Leucarum
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I don't think it would be too hard to do a cultural/economic Al Andalus which contrasted with the abbasids...
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New Civ Game Guide: Abbasid
- Thread starter FXS_Sar
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BackseatTyrant
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8housesofelixir
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It so happens that I have been reading Prof. Robert Joseph Haug's works on the frontiers of the early Islamic Caliphates recently. In one chapter, he summarizes the academic consensus on the urban landscapes of the Umayyad and the early Abbasid Caliphates, which offers an interesting detail.
During the early Caliphates' conquests, they usually built fortified garrisons or military settlements (amṣar) to house the warriors and assert control in the region. When the conquerors moved east from Mesopotamia, they encountered many already-established Iranian cities. Instead of founding new settlements, the Caliphates decided to build fortified quarters, called ḥiṣn (plural ḥuṣūn), within or next to the existing cities, to house the warrirors. Gradually, they became part of the urban fabric.
According to Arab sources and recent research, many ḥuṣūn seemed always to have two major buildings: a mosque and a market (bazaar). On the one hand, this means a ḥiṣn was also a physical embodiment of two essential aspects of the Caliphate rule (esp. the Abbasid Caliphate rule) - religion-scholarly tradition (mosque) and trade-commerce (market). On the other hand, a ḥiṣn also coincidentally echoes with the Unique Quarter of Civ 7, an urban district that features two unique establishments representative of a civ. Both the mosque and the market/bazaar are representative enough, and we can even settle on the proper name - ḥiṣn - for this UQ.
Such a detail speaks volumes about historical designs, references, and the research behind them. There are numerous ideas and facts lying around that can help and improve designs, but these are not easily accessible from a Google search or Wikipedia page (which can be wrong, such as in the case of Casa Contraction), and will require the help of someone with an academic background that aware where to find them. With the help of Prof. Johnson, we can already see an improvement in the South Asia and SAE designs, while some designs are still grounded in the "traditional" if not problematic understandings (I can speak for the design issues with Han and Ming, for instance).
We have come a long way, and there is still a long way to go, and I believe an adequate understanding of historical societies can help with more interesting and compelling designs.
During the early Caliphates' conquests, they usually built fortified garrisons or military settlements (amṣar) to house the warriors and assert control in the region. When the conquerors moved east from Mesopotamia, they encountered many already-established Iranian cities. Instead of founding new settlements, the Caliphates decided to build fortified quarters, called ḥiṣn (plural ḥuṣūn), within or next to the existing cities, to house the warrirors. Gradually, they became part of the urban fabric.
According to Arab sources and recent research, many ḥuṣūn seemed always to have two major buildings: a mosque and a market (bazaar). On the one hand, this means a ḥiṣn was also a physical embodiment of two essential aspects of the Caliphate rule (esp. the Abbasid Caliphate rule) - religion-scholarly tradition (mosque) and trade-commerce (market). On the other hand, a ḥiṣn also coincidentally echoes with the Unique Quarter of Civ 7, an urban district that features two unique establishments representative of a civ. Both the mosque and the market/bazaar are representative enough, and we can even settle on the proper name - ḥiṣn - for this UQ.
Such a detail speaks volumes about historical designs, references, and the research behind them. There are numerous ideas and facts lying around that can help and improve designs, but these are not easily accessible from a Google search or Wikipedia page (which can be wrong, such as in the case of Casa Contraction), and will require the help of someone with an academic background that aware where to find them. With the help of Prof. Johnson, we can already see an improvement in the South Asia and SAE designs, while some designs are still grounded in the "traditional" if not problematic understandings (I can speak for the design issues with Han and Ming, for instance).
We have come a long way, and there is still a long way to go, and I believe an adequate understanding of historical societies can help with more interesting and compelling designs.
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