ABSTRACT
Historians have associated the concept of “social networks” with that of “Islamic urbanism” to characterize the underlying structures of Middle Eastern towns in the pre-modern or pre-colonial period. Drawn principally from the work of Ira Lapidus, the “network model of Islamic society” consists of “an image of society as a network of relationships between component groups rather than an image of society as an architectural or hierarchical structure.”1 The urban population were divided into various groups defined by residence, occupation, or sect, and-according to the network model-they constantly re-negotiated their relationships with other groups through their shaykhs or group headmen.2 Relationships between imperial rulers and urban populations also were subject to re-negotiation.3 Though Lapidus’s specific urban references were to the Mamluk period in Syria, he considers the network model to be relevant to the wider study of “Islamic society,”4 including Islamic urbanism.
