Analyzing the Structural Development of Kerman City from the 5th to the 10th Century AH, Based on Political Relations and Role of Urban Elements

In examining the evolution of cities, the emergence of the primary core of the city is usually based on political and economic factors, the city's location and natural aids. However, how the city's life extends throughout history and the factors affecting the evolution of its spatial organisation is a subject that can be discussed and explored. In each historical period, according to the existing situation, the city's governance policies and foreign relations, the city, its structure, and its current ties in a different way. In former research, the city is generally read as an entity separated from its surrounding system, and the influence of political relations outside the city on its development process is neglected. However, the formation and life of the city of Kerman in an unfavourable region in terms of climatic conditions has always depended on commercial relations with the surrounding cities and has determined the city's political and physical expansion. This research aims to know these relationships and the ratio of each one to the other and to study the pattern of the spatial organisation of Kerman City from the 5th to the 10th century AH. Understanding the past structure of the city requires the examination of local histories and first-hand sources, their analysis and explanation, and the comparison of historical documents with architectural works remaining from each period as urban elements of that period, so the strategy of this research is historical-analytical and logical reasoning. According to the findings of this research, the city of Kerman was especially noticed from the 5th century AD, and the city’s economic prosperity led to the city’s political and physical development and transformed the spatial organization of the Seljuk city. During the next five centuries, new urban cores were formed on the city bed, affected by the condition of the lands inside the fence and the political relations with the surrounding cities. The cores that consisted of new urban elements and important buildings and their development laid the groundwork for the transformation of the city's skeleton and caused the formation of new neighbourhoods around the city core and determined the main direction of the city's development in each period.