(a.), urbanism, the structure and planning of the Arab town and city.

This can be reconstructed as an historical reality from a vast body of literature, including chronicles and archival documents. It embodies enlightened ideas which seem to be commented on, as it were, by the remains of all the great Arab cities that can still be seen. The concept of a Muslim “city” was formulated chiefly by French orientalists (on this subject see R.S. Humphreys, Islamic history: a framework for inquiry, Princeton 1991, 228) between 1920 and 1950; in particular see G. and W. Marçais, J. Sa…