ABSTRACT
When the night falls, the merchant traveling with his camels through deserts and mountains stops at a caravanserai along the roadside. Once rested, the merchant can continue his travel to the town. This chapter defines the essential structure of the Islamic cities from a specific and particular point of view by analyzing the mechanisms of trading and commerce, which represent one of the main activities in the Islamic urban world. It describes that the adjective "Islamic" in relation to the noun "city" is adopted only to refer to a specific cultural and geographic milieu. Many researchers have associated the city of the Islamic world to the idea of market as the basic, fundamental element upon and from which the entire urban artifact is generated and shaped. By observing any map illustrating the caravan routes throughout the Islamic world, one can understand how commerce has a prominent role in the structure and in the construction of the in-between cities territory.
