THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CONNECTION TO AHL AL-BAYT AND ITS ROLE IN THE SUSTAINABILITY OF RELIGIOUS BUILDINGS IN THE HOLY CITY OF KARBALA

Bisam Ehessan AL-HAFIZ; Ashraf Ibrahim Mahmood; Hussein S.  Abdullah

doi:10.30572/2018/KJE/170303

Authors

Bisam Ehessan AL-HAFIZ Architectural Engineering Department, College of Engineering, University of Mosul, Mosul, Iraq
Ashraf Ibrahim Mahmood Architectural Engineering Department, College of Engineering, University of Mosul, Mosul, Iraq
Hussein S. Abdullah Architectural Engineering Department, College of Engineering, University of Mosul, Mosul, Iraq

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30572/2018/KJE/170303

Keywords:

Ahl al-Bayt, heritage preservation, sustainable materials, seismic retrofitting, Karbala

Abstract

Shia Muslims believe the holy city of Karbala (Iraq) to be the location of the shrines of Imam Hussein and Imam Hussein's brother Abbas ibn Ali at-Turayhi, making it the 4th holiest responsory in the Muslim world. And this also, we don't just become related here to the places ideologically, but rather through the cultural squares one or the other mark this as a landmark and even social bookmarking . This paper aims to examine the correlation between psychological attachment to Ahl al-Bayt (a.s.) and concerns in maintaining sustainability of religious architecture, i.e., religious buildings in Karbala due to environmental stressors as well as urban sprawl. The study is based on a multi-level method, we associated analyses of survey data from the usual community study and field architectural case studies to understand the influence that religious sentiment and visitor density have over preservation of integrity in these structures. The findings demonstrate that community engagement (altiyaw, kelenya and altee) is essential to the maintenance of the shrines but are frustrated by problems with material obsolescence, environment decay and nonexistence of technical monitoring. As such, the study suggest an integrated model of spiritual motivation and engineering measures to enhance earthquake resistance. through a cultural-based repair method using green materials. Such a model of integration could offer a way of safeguarding religious buildings and thus ensuring a role for the buildings both in physical and symbolic terms

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