A Critical Analysis of the Existing Views about What "Iranian City" is; With Emphasis on the Dominant Concepts of the cities of Iran in the Pre-Islamic Era
Journal Title: Urban Strategic Thought - Year 2024, Vol 2, Issue 1
Abstract
Introduction: The term "Iranian city" is an ambiguous and complex category that has been studied by many researchers and has been used in their literature with different interpretations and concepts, while it covers a wide conceptual territory. The main question of this research is "Does what is considered an "Iranian city" have a single definition and fixed and specific characteristics, which can be considered as a criterion for distinguishing it from non-Iranian cities"? The Purpose of the Research: This research aims to critically analyze the existing views about the concept of "Iranian city" and it has been carried out with a focus on the concepts governing the cities of Iran in the pre-Islamic era. This research also seeks to provide a framework to explain the concept of "Iranian city" and its correct use instead of its variety of interpretations in different situations in the urban planning literature. Methodology: At first this study reviewed and narrated the viewpoints of scholars and researchers about "the city in the pre-Islamic historical period" and the various direct and indirect interpretations and definitions of the word "Iranian city" using the interpretation method. In the next step, by analyzing the content of these views, the characteristics influencing the formation and transformation of the old cities of Iran have been extracted. Then, based on the characteristics, various interpretations that can be inferred from this word have been summarized and categorized. Ultimately, by leveraging the theoretical saturation method in the views of experts through in-depth interviews selected by snowball sampling, accompanied by open-ended questions, the hidden dimensions of the critics’ reviews have been elaborated. Findings and Discussion: The interpretations deduced from the content analysis of the viewpoints resulted in 4 categories; The first interpretation: "Iranian city" is a symbol of "ancient Iranian signs and religion". The second interpretation: "Iranian city" arises from "religion and ancient Iranian religion itself". The third interpretation: "Iranian city", with specified spatial organization and physical elements, and the fourth interpretation: "Iranian cities", which have common factors of formation and transformation, such as a specific location or time. In the criticism of the first viewpoint, if we consider the Iranian city as a symbol of ancient and mythical signs and rituals then the concept of the Iranian city does not apply to today's cities, because nowadays in Iran, a different culture from the ancient culture is ruling over the current Iranian society and many of those symbols and signs have no meaning today.Therefore, the Iranian city is defined as "the manifestation of Iranian culture and its symbols at specific eras". In the critique of the second interpretation, it can be said that different rituals such as Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Islam, etc. have played a significant role in the evolution of city forms and structures in different periods of history and the shared geography and identity. Therefore we can not solely rely on the characteristics and the physical construction of ancient Iranian religion. In the critique of the third interpretation, it is noteworthy that by extracting patterns and "specific elements of one or more cities", it is not possible to comment on the structure of other cities. On the other hand, the spatial structure of the ancient cities has undergone major changes to this day, and given the few works of the ancient cities before Islam, it is difficult to recognize all the physical elements. Therefore, the "physical elements of the city in a specific place or period" cannot be generalized as "elements and characteristics of the Iranian city". In the critique of the fourth interpretation, cities that were considered Iranian cities at the time are now different in their culture, identity, politics, and definition of ideals, so they are not Iranian now, but their ancient structure can be considered as "ancient Iranian cities". Therefore, the concept of an "Iranian city in a particular period and time" is important. The surveys show "the lack of conceptual unity and integrity of the term Iranian city". Conclusion: Although the unifying factor and the common denominator of the definitions are "Iranian culture and identity" and "belonging to Iran and considering oneself Iranian", this concept is "dynamic", "relative" and "multi-layered" and, by itself, cannot embrace an independent definition for an Iranian city.
Authors and Affiliations
Erfaneh Ghanbari, Amirhosein Azimpour Kazemi
Keywords
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- EP ID EP742661
- DOI 10.30479/ust.2024.19585.1132
- Views 27
- Downloads 0
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