Abstract

The study of urbanisation processes in an ancient city also defines aspects of social, political and religious features of a society. While the impulse to urbanise issued from the politico-religious and cultural background of the society in question, the act and very form of urbanising is mostly connected with a selected territory and its morphology. This article attempts to reconstitute the urban plan of a major medieval capital of Iran, Rayy, during the Seljūq period. Thanks to satellite views, photos from the 1950s, the Pascal Coste plan and a newly discovered drawing by him, as well as several surveys conducted since 2005, a plausible map of the medieval Seljuq city can be attempted.