Based on the author's long experience in academic life and the public realm, especially in foreign policy, this book argues that a single categoric classification of cities is inadequate, and that cities have had different and varied impacts and positions throughout the history of civilization.
Auteur
Ahmet Davutoglu served as the Prime Minister of the 62nd, 63rd, and 64th governments of the Republic of Turkey. Prior to this, he was Chief Foreign Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister, and Minister of Foreign Affairs. He is the first leader of the newly formed Future Party. In his academic career, he has held the position of professor at Marmara and Beykent Universities, Turkey, and the International Islamic University of Malaysia. He is the author of many books including Alternative Paradigms (1994), Civilizational Transformation and the Muslim World (1994), Stratejik Derinlik [Strategic Depths] (2015) and Systemic Earthquake and the Struggle for World Order (2020). He has received several awards, including the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service in 2010. He was named as one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine in 2010, 2011, and 2012, and as one of the 100 Most In uential People in the World by Time magazine in 2012.
Contenu
Preface
Part I. Intellectual Experiences and Methodological Framework
I. My First Encounters with Cities: Traces of Place
II. From Empirical Consciousness to Theory: Civilizational Self-Perception and Cities
I. Methodological Criticism
II. An Exemplary Analysis of Methodological Dilemma: Ottoman Cities in City Historiography
III. The City as the Subject of the History of Civilizations: Classification of Pivot Cities Part II. The Role of Pivot Cities in the History of Civilizations
I. Pataliputra: A Model of Spatial and Social Order
II. Athens: Cultural Center of Civilizational Continuity
III. From Rome to Pax Romana: From a City to an Imperial Political Order
IV. Medina: A Prototype for Cities of Islamic Civilization
I. The Islamic City: The Building of "New Medinas" in Different Cultural Basins
II. The Power Centers of Western Civilization: Modernity and Ascendant Cities
I. The Alexandrian Cities and Civilizational Interaction
II. The Ottoman-Seljuk City Tradition on the Khorasan-Anatolia-Rumelia Line
III. Modern Economo-Politics Transfer Cities
I. The Era of Ascendancy: Binding Different Cultural Geographies
II. The Era of Decline: End of the Multicultural Social Environment
III. Ultimate Destiny: From Pivotal Role to a "Ghost City"
I. Invasion
II. End of Political Dominance
III. Historical Non-existence
I. The Mesopotamia-Anatolia-Levant Line
II. The Central Asia-Iran-India Line
III. The Central Asia-Steppes Line
IV. The Andalusia-North Africa-Sahara Line Part III. Transforming/Transformed Pivot Cities Where Civilizations Meet
I. Formation and Legacy of Jerusalem: Inter-civilizational Background
II. Efforts to Destroy Jerusalem and the Defiant City Spirit: Babylonians and Romans
III. The Recovery of City Spirit and Continuity: Omar, the Ayyubids and the Ottomans
IV. Attempts to Establish a One-Dimensional City: Crusaders and Israel
I. Civilizational Interaction of Internal and External Elements
II. Civilizational Encounters of Intellectual/Spiritual Legacy of Humankind
III. Civilizational Pluralism: Cultural Fabric and Architectural Heritage
I. Istanbul as an Ancient Synthesis Between Two Diverse Constituent/Pioneer City Prototypes: Rome and Medina
II. Conquest and Reconquista: The Two Faces of Military Expansion in Europe
III. Istanbul as the Pivot City of Civilizational Transformation
IV. City Culture and Architectural Change