Studies of Islamic/Iranian cities have paid little attention to the concept of Kurdish cities. Most Iranian literature related to the traditional built environment has focused on the human settlements of the Iranian plateau, especially cities located in the center of the plateau and its surrounding area on the slopes of mountain ranges in the hot-arid zone. Note that, no scholars have studied cities located in the west and northwest of Iran as Kurdish cities in the context of Kurdish habits and traditions. Considering this gap in the knowledge of Middle East cities, this paper examines the author’s thesis, “The design principles of traditional urban cores in Iran: A case study of Qatâr chyân quarter, Sanandaj,” and adopts an interpretive-historical approach to identify features of the built forms specifically related to Kurdish habits and traditions, in order to conceptualize the main character of the Kurdish city and to open the concept for further research in other parts of Kurdistan. This approach alongside a comparison with some other cities of the region, has led the author to emphasize that the concept of Kurdish city exists with particular socio-spatial characteristics. The result shows that the underlying structure of the Kurdish city is based on the concept of mound cities used by the civilized people present in the Zâgros-Taurus Mountains ranges prior to the Median dynasty, owing to the geo-political situation of Kurdistan on the frontier between two competing empires, west and east, constituting a mountain counterpart on a macro-scale among surrounding cultures. Accordingly, the political dimension of place-making has been highlighted in the structure of the Kurdish city and the main features relative to its location. Kurdish culture was characterized as a response to the Genius Loci and features of the terrain, to the setting of the settlements as a whole and to the dwellings in particular relationship to the landscape, due to the socio-cultural and envi
