Documentation of Neighborhoods and Oral History Researches

In the last few decades, the expansion of cities have made the use of oral history necessary for the safeguarding of urban identity and the documentation of old urban textures. The documentation of old neighborhoods is among the research matters that today are subject to serious attention of researchers. That’s because the changes resulting from constructions have created a new symbol for the city that is totally different from the architecture style of the past. Therefore the approach to urban identity via documentation is a measure in the process of oral history which helps us to collect the documentations and observations of some neighborhood’s residents, and to register them as the documentary part of the urban studies. So far, the documentation of old urban textures have had no particular offical administrator, and some research centers have taken actions according to the needs to document neighborhoods , but it is absolutely necessary to do so some serious studies on this field. Although in recent years with the aim of making passages memorabilia, some sporadic studies have taken place in the hands of administrators of city beautification.
 The structure of old cities consisted of a couple of neighborhoods which in turn included alleys and numerous business centers. With the passage of time and expansion of cities these neighborhoods tend to vanish. The influence of modernism and transition from traditionalism, both have induced many unwanted changes to the old texture of cities, and the texture which once had been a symbol of a city’s identity has changed so rapidly. Therefore, now, many places, names and city terms that constituted the identity of a city, have been left to be forgotten and a new history should be considered for them. Transformation in the methods of construction and even the city decoration familiarizes the viewer with a new subject.
 The city of Mashhad is among the spots the urban texture of which had been based on neighborhoods. These neighborhoods had been gathered around the holy shrine. The existence of the holy shrine of Imam Reza (Peace be upon him) has caused the life-style and city designing to be inspired by centers of pilgrimage, but with the expansion of city dwelling, the old neighborhoods have not been sufficient for the swarms of migrants and crowds any more. Then, new satellite towns which had no cultural-social compatibility with the original texture of Mashhad, were established on the fringe of the city. In other words, these towns prepared the grounds for developing different cultures in a single city.
 Since the period of Reza Shah Pahlavi, we can see gradual changes in the city of Mashhad, because industrialization (establishment of the Khosravi spinning factory and the A'bkooh lump sugar factory) and the city’s demand for new pathways and passages caused some changes in the old texture. With the development of new streets and many squares and the development of public transportation, old pathways no longer supported the gigantic numbers of cars, so it was inevitable that many neighborhoods and old alleys were doomed to change.
 New modern architecture style creates a view of a modern city in which there is no evidence of the old city’s identifying structure, and this architecture represents a modern city just like any other of its kind, in any other place in the world.
 In the new architectural designing of Mashhad, there seems to be no method that’s proportionate to the urban identity or taken from the olden architectural heritage, but the spaces, passages, official and commercial buildings, all have been built according to the architecture of European countries. Therefore there is no sign of old times’ architecture in the heart of archaic neighborhoods, and engineers and city designers have resorted to constructing and creating or renovating passages and squares without taking into consideration the identity and architectural history of Mashhad.
 The researchers’ delicate approach to the history of neighborhoods ignites important researches in this field. The book; History of Tabriz s and luminaries, Shotorban neighborhood (Duve chi) written by Karim Meimenat Nejad and Yunes Jafarzade (Akhtar Pub. Tabriz) is one of the books that are specialized to just one neighborhood. The authoring of this book is based on numerous historical documentations and field studies and doing many interviews. Reading such books that are written on the basis of a generation’s historical memory, is an effort to maintain the identity of a neighborhood, using the words coming out of the mouth of its citizens and lifelong residents. In spite of the fact that, in most of these books it does not seem to be any place for the principals of the documentation of neighborhood textures, this issue is not expertly analyzed, but via researchers’ use of such methods, solid and documentary researches can be produced and published.
 During the recent century, the city of Mashhad has witnessed fundamental expansion and changes. Studying the old and lost texture of Mashhad leads us to become familiar with the structure and anatomic atmospheres of the city in the old times. Rearrangements that have been done in Mashhad was a reason that in Reza Shah Pahlavi  period, some researchers who studied Mashhad were not mindless about this matter and with the help of library and field studies, perform an independent research specialized to Mashhad in 1920-30s. The book; Mashhad at 1920-30s: (known as the report of Shahpoor school) written by Mohamad Taghi Modarres Razavi, Aliakbar Fayaz , Seyed Ali Moa'yed Sabeti, Abdolhamid Molavi and Mahmood Farrokh, is one of the few books that expertly tends to introduce neighborhoods and old urban textures of Mashhad. This book was supposed to be published in 1934 on the occasion of Firdausi’s millennium, a deed which was not realized until the mentioned book was published in 2007, by Ahange Ghalam Publications with Mahdi Seyedi’s emendation and explanation. Authoring of such a book causes the maintenance of the identity of old alleys and passages of Mashhad in the written form.
 Recently, the book; ((identifying and the naming reasons of pathways, neighborhoods and public places of the old texture of Mashhad)), has also been published by Sokhan Gostare Mashhad publications in 2011, in 253 illustrated pages. Written by Dr. Mohamad Rahim Rahnama, faculty member of Firdausi University of Mashhad, this book is about archaic neighborhoods of Mashhad. With this work, the reasons for naming old alleys and passages of Mashhad is approachable, in an independent book, for those who are interested in the issues of the city’s history or the documentation of neighborhoods. Although going through this book illuminates the reasons for the naming of Mashhad’s pathways, but the book’ deprivation of oral history studies has caused some deficiencies.
 The documentation of old textures of cities and the attention of the oral history achieve of the central library of Razavi Threshold of Sacredness to this matter has caused this archive to be one of the richest centers of oral history inside Iran which has expertly proceeded to this issue.
 After reviewing some gathered resources on this ground, what has been the focus of the researchers of this center, could be categorized in some indexes as follows.
 Registering the naming reason of alleys and pathways and the archaic buildings of old neighborhoods, according to the sayings of the residents of that neighborhood.
 Gathering various documents and pictures that would show the archaic texture of the city.
 Interviewing architects, experts and figures of the neighborhoods and recording the changes and transformations through their point of view.
In the performed interviews, the most important matters that were considered by the interviewers have been depicting atmospheres and signs of the archaic texture of neighborhoods, based on what architects had heard. Issues such as the emergence procedures of new neighborhoods, the presence of luminaries and figures, old neighborhood professions and ways of establishing streets are among the points which the interviewers tend to.
 Other topics of these interviews are; the ways of procuring and consuming water in the past. Also public hygiene, baths, water resorts and water bases could be the issues of water foundations in old neighborhoods.
Neighborhoods’ benefiting from city wherewithal, like electricity, is among other indexes of interviews about the documentation of old textures of the city of Mashhad, in which all the interviewers have elaborately tended to the problems and the approach to dealing with them, along with referring to the city equipments.
 Schools, mosques and mourning places, religious communities, security of the neighborhoods, public transportation, events and… constitute other parts of the issues in the interviews. Filming and photographing the demolition procedures of buildings and the old textures are among the mental disturbances which this archive have tended to register in recent years, with considering the importance of the issue.

Gholamreza Azari Khakestar
Translated by: Arash Yazdanpanah