Islamic Architecture in Farabi's View Emphasis on Ehsa al-‘Olum

Among significant sources of past Iranian Islamic architecture theories is the scholarship dating to that cultural era, since a large part of cultural, scientific, practical, ideological, and religious matters are represented in textual compositions of that era. Although ancient Islamic texts do not include a specific book on the theoretical foundations of architecture, there is some old literature from which we can extract basic information and supporting ideas about architecture. This kind of literature has hardly been studied by architectural researchers, while it can provide a clearer and deeper understanding of the past architecture of Iran. The findings show that contrary to common belief, the traditional Islamic architecture system was not limited only to the construction chapter, but that scientific and gnostic knowledge as well, such as geometry and ethics made up a significant share of the training of architects. In this paper, some of the fundamental features of architectural theory in the Islamic world are investigated with inferential analysis, based on Farabi’s extant writings with emphasis on Ehsa al-‘Olum, which is a primary source among other foundational and scholarly works of the early Islamic culture. The results of this research demonstrate that in addition to the consideration of order, logic, mathematics, and geometry, observation of ethics and civil rights were of utmost importance in Islamic craftsmanship, and acquiring human perfection (eternal life) was the ultimate purpose for Muslims in Farabi’s views.