Rabad Explained

Rabaḍ (Arabic: ربض|rabaḍ|outskirts, suburb) refers to the suburbs of seventh- to eighth-century cities in Central Asia, including what is now the Turkistan Region in southern Kazakhstan, Iran, and Afghanistan.^[1]

This term, in the Andalusī Arabic form of ar-rabāḍ, was borrowed into Spanish as arrabal and into Portuguese as arrabalde.^[2]

City layout

A typical qalʿat ("fortress") in Central Asia was based on a tripartite city model: citadel, shahristan (residential area inside the walls), and rabaḍ (suburb). This city model is valid not only for Central Asian city typology, but is also used to describe similar city types elsewhere in the Muslim world.^{[3] [4]}

See also

• Rabat (disambiguation), Arabic word for 'fortified town' or 'suburb'
• Ribat, Arabic word for Early Muslim frontier fort, later caravansary and Sufi retreat
• Robat (disambiguation), Persian variant for 'ribat'

Notes and References

1. Sobti . Manu . August 2005 . Urban Metamorphosis and Change in Central Asian Cities After the Arab Invasions . PhD . Georgia Institute of Technology . 22 June 2023 . .
2. Book: Lipiński, Edward . Edward Lipiński (orientalist) . Semitic Languages: Outline of a Comparative Grammar . 1997 . 131, 693 . . Leuven . Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta . 80 . 90-6831-939-6 . Tbilisi State University website . 2 September 2022. (At Google Books: 2nd edition (2001), .)
3. Book: Can, Mesut. Orta Asya Kent Topoğrafyasına Dair Genel Kabuller Üzerine Bir Değerlendirme [... Central Asian urban topography]. IV. Turkey Graduate Studies Congress, 14-17 May 2015, Kütahya: Proceedings Book III. 2015 . İstanbul. 145–148. tr. 978-605-84009-4-8. 2 May 2021.
4. Encyclopedia: Bolelov . Sergey B. . Рабад [Rabad] ]. . . ru . 2 May 2021.