. Considering the general approach of the research (comparative approach), the data can be collected from different sources including existing literature, different periodical maps, photos and an Erbil-wide survey to identify the main urban morphological features. 

Key words: City of Erbil, Kurdish city, Islamic city, urban form, morphological features 

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