A Phenomenological Study of the Concept of Mahalle (Neighbourhood) with Emphasis on the Mahallat (Neighborhoods) of Shiraz During the Qajar Period

In the transition from a traditional urban society in Iran to a modern one, there has been an epistemological transfer of the concept of the urban landscape and residents’ perception of the city. The urban management of traditional cities and intervention in the decisions used to be community-based driven from a social system. After the transition, urban management was replaced by experts and executives chosen based on their power/knowledge in modern cities. Mahalle1 or neighborhood, as one of the most important pillars of the traditional city and the basis of the formation of the city under small groups, created a platform for social intervention and increased the sense of belonging of its inhabitants, and turned into the homeland of each individual. With contemporary developments and fundamental changes in the political, social, cultural, and economic system, and the transition to modern society, new concepts such as region and district replaced the concept of the neighborhood with specialization-oriented divisions. This intervention in the city and its social construction gave way to the political construction of urban spaces under the influence of the central government. At present, researchers and managers are seeking to revive concepts such as neighborhoods in thoughts and actions. The purpose of this study is to examine the landscape of the neighborhood of Shiraz during the transition from a traditional city to a contemporary city. The research seeks to answer the fundamental question of whether the formation of urban spaces in the Qajar period based on the neighborhood system, led to social demarcation known as a neighborhood? Did the divisions of the neighborhood affect the perceptions of the residents and the reproduction of the space? To answer the research question, documentary research was conducted to identify the turning points in the transition from traditional to contemporary Shiraz. Then a phenomenological approach was employed to examine the citizens’ perception of the traditional city of Shiraz based on available documents, poems. The results indicate that the view of the traditional city and the lived experiences of the inhabitants until the end of the Qajar period is different from today’s Shiraz. The reason is that in specialized studies and actions, only the physical aspect of Shiraz’s historical context is considered. These studies have been limited to the visual works of the abandoned arts from macro to micro-scale. In addition, they have overlooked the lived experiences of the old residents. However, the revival of popular concepts such as neighborhood and protection of historical context requires a phenomenological look at the form and meaning of the city and needs the researcher to attend a similar atmosphere to the audience’s one and deeply deal with the phenomena of a traditional city such as the neighborhood.