The quiddity of familiarity concept (taarof concept) and reasons weakening it in the contemporary Iranian city

The concept of familiarity (taarof) is one underlying concept of an Islamic city, which has received less attention. Adherence to this concept that is adopted from Quranic teachings has a considerable influence on the neighboring or neighborhood concept. However, the evolutions in the contemporary Iranian community have left this concept in serious challenges over recent decades, causing underlying developments in the concept of neighborhood. This study investigates the advent of challenges threatening the familiarity concept in terms of evolutions in the contemporary history of Iran, particularly in terms of the contemporary political economy of Iran to find how these changes and developments in the political economy have threatened and weakened the concept of familiarity in contemporary Iranian city. This study is based on the library-documentary method in terms of data collection, and is based on the logical reason in terms of data analysis and judgment. Logical reasoning encompasses a wide spectrum from computer programs and formulas to cultural discourses and theses, and this study comprises the cultural discourse extreme of this spectrum. According to the results of this study, some political economy developments in the contemporary history of Iran, including land reforms, municipalities income generation system, injecting the oil revenue into metropolises, and lack of adherence to principles of land-use planning have led to the advent of the concept of displacement (or relocation) and permanent population changes and migration from rural to urban areas or inside the urban areas (especially in metropolises). Subsequently, such severe population changes have resulted in a weakened concept of familiarity threatening the neighborhood concept. The most important requirement for deepening neighboring relationships and stabilizing the concept of familiarity in the contemporary Iranian city is revising macro-policies of political economy to stabilize the citizens’ settlement in the place they are living by adopting appropriate policies, so this stabilization would lead to longer neighboring relations and deepen the familiarity and familiarity between neighbors. In this case, the issue of displacement can be somewhat solved, and the social harms caused by the weak concept of familiarity can be eliminated in contemporary Iranian cities.