ABSTRACT
The chapter compares and contrasts Christian and Muslim cities with particular reference to historical examples in Spain and North Africa. It provides the urban spatial characteristics of the Muslim City rather than centring on gender issues. The chapter shows how similar the urban organisation in these two cultures was in some respects. But some major differences can also be detected. These differences were regarded negatively by Western authors, for instance a lack of local government and organisation. This demonstrates the absence of awareness among Western writers regarding Muslim urban structure and the history of Muslim cities. Though both the Christian and the Muslim towns were to a large extent planned, the difference in the Muslim street layout was based on the freedom of the residents to create their own neighbourhoods. Muslim cities had much higher population densities than Christian cities. This was only partly overcome by migration into the suburbs. Western observers could not recognise the original street layout as over the centuries it had become too complex, hence they devalued Islamic cities. Hardly anybody saw the immense economic and cultural potential, which was created within Muslim cities by allowing people of different religions and ethnicities to live in separate neighbourhoods.
