The Sacred Direction and City Structure: A Preliminary Analysis of the Islamic Cities of Morocco

Bonine, Michael E.

doi:10.1163/22118993-90000248

Cited by 13 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…And, when the slope characteristics (where known) are considered, these are often the same direction. Examples of the southern part of Marrakesh (as well as the general axis of the entire city), Rabat, Salé, and particularly Taza, confirm this correlation (see Bonine, 1990, for details). One of my principal conclusions for the Moroccan cities was that perhaps slopes in the appropriate qibla direction(s) were being selected for the location of many of these medieval Islamic cities.…”

Section: The Qibla and City Structurementioning

confidence: 70%

“…And even if there were a deterioration of the extremely regular grid (as shown in the classic study of Damascus by Sauvaget, 1934), the basic orthogonal system still remains. In other cases, as in many traditional Iranian cities supplied by qanats, an orthogonal morphology results principally from rectangular irrigation and field systems, and the slope characteristics play the predominant role in the orientation of those systems (Bonine, 1979).…”

Section: E Boninementioning

confidence: 99%

“…almost directly east) in the southern city of Marrakesh. Yet, considering only the principal mosques and shrines of each city (usually the Jama' or Great Mosque [to use the translation of the commonly used French term, Grande Mosquée]) there are a great variety in the qibla directions (taken from compass readings by the author Bonine, 1990 in the field and adjusted to true north), and, hence, the orientations of these religious building (Fig. 5).…”

Section: The Qibla and City Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The fact that the topography of Sfax is quite flat would also lend itself to the evolution of a rather regular and orthogonal morphology and with many straight streets (Fig. 14), analogous to some of the cities in Morocco or Iran (Bonine, 1979(Bonine, , 1990.…”

Section: Tunisia: Qayrawan the Aghlabids And City Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

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African Cultural Astronomy

Holbrook¹,

Urama²,

Medupe³

2008

Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings

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Section: The Qibla and City Structurementioning

confidence: 70%

Section: E Boninementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Qibla and City Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Tunisia: Qayrawan the Aghlabids And City Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

African Cultural Astronomy

Holbrook¹,

Urama²,

Medupe³

2008

Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings

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“…He goes on to express surprise at the exactitude of the orientation, something typically not encountered in North Africa until the eighteenth century (Bonine 1990). 15.…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Islam, Gender, and Slavery in West Africa Circa 1500: A Spatial Archaeology of the Kano Palace, Northern Nigeria

Nast

1996

Annals of the Association of American Geographers

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Using field data from the Kano palace, this paper highlights the utility of a reworked Foucauldian mode of spatial analysis (spatial archaeology) in understanding the dynamics of state formation in Islamicized West Africa. It is argued that the palace was built circa 1500 as an Islamic palace within which North African political cultural innovations were intorudced and given material force. The most important of these were seclusion, massive concubinage, a state council and treasury, and the use of male slaves (including eunuchs) as important state functionaries. These innovations established a new and gendered spatial dynamic of state formation that registered clearly in palace design. Most notably, gender constructions were mediated through spatial oppositions which emphasized the importance of paternity and royal motherhood in increasing the authority of the king. Accordingly “male”“state” affairs were sited in or near public domains while female “state‐household” activities were located in the secluded palace interior or “stomach.” Only religious scholars or eunuchs could enter the interior, men who offered little reproductive threat to the king, while concubinage allowed for the king to expand and centralize territorial alliances with conquered peoples along agnatic descent lines. Seclusion required the “outside” services of nonconcubine slave women through whom royal women's powers extended beyond the palace. I suggest that such powers included administering grain tax collection as part of their massive food‐production duties. Seclusion also seems to have provided concubines with a space in which to continue pre‐Islamic religious practices. It is hypothesized that development of heteropatriarchal spatial divisions of state and state‐household labor were tied to gendered struggles over commercial surpluses resulting partly from the Islamization of West Africa and the attendant rise of long‐distance trade. This conclusion suggests that Islamic forms of seclusion developed partly and co‐evally with the rise of mercantilism in the region.

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Middle East and North Africa

Bonine

2009

International Encyclopedia of Human Geography

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The Sacred Direction and City Structure: A Preliminary Analysis of the Islamic Cities of Morocco

Cited by 13 publications

References 1 publication

African Cultural Astronomy

African Cultural Astronomy

Islam, Gender, and Slavery in West Africa Circa 1500: A Spatial Archaeology of the Kano Palace, Northern Nigeria

Middle East and North Africa

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