Abstract. There is an influential idea tries to explain the structure of Iranian historical cities based on bazaar in contemporary architectural literatures. In contrast, the Core idea of this paper is illumination the differences of the social and spatial role of Iranian bazaar in the historical cities before the Modernization in the 1930s. The main approach of this study is based on analyses of the spatial structure using Space Syntax through the axial analysis technique regarding the social and economical context of Iranian historical cities. The case studies are the city of Dizfoul and Shushtar in the South-west; moreover Kerman, Shiraz and Isfehan are concerned as typical Iranian cities.
The result of this study argues that the Iranian cities before the Modernization can be
de¯ned in two types based on the idea of bazaar. The ¯rst city type includes cities with
non-merchant economy. In this city type, bazaar is a purely retail cluster and it does not
include other socio-cultural spaces. Therefore, this type of bazaar, named as `commercial
bazaars' in this study. `Commercial bazaars' not only were not the most integrated part
of the city structure but also were not the centre of social activities. The second city type includes cities with bazaar-based economy. Bazaar in this type of cities is the centre of the social and economical activities of cities. Therefore it is called `Socio-commercial bazaar'. The socio-commercial bazaars are a type of bazaar which is usually known as Iranian Bazaar. Socio-commercial bazaars generally have a linear form and this type of bazaars is the centre of spatial configuration of cities. Consequently, this study, by showing different social and spatial role of Bazaar, makes a challenge for the Idea which modeled all Iranian cities based on structure of Bazaar.