Abstract

The present study aims to explain the role of Persian poetry in value creation and place identity formation in Iranian cities. The main research problem is how Persian poetry can contribute to the formation of place identity in Iranian cities beyond the descriptive representation of the city, through imagery, narrativity, intertextuality, cultural memory, and symbolic encoding. This study adopts a qualitative approach and an analytical–intertextual method, focusing on selected examples of classical Persian poetry in which the city, place, and their related cultural elements have a meaningful presence. Within this framework, Persian poetry is analyzed not merely as a reflection of spatial reality, but as a cultural and identity-forming text that can establish place in collective memory and transform it into a field for the production of meaning. The findings indicate that Persian poetry, by highlighting the historical, emotional, mythical, religious, and cultural components of the city, contributes to the process of place-based value creation and plays an effective role in reproducing the identity of Iranian cities. The results also show that the relationship between poetry and the city in the Persian literary tradition is based less on the geographical description of place than on lived experience, collective memory, and cultural meaning-making. From this perspective, Persian poetry can be regarded as a valid source for understanding the literary, cultural, and identity-related dimensions of place in Iranian cities