Reading a Neighborhood (Mahalleh) as a Landscape (A Case study of historical neighborhoods of Semnan and Damghan)

A significant feature of the Iranian city in the Islamic period is the emergence of neighborhoods as subsystems and small groups. The neighborhood has made a great contribution to the conceptual development of civility and community, which are the fundamental components of the Iranian city. These small wholes are considered to be collective structures serving as hubs for social and public relations. Understanding such structures requires a holistic and inclusive view through which we can recognize and appreciate all their aspects. Semnan and Damghan, as two historical and ancient cities, like other historical cities in Iran, have unique textures and structures of neighborhoods. Examining and understanding the neighborhood landscapes of these two cities are of special importance because they can shed light on the mental and social structures of these cities. Despite this importance, this issue has not received much attention. This research aims to identify and develop a framework for reading the landscape of a neighborhood. By emphasizing the landscape of the two cities of Semnan and Damghan in particular, it seeks to answer this question: a) what framework can serve as a guideline to read the landscape of the neighborhood? For this purpose, this study employs a holistic view and detailed observations to recognize, investigate, and interpret the effective factors in reading the landscape of the neighborhood. The results showed that elements such as public spaces of neighborhoods, rituals and religious events, natural elements, streets, passages, uses, and activities, and finally, ethnic and guild-associated commonalities were influential in reading the neighborhoods of Semnan and Damghan.