explaining the criterion to assess the islamic architecture and city a survey in an overt and covert reality in islamic architecture and city

islam is regarded to pay attention to the characteristics of urban life which can be practiced on the urban settings. not surprisingly, islam has made a great focus on the form and design of cities and prescribed detailed and elaborate regulations for individual and communal life. seen from other way round, the penetration of islam into various regions such as iran, europe, and africa had an undeniable impact on life style, urban design and social interactions. as an ancient civilization with a rich set of knowledge, culture, art and unification beliefs, iran became the host of islamic ideology, relying on the propagation of its achievements while keeping its principle and value criteria independent of time and place. architecture has two dimensions; material and spiritual and its body consists of structure, construction and different materials while its spirit and meaning of architecture is derived from history, memory and long lasting national and native values of a homeland which ascribes a specific meaning to architecture and produces a mental image in the minds. in this paper, we are seeking for criterion to assess islamic architecture and evaluate it. architecture is of different dimensions, each has its own value criteria but determining the islamic architecture and islamic city of architecture let alone stating whether architecture in this period is islamic or not demands a great effort while it is worth mentioning that islam is not limited to a specific age and place and can meet the needs of human being in different period.