ABSTRACT
This chapter examines some accounts of the foundation of cities and the question of why men wanted to found cities and exactly what is meant by the term 'foundation'. The volume of papers on the early Islamic city edited by Albert Hourani and S.M. Stern in 1970 marked a new and fresh departure in the study of the subject. Using a combination of written and archaeological sources, the contributors gave accounts of the foundations of major cities which avoided inappropriate value judgments. The most important account of the foundation of an Islamic city can be found in Northedge, The Historical Topography of Samarra. The fullest account of the foundation of an early Islamic city which has come down to us is Sayf b. Umar's description of the foundation of the miṣr at Kufa in Iraq which is said to have been begun in 638 immediately after the conquest.
