Crisis in the Built Environment The Case of the Muslim City by Jamel Akbar; Concept Media Pte Ltd, 1988, 261 pp.

Abstract

Despite this boors orientation toward scholars in the field of environmental
design, it contains many environmental observations that are interesting to
the casual reader. The originality of this work is that it investigates Islamic
principles and processes of managing and operating the built environment
by Muslim individuals and parties.
Through his invdgation, the author has tried to show that the environment
which existed in many parts of the Islamic world was successfully ordered
by users to meet their needs and optimize Islamically acceptable behavior.
Furthermore, it constituted a model of success for today’s crisis of built
environments in the contemporary Muslim world.
The crisis of contemporary environment, which is described as
Responsibility and Control of the built environment, has shifted from
people/users to centralized “formal” govemment-run agencies. The result of
this conversion of roles has negatively affected both the relationship of
individuals and groups to the built environment, and the ability of agencies
to exercise management of that environment.
The realms of “Responsibility” and “Control” of “territories” and
“properties,” have been impressively elaborated in the investigation included
in this book. Their Islamic signiiicance have also been supported by references
to original Islamic concepts and rules. The theme presented is that
“responsibility” and “control” have been two fundamental issues which the
Qur’an, the Hadith, the Sira, and other Islamic traditions have strongly
advocated.
The author develops a study model focusing on three areas: ownership,
control, and use. The combination of these three areas have generated five
possible relationships or forms of submission which include: unified (the
same party owns, controls and uses the property), dispersed (three independent
partia are involved; one owns the property, a second controls it and a third
uses it), permissive (a party that uses a property and has to deal with the
party which owns and controls it), possessive (the party that uses and controls
a property has to deal with the party which owns the property), and trusteeship ...