Re-reading the Garden City Pattern in the Isfahan School; Crystallization of Historic Urban Landscape in Safavid Physical Structure

The Isfahan School of urbanism, emerging in the late ۱۶th century under the Safavid dynasty, represents a sophisticated paradigm of pre-modern sustainable development. However, prevailing scholarship often analyzes this phenomenon through an atomistic lens, reducing the city to isolated monuments or abstract symbols. This research challenges traditional historiography by employing the historic urban landscape (HUL) approach to reinterpret Isfahan as an integrated socio- ecological system. Utilizing a methodology of historical interpretation and rigorous source criticism-triangulating court chronicles (Tarikh-e Alam-ara-ye Abbasi), European travelogues (e.g., Chardin, Kaempfer), and historical maps this study reconstructs the structural logic of Shah Abbas I's ۱۵۹۸ master plan. The findings reveal that the city's expansion relied on a dual strategy: a hydraulic imperative and political-economic restructuring. The canal (Madi) network is identified not merely as irrigation infrastructure but as an ecological backbone that dictated the organic morphology of neighborhoods and the city's micro-climatic resilience. Simultaneously, the Chahar-Bagh axis is analyzed as a mechanism transforming the street into a transparent linear garden. By contrasting this model with Howard's Garden City, the paper argues for the Safavid model's superior resilience through productive landscapes, where agricultural production and aesthetic pleasure were synthesized. The study concludes that preserving Isfahan depends fundamentally on restoring its hydraulic integrity rather than mere surface conservation.

کلیدواژه ها:

Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) ، Safavid Garden City ، Madi Network ، Ecological Backbone ، Isfahan School ، Chahar-Bagh Avenue ، Urban Morphology