Early Islamic Urbanism

Commentary on Ibrahim Allawi’s “Some Evolutionary and Cosmological Aspects of Early Islamic Town Planning”

“…His reconstruction has been criticised by Attilo Petruccioli for being "too rigid" and "unable to absorb the expansion of the tribes and the newcomers" (Petruccioli 2007, 237 n101). This view is also supported by Alastair Northedge, who argues that the city had a less formal arrangement similar to the series of widely dispersed compounds found in nearby al-Hira (Northedge 2017). It seems likely that Allawi derived his idea about the hexagonal plan of Kufa from Djaīt's theoretical reconstruction of the city plan and use of hexagonal packing for the areas between the streets.…”