Visions of the City Urban Studies on the Gulf*
Nelida Fuccaro
University of Exeter

Reprinted from the Middle East Studies Association Bulletin, Winter 2001 (with changes in orthography to HTML standards).
Copyright 2001 by the Middle East Studies Association of North America
So Harran had been since the beginning of time, and so it was when Ibn Rasheed and his men arrived. The Company men, who had visited many places before Harran, chose it as a port and headquarters of the Company, as well as a city of finality and damnation.
                                                      Abdelrahman Munif, Cities of Salt
The cultural, physical, and socio-economic displacement of traditional Gulf societies has been strikingly portrayed by Abdelrahman Munif in his fictional account of the diaspora of a poor oasis community after the discovery of oil. Munif’s oil city, seen through the eyes of this community, is a daunting and transient place of contrast and dual personality, a city whose historical memory has been swept away by the evils of modern technology and by neo-colonial forms of economic exploitation. Cities of Salt recounts the hidden tale of Gulf cities, a tale which, this article will argue, is too often neglected in urban studies on the region.

Most of the academic literature on cities in the Gulf conveys a framework of understanding of urban development and urban life that can be broadly organized around two main themes: the city as a recipient of modernity, and the city as the focal point for the reclaiming of an Arab-Islamic identity. Such studies encompass different disciplinary fields and often respond to different research agendas, as will be discussed below. Although the studies considered here are in English, French, and German, the theory and practice of the ‘Gulf city’ which they illustrate are not exclusively western, since many Arab academics and professionals have consistently published in English.

This focus on the ‘Gulf city’ should not be understood as an attempt to constrain urban studies on the region within a static ideal type, in the way that the ‘Islamic city’ in the past provided a model for the study of many urban settlements in the Middle East. Although a number of cities located in the Gulf region share important structural and functional features, they deserve to be studied in their specificity and, above all, from a comparative perspective. This approach has the advantage of contextualizing cities in their regional setting, and can also make a positive contribution to understanding the place occupied by cities and notions of ‘urban’ in the political structures, societies, and cultures of the Gulf.[14]

Patterns of urbanization
For the purpose of this discussion, the ‘Gulf city’ has been defined in broad geographical terms as the historical and modern settlements located in the coastal regions of the Gulf, as well as the complex urban networks of Saudi Arabia and Oman. The area under consideration was chosen in relation to the development of the modern state. Most studies deal with the oil era and reflect the paramount role played by modern political institutions in the processes of urban development. Iran and Iraq have therefore been omitted, since their urban settlements have diverse geographical, historical, political, and socio-economic settings. Arguably, the modern state has been far less influential in urban development, given the existence of an ancient tradition of urban life.

Before the discovery of oil, long distance trade to India and East Africa supported the development of cosmopolitan port cities, which had a tradition of pearling and fishing. The limited amount of available historical literature deals with these coastal settlements primarily as components in regional and international trading networks, rather than focusing on their urban structures and organization. A number of studies, such as Fattah’s book on regional trade, contribute substantially to an understanding of how the tight network of port cities determines the definition of the Gulf as an economic, political, and cultural unit.[15]

Modern urbanization, which started to become apparent in the 1960s, transformed these coastal towns into large metropolitan centers. It also coincided with the emergence of independent nation-states in the region. In the case of smaller territorial units, such as Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, their sprawling capital cities became increasingly identified with the modern state as they began to extend over large parts of their national territory. Much of the general literature on the metropolitan states of the Gulf that deals with political modernization, social development, and the economic boom of the oil era is relevant to their capital cities, although it is not directly concerned with specific aspects of their urban environment.[16]

Environmental, historical, and socio-economic factors set the urban geography of Saudi Arabia and Oman apart. Throughout history, the presence of substantial nomadic and agricultural hinterlands (the latter especially in Oman) centering on medium-sized market centers, created overlapping economic and political spaces that contributed to the defining of a sharp social stratification. This stratification is reflected in the historical dichotomy between urban/mercantile and rural/nomadic that was more prominent than in the coastal regions of the Gulf.

In Saudi Arabia, modern urbanization started in the 1950s and resulted in the transformation of the urban landscape of many historical settlements that had religious, political, and commercial functions (especially Mecca, Medina, Riyadh, and Jedda). New urban basins were integrated into complex urban networks that were shaped by ambitious economic development plans and by increasingly centralized urban-planning and land-control policies. Between 1974 and 1985 the establishment and expansion of regional administrative structures resulted in the horizontal ‘densification’ of medium-sized towns which coincided with the hierarchical organization of the main urban centers.

In Oman, the economic and political dualism that for centuries had set the Sultanate of the coastal region of Muscat in opposition to the Ibadi Imamate of the interior, functioned as the main catalyst of urban expansion. The country was effectively unified in 1970, and the processes of modernization have thus been much slower than elsewhere in the Gulf. As with the coastal towns of the Gulf, the settlements of coastal Oman (and particularly Muscat) were cosmopolitan, largely detribalized, and open to external influences. In the interior, by contrast, local market centers with substantial agricultural and nomadic populations were not directly affected by the international trade that supported the coastal region. Following unification in 1970, the considerable influx of oil money resulted in increasing attempts by the government to extend the capitalist rentier system of the coast to the interior. Unlike the situation in Saudi Arabia, the process of political centralization in Oman has been uneven, a fact which has influenced the organization of the territory as well as modern urban planning. The urban landscape of many Omani towns is still traditional, although towns such as Nizwa (the old capital of the Ibadi Imamate) have developed into large agricultural, commercial, and administrative centers.

The historical complexity of urbanism in Saudi Arabia and Oman is reflected in the production of numerous historical monographs on their cities. Particularly in Oman, surveys of urban settlements in the modern period convey a sense of historical and cultural continuity that has no counterpart in the literature dealing with the small metropolitan states of the Gulf.[17]

The city and modernity
The majority of studies on the cities of the Arab Gulf states, with the exception of Oman, are concerned with the phenomenon of oil urbanization, which started to affect the urban landscape in the 1960s. The history of modernity in the region is closely, and almost exclusively, identified with its spectacular urban development. The growth of cities reflects the rapid evolution of oil economies and the definition of increasingly centralized political systems. Geographers and town planners, in particular, have been concerned with describing and interpreting changes in urban morphology at both micro- and macro-levels. The majority of these studies are empirical and descriptive. They are based on official data on demographic, socio-economic, ecological, and environmental conditions, and generally explain urban change from the point of view of the administration of the territory. Further, much of this literature is policy oriented, since it seeks to define new paradigms of urban development in order to formulate sustainable strategies of urban growth for the future.[18]

Numerous studies deal with the ‘politics of urbanization’ and are concerned with the role played by the state in enforcing and regulating urban expansion. They discuss issues of rural and regional development with particular reference to Saudi Arabia, and deal with the complex urban networks linked to the oil economy that emerged after the 1950s. Processes of the sedentarization of nomadic peoples (a phenomenon that is also relevant to Oman) and the creation of new industrial towns are also examined in some detail.[19] The urban development of the small states of the Gulf region is analyzed at the level of the individual metropolitan territories, with a particular emphasis on the distribution of public housing and services.[20]

A stimulating forum for discussing the future directions which local governments might take in managing their cities and urban networks has been created through this literature. Nevertheless, and mainly because of its practical concerns, there has been little effort made to link empirical evidence to broad theoretical frameworks. Literature on oil urbanization and urban growth is not comparative in nature, particularly when viewed in relation to the large body of theoretical and empirical work on cities in the Third World and in developing countries. To a great extent this reflects the general belief in the ‘unique’ personality of the modern ‘Gulf city’ that results from the rather exceptional economic and demographic conditions of its development.

Further, and differently from many other areas of the Middle East, the beginning of urban modernization did not coincide with the penetration of European colonialism, which precludes an understanding of the historical development of Gulf cities as colonial cities. Although Great Britain established a treaty system with many local rulers in the nineteenth century, only Bahrain was consistently affected by the British presence. In 1920, its capital city, Manama, was reorganized with the establishment of a municipal government according to principles of modern urban administration.[21]

Because studies on oil urbanization make up the largest corpus of academic literature on Gulf cities, urban environments emerge as state enterprises that have been shaped by the forces of the oil economy and of the international market. Without denying the importance of this approach to the ‘Gulf city,’ it does raise a number of challenging questions for scholars and professionals in the field. In fact, the prevailing ‘modernist’ vision of the city does not sufficiently highlight the development of urban forms in relation to culturally specific socio-economic, political, and ideological structures, especially at a micro-level.[22] In other words, the predominance of studies on oil urbanization precludes an understanding of oil urbanism as a way of life and as a mode of political and socio-economic organization.

As part of a new research agenda it would be particularly useful to analyze the definition of public versus private space in oil cities as a venue for social and political interaction. Different uses of space can be studied as challenges to, or acceptance of, the socio-political order. Considerations of ethnicity, class, and religious affiliation are also central to an understanding of the processes of formation of residential neighborhoods. In addition, they define the relationship of their residents to the forms of political authority. Discussing Kuwait City, McLachlan poignantly concludes that

The urban problems of Kuwait do not entirely arise from the highly concentrated nature of the administrative offices in the old city (the “city centre”), nor indeed from the apparent economic dominance of the oil industry, the management of which is located at Al-Ahmadi. Kuwait’s principal urban difficulties arise from segregation of human groups...Factors of tribal origin, class, income, ethnicity, citizenship and religion play important roles in separating residential areas.[23]

While it is clear that the process of oil urbanization has created modern spaces in the city under the more or less close supervision of the state, it would be misleading to assume—as much of the literature suggests—that socio-political and cultural networks have played a passive role in the process by simply adapting to the contingencies of modern planning. For instance, evidence shows that ‘informal’ urban communities and squatter settlements are proliferating as a result of economic and political dislocation. In this connection, ‘informal’ institutions are increasingly becoming venues of social and political empowerment in the urban milieu.[24]

Regrettably, much of the literature on oil urbanization tends to project the modernity of urban forms onto social structures and processes that pertain to the domain of the city, often with little or no critical evaluation. This ‘modernist paradigm’ seeks to understand the ‘Gulf city’ from the perspective of the complementarity, regularity, and rational development of its internal functions. It is the city of technical, rather than cultural and moral, orders where the oil economy is dictating patterns of political consensus and social integration. The forms of urban association which are implicit in this model rely on solidarities whose cohesion rests upon a reciprocity of performances, rather than being nurtured by common identification with specific value systems. In light of the above, it is important to reconceptualize Gulf urbanism, particularly to gain an understanding of the role performed by cities in Gulf polities.[25]

Cities in the cultural domain
Since the 1970s, the adoption of western patterns of urban development has been challenged by a number of Arab architects and town planners who have consistently attempted to indigenize urban forms in tune with the Arab-Islamic tradition. While working for public and academic institutions, they have produced a large body of literature which expresses their concern with re-creating traditional living spaces in the city. By recovering the past, an activity which is engaging Gulf societies on many fronts, urban residents are encouraged to enter a meaningful and harmonious relationship with their environment.

Traditional urban forms are increasingly acting as a source of ‘cultural/national’ identity by functioning as a catalyst of collective memory. As few traditional architectural spaces have survived in the cities of the region, symbols of historical value are increasingly integrated in the built environment. In Saudi Arabia, for instance, most municipalities have recently undertaken programs of beautification by erecting sculptures shaped as traditional pottery, palm trees, Arabic lettering, and ornamental motifs. All over the Gulf, heritage sites and buildings have been transformed into symbols of national character. Through the discovery, preservation, and revitalization of the historical character of Gulf cities, the theory and practice of architecture and town planning become closely associated with the Arab-Islamic cultural domain. As a result, many of the professionals involved have not only become an integral part of the political heritage, but also are invested with an important role as promoters of ethical and national values.[26]

The frantic search for a compromise between tradition and modernity in architecture and urban planning is particularly evident when cities with religious functions are involved, as in the case of Medina. There is also a substantial literature that deals with projects for urban renewal and conservation of the architectural heritage, and that draws extensively on surveys carried out by art and architectural historians.[27] The ‘Islamic city’ model offers a ready-made example of alternative urban planning which affirms indigenous values. Ironically, as Abu-Lughod has noted, it is the brainchild of western orientalists. Understandably, the adoption of an ideal type serves the practical purposes of architects and town planners. Yet, as some of the literature seems to suggest, recreating the ‘Islamic city’ does not always provide satisfactory solutions. Often, it fails to take into account regional specificities which, although they are themselves the by-product of centuries of Islamic civilization, do not fit in with the Arab-Islamic model. A more coherent historiography of Gulf cities that would focus on the development of local urban structures and institutions is badly needed to close this gap.[28]

An interesting example of this trend in urban studies on the Gulf is an edited book by Serageldin and El-Sadek, which focuses broadly on the Arab city, but also deals extensively with the Gulf region, and particularly with Saudi Arabia. The volume gathers the proceedings of a conference held in 1981 in Medina, and includes contributions from western and Arab scholars. It addresses a number of crucial issues of practical and theoretical relevance: the search for continuity in urban structures, the need for a synthesis between traditional and modern in urban forms, and the challenges of conservation and the definition of strategies for future urban planning. Although it is rich in data and approaches, urban development and modern urbanism are constrained within the parameter of ‘traditional’ Islamic urban structures such as the mosque and the suq.[29]

Some western geographers have considered the issue of the cultural identity of Gulf cities (and in Gulf cities) from a different perspective. Bonine and Bourgey suggest the adoption of an historical approach. In particular, Bourgey sees small towns in the region as the recipients of the Arab tradition in light of the more consistent historical continuity of their urban forms. On the same note, Bonine questions the ‘Arabness’ of contemporary Gulf cities on the basis of the increasing numbers of foreign immigrants who live in their historical centers. In an article on the contemporary city in the United Arab Emirates, Unwin, looking in particular at town plans, examines the development of urban spaces as a function of the religious affiliation, social structure, and socio-economic organization of the population. He discusses the relationship between old and new quarters in functional terms and considers the internal organization of new residential areas in accordance with socio-economic and tribal divisions. Bourgey, Bonine, and Unwin analyze the cultural identity of urban settlements from the perspective of social geography. Their understanding of cultural dynamics is closely intertwined with social structure and historical realities, an approach which, it is to be hoped, will be taken on board by professionals involved in urban policymaking.[30]

Nevertheless, situating the city in the Arab-Islamic cultural domain remains one of the most interesting aspects of urban studies concerning the Gulf. First, such an approach is adopted by locals who have an intimate relationship with their environments. Second, it has the advantage of stressing historical and cultural continuities (provided it does not rely too extensively on the Arab-Islamic model). Third, it tells us a great deal about the processes of political legitimation that are supported by Gulf ruling elites.

Studies produced during the 1990s (which include a number of doctoral dissertations from British and American universities) display an interesting multi-disciplinary approach to the study of Gulf cities by combining history, human geography, urban planning, and architecture. Although they often take an analysis of urban forms as their starting point in order to formulate new policies of urban development, they show a growing awareness of the socio-cultural context. Malhan and Al-Hokail focus on the perception of the built environment by the inhabitants of Jubayl and Riyadh, while Al-Said deals with the impact of human territoriality on the built environment of Saudi-Arabian towns and focuses on the role of Islamic law in shaping public and private space. Sijeeni looks as the principle of ummah (Islamic community) as a determinant in shaping traditional and modern neighborhoods in Jedda. Mandeel focuses on traditional urban forms and social processes in Bahrain in order to formulate guidelines for the conservation of the Arab-Islamic built environment of its cities. Saleh investigates the relationship between traditional urban forms, architecture, and space in a socio-historical context, and his work on the cAsir region in southwestern Arabia is perhaps the most representative of this trend.[31]

Conclusion
The broad conceptualizations of the ‘Gulf city’ which are discussed in this article suggest that specific areas of research need to be addressed more consistently, particularly within history, social anthropology, urban sociology, and political studies. New research agendas should aim at an understanding of those primordialist and modernist intersections that are shaped within the Gulf city as a historical, sociological, and political entity. Cities in the Gulf should be allowed to regain their personality through the academic literature which analyzes them.

The collection of fresh data through fieldwork should complement quantitative approaches based on government statistics which have been so far prevalent in the majority of studies on oil urbanization. There is a need to develop a consistent ethnography of the Gulf cities which focuses on their socio-economic and political organization before and after the oil boom. In this connection important historical continuities between the modern and pre-modern city have yet to be established. The macro-level of oil urbanization which permeates much of the ‘modernist’ literature discussed above should be linked to the micro-level of human and social experience of change, and related to the development of Gulf societies. For instance, the study of urban elites and urban politics can make a substantial contribution to our understanding of political change and of processes of formation of national identities. Although notions of ‘urban’ in the region must be carefully scrutinized, it is clear that cities have been important spaces of political legitimation and contestation as recent debates on modernity and heritage demonstrate. This ethnography of place should parallel the development of a new ethnography of space which looks at urban forms and cityscapes in their socio-economic, cultural, and political contexts. Studies of new and old city plans, neighborhood organizations, urban institutions, houses, and public buildings should draw together archaeologists, historians, social scientists, town planners, and architects in order to highlight the relationship between form and function and the hierarchies of authority, morality, and social interaction which they express.

Addressing the concerns raised by this article will hopefully reduce the isolation of the region in much of the current scholarship and encourage the involvement of scholars from different disciplines. It will also open up new and exciting fields of comparative research with the Middle East and beyond. A focus on the Gulf city is likely to enrich the lively debate on controversial ideal-type approaches to urbanism which has focused on the Islamic, Arab, Iranian, Mediterranean, and, more recently, Ottoman city.[32] It could also make a positive contribution to the study of urban development from the perspective of changes in the world economy and in the international markets. Metropolitan areas such as Dubai lend themselves to obvious comparisons with Singapore and Hong Kong given the dramatic development of their business and service sectors. From a historical perspective, the study of the port cities of the Gulf region should be rooted more firmly in the study of trans-regional maritime networks which connected the area to the Indian sub-continent and to East Africa. Indeed, they could serve as a link between Middle Eastern and South East Asian cities, given the intermediary role played by the Gulf between the two regions.

As the contrast between a lived modernity and an imagined past is extremely acute, Gulf cities deserve to distance themselves from those patterns of uniformity which are an undercurrent of much of the ‘modernist’ literature. As Saleh has recently suggested, “uniqueness in the global world” should be our research motto.[33] We should not, however, outreach for commonalities which are too often taken for granted in the region. An understanding of the diverse socio-political and human texture of contemporary Gulf cities would also benefit those practitioners in the field who are determining their future shape and direction.

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_____. “The Use of Historic Symbols in Contemporary Planning and Design.” Cities 15.1 (1998): 41-47.

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_____. “Unayzah, ‘Le Paris’ du Najd: Le Changement en Arabia Saoudite.” Maghreb-Machrek 156 (1997): 3-22.

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_____. “The Threat to Historic Islamic Cities through the Western Style Development: The Case of the Holy City of Medina.” The Islamic Quarterly 26 (1982): 108-116.

Bonine, M. E. “Oil and Urban Development: The Transformation of the Small Arab Town in the United Arab Emirates.” In Petites Villes et Villes Moyennes dans le Monde Arabe (URBAMA, 1986), pp. 620-36.

_____. “Cities of Oil and Migrants: Urbanisation and Economic Change in the Arabian Peninsula” Urbanism in Islam (Tokyo, 1989), vol. 2, pp. 340-54.

Bonnenfant, P. “La Capitale Saoudienne: Riyadh.” In La Péninsule Arabique d’aujourd’hui. Ed. Bonnefant, P. (Paris, 1982), pp. 655-705.

_____. “La Politique Urbaine en Arabie Saoudite.” In Politique Urbaines dans le Monde Arabe. Table Ronde CNRS tenue a Lyon au 20 novembre, 1982. Ed. Metral, F. (Lyon, 1984), pp. 399-436.

_____. “Villes Moyennes et Petites en Arabie Saoudite.” In Petite Villes and Villes Moyennes dans le Monde Arabe (URBAMA, 1986), pp. 572-84.

Bourgey, A. “Reflexions sur les Petites Villes dans les Emirats du Golfe.” In Petites Villes et Villes Moyennes dans le Monde Arabe (URBAMA, 1986), pp. 637-52.

_____. “Les Villes des Emirats du Golfe sont-elles encore des Villes Arabes?” In Les Migrations dans le Monde Arabe. Eds. Beauge, G. and Buttner, F. (Paris, 1991), pp. 69-92.

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_____. “Understanding the Urban History of Bahrain.” Journal for Critical Studies of the Middle East 17 (2000): 49-81.

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_____. Muscat, Sultanat Oman: Geograpische Skizze einer Einmaligen Arabischen Stadt (Berlin, 1990).

Serageldin, I. And El-Sadek, S., eds. The Arab City: Its Character and Islamic Cultural Heritage (Riyadh, 1982).

Shamekh, A. A. “Spatial Patterns of Bedouin Settlements in the al-Qasim region, Saudi Arabia.” PhD Dissertation: University of Kentucky, 1975.

Shiber, S. J. The Kuwait Urbanisation: Documentation, Analysis, Critique (Kuwait, 1964).

Sijeeni, T. A. “Contemporary Arabian City: Muslim Ummah in Sociocultural and Urban Design Context (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia).” ArchD dissertation: University of Michigan, 1995.

State of Bahrain, Physical Planning Directorate, Manama Urban Renewal Project (1987).

Unwin, P. T. H. “The Contemporary City in the United Arab Emirates.” In The Arab City: Its Character and Islamic Cultural Heritage, eds. Serageldin, I. and El-Sadek, S. (Riyadh, 1982), pp. 120-41.

Wright, J.W. and Mubarak, F. A “Cultural Continuity and Saudi Urban Planning: National, Regional and Municipal.” In Business and Economic Development in Saudi Arabia: Essays with Saudi Scholars (Basingstoke, 1996).

Wynn, L. “The Romance of Tahliyya Street: Youth Culture, Commodity and Use of Public Space in Jiddah.” Middle East Report, 204/27iii (1997): 30-31.

Zahid, Z. H. “Urban Planning in Saudi Arabia with Special Reference to the Nitag Omrani Programme.” PhD Dissertation: University of Durham, 1996.
* This is a revised version of a paper presented at the conference “Arab Gulf Studies” held at the University of Exeter in July 1999. I wish to thank the Arts and Humanities Research Board and the Arabian Gulf University (Bahrain) which provided funding and logistical support for my fieldwork in the Gulf in May/June 1998 and March/April 2000. I am greatly indebted to Paul Auchterlonie for his invaluable help in bibliographical research.

[14] The historiography of the ‘Islamic city’ is discussed in M. Haneda and T. Miura, Islamic Urban Studies (London, 1994), pp. 4-9.

[15] Hala Fattah, The Politics of Regional Trade in Iraq, Arabia and the Gulf, 1745-1900 (Albany, NY, 1997). See also: R. Klein, “Trade in the Safavid Port City of Bandar Abbas and the Persian Gulf Area (ca. 1600-1680): A Study of Selected Aspects” (University of London: PhD dissertation, 1994); H. Dodgeon and A. M. Findlay, Ports of the Arabian Peninsula: A Guide to the Literature (Durham, UK, 1979); C. H. Allen, Jr, “The State of Masqat in the Gulf and East Africa, 1785-1929,” International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 14 (1982): 117-27; and F. Broeze, “Kuwait Before Oil: The Dynamics and Morphology of an Arab Port City,” in F. Broeze (ed.), Gateways of Asia: Port Cities of Asia in the 13th-20th Centuries (London, 1997), pp. 149-90.

[16] An exception to this is Fuad Khuri’s book on Bahrain, which also deals with urban settlements. F. Khuri, Tribe and State in Bahrain (Chicago, 1980), pp. 249-56.

[17] See F. Barth, Sohar: Culture and Society in an Omani Town (Baltimore, 1983); F. Scholtz, Muscat, Sultanat Oman: Geograpische Skizze einer Einmaligen Arabischen Stadt (Berlin, 1990); S. Altorki and D. P. Cole, Arabian Oasis City: The Transformation of “Unayza” (Austin, 1989); W. Facey, Riyadh—the Old City: From its Origins until the 1950s (London, 1992); H. Pape, Er Riad: Stadtgeographie und Stadtkartographie der Hauptstadt Saudi-Arabiens (Paderborn, 1997); and A. Pesce, Jiddah: Portrait of an Arabian City (Cambridge, 1977).

[18] For a general overview on oil urbanization, see M. Bonine, “The Urbanisation of the Persian Gulf Nations,” in A. J. Cottrell, et al. (eds), The Persian Gulf States: A General Survey (Baltimore, 1980), pp. 225-78 and Bonine, “Cities of Oil and Migrants: Urbanisation and Economic Change in the Arabian Peninsula,” in Urbanism in Islam (Tokyo, 1989), vol. 2, pp. 340-54. On Saudi Arabia, see S. al-Hatlul and N. Edadan, Urban Development in Saudi Arabia (Riyadh, 1995). This volume deals with the structure and form of contemporary Saudi cities in the light of urban-development planning.

[19] A. M. Arishi, “Towards a Development Strategy: The Role of Small Towns in Urbanisation and Rural Development Planning in the Jizran Province of Saudi Arabia” (University of Salford: PhD dissertation, 1991); K. M Al-Ankary and El-Bushra (eds.), Urban and Rural Profiles in Saudi Arabia (Berlin/Stuttgart, 1989), contributions by J. Rai, M. Al-Nowaiser, M. A. Mughal, A. F. Ahmad and A. S. Sallam; A. A. Al-Ibrahim, “Regional and Urban Development in Saudi Arabia” (University of Colorado: PhD. Dissertation, 1982); J. Janzen, “The Modern Development of Nomadic Living Space in Southeast Arabia. The Case of Dhofar (Sultanate of Oman),” Geoforum 14/3 (1983): 289-309; A. A. Shamekh, “Spatial Patterns of Bedouin Settlements in the al-Qasim region, Saudi Arabia” (University of Kentucky: PhD dissertation, 1975); S. Altorki and D. P. Cole, Arabian Oasis City; The Transformation of “Unayza (Austin, 1989); S. Altorki and D. P. Cole, “Unayzah, ‘Le Paris’ du Najd: le changement en Arabia Saoudite,” Maghreb-Machrek 156 (1997): 3-22; R. W. Dutton, Changing Rural Systems in Oman: The Khabura Project (London, 1999); A. B. Al-Harbi, “The Impact of New Towns in Saudi Arabia: A Case Study of Yanbu” (University of Lancaster: PhD dissertation, 1991); M. A. Al-Nowaiser, “The Role of Traditional and Modern Residential Rural Settlements on the Quality of Environmental Experience: A Case Study of Unyzeh and New Alkabra in Saudi Arabia” (University of Southern California: PhD dissertation, 1983); and A. H. Pampanini, Cities from the Arabian Desert: The Building of Jubail and Yanbu in Saudi Arabia (Westport, CT, 1997).

[20] M. K. Al-Kuwari, “The Development of Doha and a Future Urban Strategy for Qatar” (University of Cardiff: PhD dissertation, 1992); S. A. Abdulla, “Politics, Administration and Urban Development in a Welfare Society: Kuwait” (Indiana University: PhD dissertation, 1973); R. M. Sadik, “Nation-Building and Housing Policy: A Comparative Analysis of Urban Housing Development in Kuwait, Jordan and Lebanon” (University of California, Berkeley: PhD dissertation, 1996). On state policies of urban planning in Saudi Arabia, see Z. H. Zahid, “Urban Planning in Saudi Arabia with Special Reference to the Nitag Omrani Programme” (University of Durham: PhD dissertation, 1996); J. W. Wright and F. A. Mubarak, “Cultural Continuity and Saudi Urban Planning: National, Regional and Municipal,” in Business and Economic Development in Saudi Arabia: Essays with Saudi Scholars (Basingstoke, 1996); A. al-M. Daghistani and C. Lee, “Urban Planning and Development in Saudi Arabia,” in I. Serageldin and S. El-Sadek (eds), The Arab City: Its Character and Islamic Cultural Heritage (Riyadh, 1982), pp. 142-50; P. Bonnefant, “Villes moyennes et petites en Arabie Saoudite,” in Petite villes and villes moyennes dans le monde Arabe (URBAMA, 1986), pp. 572-84; P. Bonnefant “La politique urbaine en Arabie Saoudite,” in F. Metral (ed), Politique urbaines dans le monde Arabe (Lyon, 1984), pp. 399-436; and A. K. Amrouche “La mutation urbaine en Arabie Saoudite,” in Petite villes et villes moyennes, pp. 585-620.

[21] See N. Fuccaro, “Understanding the Urban History of Bahrain,” Journal for Critical Studies of the Middle East 17 (2000): 57-59 and 65-72.

[22] An exception to this is S. Nagy, “Social Diversity and Change in the Form and Appearance of the Qatari House,” Visual Anthropology 10 (1988): 281-304.

[23] K. S. McLachlan, “Kuwait City: A Study of Discrete Social Zones in an Oil Economy,” in Elements sur les centres-villes dans le monde Arabe/Materials on City Centres in the Arab World, (URBAMA, 1988), p. 31.

[24] There are a few interesting works: P. Bonnenfant, “La capitale Saoudienne: Riyadh,” in P. Bonnefant (ed.), La Péninsule Arabique d”aujourd”hui (Paris, 1982), pp. 655-705; L. Wynn, “The Romance of Tahliyya Street: Youth Culture, Commodity and Use of Public Space in Jiddah,” Middle East Report 204/27iii (1997): 30-31; F. Scholtz, “Muscat: Social Segregation and Comparative Poverty in the Expanding Capital of an Oil State,” in M. E. Bonine (ed.), Population, Poverty and Politics in the Middle East (Gainesville, FL, 1997); McLachlan, “Kuwait City,” pp. 17-36; A. A. Al-Moosa, “Bedouin Shanty Settlements in Kuwait: A study in Social Geography” (University of London: PhD dissertation, 1976); F. Khuri, Tribe and State in Bahrain, pp. 154-93 (on mata’ms and clubs as parapolitical institutions); N. Fuccaro, “Islam and Urban Space: Ma’tams in Bahrain before Oil,” in Newsletter of the Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM), 3 (July 1999): 12; and F. Dazi-Heni, “Hospitalité et politique: La diwaniyya au Koweit,” Maghreb-Machrek 143/1(1994): 109-23.

[25] P. Wheatley, “The Concept of Urbanism,” in P. Ucko, Man, Settlement and Urbanism (London, 1972), pp. 602-5.

[26] I am greatly indebted to Ahmad al-Jowder and Fa’iq Mandeel as practitioners in the field for having introduced me to this fascinating dimension of architecture and town planning. In Kuwait and Bahrain the relationship between town planners as promoters of new social values and state authority was already evident in the 1960s. See S. J. Shiber, The Kuwait Urbanisation: Documentation, Analysis, Critique (Kuwait, 1964). See also Abdulla E. Saleh, “The Use of Historic Symbols in Contemporary Planning and Design,” Cities 15/1 (1998): 41-47.

[27] On religious cities, see S. Bianca, “Madinah al-Munawarah: A Holy City of Islam Threatened by Western Style Development,” in Metral (ed.), Politique urbaines dans le monde Arabe, pp. 437-50; Bianca, “The Threat to Historic Islamic Cities through the Western Style Development: The Case of the Holy City of Medina,” The Islamic Quarterly 26 (1982): 108-16; and S. A. Al-Hatlul, “Tradition, Continuity and Change in the Physical Environment: The Arab-Muslim City,” (Massachusetts Institute of Technology: PhD dissertation, 1981). Issues of urban regeneration are discussed in T. Fujil, “An Economic Study of Urban Renewal with Special Reference to the State of Kuwait,” Economic Science 23/1 (1975): 20-50; State of Bahrain, Physical Planning Directorate, Manama Urban Renewal Project (1987); T. cAli Fadaak, The Challenges of the Haram District: Urban Renewal Project (report presented at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, 1991); “The Challenge of Conservation” in Serageldin/El-Sadek, The Arab City, pp. 204-57; and O. A. A. Al-Khenazi, “Urban Regeneration of an Arabic Islamic Town: al-Muharraq,” (University of Newcastle Upon Tyne: MA dissertation, 1994).

[28] J. L. Abu -Lughod, “The Islamic City—Historic Myth, Islamic Essence, and Contemporary Relevance,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 19 (1987): 155.

[29] I. Serageldin and S. El-Sadek (eds), The Arab City: Its Character and Islamic Cultural Heritage (Riyadh, 1982).

[30] A. Bourgey, “Les villes des emirats du Golfe sont-elles encore des villes Arabes?,” in G. Beauge and F. Buttner (eds.), Les migrations dans le monde Arabe (Paris, 1991), pp. 69-92; A. Bourgey, “Reflexions sur les petites villes dans les emirats du Golfe,” in Petites villes et villes moyennes, pp. 637-52; M. E. Bonine, “Oil and Urban Development: The Transformation of the Small Arab Town in the United Arab Emirates,” in Petites villes et villes moyennes, pp. 620-36; and P. T. H. Unwin, “The Contemporary City in the United Arab Emirates”, in Serageldin and El-Sadek, The Arab City, pp. 120-41.

[31] A. A. Malhan, “Al-Jubail: An Arab-Islamic New Town,” (University of Dundee: PhD dissertation, 1988); A. A. Al-Hokail, “Socio-Cultural Contradictions in the Arab-Islamic Built Environment: The Case of Arriyadh City,” (University of Newcastle upon Tyne: PhD dissertation, 1995); F. A. M. Al-Said, “Territorial Behaviour and the Built Environment: The Case of Arab-Muslim Towns, Saudi Arabia,” (University of Glasgow: PhD dissertation, 1992); T. A. Sijeeni, “Contemporary Arabian City: Muslim Ummah in Sociocultural and Urban Design Context (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia),” (University of Michigan: ArchD, 1995); F. Mandeel, “Planning Regulations for the Traditional Arab-Islamic Built Environment in Bahrain,” (University of Newcastle: MPhil, 1992); Abulla E. Saleh, “Al-Alkhalaf: the Evolution of the Urban Built Form of a Traditional Settlement in Southwestern Saudi Arabia,” Building and Environment 34/6 (1999): 649-69; Saleh, “Reviving Traditional Design in Modern Saudi Arabia for Social Cohesion and Crime Prevention Purposes,” Landscape and Urban Planning 44/1(1999): 43-62; Saleh, “Privacy and Communal Socialisation: The Role of Space in the Security of Traditional and Contemporary Neighbourhoods in Saudi Arabia,” Habitat International 21/2 (1997), pp. 176-84.

[32] See “Was there an Ottoman City?” Introduction to E. Eldem, D. Goffman, and B. Masters, The Ottoman City between East and West: Aleppo, Izmir, Istanbul (Cambridge, 1999), pp. 1-16; Ç. Keyder, E. Özveren, and D. Quataert, “Port-Cities in the Ottoman Empire: Some Theoretical and Historical Perspectives,” Review: Journal of the Fernand Braudel Center for the Study of Economies, Historical Systems and Civilisations, 16/4 (1993): 519-58; and M. Kheirabadi, Iranian Cities: Formation and Development (Austin, 1991).

[33] “A. E. Salih, “Uniqueness in Globalisation: Physical Development of Traditional Settlements in Southwestern Saudi Arabia,” Journal of Planning Education and Research 19/2 (1999): 165-75.