Urban Governmentality in traditional Islamic-Iranian cities:the dialectic nexus between sovereignty, religion, and custom

The paper investigates the traditional Islamic-Iranian cities and the institutions involved in urban governmentality. Three institutions are recognized: the institution of the sovereign (nahad-e-saltanati), the institution of shari’a (nahad-e-shar’i), and the institution of custom (nahad-e-‘urfi) corresponding respectively to the state, religion (Islam), and communal affiliations. Each institution conforms to a form of power which is exercised directly or indirectly by that institution. These are, to borrow Foucault’s terminology, the sovereign power of the state, the disciplinary power of the religion, and the bio-power of the ‘urf. The main argument of this paper is that in the absence of legal codes and municipal services in the traditional Iranian cities, the religion (Islam), through its disciplinary mechanism, played a fundamental role in production and maintenance of governmentality at different levels of public and private domain of urban life. Urban space of traditional Islamic-iranian cities was the medium through which different mechanism of power and social control took place.

کلیدواژه ها:

Iranian cities. Islam ، Urf ، urban governmentality