Isfahan, the old; Isfahan, the New

Extract

The fact that has put Isfahan among the lasting cities and guaranteed its survival has undoubtedly been the permanent co-existence of the old and the new. The confrontation of old and new has brought about that necessary dynamism which has caused its growth, expansion and enrichment. Isfahan's favorable location in the central Iranian plateau and its plentitude of water and fertile land drew particular attention to it in times of political and cultural movements that have more often been constructive than destructive.

As far as we know, with the onset of Islam there occurred a new phenomenon that can be characterized by urban settlement and Isfahan began its dynamic development. This was also the time when local authorities, attempting to become autonomous, tried to create cities outside the borders of Mesopotamia raking with Baghdad. In the region of Isfahan, the first Islamic nucleus was established in fehe southern neighborhood of Yahūdiyyah and in a village called Khushīnān. As settlements began to grow around this new nucleus, the first real center of a town called “Isfahan” was formed at the juncture of the new and the old settlements.