A Comparative Study of Urban Spaces Between Samarkand City in the Timurid Period and Isfahan City in the Safavid Period

Abstract

The present study aimed to study the evolution of urban spaces in the Timurids and Safavids. In present study, first, Samarkand city built in the Timurid era and Isfahan city built in the Safavid era were compared in terms of urban spaces and then, the differences, similarities and the effects of each city on the other one were mentioned. Finally, the main components of urban space were studied in the two cities. In this regard, with a descriptive-historical approach, data were collected using historical sources and texts, images, maps, and the results of studies carried out by contemporary researchers. The two cities of Samarkand in the Timurid period and Isfahan in the Safavid period had the same natural, climatic, social, cultural and economic characteristics, which had significant effects on the formation of urban spaces in both cities. The features of Timurid urban spaces can be mentioned as several principles: the establishment of gardens within and outside the city, the construction of main urban roads using various buildings and varies land uses, the spread of urban complexes using a square. Then, in the Safavid era, urban spaces were flourished by following the Isfahan school. Then, with the development of social, political, economic and cultural grounds and composition of them in the urban spaces, the ideal city of Isfahan was realized in the Safavid era. It seems that the principals of physical and semantic formation of urban spaces of Isfahan city in the Safavid era had aimed to create the heavenly paradise in the present world.