From Polis to Madina

Urban Change in Late Antique and Early Islamic Syria

Abstract

The development from the Middle Eastern polis of antiquity to the madina if Islam was a long process of evolution and adaptation to new life-styles, new attitudes towards public law and administration, different aesthetic values, commercial pressures and cultural forces. Traditions of urban continued without interruption or decay following the appearance of Islam. Yet, the built environment of late-antique cities has gone through a profound and lasting transformation. Theatres, agoras and monumental buildings disappeared; broad colonnaded streets became narrow winding alleys; the design and scale of bathhouses changed considerably. Mosques appeared and took over the functions of the agora, the church and other classical public buildings as centers of religious, political and social life.