| Author(s) | Mustapha Ben Hamouche |
| Affiliation | Assistant Professor, Department of Civil & Architectural Engineering, P.O.Box 32038, Bahrain University, Bahrain mbenhamouche@eng.uob.bh |
| Title | From Kufa to Blida Modelling Muslim New Towns Experience |
| Source | Journal of King Saud University. Architecture & Planning. Volume 17, No 1. (2005/1425) |
| Abstract | The paper presents a comparative study between two Muslim "new towns" founded in different historical and geographic contexts; Kufa in Mesopotamia and Blida in North Africa. Kufa, described by Al-Tabari (d. 923 A.D.), was the first new town in Muslim territory, founded outside Arabia in 638 A.D. New Blida, known in the memories of Colonel Trumelet (1887) as Bled J'dida, was founded in 1824, during the latest period of Ottoman Empire in North Africa, just after the disastrous earthquake that destroyed old Blida. Six years later, North Africa passed to colonial French governance. Blida could thus be considered as the last new town of the Califat era. A comparison is made between the two towns regarding the site selection and land acquisition, physical layout, development process and decision making. With certain abstraction of differences that are mainly related to space and time specifications, a model that represents the continuity of the “ new towns” experience in Muslim urban culture is constructed from the main similarities. The validity of the model is then tested through its application to some other Muslim “new towns”. |
