Representation of the Demand for Legislation in the Critiques on Pre-Modern Architecture and Towns during the Constitutional Era; Case Study: The Memoirs of Eyn-al-Saltaneh, from 1300 to 1339 AH.

During the late Qajar and Constitutional era in Iran, various aspects of Iranian pre-modern traditions and culture were criticized. Asides from politics, religious beliefs and interpretations, economy and government, architectural traditions and pre-modern Iranian towns were part of these critical debates. In this paper, the daily memoirs of Eyn-al-Saltaneh, the nephew of Nasser-al-din Shah are studied in order to seek his critical propositions on pre-modern architectural traditions and towns in Iran. The method of this research is historical hermeneutics based on a primary text from the Qajar period with a qualitative approach. Eyn-al-Saltaneh was a noble Iranian figure during the late Qajar era who has documented his daily observations and his subjective critical opinions on different subjects including politics, society, culture, law, town and architecture among other issues. Also he was related to the Qajar court as he was the nephew of Nasser-al-din Shah of Qajar and the son of Ezz-al-dowleh, brother of Nasser-al-shah. However, he never played an important role in the socio-political context of late Qajar Iran due to the Qajar noble class discords. Besides, he was deeply seeking a change in the Iranian life style, politics and society. After introducing and reviewing the theoretical framework of the research which is based on Homa Katouzian's theories on the desire for legislation during the late Qajar and Constitutional era in Iran, the related facts in the "Daily Memoirs of Eyn-al-Saltaneh" are extracted and discussed in three sections: A. criticizing the sanitary condition of Iranian towns and buildings including their resistance to natural phenomena, abundance of garbage and dirt in Iranian towns, and the sanity condition of traditional public baths; B. Criticizing the Iranian towns' design and organization including the geometrical shape of the passages and alleys, lack of engineered pre-designed plan for Iranian pre-modern towns, and lack of a powerful town managing system; C. Criticizing the design, spaces and architectural elements of Iranian architecture including the spatial organization of Iranian houses namely lack of a inter facial space between the courtyard and interior spaces, multiplicity of openings towards the courtyard in Iranian houses and unnecessary height of the Iranian traditional stairs. In the last section of the paper, the correlation between these critiques and the desire for legislation and law (as formulated by Katouzian’s theories) is sought and discussed. Some of these critiques are in an obvious correlation with the desire for legislation, such as criticizing the shape of passages and alleys in Iranian towns which are in a direct correlation with the desire of establishing a legislative governmental institution to manage the town, which would be a municipality or Baladiyeh; or the height of Iranian stairs which, in Eyn-al-Saltaneh’s comments, are not standard; and some are in a more hidden relation with the desire for legislation, such as Eyn-al-Saltaneh's critiques on the lack of using plans in architectural and urban design or standardizing the architectural elements. As this paper indicates, there is a systematic relationship between the desire for legislation during the Constitutional movement and architectural demands and critiques of that era.