ABSTRACT
This chapter enables a possibility of recalling cognitive, symbolic, and cultural relationships between urban form and archetypes attached in the process of the current city project. Following Carl Schmitt's definition, this chapter aims to find the links between the concept of sovereignty and political theology. This interpretation suggests the idea of Meidan as the core of the projects on the city, which historically exposed formalization of theological ideology.
This chapter is a bridge to integrating a concern with physical, architectural, and social space into a discussion of politics and democracy. The historical and sociopolitical concept of Meidan—a term that has mostly applied for the Iranian and Islamic public squares—is reintroduced in the chapter as the embodiment of the square in the image of the Iranian city. Since this chapter aims to connect the fundamental thoughts, ideologies, foundations, and frameworks in the Iranian urban history, the most predominant politico-religious foundations of Meidan in shaping the ideogram of the city, such as the Naqsh-e Jahan Square in Isfahan, will be represented.
