651735

PERSIAN PARADISE GARDENS:

HISTORY, ELEMENTS, INFLUENCES

by

Arash Kalantari

_______________________________________________

A Thesis Presented to the FACULTY OF THE USC SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the

Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF HISTORIC PRESERVATION

August 2011

Copyright 2011 Arash Kalantari

ii

ا�� و � �ب �� ا�� �ن ��� ��� ا�� ه� ا��ر دل ه� و ���� ��غ

The real gardens and fruits are within, they are in man's heart, not outside.

Rumi, The Masnavi Book IV

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Acknowledgements

I am heartily thankful to members of my graduate committee, Regula Campbell and

Doug Campbell, whose guidance, encouragement, supervision and support from the

preliminary to the concluding level enabled me to develop an understanding of this thesis.

I would like to make a special reference to Dr. Farhad Tehrani who is the professor of

historic preservation at Shahid Beheshti school of Architecture, Tehran. His guidance is

sincerely appreciated.

I also offer my regards and blessings to all of those who supported me in any respect

during the completion of the thesis.

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Table of Contents

Epigraph ............................................................................................................................. ii

Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................... iii

List of Figures ................................................................................................................. viii

Abstract ........................................................................................................................... xiii

Introduction .........................................................................................................................1

Chapter One: Geography and Climate .............................................................................11

Chapter Two : History of Persian Gardens .......................................................................16

Hanging Gardens (Hekmataneh) ...........................................................................19

Persian Gardens before Muslim invasion to Persia ..............................................21

Persian Gardens in Europe ....................................................................................23

Persian Gardens After Islam .................................................................................24

Paradise Garden in History ...................................................................................26

European attraction to Persian Gardens ................................................................32

Chapter Three : Persian Garden Layout through History .................................................37

Design History ......................................................................................................37

Early Layouts ........................................................................................................39

Chahar-Bagh Pattern .............................................................................................40

Bagh Etymology ...................................................................................................42

Continuity of the Chahar-Bagh layout ..................................................................42

Chahar-Bagh layout in city planning ....................................................................44

Other usages of Chahar-Bagh term ......................................................................47

Means of Irrigation ...............................................................................................48

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Adaptation with Topography ................................................................................48

Designing to provide shade ...................................................................................48

Designing based on symbolic numbers .................................................................49

Enclosed space ......................................................................................................53

Mughal's interest in Persian garden ......................................................................54

Timur Style of Garden Planning ...........................................................................55

Design interests in Muslim Spain .........................................................................55

Chapter Four : Water in Persian Gardens ..........................................................................59

Water Goddess ......................................................................................................60

Water in the Persian garden ..................................................................................61

Symbolic Use of Water .........................................................................................62

Element of Continuity ...........................................................................................63

A place for Contemplation ....................................................................................63

Reflection Quality of water .................................................................................. 64

Decorative Use of Water .......................................................................................65

Channels ................................................................................................................65

Pool .......................................................................................................................66

Jets, fountains ........................................................................................................67

Change of Level ....................................................................................................68

Water Sculpture ....................................................................................................68

Water Shapes ........................................................................................................68

Sound of Water .....................................................................................................69

Water Quality ........................................................................................................69

Chini-Khana ..........................................................................................................70

Irrigation in Garden ...............................................................................................70

Comparing water channels ....................................................................................70

Water Source in Persian Gardens .........................................................................71

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Case Study : Hasht Behesht garden ......................................................................71

Case Study : Fin garden ........................................................................................72

Qanat ....................................................................................................................73

Qanat history .........................................................................................................74

Qanat water in Persian gardens .............................................................................75

Qanat Management ...............................................................................................75

Chapter Five : Plants in Persian Gardens ...........................................................................79

Native Plants of the Persian Plateau .....................................................................80

Planting in historic gardens ...................................................................................82

Botanical Excavations ...........................................................................................83

Plant types in Persian gardens ...............................................................................83

Trees ......................................................................................................................85

Grass .....................................................................................................................86

Shrubs ...................................................................................................................86

Flowers ..................................................................................................................87

Rose .......................................................................................................................88

Peony......................................................................................................................89

Wildlife .................................................................................................................90

Praise of Plants in Persian Poetry .........................................................................90

Plants in Persian Miniatures ..................................................................................91

Botanical contacts between east and west ............................................................91

Symbolic use of plants in Persian gardens ............................................................94

Topiary ..................................................................................................................95

Lotus .....................................................................................................................95

Paintings ................................................................................................................96

Sacred Tree ...........................................................................................................96

Artificial Tree ........................................................................................................97

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Historic botanical books .......................................................................................97

Ershad az-zara'a ....................................................................................................98

Bayaz-i-Khwushbu-i ...........................................................................................100

Iranian horticulturalist .........................................................................................101

Chapter Six : Preservation Challenges of Persian gardens ..............................................104

Garden Conservation ..........................................................................................104

Financial and technical concerns ........................................................................104

Layout Preservation ............................................................................................104

Responsibility .....................................................................................................104

Water channel preservation .................................................................................105

No Archeological Search ....................................................................................105

Conclusion .......................................................................................................................109

Bibliography ...................................................................................................................130

Chronological Table ........................................................................................................137

Appendix : Garden plans ...............................................................................................138

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List of Figures*

Figure 1: Kashan, Fin garden: Pavilion, pool, central axis and main entrance 9

Figure 2: Kashan, Fin garden: cross canals and nozzle 9

Figure 3: Tabas, Golshan garden: A walkways crossing the central axis 10

Figure 4: Yazd, Doulat-Abad garden: Wall surrounding the garden 10

Figure 5: View of the central Zagros mountain ranges 15

Figure 6: View of the Dasht-e-Kavir, Central Persian plateau 15

Figure 7: Mahan, Shazdeh garden: Central walkway, entrance and mountains 15

Figure 8: Yazd, Doulat-Abad garden: Central pool leading to the pleasure 35

Figure 9: Mehriz, Yazd Province, Pahlavan garden: Preservation in progress 35

Figure 10: Yazd, Moshir garden: Preservation in progress 35

Figure 11: Nishabour, Ghadamgah garden: A carved chadar 36

Figure 12: Nishabour, Ghadamgah garden: Side entrance 36

Figure 13: Nishabour, Ghadamgah garden: Second and third level garden 36

Figure 14: Shiraz, Nazar garden: The central pool to the pleasure pavilion 57

Figure 15 & 16: Yazd, Doulat-Abad garden: Central pavilion 57

*Figures 5 and 6 are used by permission from Kerman Water Company. Permission must be granted from the author of this publication to reproduce any other images.

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Figure 17: Mahan, Shazdeh garden: The main house across the large pool 58

Figure 18 & 19: Behshahr, Abbas-Abad garden complex: Artificial lake 58

Figure 20 & 21: Kashan, Fin garden: Nozzles and water courses 77

Figure 22: Kashan, Fin garden: Stone carved Nozzle 77

Figure 23 & 24: Kashan, Fin garden: Walkway and water course 78

Figure 25: Kashan, Fin garden: The pool located at the central pavilion 78

Figure 26: Shiraz, Jahan-Nama garden: The walkway and central pavilion 102

Figure 27: Shiraz, Afif-Abad garden: The central house and large pool 102

Figure 28: Shiraz, Eram garden: The pool and the residence 102

Figure 29: Shiraz, Eram garden: Cypress tree lines alley 103

Figure 30: Mahan, Shazdeh garden: One of the walkways and its waterway 103

Figure 31: Yazd, Doulat-Abad garden: The wind tower above the pavilion 103

Figure 32 & 33: Behshahr, Ashraf garden complex: Cheshmeh garden 107

Figure 34: Behshahr, Ashraf garden complex: Pvilion of Cheshmeh garden 107

Figure 35 & 36: Isfahan, Chehel-Sutun garden: Walkways and water courses 108

Figure 37: Isfahan, Chehel-Sutun garden: Walkways and water courses 108

Figure 38: Pasargadae garden: Tomb of Cyrus the Great 114

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Figure 39 & 40: Pasargadae palace and garden: The ruins of the palaces 114

Figure 41 & 42: Pasargadae garden: The ruins of stone canals 115

Figure 43: Kashan, Fin garden: The pool, walkways and the side buildings 116

Figure 44: Kashan, Fin garden: cross canals and nozzle 116

Figure 45 & 46: Kashan, Fin garden: Water courses, nozzles and walkways 117

Figure 47: Kashan, Fin garden: Cross walkways, canals and central pavilion 117

Figure 48 & 49: Tabas, Golshan garden: Walkways and flowers 118

Figure 50: Tabas, Golshan garden: Central pool and Pelicans 118

Figure 51: Yazd, Doulat-Abad garden: Interior of the reception hall 119

Figure 52: Yazd, Doulat-Abad garden: Wind tower above the pavilion 119

Figure 53: Yazd, Doulat-Abad garden: Large pool and the central axis 119

Figure 54: Mahan, Shazdeh garden: Water falling over a chini-khaneh 120

Figure 55: Mahan, Shazdeh garden: Walkway and Persian roses 120

Figure 56: Mahan, Shazdeh garden: Central axis, watercourse and the pool 120

Figure 57: Behshahr, Ashraf garden complex: Bagh-e-Cheshmeh garden 121

Figure 58: Behshahr, Ashraf garden complex, Bagh-e-khalvat: The axis 121

Figure 59: Sari, Farahabad garden complex: Ruins of the bath house 122

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Figure 60: Sari, Farahabad garden: The central pool of the mosque 122

Figure 61: Shiraz, Eram garden: Cypress tree lines alley 123

Figure 62: Shiraz, Eram garden: A water course crossing the central axis 123

Figure 63: Shiraz, Eram garden: The large pool in front of the residence 123

Figure 64: Shiraz, Jahan-Nama garden: Surrounding wall and the entrance 124

Figure 65: Shiraz, Jahan-Nama garden: The tree lined axis and pavilion 124

Figure 66: Shiraz, Jahan-Nama garden: Pools and walkways along the axis 124

Figure 67: Shiraz, Delgosha garden: A shady walkway and watercourse 125

Figure 68: Shiraz, Delgosha garden: Central axis sloping down to the entrance 125

Figure 69: Shiraz, Delgosha garden: The pavilion and central axis 125

Figure 70: Nishabour, Ghadamgah garden: The mausoleum and central axis 126

Figure 71: Nishabour, Ghadamgah garden: The entrance of the upper garden 126

Figure 72: Nishabour, Ghadamgah garden: Mausoleum and the central axis 126

Figure 73: Isfahan, Chehel-Sotun garden: The pavilion and the central axis 127

Figure 74: Isfahan, Chehel-Sotun garden: The iwan and the pool 127

Figure 75: Isfahan, Hasht-Behesht garden: The "muqarnas" ceiling 128

Figure 76: Isfahan, Hasht-Behesht garden: The walkway and clipped hedges 128

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Figure 77: Isfahan, Hasht-Behesht garden: The central pavilion and the pool 128

Figure 78: Mahan, Shazdeh garden: Walkway and the surrounding wall 129

Figure 79: Shiraz, Eram garden: The residence at the center of the garden 129

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Abstract

Mankind's advance has depended on pivotal discoveries: fire, the wheel, movable type.

When it was gleaned that water could not only be contained but compelled to move, man

stopped wandering to forage and began to cultivate. In Central Asia, specifically Persia,

tribes deciding to say awhile set up camp on the great, barren Persian plateau and used

fences to stop blowing winds and biting sands. Making water available where it didn't

naturally occur gave man a power he had lacked. He began to control his environment.

The celebration of this transition led to the year-round garden. Persians developed the

form by starting with a quadrangle and introducing water through openings on each side.

By intersecting the water channels at right angles, four sections of gardens could be

flooded, or irrigated, and allow constant crop production. What are generally accepted as

the oldest remains of a garden of this design are located on the Iranian plateau and date to

the second millennium B.C. As man developed his environment, he similarly developed

his thinking about his place in the universe. Hence, four approaches to deliver water to

the garden reflect ancient mythology holding four rivers of creation. A terrestrial garden

was first the celestial garden that pleased the gods then a paradise garden that bore the

promise of reward after death by one god. Pools of standing water reflected the sky; trees

reached for the sky; flowers bloomed in a constant reminder of the mystery and magic of

life.

More than output from fruit trees or blossoms of flowers, the garden became a spot for

architecture to provide a nice place to observe the contrived arrangement of nature. Small

buildings, pavilions or open-fronted kiosks were placed at pivotal points. The entire

scheme was surrounded by a wall, one that might contain elaborately designed gates or

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watchtowers. Water could stand or move, its stillness providing a sense of quiet to

encourage meditation, its movement offering pleasing sounds that could rouse convivial

cheer at social events or keep conversation from being overheard by other garden visitors.

A slightly sloping site kept the elements in play. The design lent itself to modest or lavish

creations and served as model to palace designs from the Iberian Peninsula across

northern Africa and east to the mountains of India. Europeans would embrace the garden

culture by the 19th century. Beyond garden influence, the geometric layout influenced

urban planning throughout Asia, Europe and North America.

1

Introduction

Gardens represent man's hands on nature. People who did not work the land as cultivators

visited gardens, exposing land and greenery to people who might not otherwise have such

access. The concentrated atmosphere of the Persian garden lent itself to interpretations

about man's relationship with nature and possible conflicts. The ability to change and

shape nature, as evidenced by garden planning that became elaborate and expansive, gave

man an indication he could triumph over nature. The highest ideals of the garden were

met when man felt himself in tune with nature. Yet man imposed himself by plopping

down structures on which he could lounge in an unnatural state – on silk cushions or

woven carpets – to appreciate nature. Man realized his most advanced thinking about the

cosmos in a space devoted to mundane crop output. Gardens began as secular entities but

soon had spiritual implications laid over them. In addition to the necessary symbol of

water as giver of life, certain species took on specialized, meanings such as fertility, to

represent man's association with harnessing life as assuredly as the gods' blessed

intervention.

Garden visitors can be made to feel they commune with the space. Beyond the

serviceable definition of garden as a place to produce plant products, the meaning of

gardens goes further and impress users as distinct representations. Modern gardens don't

convey the sense of life and death they once held. They have become more cerebral.

They make their way into art and literature, into culture and society. They are adaptable

and impressionable. They are interpretive. They are metaphors. They are all things to all

people.

2

Man's appreciation for the garden reflects his need to be of the earth, to find his peaceful

yet productive interior that mirrors soil. Working a garden remains work, but the sense of

fulfillment it imbues cannot be matched in other occupations. The effort produces

tangible goods and an ordered venue that is pleasing to the eye. When design principles

are imposed on the space to be filled by a garden, man draws on his full capabilities to

recreate the world.

The elements that make up a garden's essentials, such as water, are universal and need not

be explained. They belong to the family of man. C.G. Jung1 asserted universal motifs are

part of our collective unconscious. Although garden aficionados can impose meaning as

they choose upon elements of a garden – the ant carrying several times its body weight,

the bird singing brightly from a branch, the spider entrapping a fly – reading a garden

involves multilayered considerations. And it gives back in kind.

The Greek term paradeisos, from the Persian pairidaeza, referred to an enclosure, walled

off for a particular purpose: garden or park. Key features of paradise were four rivers that

flowed from the ends of the earth. Religious references placed paradise in a Garden of

Eden2, a place of innocence from which sinners were cast but belief, works and afterlife

could restore. Pairidaeza more strictly translated from “pairi” as around and “daeza” as

1 Carl Gustav Jung (b. July 26, 1875, Kesswil, Switz.—d. June 6, 1961, Küsnacht), Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist who founded analytic psychology, in some aspects a response to Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis. Jung proposed and developed the concepts of the extraverted and the introverted personality, archetypes, and the collective unconscious. His work has been influential in psychiatry and in the study of religion, literature, and related fields (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010) 2 In the second chapter of Genesis we read: 'Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads.' And the Quran (47:15) refers to four rivers of wine, water, milk and honey. This concept merges conveniently with the classic quadripartite garden design

3

wall. The Greek term paradeisos was used for the Garden of Eden in the Bible. Modern

Persian or Farsi gives the term pardis as paradise and garden (McIntosh 2005, 36)

(Moynihan 1979, 1) (Hobhouse 2004, 8).

Perhaps it was the confinement offered by the walls, but Persian gardens with their

geometric construct implied completeness and finality. In fact, they housed a process of

transition. Not only did plant turnover, water evaporation, and soil renewal constitute

change, a succession of users through the generations confirmed impermanence. Once

developed into a lush state, a Persian garden lived as an emphatic contrast to environs of

the Iranian plateau, an expanse of dusty dun. Gardens were distinct added value. They

were the top end of achievement for settlers who moved down the mountains to take up

agricultural endeavors on the plains. Recording these changes were pot throwers

decorating their wares. Besides the immediate surroundings, these artists captured the

tree of life over water, the four rivers, and a centered pool of water. The elements in

these images became the configuration of the Persian garden plan: a cruciform. The name

applied was chahar-bagh.

Not only did the molecules, the particles and the pieces of gardens endure change, so did

the peoples of Central Asia. As conquerors swept from one side of the known universe to

the other, each who passed through Persia left an imprint on the architecture of their

gardens. All embraced the garden, then endeavored to make it their own even as they left

the fourfold design intact. The status of the garden made it an object of veneration by

poets and musicians. Its uses appealed to all sensibilities: rest and retreat, cornucopia of

nature, revelry and ostentatious display. Like the landscape that birthed it, the Persian

garden plan endured.

4

Water was the lifeblood of the garden. Difficult to find across the Persian plateau, where

less than a dozen inches of rain fall annually, water supply became a feat of engineering.

Snows from the high mountain peaks had to be harnessed before they disappeared into

rivers that went dry or springs that went underground. When the rains make water

available, that is, in spring, channels directed the longed-for liquid to crops and gardens.

But once surface sources evaporated, continued need drew upon a device called a qanat3,

or kariz, a subterranean conduit that could deliver water to where it was needed most.

The concept dates to the Achaemienid of the sixth century B.C.

The most memorable, sumptuous and splendid of gardens necessarily belonged to the

wealth amassers: the ruling elite. It was no small feat to keep thriving a plot of ground

situated on a barren plane. Administrators, architects, agronomists, horticulturalists,

laborers and hydraulic engineers didn't come cheap. Once the concept of lush greenery,

blooming decoration, and properly cultivated wildlife became fact, however, the result

sent its practitioners into flights of fancy over just what they, mere men, had done:

conquered death. Reordering his practical universe was further proof of man's control, his

ability to make an undeniable impact on his surroundings. Not only could men be forced

to a ruler's will, so could nature. He could invoke God's directive to assume stewardship

of the land. From the Quran: "He made for you all that lies within the earth" (2.:2.9). In

the Bible, Adam is given power to name all the things of the Earth. Gardens as idyllic

spaces lend themselves to conflation with Providence. It is no wonder that from the time

the Persian garden came into existence it has been praised, imitated, and glorified.

3 Qanat, refer to chapter four "Water in Persian Gardens"

5

Through this single act of creation, man has provided his best opportunity for life

everlasting.

Gardens as far-flung as those of the Alhambra in Granada, Spain, and of the Red Fort in

Delhi, India, bear the common features of Persian gardens. The two are at once diverse

and consistent in the Persian style. They demonstrate the qualities so valued in the

Persian tradition: flow, intricacy and divinity. That this style could appear so widely owes

to the Arab conquerors of seventh-century A.D. Persia who adopted the garden pattern

and carried it as Islam spread. The reach was effectively from the Atlantic to the Pacific

through northern Africa, into southern Europe and across Asia. When Islam ruled as the

world's high culture, spreading the likes of algebra and alchemy, garden design was

imprinted on lands in Arab control as surely as Arabic numbers, textiles, commerce,

ceramic glazes and cuisine. While gardens of these regions vary with local culture, they

carry commonalities based on the Persian design.

Persia's Sassanian gardens, developed between 224 and 642 A.D., so struck the Arab

imagination that the design was quickly adopted then adapted as caliphates spread across

climates and topographies. In its first century of movement, Islam pushed westward, on

to the Levant, across the northern tier of Africa and into the Iberian Peninsula. To the

east, the Moslem reach crossed the high mountain ranges of modern-day Afghanistan and

spread into what is now eastern India. For the next thousand years, Islam extended the

development of the Persian garden by reaching to the roof of the world, the Himalayas,

and across the Balkans, the Ottomans reaching the capital of the Austro-Hungarian

empire, Vienna. Through this effort, the enclosed garden became a model to Western

6

gardeners whose walled patches were havens of peace among the hurly-burly (Hobhouse

2004, 153).

Even as Persians developed themed gardens, such as those that concentrated flower types,

they were not horticulturalists inspired by science. They didn't tinker with species or

develop hybrids. They were content to admire nature au naturel. In this regard, the

Persian mind was consistent indoors and out. Through architecture and fine arts, Persian

decoration remained constant for lengthy periods.

Gardens designed and used originally by rulers were nonetheless sources of inspiration

and comfort to others as they offered what now might be called green-space whose

proximity can be enjoyed by everyday citizens. Members of court and those among

society's upper-crust had primary access in gardens designed to offer pleasurable

experiences. Nobles became entertainers with fresh venues to serve as backdrops to their

wealth and largesse. From couples finding secret spots to the lonely seeking solace,

garden visitors relished peace and placidity as nature washed over them. A garden owner

might do little more than sit in his pavilion to reflect on life's goodness. He would have at

arm's length the bounties of trees and plants, the scents of flowers, the songs and the

buzzes of birds and insects, the brush of a breeze, and the serenity of peaceful

surroundings.

Persians took a rather static approach to gardens. Far from seeing landscape for digging

or beds for flower-filling, they tended to immerse and appreciate. Seventeenth century

7

traveler Sir John Chardin4 in the seventeenth century who wrote that: "'The Persians

don't walk so much in gardens as we do, but content themselves with a bare Prospect;

and breathing the fresh Air; For this End, they set themselves down in some part of the

Garden, at their first coming into it, and never move from their Seats till they are going

out of it." (Voyage de Paris Ii Isfahan, 1723) (Brookes 1987, 32). For Persians, a good

day in the garden would be passed among friends, lounging on rugs or cushions in a

pavilion and reciting or listening to poetry. Birdsong and moving water would

accompany their intellectual delights; the nightingale and the rose are prominent

metaphors in Persian poetry. The greatest epic in Persian literature, the Shah-Nama5 or

Book of Kings, , a mythologized telling of Persian history, appeared around 1010 A.D.

Poet Firdausi6,' Firdausi used tens of thousands of couplets in a masterwork that included

floral references and garden imagery.

4 Jean Chardin, also called (from 1681) Sir John Chardin (b. Nov. 16, 1643, Paris, Fr.—d. Dec. 25, 1713, London, Eng.), French traveler to the Middle East and India. A jeweler’s son with an excellent education, Chardin traveled with a Lyon merchant to Persia and India in 1665. At Isfahān, Persia, he enjoyed the patronage of the shah, Abbās II. On returning to France (1670), he published an account of the coronation of Soleymān. In August 1671 he again set out for Persia. Traveling through Turkey, the Crimea, and the Caucasus, he reached Isfahān nearly two years later (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010). 5 Shah-Nameh (The book of Kings) is an enormous poetic opus written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi around 1000 AD and is the national epic of the cultural sphere of Greater Persia. Consisting of some 60,000 verses, the Shahnameh tells the mythical and historical past of Iran from the creation of the world until the Islamic conquest of Persia in the 7th century. 6 Ferdowsī, also spelled Firdawsī, Firdusi, or Firdousi, pseudonym of Abū al-Qasem Mansūr (b. c. 935, near Tūs, Iran—d. c. 1020–26, Tūs), Persian poet, author of the Shāh-nāmeh (“Book of Kings”), the Persian national epic, to which he gave its final and enduring form, although he based his poem mainly on an earlier prose version (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

8

Her cheeks were as red as pomegranate blossoms and her lips like its seeds, while two pomegranates grew from her silver breasts. Her eyes were like the narcissus in the garden, and her eyebrows stole the blackness from the crew's features. She is a Paradise to look upon.

Sa'di7 (1184-1291) remains one of the most popular Persian poets, not least for his garden

references. Among his most popular works are Gulistan, which means flower garden, and

Bustan, which means orchard. Sa'di's hometown, Shiraz, is known as a city of poets,

literature, wine, nightingales, flowers and gardens. The city was also home to lyric poet

Hafez8 (ca. 1300-1389) whose work relied heavily on nature and the metaphors therein

that mark Persian poetry. His garden-cited tomb is often visited and considered a shrine.

Three features mark Persian gardens. Each garden is laid out on a four-fold pattern, the

geometry of which is distinct. Each garden offers objects, such as pavilions, fountains or

ponds. Each garden has distinctive watercourses and plants selected for their symbolism.

Meanings in Persian gardens derive from the creation of gardens by early nomadic

civilizations. This thesis follows the above structure.

7 Sa'dī, also spelled Saadi, by name of Musharrif al-Dīn ibn Muslih al-Dīn (b. c. 1213, Shīrāz, Iran—d. Dec. 9, 1291, Shīrāz), Persian poet, one of the greatest figures in classical Persian literature. He is recognized not only for the quality of his writing, but also for the depth of his social thoughts. His best known works are Bustan (The orchard) completed in 1257 and Gulistan ( The flower Garden) in 1258. Bustan is entirely in verse (epic) and consists of stories aptly illustrating the standard virtues (justice, liberty, modesty, contentment) as well as of reflections on the behavior of dervishes and their ecstatic practices. Gulistan is mainly in prose and contains stories and personal anecdotes. The text is interspersed with a variety of short poems, containing aphorisms. advice and humorous reflections (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010). 8 Hāfez, also spelled Hāfiz, in full Mohammad Shams al-Dīn Hāfez (b. 1325/26, Shīrāz, Iran—d. 1389/90, Shīrāz), one of the finest lyric poets of Persia. He collected works (divan) are to be found in the homes of most Iranians. Themes of his ghazals are the beloved, faith, and exposing hypocrisy. His tomb in Shiraz is a masterpiece of Iranian architecture and visited often (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

9

Figure 1: Kashan, Fin garden: Pavilion, pool and central axis with the view of main entrance at far end

Figure 2: Kashan, Fin garden: cross canals and nozzle

10

Figure 3: Tabas, Golshan garden: One of the walkways crossing the central axis

Figure 4: Yazd, Doulat-Abad garden: Wall surrounding the garden

11

Chapter One: Geography and Climate

Toiling up the long, dusty road from Baghdad to Teheran in the scalding heat of summer I soon learned to seek shelter in gardens along the way, sometimes alongside a teahouse pool, banked around with potted plants, and sometimes along a rushing rivulet within a fragrant orchard. Almost at once the identification of the garden with paradise, made by the Persians, seemed natural and appropriate (Lehrman 1980, 32).

Lord Curzon9's predecessor, Sir Thomas Herbert10, found the Dasht-i Kavir, or great salt

desert, a misery as "nothing but salt (not unlike pure snow) where note that the whole

wilderness is so deepe and boggie, that Horse, Cammell, or Elephant, if they goe from

the Causey are plunged and buried in the Salt and Bogge" (Moynihan 1979, 60).

Harsh climates on the plateau on which Persia lies situated no doubt accounts for the

Persian passion for gardens. Little annual rainfall – rarely more than 10 inches –

combined with cold winters and scorching summers as well as relentless winds make for

less than hospitable growing conditions. Two mountain ranges, the Alborz11 and the

9 George Nathaniel Curzon, Marquess Curzon, also called (1898–1911) Baron Curzon of Kedleston, or (1911–21) Earl Curzon of Kedleston (b. Jan. 11, 1859, Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire, Eng.—d. March 20, 1925, London), British statesman, viceroy of India (1898–1905), and foreign secretary (1919–24), who during his terms in office played a major role in British policy-making (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010). 10 Sir Thomas Herbert (1606-1682) , English traveler, historian and author, was born at Yorkshire in 1606. In his earlier years he went in connection with an embassy to Persia, and he later published an account of his travels. 11 Alburz mountain range: It is 560 mi (900 km) long and extends along the southern shore of the Caspian Sea, from which it is separated by a narrow coastal lowland. It includes Iran’s highest peak, Mount Damāvand , at 18,605 ft (5,671 m). The forests of the Elburz cover some 12,500 sq mi (32,400 sq km) (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

12

Zagros12, border the plateau along north and west edges, respectively, and contain peaks

as high as 15,000 feet that hold snow year-round but tend to cut off potential rain. To the

east of the plateau, desert stretches to Afghanistan and Pakistan but not smoothly. A

series of mountain ranges cross the area, marking out valleys and causing fluctuations in

rain patterns that affect growing opportunities. Within this area are regions called the

Sand Desert, or Dasht-e Lut13, which has no rainfall so is barren, and the Great Salt

Desert, or Dasht-e Kavir14 in which salt content precludes vegetation growth.

The striking feature of the plateau is not topography but the brilliant way light plays

across it. Travelers have been astounded by this natural display for centuries; gardens

have provided an antidote. The walled definition of a Persian garden offers welcome

interruption to the plateau's at times barren expanse. Natural vegetation might be lacking

but through hard work and irrigation, gardens are possible. March and April mark spring

and offer a brief glimpse of wildflowers.

12 Zagros mountain range : in southwestern Iran, extending northwest-southeast from the Sīrvān (Diyala) River to Shiraz. The Zagros range is about 550 miles (900 km) long and more than 150 miles (240 km) wide. Situated mostly in what is now Iran, it forms the extreme western boundary of the Iranian plateau, though its foothills to the north and west extend into adjacent countries(Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010). 13 Dasht-e Lut : desert in eastern Iran. It stretches about 200 miles (320 km) from northwest to southeast and is about 100 miles wide. In the east a great massif of dunes and sand rises, while in the west an extensive area of high ridges is separated by wind-swept corridors. In its lowest, salt-filled depression—less than 1,000 feet (300 m) above sea level—the summer heat and low humidity are believed to be unsurpassed anywhere (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010). 14 Dasht-e Kavir: great salt desert of central Iran. Located in a basin southeast of the Alburz mountains, it is approximately 240 miles (390 km) wide. The desert is distinguished by salt crust, caused by the almost rainless climate and intense surface evaporation, lying over treacherous, quick sand like salt marshes that are almost uninhabited. Settlements are found only in the surrounding mountain ranges (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

13

The 636,000 square miles of modern Iran constitute a smaller area than heretofore known

in Persia's history. The nation's population is concentrated in cities, leaving less than a

third of the land inhabited. Persia's desert lands have suffered through the ages as humans

striving to eke out existence have allowed domesticated animals to overgraze natural

vegetation. Examples remain primarily in remote areas (Hobhouse 2004, 17).

Temperature extremes mark Iran's weather. Summer temperatures at any time from June

through August can reach 50 degrees Celsius (125 degrees Fahrenheit). Similarly, winter

can be bitterly cold, not surprising given the country's altitude. Snow is not uncommon

considering the number of mountain ranges. The most temperate weather can be found in

the short seasons of spring and fall. Spring weather is more erratic while autumn is

usually predictably warm and sunny (Brookes 1987, 213-214).

A garden's meaning takes into consideration its setting. The physical characteristics of a

garden site are a garden's “pre-existing conditions.” While the Alborz and Zagros ranges

send abundant streams of rain and snow run-off to the Caspian Sea to the north and the

Persian Gulf and the Oman Sea to the southwest, the central regions of Iran – especially

the Dasht-e Lut and the Dasht-e Kavir – stay dry. Additionally, a number of Iran's rivers

dry up before their water can be used. With so few inhabitants on the central plain, Iran,

by and large, has not imposed manmade solutions to water concerns. Employing

irrigation methods or drainage techniques is not in wide use. Beyond physical constraints,

places that offer spiritual considerations, that are sacred, afford intersections of man and

his quest to find meaning beyond himself. These challenges imbue sites with meaning

and bring a new reference to building gardens. Adding reverence to the more mundane

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aspects of soil composition, slope, temperatures and sun exposure is the essence of

Persian gardens(Lehrman 1980, 13).

The central plateau hasn't always been sparsely populated or uncultivated. Through a

long reach of history, Persians have managed and manipulated water sources to turn

parched landscapes into lush oases, thereby boosting commerce with every harvest.

Moreover, this productivity made a cultural impact. Sophisticated systems of land and

wealth distribution, tax structures, labor provision, community growth, even inheritance

stipulations developed. Country life took on a specialized definition.

15

Figure 5: View of the central Zagros mountain ranges (Kerman Water Company, 1982).

Figure 6 (left): View of Central Persian plateau (Kerman Water Company, 1982).

Figure 7 (right): Mahan, Shazdeh garden: Central walkway, the main entrance and mountains at far distance

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Chapter Two: History of Persian Gardens

… Records were made more than 2,500 years ago of gardens planted by Cyrus the Great. These were probably orchards, as the trees were set out in straight lines. The application of symmetry, the “Chahar-bagh” and use of defining water courses, avenues, the closure of vistas, terraces and kiosks, existed long before Islamic times. The courtyard was an ancient concept; the garden was out of place in an urban centre, and evidence of courtyards has been found in Achaemenid15 dwellings and Parthian and Sassanian palaces. (Lehrman 1980, 110)

Less than divinely delivered, garden as paradise came about through military conquest

and commercial interaction. Trade routes ran through Persia from China to the West as

early as the second century B.C. The so-called Silk Road was a track that linked oases

and stretched from mountain passes through desert removes. Settlers in the oases created

the first gardens by erecting fences to hold back the desert's blowing sands. The ploy

worked on human and animal mischief-makers as well. An oasis' central feature, a natural

spring, made cultivation possible and resultant trees provided relief from the sun. As

oases settlers became more entrenched, distinctions became evident between nomadic

and established communities. Irrigation systems produced crops that became symbols of

divine blessing. Vegetation that took root and grew heartily seemed to be paradise on

Earth. The natural world could now be linked to evil spirits that could produce such as

15 Achaemenian , also called Achaemenid, Persian Hakhamanishiya, (559–330 B.C), ancient Iranian dynasty whose kings founded and ruled the Achaemenian Empire. Achaemenes (Persian Hakhamanish), the Achaemenians’ eponymous ancestor, is presumed to have lived early in the 7th century bc, but little is known of his life. From his son Teispes two lines of kings descended. The kings of the older line were Cyrus I, Cambyses I, Cyrus II (the Great), and Cambyses II. After the death of Cambyses II (522 B.C) the junior line came to the throne with Darius I. The Persian Empire was the largest empire by geographical extent in ancient times. The empire encompassed approximately eight million km 2 at the height of its power. The dynasty became extinct with the invasion of Alexander of Macedon in 330 B.C (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010)

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death from thirst. The knife's edge between life and death gave fruits of the earth and the

water that provided them secure sacred status. Wasting water could be deadly, thus it

became an easily recognized sin. The practice of cultivation led to improved skills, better

crop yields, and gardens that could give pleasure as well as sustenance.

The earliest written record of the paradise garden is considered to be the Cuneiform

tablets16 found in Mesopotamia, the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is

now Iraq. Dated to 4,000 B.C. by their 20th Century discoverers, these forms depict the

Sumerian god of water, known as Enki17, instructing the god of the sun, Utu, to produce a

fresh water source for Dilmun-a, where residents lived lives free of disease, violence,

even aging – without fresh water. The result produced greenery – and foodstuffs –

aplenty, from meadows to fields to trees. The Sumerians had migrated to the bottom

lands from foothills to the northeast where they had enjoyed a fair variety of trees – scrub

oaks, poplars, cedars, cypress, the tall, leafy plane tree, and the evergreen shrub called

box – that were fed by directed run-off from melting snows. Their new valley home

offered more limited bounty: willows, date palms, and giant reeds growing in swamps.

The plucky Sumerians spent the next millennium practicing hydrological engineering

16 cuneiform, system of writing used in the ancient Middle East.. The name, a coinage from Latin and Middle French roots meaning “wedge-shaped”, has been the modern designation from the early 18th century onward. Cuneiform was the most widespread and historically significant writing system in the ancient Middle East. Its active history comprised the last three millennia B.C; its long development and geographic expansion involved numerous successive cultures and languages (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010). 17 Enki, Mesopotamian god of water and a member of the triad of deities completed by Anu (Sumerian: An) and Enlil. From a local deity worshiped in the city of Eridu, Ea evolved into a major god, Lord of Apsu (also spelled Abzu), thefresh waters beneath the earth (although Enki means literally “lord of the earth”). In the Sumerian myth “Enki and the World Order,” Enki is said to have fixed national boundaries and assigned gods their roles. According to another Sumerian myth Enki is the creator, having devised men as slaves to the gods (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

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until they could claim a system of canals by which they drained the swamps and put the

river valley on track as a rich agricultural zone. City-states followed as the Sumerians set

about establishing civilization as it would be known for millennia to come.

The paradise described in some of the earliest literary writings, those of third-millennium

B.C. Mesopotamia, including the Epic of Gilgamesh, an account of a Sumerian king in

the city Uruk18, defined a garden divided by four rivers reaching from the compass points

and forming a cross. This configuration would hold through the centuries, including as

the defining aspect of Islamic gardens. The Epic of Gilgamesh also recorded descriptions

of agricultural settlements replacing nomadic existences:

One third of Uruk is city with houses and temples, "one third is garden and one

third is field (Hobhouse 2004, 46).

The hero Gilgamesh is described as seeking an enemy up a mountainside crowded with

shade-giving cedars and looking for a spring offering everlasting life in a garden:

In front of the mountain rise the cedars in all their luxuriant abundance; their shade is pure joy. Where thorn bushes, dark gorse and fragrant plants nestle under the cedars (Hobhouse 2004, 45).... And lo, the gesdin [tree) shining stands With crystal branches in the golden sands In this immortal garden stands the Tree With trunk of gold) and beautiful to see) Beside a sacred fount the tree is placed. With emeralds and unknown gems graced (Hobhouse 2004, 46).

18 Erech, Sumerian Uruk, Greek Orchoë, modern Tall al-Warkā', ancient Mesopotamian city located northwest of Ur (Tall Al-Muqayyar) in southeastern Iraq. The site has been excavated from 1928 onward by the German Oriental Society and the German Archeological Institute. Erech was one of the greatest cities of Sumer and was enclosed by brickwork walls about 6 miles (10 km) in circumference, which according to legend were built by the mythical hero Gilgamesh.. Within the walls, excavations traced successive cities that date from the prehistoric Ubaid period, perhaps before 5000 B.C, down to Parthian times (174 B.C- 224 A.D) (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

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Hanging Gardens (Hekmataneh) – Canny adapters to climate, Persia's emperors fled to

the mountains to escape summer heat of the desert. Ecbatana, capital of Media, rested at

six thousand feet above sea level in the Zagros range. Terraced gardens stood above a

plain filled with the fruits of sophisticated cultivation. Orchards and vineyards flourished

on the waters from Mt. Orontes. The beauty of this well-sited city produced the enduring

legend of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Hanging Gardens of

Babylon19. The bride of Nebuchadrezzar20 was said to have so missed her hometown that

around 600 B.C. he endeavored to please her with the construction of a terraced hill that

would offer a sense of the lush setting she had left. German architect and archaeologist

Robert Koldewey21 (1855-1925), during a decade of excavation of Babylonian ruins,

claimed to have unearthed structures he thought to be evidence of the gardens. The most

19 Babylon: The city’s ruins are located about 55 mi (89 km) south of Baghdad, near the modern city of Al-Hillah, Iraq. Babylon was one of the most famous cities in antiquity. Probably first settled in the 3rd millennium B.C, it came under the rule of the Amorite kings around 2000 B.C. It became the capital of Babylonia and was the chief commercial city of the Tigris and Euphrates river system. (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010)

20 Nebuchadrezzar I, (flourished 12th century bc), most famous Babylonian king (reigned c. 1119–c. 1098 bc) of the 2nd dynasty of the Isin. In revenge for earlier humiliating conquests and defeats that the Elamites had inflicted on Babylonia, Nebuchadrezzar led a grand campaign that resulted in the capture of Susa, the capital of Elam. The victory marked the end of Elam’s domination of the region (the kingdom subsequently disintegrated into petty states) and afforded the return of the stolen cult statue of Marduk to its holy place at E-sagila (Marduk was to become the national deity of Babylon). (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

21 Robert Koldewey, (b. Sept. 10, 1855, Blankenburg am Harz, duchy of Brunswick [Germany]—d. Feb. 4, 1925, Berlin, Ger.), German architect and archaeologist who revealed the semilegendary Babylon of the Bible as a geographic and historical reality. Koldewey’s activities as a field archaeologist began with visits to ancient Assus (Assos) in western Turkey (1882) and the nearby island of Lesbos (1885). Subsequent expeditions took him to Iraq (1887) and Zincirli Höyük, Turkey, site of the Hittite city of Samal (1888–92), where he prepared survey, maps, drawings, and site reconstructions (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

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notable aspect of the elaborate tiered theater was stone-works. According to Koldewey,

stone was not common to the region. A series of vaulted rooms were supported by

massive but hollow columns that not only held up the hill but housed the root systems of

the trees growing on the higher terraces. Layers of lead lined the terraces and the array of

shrubs and trees thereon was watered by a system of unseen buckets. Brick channels

provided drainage (Moynihan 1979, 24). Similarly, the gardens of Ecbatana22

(Hekmataneh) are lost as the ancient city is the site of present-day Hamadan.

Greek historian Diodorus23 gave an account of the hanging gardens 500 years after their

completion in which he described upper-levels irrigation as a screw system delivering

water from the Euphrates River. His account depicted a wide-ranging assortment of lush

foliage (Hobhouse 2004, 50).

22 Ecbatana, ancient city on the site of which stands the modern city of Hamadan, Iran. Ecbatana was the capital of Media and was subsequently the summer residence of the Achaemenian kings and one of the residences of the Parthian kings. According to ancient Greek writers, the city was founded in about 678 B.C by the semi-legendary Deioces, who was the first king of the Medes. The Greek historian Herodotus described the city in the 5th century B.C as being surrounded by seven concentric walls. Ecbatana was captured from the Median ruler Astyages by the Persian king Cyrus the Great (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

23 Diodorus Siculus, (flourished 1st century bc, Agyrium, Sicily), Greek historian, the author of a universal history, Bibliothēkē (“Library”; known in Latin as Bibliotheca historica), that ranged from the age of mythology to 60 B.C. Diodorus lived in the time of Julius Caesar and Augustus, and his own statements make it clear that he traveled in Egypt during 60–57 B.C and spent several years in Rome. The latest event mentioned by him belongs to the year 21 B.C. His history consisted of 40 books, of which 1–5 and 11–20 survive, and was divided into three parts (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

21

Another acclaimed Babylonian garden is attributed to Esarhaddon24 (680-669 B.C), who

sought to duplicate vegetation found in the Amanus25 Mountains on Hittite lands near the

Black Sea. Descriptions of a temple garden with fruit trees and rows of vegetables were

among records of his reign. A series of channels distributed water to the crops. Fresh

produce was presumed to have been an offering to the gods. An earlier Babylonian text

proclaims, "I planted a pure orchard for the goddess and established fruit deliveries as

regular offerings (Hobhouse 2004, 50).

Persian Gardens before Muslim invasion to Persia - The quadripartite form of the

garden predates Islam as histories of Mediterranean and Persian peoples demonstrate. No

less than Cyrus26 the Great (559-530 B.C.) could boast a deliberately designed garden.

The royal garden in the Achaemenid (560-330 B.C.) capital Pasargadae was laid out on a

24 Esarhaddon, also spelled Essarhaddon, Assyrian Ashur-aha-iddina (“Ashur Has Given Me a Brother”) (flourished 7th century bc), king of Assyria 680–669 bc, a descendant of Sargon II. Esarhaddon is best known for his conquest of Egypt in 671. Although he was a younger son, Esarhaddon had already been proclaimed successor to the throne by his father, Sennacherib, who had appointed him governor of Babylon some time after Sennacherib sacked that city in 689. Sennacherib was murdered (681) by one or more of Esarhaddon’s brothers, apparently in an attempt to seize the throne (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

25 Amanus mountain range in southern Turkey, a great chain running parallel to the Mediterranean coast. The system extends along a curve from Lake Egridir in the west to the upper reaches of the Euphrates river in the east. Aladağ (10,935 feet [3,333 m]) in the Taurus proper and Mount Erciyes in the outlying offshoot of the Nur Mountains are the highest peaks; many other peaks reach between 10,000 and 12,000 feet (3,000 to 3,700 m) (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010). 26 Cyrus II , byname Cyrus The Great (b. 590–580 B.C, Media, or Persis [now in Iran]—d. c. 529, Asia), conqueror who founded the Achaemenian empire, centered on Persia and comprising the Near East from the Aegean Sea eastward to the Indus River. He is also remembered in the Cyrus legend—first recorded by Xenophon, Greek soldier and author, in his Cyropaedia—as a tolerant and ideal monarch who was called the father of his people by the ancient Persians. In the Bible he is the liberator of the Jews who were captive in Babylonia (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

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rectangular bed across from the throne hall. An axis of sight extended from the throne

hall down the center of the garden, giving rise to speculation that the bed was divided

across axes by intersecting watercourses. Stone delineated water channels connected

regularly placed basins, also rectangular, on three sides of the space. Logic and

practicality suggest distribution of irrigation water lay behind a garden of quadrants. But

evidence of cross-axial planning is inconclusive. So few remains are intact to study that a

certain amount of overlay of design of Islamic sites from a thousand years later must be

done. Even if channels cannot be found to delineate the space, sighting axes substantiate

a four-fold designation (Ruggles 2006, 40).

Enclosed gardens with irrigation systems were in use across Persia and the so-called

Fertile Crescent well before Arabs adopted the idea and sent it throughout the Moslem

world. Early on, planners had realized the value of using lush vegetation to buffer the

harsh aspects of the outside world. Cyrus the younger planted his paradise garden at

Sardis27 with straight lines of trees that could be watered that much more easily.

Sassanid palaces were ringed with plants and water. Ancient Greece, Rome and

Byzantium adopted the Persian garden example, which in turn might have borrowed from

Mesopotamia. Samarra of the Abbasid rule was a ninth-century palace with iwans28,

27 Sardis, ruined capital of ancient Lydia, near present Đzmir, Turkey. Strategically located on a spur at the foot of Mount Tmolus (Boz Dağ), it commanded the central plain of the Hermus Valley and was the western terminus of the Persian royal road. Sardis was the capital of the flourishing Lydian kingdom of the 7th century B.C and was the first city where gold and silver coins were minted. From about 560 to about 546 Sardis was ruled by Croesus, who was renowned for his great wealth and was the last king of Lydia (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010). 28 ayvān (palace, veranda, balcony, portico), a Persian word used also in Arabic (īwān, līwān) and Turkish. In classical Persian or Arabic texts, ayvān refers most of the time to a palatial function, either a whole palace or the most important and formal part of a palace.

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enclosing walls, channels, fountains and pools, all of which fit into a clearly designed

system of walkways and open areas (Lehrman, 1980).

The palace complex at Pasargadae29 is a fixed entity as the first planned garden in the

West, but the evolution of Persian gardens was in the works even before Cyrus the Great

defeated Medes30 in 546 B.C. Their existence was evident throughout an area much

larger than modern Iran. Gardens extolled in myth and literature have been proclaimed by

archaeologists working throughout the river deltas of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in

modern-day Iraq, the foothills of the northern Zagros in Iran's Khuzestan province, and in

Egypt's Nile River valley (Hobhouse 2004, 45).

Persian Gardens in Europe - The medieval Christian cloister gardens in Europe were

also clearly influenced by Persian gardens. The early Roman courtyard gardens (Gardens

of Lucullus in Rome, 60 B.C) introduced Persian garden style to Europe. Roman culture

was influenced by other cultures through trade and growth of the Empire. There was

By extension, it can mean the most official or impressive part of any building (Encyclopedia Iranica, 2010). 29 Pasargadae is the first dynastic capital of the Persian Achaemenian dynasty, situated on a plain northeast of Persepolis in southwestern Iran. According to tradition, Cyrus the Great (reigned 559-529 B.C) chose the site because it lay near the scene of his victory over Astyages the Mede (550 B.C). In 2004 the ruins were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

30 The kingdom of the Medes: The creator of the Median kingdom was one Deioces, who according to Herodotus, reigned from 728 to 675 B.C and founded the Median capital Ecbatana (modern Hamadān). Attempts have been made to associate Dāiukku, a local Zagros king mentioned in a cuneiform text as one of the captives deported to Assyria by Sargon II in 714 B.C, with the Deioces of Herodotus, but such an association is highly unlikely. To judge from the Assyrian sources, no Median kingdom such as Herodotus describes for the reign of Deioces existed in the early 7th century B.C ... (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

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cross fertilization between the Roman gardens and the later Arabic/ Moorish gardens in

Spain. The Islamic gardens in Europe were obviously influenced by the courtyard

gardens and Roman villas, such as Hadrian villa. These interlocking garden styles lifted

the idea of creating a place of peace and tranquility. The gardens beautified the houses

and palaces by connecting a secure outdoor space to the safe place of indoors. They were

filled with symbolic meanings while protected from harsh climate. The French formal

gardens in 17th century were also based on symmetry and axial order that proves the

influence of Persian garden style. There are echoes all the way through history. The two

essential garden types, " the wondering path" and "the symmetrical axial arrangement"

are repeated over and over again.

Persian Gardens After Islam - Once the adherents of Islam set about spreading the

word of the Prophet Mohammad in the seventh century, they came into lands including

the Sasanian empire (224-642 A.D.) that encompassed areas of ancient Sumeria, Assyria

and Babylon, and extended eastward to Kabul, capital of modern-day Afghanistan. The

Arabs encountered a realm that for a thousand years had depended on the sustenance and

comfort afforded by enclosed gardens, gardens that recalled the Garden of Eden, that

served royal households, that boasted iwans that would suggest the layout of mosques to

come. The conquerors found gardens that transformed deserts, that channeled river

waters, that supported plant life unknown to them. The palace Taq-i Kesra31, the capital

of the Sasanid empire, was resplendent, refined and carpeted.

31 Taq-i Kesrai, us a Sassanid Persian monument in Al-Mada'n which is the only visible remaining structure of the ancient city of Ctesiphon. Construction began during the reign of Khosraw I after a campaign against the Byzantines in 540 AD. The arched Iwan hall, open on the facade side, was about 37 meters high 26 meters across and 50 meters long,

25

The Arabs knew a good thing when they saw it. Before long, the Persian perception of

pleasure and paradise had been augmented by a spiritual aspect courtesy of the Quran. A

mere century later Islam had spread the value of enclosed gardens as representation of

paradise as widely as the word of Allah. The reach extended across the Middle East to

North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula. By the 16th Century, Mughal India was on board.

Paradise became the standard for Islamic gardens and pleasure parks surrounding royal

households were as necessary as they had been to Achaemenid (560-330 B.C.) and

Sasanian (224-642 A.D.) empires.

A pious link between an Islamic version of paradise and quadrant garden layout failed to

take hold for as long as four centuries. Literary depictions and site observations revealed

little to associate real-world behavior with paradisiac, expectation. Historians offered no

insight or interpretation. Gardens attached to mosques didn't seem to merit special

decorum.

Like the Sasanian (224-642 A.D.), early Moslem caliphs participated in hunting,

classified as pure pleasure. The palaces they built as hunting lodges were natural sites for

Persian gardens, which quickly were embraced. The tradition of the enclosed Persian

garden spread with Islam throughout Egypt and the Morocco, to Sicily and Spain

(Moynihan 1979, 41).

Just as Islam itself has a back-story revealing a progression of incidents that resulted in

the religion's founding, so Islamic gardens speak of progression. Gardens that survive

from the Umayyad period and the first 200 years of Abbasid rule that took Islam to the

the largest vault ever constructed at the time. The arch was part of the imperial palace complex(Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

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10th Century, were walled enclosures with axial esplanades. Early formal gardens were

part of palaces and featured sensuous fragrances, warm colors and cool breezes

associated with earthly delights. Later gardens are frequently home to tombs, especially

from the 16th Century. Early mosque courtyards were planted with trees merely to

provide shade or for produce used to compensate the building custodian (Ruggles 2006,

19).

Archaeologists working in the walled city of Rusafa32 uncovered a garden thought to be

the first, best example of the Islamic garden. Considered to be from the reign of

Umayyad caliph Hisham33 (724-743 A.D), the excavations reveal a large garden

alongside a stone palace. The garden's mud-brick walls encase a space with intersecting

walkways of plaster and square pavilion of stone. The pavilion sits on a raised plinth

accessible on each side via three steps. Axial paths and openings in the pavilion's walls

and the surrounding arcade suggest the pavilion was meant to give clear-sighted views of

the distant reaches of the garden and horizons beyond. By making the pavilion the center

of the garden, designers could make clear the space was intended for the power of a

sovereign (Ruggles 2006, 42).

Paradise Garden in History - Paradise Garden in History – The ideal model of the

Persian garden was intended to present a forever spring atmosphere, an expectation of the

afterlife. Instead, a lush garden overflowing with the wonders of nature created a

32 Rusafa is located at the east-bank of Tigris in Baghdad. A series of bridges, including one railroad trestle, link the two banks (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010). 33 Hishām ibn 'Abd al-Malik, (b. 691, Damascus [now in Syria]—d. Feb. 6, 743, Damascus), the tenth caliph, who reigned during the final period of prosperity and glory of the Umayyads (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

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celebration of life. The gardens could not establish a singularly secular image so long as

the salient features of heavenward-reaching trees, tumbling waters, and blooming flowers

served to remind users of the heaven-on-earth aspects of natural abundance. The

geometric pattern has yet to be improved upon and the Paradise Garden model continues

to influence and flourish.

In interpreting a divine view of paradise as a garden, an individual has two opportunities

to attain paradise: Reach it in the afterlife or build it in this life. Similarly, two versions of

paradise gardens can be designed. A centripetal approach walls off a sanctuary in which

peace and quiet encourage reflection and retreat from harsh climates beyond. A

centrifugal approach, such as the Chahar-bagh, expands through its four-channel design

from a center point such as a central pavilion or a fountain. An enclosure becomes a

bubble in which one may contemplate the universe within and without, a contemplation

that brings a realization of paradise because peace and calm inherit to the space promote

order and bring harmony to the senses. A centered approach offers order through lines,

textures and the play of light on reflecting surfaces that bring forth usually hidden

universe.

Language facilitated the merging ideals of garden and paradise. In Persian, the term

bihesht means paradise and appears in the names of many gardens. The Persian word

pardis, which Arabs say as firdaws, means garden and paradise at once, completing the

intertwining of concepts. It works perfectly for poets wishing to compare delights to be

found on Earth with promises in the Quran of paradise in heaven.

Garden development went hand-in-hand with early civilizations working the land for

crop production. The peoples who lived on the Iranian plateau were farming as early as

28

the fourth millennium. Archaeologists working at Siyalk34, southeast of Tehran,

unearthed settlement evidence of stone sickle blades identified with the end of the

Neolithic age. Fourth-millennium farmers had replaced digging sticks with ploughs and

were using cast metal hoes. When nomadic invaders known as Aryans35 moved into the

area between the Ganges and Euphrates rivers, they blended with settlers on the plateau

and adopted agrarian methods and a number of traditions practiced by the established

community. Theological consensus has failed to confirm specifics of Aryan religion but

agreement exists that their gods were associated with nature. The notable impact Aryans

made on the settled inhabitants had to do with adoption of the Aryans' Indo-European

dialect. As evidenced by imposition of language, Aryans dominated the civilization on

the plateau, where gardens took on increasing importance (Moynihan 1979, 10).

Aryans sealed their contribution with the establishment of the Aryan Achaemenian

dynasty (560-330 B.C.) in the southwestern region of the plateau across an area called

Parsa province, now Fars. Cyrus the Great began consolidating the region after 546 B.C.,

establishing the Achaemenid Empire. The Greek reference to the province as Persis

34 Siyalk is a large ancient archeological site is a suburb of the city of Kashan, Isfahan province, in central Iran, close to Fin garden. The Sialk mound was built around the 8th century BC. It is a mud-brick platform, possibly a support for some kind of building standing atop the platform but not necessarily a temple. Some have speculated it is a ziggurat (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010). 35 Aryan, former name given to a people who were said to speak an archaic Indo-European language and who were thought to have settled in prehistoric times in ancient Iran and the northern Indian subcontinent. The theory of an “Aryan race” appeared in the mid-19th century and remained prevalent until the mid-20th century. According to the hypothesis, these probably light-skinned Aryans were the group who invaded and conquered ancient India from the north and whose literature, religion, and modes of social organization subsequently shaped the course of Indian culture, particularly the Vedic religion that informed and was eventually superseded by Hinduism (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

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provided the country name, Persia. The Achaemenians are credited with beginning

Persian history as well as Persian gardens.

Differing from development of gardens among other cultures, which tended to keep to

royalty-derived designs as a peacetime diversion, Persian gardens were more universally

adopted. Gardens were built and appreciated as often by humble people as by the elite.

Arthur Upham Pope 36has written:

Indeed, in domestic architecture, change has been slight throughout thousands of years. The old Iranian house with its grim outer walls and its garden and court within, is the same yesterday, today and forever, and has even been so ensconced in national habit that it has controlled the ground-plan of various kinds of public buildings, like the great Islamic madrasahs37 and caravanserais38 (Moynihan 1979, 11).

A singular aspect of Persian existence through centuries of wars marked by victory and

loss was the strength of the culture, which continued to be embraced by all who came

36 Arthur Upham Pope (b. Phenix, Rhode Island, 1881 - d. 1969) was an American archaeologist and historian of Persian art. He went to Iran to complete research and serve as an art advisor to the Iranian government in 1925. Professor Pope and his wife Dr. Phyllis Ackerman were invited to move to Iran in 1966 and spent their final years on Iran and upon their death, they were provided with a magnificent mausoleum built in Professor Pope Park on the banks of Zayandeh river in their beloved city of Isfahan (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010). 37 madrasah, in Muslim countries, an institution of higher education. The madrasah functioned until the 20th century as a theological seminary and law school, with a curriculum centered on the Qur'ān. In addition to Islamic theology and law, Arabic grammar and literature, mathematics, logic, and, in some cases, natural science were studied in madrasahs. Tuition was free, and food, lodging, and medical care were provided as well. Instruction usually took place in a courtyard and consisted primarily of memorizing textbooks and the instructor’s lectures (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010). 38 caravanserai, in the Middle East and parts of North Africa and Central Asia, a public building used for sheltering caravans and other travelers. The caravansary is usually constructed outside the walls of a town or village. The structure is quadrangular in form and is enclosed by a massive wall that has small windows near the top and only a few narrow air holes near the bottom. A heavy-doored gateway, high and wide enough to admit loaded camels, is usually the sole entrance (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

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into contact with it. Persians had nothing like this success on political fronts. Able to

draw from conquerors as well as the conquered, Persian culture continued to influence.

Paradise gardens were at the forefront of the adopted practices and spread throughout the

civilized world as a result. Also known for decorative arts, Persians developed distinctive

architecture highlighted by monuments and ornaments. This architecture was a critical

component of the Paradise garden, taken as it was in nearly complete form to be the

Islamic garden and the representative garden of Mughal India. Discovered by the nomads

of Central Asia, whose habits lent themselves to embracing nature, the Paradise garden

quickly became encampments for royals. India's Mughals raised this nomadic lifestyle to

something of a high art, adopting gardens as effective palaces.

The next influence on Persian gardens was brought west by the Mongol hordes. An

invasion led by Genghiz Khan39 sacked cities across what today are Afghanistan and Iran,

leaving behind rubble and corpses. qanats40 were damaged; wells were filled with sand. It

didn't take long for water-starved fields to revert to desert. The Great Khan succeeded

Genghiz and kept control of the eastern half of the region himself. The western territories

were split up and doled out to subordinates. While they excelled in destroying much of

what would be considered beautiful or sacred about Persia, the Mongols also began to

absorb the resilient Persian culture. Architectural and artistic achievements continued.

39 Genghis Khan, Genghis also spelled Chinggis, Chingis, Jenghiz, or Jinghis, original name Temüjin, also spelled Temuchin (b. 1162, near Lake Baikal, Mongolia—d. Aug. 18, 1227), Mongolian warrior-ruler, one of the most famous conquerors of history, who consolidated tribes into a unified Mongolia and then extended his empire across Asia to the adriatic Sea (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010). 40 qanat, refer to chapter Four: Water in Persian Gardens

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Palaces and gardens continued to inspire. Poets poured forth ghazals41 that portrayed

gardens as symbols of success; again flowers and fruits metaphorically stood for

expressions of romance and spirituality. Persian painters depicted their subjects in

gardens that brought together the best of the designs to date: pavilions, fountains, trees

and flowers. The cultural contacts that resulted from this latest invasion carried these art

messages into Europe and across the miles to far China.

The garden's special status as mystical entity relied heavily adjacent buildings. A

reconstructed representation of Pasargadae as well as study of ruins of the Achaemenid

dynasty (560-330 B.C.) demonstrated the interdependence of buildings, garden and

watercourses as elemental to royal gardens. But beyond the influence of large gardens

such as Pasargadae, the continuing establishment of small gardens throughout palace

grounds emphasized the reliance of garden space in relation to building presence. Small

gardens within palace walls resembled the home gardens of everyday citizens. Persian

architecture remained fixed on presentation of houses at the end of gardens. Houses had

talar42, raised, recessed platforms that overlooked garden water features. Tree-lined paths

cut symmetrical lines through the garden. Fruit trees were consistently present and

flowers were abundant by variety with many scattered to represent natural presentation.

The talar's proximity to the garden frequently could work as an added room. Talars on

larger houses usually needed support, affording an opportunity to erect columns that gave

41 ghazal is a poetic form consisting of rhyming couplets and a refrain, with each line sharing the same meter. 42 talar is the architectural term given to the throne of the Persian monarchs which is carved on the rock-cut tomb of Darius at Naqsh-e Rostam, near Persrpolis, and above the portico which was copied from his palace. Today the term refers to an architectural space with high ceiling.

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the house a resemblance to royal pavilions. In effect they were the same; both provided

an elevated view of the garden from a shaded spot (Moynihan 1979, 20).

The private apartments in the Persepolis palace of Darius I43 featured a small garden. It

was adjacent to the king's quarters and enclosed by a wall. Carved stone water channels

and basins connected to a network of underground, cistern-fed troughs that carried water

to the baths, palaces and gardens as well.

European attraction to Persian Gardens - From the time of Cyrus, the seekers – of

territory, stories or goods – who crossed the mountains were drawn to the gardens.

Greeks then Romans carried away the notions of how to implement these little heavens

on Earth. The influence was such that Europeans would take centuries to develop their

own views on landscape design. Hints that creative rumblings were in the works

expressed themselves as criticism of the rigid geometric layouts of Persian designs and

the consistent use of fruit trees. The term monotonous came up. Nineteenth-century

observer Lord Curzon considered Persian gardens by intoning affection for the view

across a broad English lawn.

In the nineteenth century, Lord Curzon, in describing a Persian garden, revealed a

longing for the broad view across an English lawn:

They are planted down the sides of long alleys, admitting of no view but a vista, the surrounding plots being a jungle of bushes and shrubs. Water courses along in channels or is conducted into tanks. Sometimes these gardens rise in terraces to a pavilion at the summit, whose reflection in the pool below is regarded as a triumph of landscape gardening. There are no neat walks, or shaped flower beds,

43 Darius I, byname Darius the Great (b. 550 B.C—d. 486), king of Persia in 522–486 B.C, one of the greatest rulers of the Achaemenid dynasty, who was noted for his administrative genius and for his great building projects. Darius attempted several times to conquer Greece; his fleet was destroyed by a storm in 492, and the Athenians defeated his army at Marathon in 490 (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

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or stretches of sward. All is tangled and untrimmed. Such beauty as arises from shade and the purling of water is all that the Persian require (Moynihan 1971, 68).

Lord Curzon's lapse failed to acknowledge the blue-brown syndrome of Persian

landscapes. To the Englishman who could count on varied skies and changing conditions,

a broad expanse of lawn allowed release of cares. For the Persian, whose world could

seem confined to big sky and barren mountains, the narrowly defined geometry of the

Persian garden with its clear tree borders and sparkling waters offered an equivalent

escape. Where the Englishman saw boxes, the Persian saw the promise of Paradise.

Only by the 17th Century did Europeans, as tourists or merchants, begin to travel

sufficiently widely to appreciate the full romantic impact of Persian fine art, sculpture or

architecture. When Europeans traveled into Ottoman and Persian territories and farther

east into Mughal India, their eyes were opened to the creative presentations of mosques,

palaces, courtyards and their accompaniments of lush gardens. Rich materials, exquisite

fabrics, bejeweled displays and extravagant wealth were matched by seductive qualities

of gardens. The exoticism took a quick turn to sensory overload. Yet Europeans resisted

reproducing the luxuriant gardens they saw. Possibly they associated the existence strictly

with desert climes where defenses of greenery and coolness of water were vital to

warding off a harsh environment. Europeans had found a different route to embracing a

natural world. Only by the turn of the 20th Century did English architects Edwin

Lutyens44 and Harold Peto45 connect with the Persian garden construct of axial water

44 Sir Edwin Lutyens, in full Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens (b. March 29, 1869, London, Eng.—d. Jan. 1, 1944, London), English architect noted for his versatility and range of invention along traditional lines. He is known especially for his planning of New Delhi and his design of the Viceroy’s House there (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

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courses with pavilion alignment. They did it by disconnecting the religious inferences.

Peto's grand water installation at Buscot Park46 in Oxfordshire relied heavily on Mughal

atmospherics to produce a scene reminiscent of Kashmir. In the 1970s, designer Russell

Page placed Islamic-like pools and water rills along a lower garden at La Mortella47 on

the island of Ischia near Naples. Other designers, including Norah Lindsay, interpreted

Persian gardens using Persian carpets. She let motes of historical influences inform

precisely intricate flower gardens (Hobhouse 2004, 180).

Twenty-first Century gardens seeking the cool embrace of paradise can look no further

than Persian gardens. Ordered tranquility offered by the fourfold pattern, the cooly

whispering water feature, the shaded comfort of trees and the brightness and perfume of

flowers sends the same message of peaceful control conceptualized by the Mughals.

Gardens these days are primary antidotes to a modernity at times gone wild with noise,

dirt and mischief. To seek peace in a Persian garden is to cast back 2,500 years to

tradition began under Cyrus the Great at Pasargadae.

45 Harold Ainsworth Peto (b. July 11, 1854, London, Eng. - d. April 1933) English architect and garden designer. 46 Buscot Park is a country house near the town of Faringdon in Oxfordshire. It was built in an austere neoclassical style between 1780 and 1783 for Edward Loveden Townsend. 47 La Mortella is a private garden first opened to public in 1992. It was created by Susana Walton (1926-2010), in 1950 as the main residence for the couple.

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Figure 8 (left): Yazd, Doulat-Abad garden: Central pool leading to the pleasure pavilion

Figure 9 (right): Mehriz, Yazd Province, Pahlavan garden: Preservation in progress

Figure 10: Yazd, Moshir garden: Preservation in progress

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Figure 11 (left): Nishabour, Ghadamgah garden: A carved chadar leads water to the pool

Figure 12 (right): Nishabour, Ghadamgah garden: Side entrance

Figure 13: Nishabour, Ghadamgah garden: Second and third level garden and pool

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Chapter Three: Persian Garden Layout through History

In 17 century, Sir John Chardin describes Persian garden:

The Garden of the Persians commonly consist of one great Walk, which parts the Garden, and runs on in a straight line, border'd on each side by a Row of Plantanes, . with a Bason of Water in the middle of it, made proportionable in Bigness to the Garden, and likewise of two other little Side-Walks, the Space between them is confusedly set with Flowers, and planted with Fruit-Trees, and Rose-Bushes; and these are all the Decorations they have (Lehrman 1980, 110).

Design History – Early gardens grew from the need for sustenance by residence dwellers

whose opportunities for fruit and vegetable cultivation were limited to horticultural

dictates including plant variety, deployment, sun exposure and water availability.

Irrigation figured largely in design, which made best use of geometry. Effective and

efficient use of water, typically brought from canals, expanded design components.

Linking water features prompted placement of pools and pavilions for enjoying them.

Walls that protected the garden transformed the experience from one of necessity to one

of pleasure. The rich and cultured began to take increased enjoyment from gardens. The

simple relaxation afforded by gardens featured prominently among scenes illustrated in

Iranian and Mughal miniatures48 (Lehrman 1980, 225).

48 Mughal painting, Mughal also spelled Mogul, style of painting, confined mainly to book illustration and the production of individual miniatures, that evolved in India during the reigns of the Mughal emperors (16th–18th century). In its initial phases it showed some indebtedness to the Safavid school of Persian painting but rapidly moved away from Persian ideals. Probably the earliest example of Mughal painting is the illustrated folktale Tuti-nameh (“Tales of a Parrot”) at the Cleveland (Ohio) Museum of Art. Mughal painting was essentially a court art; it developed under the patronage of the ruling Mughal emperors (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

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The private quality of gardens has never kept development by owners and designers from

being on display. Common problems in any Iranian garden typically produced common

solutions. Too much space. Large gardens were usually further subdivided by pathways

parallel to the axes or by calling attention to the longitudinal axis and letting lesser paths

mirror the transverse. Canals and lengthy avenues formed the main axes. Straight paths

accounted for minor axes. Pools or pavilions occupied intersections. Pavilions also could

be placed on two or four sides of the space, particularly at a focal point. On an axis and

providing shade, a pavilion was a viewing platform from which to take in the full panoply

of trees, flowers and water.

Iranian garden shelters tended to be permanent. Poles supported decorative roofs over

balustrade platforms. These pavilions were frequently depicted in miniatures often with

bright colors and extending to two stories. High, mud walls surrounded the gardens to

protect occupants from a prying outside world. Sometimes royal garden walls would

feature towers. Miniatures depicted battlements like those on city walls; they might

include elaborate wrought iron, paint and tiles. Trellises allowed walls to do double duty

as climbing plants made yet another display of greenery. Gardens could easily take on

aspects of courtyards, though not matching scale (Lehrman 1980, 113).

Cyrus the Great (576-539 B.C) began the great importance of gardens in the cultural lives

of rulers some 2,500 years ago. Using a quadripartite plan, Cyrus's garden can still be

understood and reconstructed. This garden set the standard: architecture and planting,

water features and shady pavilions. All the elements were in Cyrus' garden. Origination

of garden as paradise owes to the series of religions that passed through Persian, from

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Zoroastrians to Moslems to Indians of the Mughal empire right down to the gardens of

Renaissance Europe that set the tone for Western civilization.

Early Layouts – Garden art allows for as much individuality as owners and gardeners

can muster. Yet sufficient records and descriptions exist to make possible recreation of

gardens from the Achaemenid (560-330 B.C.) and the Sasanian (224-642 A.D.).

Excavations of gardens throughout Persia and Central Asia show gardens following strict

plans using geometry – two or more axes originating at a single point, usually palace or

house – and marked by certain bits of freestyle landscaping within the plan. Trees,

architecture, vegetation and water combine in harmony, the unity of which produce an

organic entity.

Establishing a garden was the opportunity to optimize a site. Unique elements such as

vegetation or locale existed with every new garden. Rather than confining, the Persian

geometric model gave a chance to fit distinctive local plants into an understood

expression. Designers had considerations from all sorts, including skyline, light angles, or

scents of native flowers, that could produce an original statement.

Gardens offered constancy through consistently presented elements. Centrally placed

water provided irrigation and cooled the air. Canals leading from the pool carried the

cooling water to the garden's edges, thereby extending the water's effect. The scents of

flowers wafted across the garden as their colors offered cheer and diversity. Trees bore

fruit or provided shade. The water's aural effect played along with birdsong, conversation

or a musical instrument. Persian gardens built in terraces presented an ascendant order

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that prompted heavenward thoughts. Notable examples included the Shalamar Bagh49 in

Kashmir, built by the Mughal Emperor Jahangir (1569-1627) and his son Shah Jahan50

(1592-1666). The entrance to the Shalamar Bagh welcomes visitors with a quotation in

Persian that reads: "If there be a Paradise on the face of the earth, it is here, it is here, it

is here."

Chahar-Bagh Pattern – The established pattern of four comes from the term chahar-

bagh, which means four (chahar) gardens (bagh) in Persian (Farsi). Hunters moving as

early as 4000 B.C. from the mountains to farm the long valleys of the Iranian plateau

decorated pottery with scenes of their lives and beliefs. Some examples show the world

divided into four. Others present the patterns with a pool at the center. The cross plan, in

which axes of unequal lengths are used to establish an ordered space, became the

standard plan of the Persian garden that goes by the name chahar-bagh. Four gardens.

Practical and stylistic reasons explain why rectangular delineation and clean geometry

were deemed best for garden design. Placing irrigation channels at right angles offered

optimal placement of water, which would inevitably flood on occasion. Quadrangle 49 Shalamar garden, Lahor, Pakistan. Designed by the Shah Jahan's architect and engineer, Ali Mardan Khan, the Shalamar Bagh's three terraces followed the traditional pattern of a Mughal garden, but its size made it truly royal. The first and third terraces are subdivided in chahar-bagh formation; the second terrace, although much smaller, contains a reservoir that is the main focus of the garden and belies its size. This has more than one hundred fountains, whose spray cooled the air before the Emperor's white marble platform.... (Lehrman 1980, 176).

50 Shah Jahān, also spelled Shāhjahān, also called (until 1628) Prince Khurram (b. Jan. 5, 1592, Lahore [now in Pakistan]—d. Jan. 22, 1666, Agra [now in India]), Mughal emperor of India (1628–58) and builder of the Taj Mahal. He was the third son of the Mughal emperor Jahangir and the Rajput princess Manmati. Marrying in 1612 Arjūmand Bānū Begum, niece of Jahāngīr’s wife Nūr Jahān, he became, as Prince Khurram, one of the influential Nūr Jahān clique of the middle period of Jahāngīr’s reign (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

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display allowed for expansion. Patterned design was also attractive. The design became

fixed after the first millennium and was called chahar-bagh. The style would

accommodate all necessary elements in Persian garden design: water channels, pools,

walkways, terraces and pavilions. Expanding a garden was simply a matter of adding

rectangles along a central axis.

Water running through Pasargadae delineated beds placed below main pathways to

facilitate irrigation and its occasional flooding. The beds could accommodate flower

bulbs nestled alongside rows of trees. The fixed nature of the space used, outlined by

walls and dissected by water channels, provided a framework for the spidery shapes of

tree limbs, the filling shapes of flower petals and leaves, and the overall patterns that

emerged through the stages of blooming. This use of space contributed to the Persian

outlook that the space inside the walls was confined and comfortable while beyond the

walls lay hostile environs. Water availability counted for everything. As Persians worked

with this layout through the centuries, they imposed a love of plants on the architectural

elements and decorations, thus themes of overlapping branches, spiraling vines, and

similar motifs.

Once they concluded their seventh-century conquest of Persia, Muslims embraced the

fourfold garden layout and began to make it their own, to wit, the celestial gardens of the

Quran. By the 14th Century, the ground plan was the same but Timur51 was using gardens

51 Timur, also spelled Timour, byname Timur Lenk or Timurlenk (Turkish: “Timur the Lame”), English Tamerlane or Tamburlaine (b. 1336, Kesh, near Samarkand, Transoxania [now in Uzbekistan]—d. Feb. 19, 1405, Otrar, near Chimkent [now Shymkent, Kazakhstan]), Turkic conqueror, chiefly remembered for the barbarity of his conquests from India and Russia to the Mediterranean Sea and for the cultural achievements of his dynasty (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

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like tented encampments, a concept taken on campaigns to the plains of northern India

two hundred years on by Timur's descendant Prince Babur52. Destined to become the first

Mughal emperor, Babur was able to stamp a distinctive regional imprint on the basic

form as presented in Persian and Mughal miniatures. Gardens were shown to be filled

with Hewers along with water, trees and fruit (Hobhouse 2004, 9).

Bagh Etymology - "Bāg, the Middle and New Persian word for “garden,” as also the

Sogdian βāγ, strictly meant “piece” or “patch of land,” corresponding to the Gathic

Avestan neuter noun bāga- “share,” “lot” and to the Old Indian masculine noun bhāgá

“share,” “possession,” “lot,” which appears in Kautilya’s Arthaśāstra with the similar

connotation of a share in landed properties. Comparable semantic development is shown

by the Hebrew heleq “share,” which came to mean “field” (not to be confused with the

Akkadian eqlum and Arabic haql “field”) and by the Greek ho kleros and tò méros. In the

Talmud the aramaicized word bāgā has the meaning “common land” (Encyclopedia

Iranica, 2010).

Continuity of the Chahar-Bagh layout from Pasargadae (6th century B.C) to Chehel

Sotun (16th century A.D) - Ancient Iran has been established as the model for Safavid

period palaces since the 17th Century. The palace of Cyrus of Persepolis is described by

Perso-Armenian Petrus Bedik as "theatrum quadraginta columnarum," which he likens

52 Bābur, (Arabic: “Tiger”)also spelled Bābar or Bāber, original name Zahīr al-Dīn Muhammad (b. Feb. 15, 1483, principality of Fergana [now in Uzbekistan]—d. Dec. 26, 1530, Agra [India]), emperor (1526–30) and founder of the Mughal dynasty of India. A descendant of the Mongol conqueror Chinggis (Genghis) Khan and also of the Turkic conqueror Timur (Tamerlane), Bābur was a military adventurer, a soldier of distinction, and a poet and diarist of genius, as well as a statesman (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

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the Chehel Sotun pavilion in Safavid Isfahan (1491- 1722 A.D). Pietro Delia Valle53

confirms the description which then becomes the most typical reference for other

Europeans. Nineteenth-century writer Charles Texier54 refers to the current

representations found in the court of Darius. Attilio Petruccioli writes: "The Chehel Sotun

palace, the favorite residence of Shah Abbas55, represents to my eyes the great hypostyle

hall of Persepolis" (Petruccioli 1997, 72).

Archaeologists underscore these findings. Stronach56 identifies a quadripartite chahar-

bagh form in remains of the pairidaeza in Pasaragadae. The fourfold plan is evidenced

by stone channels that define a rectangular orchard with pavilions that open through

loggias on each side. Walled orchard, water routes, and open pavilions form the

fundamental aspects of the royal garden. The descriptions appear again about later baghs

53 Pietro Della Valle, (b. April 11, 1586, Rome—d. April 21, 1652, Rome), Italian traveler to Persia and India whose letters detailing his wanderings are valuable for their full descriptions (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010). 54 Charles Texier: (b. 1802, Versailles - d 1871, Paris), French explorer, historian and archaeologist. In late 1830s he participated in an expedition that took him to Armenia, Mesopotamia and Persia (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

55 Shah Abbas I (reigned 1588–1629) developed and adorned Isfahan as his capital. Under Abbas, Iran prospered. The monarch continued the policy begun under his predecessors of eradicating the old Sufi bands and ghulāt extremists whose support had been crucial in building the state. His successors tended to be indecisive men, easily dominated by powerful dignitaries among the Shi'ite clergies - whom the shahs themselves had urged to move in large numbers from the shrine cities of Iraq in an attempt to bolster Safavid legitimacy as an orthodox Shi'ite dynasty (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

56 David Stronach is a renowned Scottish archeologist of ancient Iran and Iraq. He is currently a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Stronach is a leading expert on the city of Pasargadae. He obtained a Master of Arts from Cambridge University in 1958. In the 1960s and 1970s he was Director of the British Institute of Persian Studies in Tehran.

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that include water features including channels, basins and baths, plantings including

shade and fruit trees, pavilions and towers. The continuity of gardens through the

centuries has been consistent (Petruccioli 1997, 72).

Chahar-Bagh layout in city planning - Fourfold layouts extended to street patterns.

Straight boulevards with gardens to either side bear out the efficacy of the pattern. Any

number of Persian cities bore Khiyaban-i chaharbaghs (Chahar-bagh Avenue) The

Khiyaban-i Chaharbagh that linked to royal quarters on Kashan's57 northeast side was

one of many such instances in which royal quarters were linked by garden-lined streets.

Engelbert Kaempfer58 illustrated the adorned promenade, the Rasteh-yi Mussala59 in

Shiraz and indicated its likeness to one in Isfahan. Kaempfer depicted a large basin,

Daryache Kurbunga, that fronted a walkway leading to a talar facing the garden's

longitudinal axis that ran parallel to the Rasteh. The main view of the garden showed a

channel with two dozen water jets and two cascades. In front of private quarters, a

secondary axis connected the main walkway to the basin (Petruccioli 1997, 76).

57 Kashan, city, west-central Iran. It lies in a desert at the eastern foot of the Central Iranian Range, on a once-important caravan route. Kāshān is an ancient city; 2 miles (3 km) southwest is the site of prehistoric Tepe Sialk, which yielded the most ancient remains of settled life so far found on the Iranian plateau. Kāshān was the centre of Persian ceramics, producing decorated pottery and glazed tiles exported throughout the Near East. Its lusterwares were especially famous (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

58 Engelbert Kämpfer, (b. Sept. 16, 1651, Lemgo, Westphalia [Germany]—d. Nov. 2, 1716, Lieme), German traveler whose writings are a valuable source of information on 17th-century Iran and Japan. At Uppsala, Swed., Kämpfer joined a trade mission to Russia and Iran and then went on to visit Batavia, Java (now Jakarta), where in 1690 he joined a Dutch trade mission to Japan (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

59 Raste-yi Mussala was a straight avenue running from the Tang-i Allah-o Akbar to the Shaykh Mil' Ali Hamze.Jean Chardin, Voyages du Chevalier Chardin en Perse et autres lieux de l'Orient (Paris, 1811)

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Khiyaban-i chaharbaghs of the period were elongated types of gardens or promenades

that connected city-based royal quarters to suburban gardens. Principally, the design

factors were straight lines with sufficient space to contain water canals and basins, with

plane or cypress trees.

Isfahan was rebuilt in the 16th and 17th Centuries by Shah Abbas of the Safavid (1491-

1722 A.D). He used the fourfold pattern to establish a series of adjacent gardens, each of

which had palaces or pavilions intended to serve different purposes. He received foreign

visitors at the Chehel Sotun garden and palace known as the hall of forty columns. Other

gardens served as banqueting pavilions, women's pavilions, and the king's private

pavilion. These royal gardens had a western view overlooking the tree-lined Chahar-

Bagh Avenue. The avenue served as city's axis. Most of the gardens that lined it were

square or rectangular. The avenue, its name supposedly deriving from four vineyards in

its path as it ran a mile to the river, bore a stone watercourse down the center. This onyx-

faced channel passed through a series of square or octagonal pools on varying levels. The

main channel intersected with irrigation canals. Planted along the way were eight rows of

trees including chenars, the oriental plane, and poplars. The watercourse was flanked by

paved paths. Rose hedges and flower beds covered the ground beneath trees and stretched

to the walls. The grandeur was matched by ornately decorated palaces of merchants and

courtiers, who aligned their properties along the avenue and riverbank (Moynihan 1979,

56). Visiting two centuries later, Sir Robert Ker Porter, Sir Robert Ker Porter60, was

moved by the Chahar-bagh Avenue: "We passed through the most charming parts of the

Chahar-Bagh; taking our course along its alleys of unequalled plane trees, stretching

60 Robert Ker Porter (b. 1777, d. 1842), noted artist, author, diplomat and traveler is known today for his accounts of his travels.

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their broad canopies over our heads, their shade being rendered yet more delightful by

the canals, reservoirs, fountains, which cooled the air, and reflected the flickering light

through their branches. Thickets of roses and jessamine, with clustering parterres of

poppies, and other flowers embanked the ground; while the deep-green shadows from the

trees, the perfume, the freshness, the soft gurgling of the waters, and the gentle rustle of

the breeze, combining with the pale golden rays of the declining sun, altogether formed

an evening scene, as tranquilizing as it was beautiful" (Moynihan 1979, 56).

In addition to connecting the daulat-khana with suburban gardens across the Zayandeh

River, Isfahan's Chahabagh promenade provided the linear pattern of gardens, each of

which had an entrance building in perfect symmetrical position. This arrangement was a

distinctive urban facade. A pavilion called Jahan-Nama afforded the best view from the

north end. Upper loggias on the entrance buildings also looked to the gardens. The Bagh-i

Mosamen commanded the west side at the beginning of the Chahar-bagh. As the only

building on the garden, the pavilion entrance held the prominent position as the design

element on that side of the city. The grid for this layout can be identified today although

the gardens have nearly disappeared.

The significance of the space is as an urban concept. The great elongated garden is more

than a street lined with plot grids. The whole takes in a sense of perspective that uses the

Chahar-bagh to define and allot space as visitors noted. Cornelis de Bruin's 61 three

partial impressions did not quite capture the significance of the promenade. Kaempfer

61 Cornelis de Bruijn (b. 1652 - d. 1726/7) was a Dutch artist and traveler. He made two large tours and published illustrated books with his observations of people, buildings, plants and animals. He traveled to Persia, where he made drawings of towns like Isfahan and Persepolis (1704-1705).

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produced the first complete plan with graphic documentation. He incorporates the length

of the space as originated in Safavid times. This magnificent urban space organized the

new expansion of the city (Petruccioli 1997, 74).

We can see through the interaction of gardens and city that the public spaces were

structured, organized parts of gardens, the two main features, the maydan62 (Nanqsh-e-

Jahan square) and the Chahar-bagh avenue. The architectural and symbolic features of

Persian gardens were expressed as urban facade.

The garden's layout and the network constituted by contiguous courts and gardens can be

seen as a whole but needn't be. A grid layout still affords opportunities for the elements to

seem distinctively irregular. Thus the geometric structures of each garden have a freedom

within the whole. Rigorous symmetry is not imposed. Instead a more casual imposition

allows a symmetrical relationship between single components to be achieved (Petruccioli

1997, 74).

Other usages of Chahar-Bagh term - Historians have realized that their strict use of

the term chahar-bagh as garden divided into four parts might apply to other garden

shapes. The term was used to consider the quadripartite garden form. But a closer study

of 16th Century Bukhara63 determined the term had been loosely not strictly used.

62 Maydiin is a Pahlavi word which today refers to a public place, but originally denoted a large area for horseback riding and polo games; it was also a measure of distance equal to a third of a mile.

63 Bukhara, city, south-central Uzbekistan, located about 140 miles (225 km) west of Samarkand. The city lies on the Shakhrud Canal in the delta of the Zeravshan River, at the centre of Bukhara oasis. Founded not later than the 1st century B.C (and possibly as early as the 3rd or 4th century B.C), Bukhara was already a major trade and crafts centre along the famous Silk Road when it was captured by Arab forces in 709. It was the capital of the Samanid dynasty (900- 999 A.D) (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

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Chahar-bagh can take in gardens of varying spaces, shapes and functions. Earlier

references might well pertain primarily to fourfold gardens, but a certain cautious

approach to the term's application must be made. The fourfold garden, for instance,

preceded Islamic gardens by a thousand years (Ruggles 2006, 40).

Means of Irrigation - The beauty of the four-part, cross-axial grid for gardens as well as

farms lay in ease of irrigation. Typically, water could be introduced from a single source,

such as through a channel, and distributed via a network of canals into each quadrant.

The flooding of the respective quadrant for a sufficient time to penetrate the soil and

reach the plant roots. Earthen or tile-lined canals contained entry points that through a

series of opening and closing access using mud or stones allowed water to access all

plants evenly. The practice remains in use to this day.

Adaptation with Topography - Historical examination determines that for an

acknowledged geometric grid system, the layouts of these gardens, or baghs, are not

cookie-cutter strict. Each design allows for flexibility in application. Topographical

considerations, building positions, and garden placements affect decisions in spite of the

fact every garden will be enclosed by walls and will be laid out on specific, geometric

axes (Petruccioli 1997, 75).

Designing to provide shade – A fundamental aspect to life in a harshly sun-baked

climate is provision of shade. Life can depend on it. Thus shade could represent not just

pleasure but survival in a Persian garden. Cyrus's throne was embedded in deep shade

under a palace portico with the garden surrounded by trees in ranks to provide waves of

shade. Native cypress, eastern plane and pine drew water from jubs, or channels, to

remain successful. Expeditions unearthing pavilions in Cyrus's garden found two open-

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sided pavilions with viewing stations offering protection from the worst of a day's sun.

By the second and third centuries A.D., the Parthians (174 B.C.-224 A.D.) had turned

deep porticoes into barrel-vaulted hemispheres called ayvans (or ivans). They provided

recessed spaces and high ceilings for cool retreats. The Sasanians (224-642 A.D.)

elevated the ayvans, added deep-set halls, and placed them above sizeable pools in

ornamental designs. Frequently, a hunting ground would lie just beyond the garden. The

seventh-century arrival of Islam embraced the pleasure-providing Persian garden, likened

as it was to Paradise, and quickly envisioned the garden as a celestial paradise to which a

practicing Moslem should be entitled (Hobhouse 2004, 6).

Designing based on symbolic numbers - The significance associated with numbers is

not lost on Persian garden design, particularly in Spain and India. Islam outlines a heaven

composed of eight divisions, corresponding to eight pearl pavilions, seven planets, and 12

signs of the Zodiac. Gardens of Mughal India frequently bore 12 terraces. A prime

example is the Nishat Bagh64 in Kashmir not far from the Shalamar though a visitor

today would find those terraces now reduced to a road through the garden. The Alcazar65

in Cordoba, Spain, displayed eight quarters, arbors of rose and jasmine, corresponding to

heaven's eight pearl pavilions. Eight was represented as well by the octagon, frequently

used in platforms, pool shapes or other garden features. The octagon represented man's

64 Nishat Bagh meaning Garden of Joy is a garden built in Kashmir, India by Emperor Shah Jahan. It was completed in 1633. The garden layout was based on the basic conceptual model of the Chahar-bagh pattern. It fits the topographic and water source conditions of the site in Kashmir valley. It is a broad cascade of twelve terraces tepresenting twelve zodiac signs, lined with the avenues of sycamore and cypress trees. 65 The Alcazar gardens were built in a plaza in 1750 on the ruins of a Moorish garden and palace.

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wish for order as the circle squared, the circle being the symbol of perfection and the

square representing earthly order (McIntosh 2005, 38).

Gardens bearing strongly emphasized centers often place emphasis on the compass

points. Persian gardens apply this concern through the four watercourses. The ancients

had conceived the features of paradise as four rivers that flowed to the far-flung points of

Earth itself. Paradise would often be considered the Garden of Eden, a state of innocence

to be regained after death. Per the second chapter of Genesis, 'Now a river went out of

Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads.' The

consideration of how like the cross a garden layout is adds meaning for Christians to the

development of the garden, The Quran (47:15) cites four rivers of wine, water, milk and

honey. This might explain how Moslems so easily adopted the fourfold layout of the

Persian garden with its four water channels and two crossed axes. CG. Jung, viewed the

quadripartite form as an archetypal pattern lying deep in human unconscious. Persian

miniatures and carpet weavings depicted scenes of Paradise, the four water channels

evident and the octagon taking center place. The poet Rumi66 frequently used garden

imagery. The Quran, considered by Moslems to the be-literal word of Allah, contains

frequent references to gardens.

Prehistoric potters were the first to depict four rivers dividing the earth. One bowl carried

the image of two canals crossing with trees and birds in the four corners. Professor Ernst

66 Rūmī, in full Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, also called by the honorific Mawlānā (b. c. Sept. 30, 1207, Balkh [now in Afghanistan]—d. Dec. 17, 1273), the greatest Sufi mystic and poet in the Persian language, famous for his lyrics and for his didactic epic Masnavi-yi Ma'navi (“Spiritual Couplets”), which widely influenced mystical thought and literature throughout the Muslim world. After his death, his disciples were organized as the Mawlawiyah order (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

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Herzfeld interpreted the image as the four rivers of life, or the chahar-su67. The rivers

appear in the Vedas of ancient India and in Genesis (2:10-14). St. Augustine used the

earthly Garden of Paradise as a metaphor for the Church in The City of God; the four

rivers stood for the four gospels. Akkadian kings proclaimed themselves Kings of the

Four Quarters as early as 2500 B.C. Hindu tradition cites four divine abodes, the char-

dham, one each at a compass point. "The crossing of watercourses in the Paradise garden

represent the four rivers of life. Writing in the second century A.D., Ptolemy68 used his

Guide to Geography that the four rivers of Paradise originated in the legendary land of

Transoxiana"69. "Medieval Arabs gave the names Oxus70 and Jaxartes71 to two major

rivers; they were thought to be two of the four" (Moynihan 1979,71).

67 chahar-su means four sided in Persian language.

68 Ptolemy, Latin in full Claudius Ptolemaeus (b. c. ad 100—d. c. 170), an Egyptian astronomer, mathematician, and geographer of Greek descent who flourished in Alexandria during the 2nd century A.D. In several fields his writings represent the culminating achievement ofGreco-Roman science, particularly his geocentric (Earth-centered) model of the universe now known as the Ptolemaic system (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

69 Transoxania, also spelled Transoxiana, Arabic Mā Warā' An-nahr, (“That Which Lies Beyond the River”), historical region of Turkistan in Central Asia east of the Amu Darya (Oxus River) and west of the Syr Sarya (Jaxartes River), roughly corresponding to present-day Uzbekistan and parts of Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. A great centre of Muslim civilization during the European Middle Ages, Transoxania was the centre of the Timurid empire in the 15th century, and its cities (e.g., Bukhara and Samarkand) were known worldwide. The region came under Russian occupation in the 19th century (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

70 Oxus- English Amu River, Tajik Daryoi Amu, Turkmen Amyderya, Uzbek Amudaryo, ancient name Oxus River, River, Central Asia. It is one of the longest rivers in Central Asia, 1,578 mi (2,540 km) long measured from the remotest sources of the Panj River; its other headstream is the Vakhsh. It flows west-northwest to its mouth on the Aral Sea. It forms part of Afghanistan’s borders with Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan and part of Uzbekistan’s border with Turkmenistan (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

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The specific features of paradise described in third-millennium B.C. writings in

Mesopotamia, including the Epic of Gilgamesh72 about the King of Sumer in Babylon,

cited four rivers dividing the garden per the compass points then coming together to form

a cross. The aspect repeats consistently in later gardens, especially in Islamic Paradise

gardens. The four rivers imagery has repeated down the ages although in some versions

of paradise, a fountain appears where the rivers intersect (McIntosh 2005, 4).

Throughout cosmology, as the waters of paradise divide then reunite, their source

remains a single, indivisible divinity. The fountain remains the motif found in gardens

across the world that suggests the flow of a life force and a source of divine promotion.

The Quran, of course, includes constant references to gardens as paradise where shade

and water are favorite components. The sign of faith is summarized in the statement,

'Gardens underneath which rivers flow'. The phrase appears more than thirty times in the

Islamic holy book. An Islamic quartet of rivers has them running milk, water, wine and

honey. Another ancient belief cites “four earthly paradises.” That every garden contains

the four traditional elements supports its position of fundamental necessity. Earth, water,

71 Syr Darya, also spelled Syrdarya, Kazak Syrdarīya, Tajik Daryoi Sir, Uzbek Sirdaryo, ancient name Jaxartes, river in the Central Asian republics of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan. The Syr Darya is formed by the confluence of the Naryn and Qoradaryo rivers in the eastern Fergana Valley and generally flows northwest until it empties into the Aral Sea. With a length of 1,374 miles (2,212 km)—1,876 miles (3,019 km) including the Naryn—the Syr Darya is the longest river in Central Asia, but it carries less water than the Amu Darya (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010). 72 Epic of Gilgamesh, ancient Mesopotamian odyssey recorded in the Akkadian language about Gilgamesh, the king of the Mesopotamian city-state Uruk (Eiech). The fullest extent text of the Gilgamesh epic is on 12 incomplete Akkadian-language tablets found in the mid-19th century at Nineveh in the library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (reigned 668–627 B.C). The gaps that occur in the tablets have been partly filled by various fragments found elsewhere in Mesopotamia and Anatolia (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

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air and fire appear in the garden as soil or rocks, ponds or fountains, breeze through

leaves, and sunlight and warmth. Balancing the elements with the compass points

resembles balancing the garden through placement of its elements.

Sasanian kings expressed a typical Persian hankering for spring by placing carpets

beneath their thrones. "The floor of the throne hall of Khusrau II (591-628) was said to

have been covered with four carpets daily, each representing a season of the

year(Lehrman 1980, 35). Four as the number of seasons and the number of the classic

elements connects to garden representations as they link to the compass points. From

enjoyment of Persian gardens comes appreciation then recognition. The student of

Persian history can develop an interest in symbolic design that reflects the ancients,

Zoroastrian or Islamic philosophies. For those with vision, the pertinent observation

might be that of Brancusi73, from the catalogue of his 1933 New York exhibition: 'Don't

look for formulas mystic or obscure. I give you pure joy. Behold my works as that which

you see.' (Lehrman 1980, 8).

Enclosed space - Counter to Western tradition and its focus on building exteriors,

Persian concern extends to the space within and how that space is defined by building

materials. Volume matters more than mass. The qualities of the space include light,

temperature and decoration. Outward appearance might be plain and overlooked but

73 Constantin Brancusi, original name Romanian Constantin Brîncusi (b. February 21, 1876, HobiŃa, Romania—d. March 16, 1957, Paris, France), pioneer of modern abstract sculpture whose works in bronze and marble are characterized by a restrained, elegant use of pure form and exquisite finishing. A passionate wood-carver, he produced numerous wood sculptures, often with a folk flavor, and he frequently carved prototypes for work later executed in other materials. He is best known for his abstract sculptures of ovoid heads and birds in flight (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

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internal architecture will provide a sense of place through the development of a family's

home definition and courtyard garden.

The outwardly directed display can be found in the chahar-bagh, the quartered garden

that presents a central pavilion at the intersection of four avenues. The Hasht Behist or

eight paradises of Isfahan is an example. Paradise on display is the driving force behind

the design. The movement is directed centrifugally, outwards, along the avenues. A

secondary, inward movement directs attention through its four porches to the water basin

in the fountain. The fountain as spiritual center generates ripples, beginning a cycle that

expands and contracts.

Mughal interests in Persian garden - As they were passing anyway, Mongols and

Turkish-speaking tribes of Central Asia picked up Persian garden design and adapted its

qualities to their specific uses. The basic design expanded to produce gardens not unlike

that of the Pasargadae garden of Cyrus the Great, which combined elements of the

Persian Pairidaeza with those of palace gardens. The result was extended chahar-baghs

that were used as royal encampments (Moynihan 1979, 49).

A notable difference between earlier Persian gardens and the versions undertaken by

Central Asians was arboreal. Persians indulged preferences for fruit trees and grape vines

whenever climate allowed. Their gardens looked like orchards or vineyards. The Asian

take put some plots of the chahar-baghs in ground cover, usually clover. This gave them

open areas for tents with awnings that accommodated their feasting. Already close to

nature and appreciative of rushing water, Central Asians added emphasis to the

watercourses by providing for bubbling waterfalls and burbling fountains.

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Timur Style of Garden Planning – Landscape architecture took an upward turn after

Timur (Tamerlane, 1336-1404) conquered Persia. After the razing that consolidated his

empire, Timur turned to building his sumptuous capital, Samarkand74. Chahar-bagh

gardens were placed throughout the capital. Timur stamped his personal style on gardens

with an influence that would last through the reigns of his descendants in Safavid Persia

(1491-1722 A.D.), and including Babur, founder of the Mughal Dynasty that at one time

held most of the Indian subcontinent. Babur, too, imposed design influences on gardens

built across the plains of Northern India. The walled refuge concept remained the same,

but a public aspect was introduced as gardens became settings for festivities and royal

receptions. In a foreshadowing of modern-day marquee events, gardens became scenes of

expansive tents and awnings pitched on clover ground cover against a backdrop of

stream-fed orchards. The encampments were so luxurious poets devoted line after line of

ghazals to wax eloquent about roses and nightingales. Persian painters transferred the

idyllic scenes to miniatures.

Design interests in Muslim Spain - The reach of Islam into Western Europe rewarded

the Arab-Berber peoples who in the eighth century left the deserts of North Africa to

develop more verdant environs on the Iberian Peninsula. Called Moors, they established

gardens on the fourfold model that featured intricate connections of pools, sunken

flowerbeds, terraces, pavilions and porticoes alive with variety and imagination. It wasn't

74 Samarkand, city in east-central Uzbekistan that is one of the oldest cities of Central Asia, Known as Maracanda in the 4th century B.C, it was the capital of Sogdiana and was captured by Alexander in 329 B.C. The city was later ruled by Central Asian Turks (6th century B.C), the Arabs (8th century), the Samanids of Iran (9th–10th century), and various Turkic People (11th–13th century) before it was annexed by the Khwarezm-Shah dynasty (early 13th century) and destroyed by the Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan (1220) (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

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always thus. As they swept northward, they encountered dry landscapes even as they

spied snow-covered peaks of the Sierra Nevada. It was just a matter of matching that

moisture to the land. Their success produced the most renowned European gardens to

date as the caliphate called Al-Andalus combined Greek ideas, Roman engineering, and

Persian concepts to advance architecture and the basic Persian garden to a fundamental of

high civilization. Exotic plants, flowers and fruits of an expanding Islamic caliphate –

from the eastern Mediterranean across the Asian expanse to China – collected in Iberia

where they were celebrated as much for the glory of Allah as for their good living for

men.

By employing clever distribution methods, Moors had an extravagance of water that let

them apply decorative more than functional water rills to Persian chahar-bagh gardens.

They could surround natural pools with orange groves and fruiting palms. They could

design for beauty and relaxation rather than utility and survival. The result was

sophisticated gardens that reflected the cultivated landscape. Agricultural production

changed how dwellings were arranged on open land. A more collected arrangement of the

necessities to work the land developed as estates began to resemble the villa model of

Renaissance Italy. Dwellings were surrounded by gardens, fields, vineyards and storage

areas in a connected way that promoted production. Walled orchards called bostan in

Persian and hadiqa in Arabic used water channels in small-scale farming, much like the

Latin hortus. Orange trees were planted in regimented rows that reflected red-and-white

brick mosque interiors and recalled Cyrus the Younger's fifth-century BC park at Sardis.

Irrigation systems were set in grid patterns along brick floors.

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Figure 14: Shiraz, Nazar garden: View across the central pool to the pleasure pavilion

Figure 15 & 16: Yazd, Doulat-Abad garden: Central pavilion below the wind tower

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Figure 17: Mahan, Shazdeh garden: View of the main house across the large pool

Figure 18 & 19: Behshahr, Abbas-Abad garden complex:

View of the artificial lake and the water channels leading to the lake

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Chapter Four: Water in Persian Gardens

Thomas Herbert describes City of Shiraz in 1628:

... the earth dry but green; the air salubrious, though sharp a little . .. and nothing more complained of by the inhabitants than want of water.(Hobhouse 2004 ,128)

When access to life-giving water is as much about ingenuity as availability, humans

become predictable. From the seventh century B.C. on the Persian plateau, crop

cultivation depended on the development of methods to move moisture from high-

mountain snows to valley agriculture. Water management produced channels, ditches and

ponds, but little more than gravity-directed outcomes, though denizens were willing to try

as many ideas as they had. In. Mesopotamians75, regarded as the first civilization, people

worshipped water as the source of life, the god and goddess of water holding their fates

through every new growing season. At length, people advanced their knowledge of water

management systems, but not before losing crops to floods, a common circumstance until

tool technology caught up with need.

Persian gardens use water through the entirety of its dimensions. Inviting and attention-

drawing as it is, water was made more so by its ranges of placements in the quadripartite

arrangements. Edging planters, running through channels, reflecting in pools, spraying

from jets or fountains, dripping or tinkling or lapping, water as presented in gardens,

especially where it is as scarce as it is in Iran, is functional and decorative. Its presence

75 Mesopotamia is the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the Middle East, constituting the greater part of modern Iraq. The region's location and fertility gave rise to settlements some 10,000 years ago, and it became the cradle of some of the world’s earliest civilizations and the birthplace of writing (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

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prompts contemplation, provides cooling relief, mirrors life, and induces emotions from

calm to elation. Water is bounded only by the creativity limits of those using it. As

evidenced by Persian gardens, that isn't by much.

Sassanians76 revival of Zoroastrianism, an ancient Persian monotheism, saw widespread

worship of water, a practice that influenced building. Ruins of a few of the dynasty's

particularly large palaces reveal kings cited their mansions overlooking pools fed by

natural springs. Systems of clay pipes apparently facilitated water movement through

their stucco-lined palaces. Interior pools developed later in Persian architecture

(Moynihan 1979, 30).

Water Goddess - With water perhaps rightly regarded as sacred, the efforts to build

sanctuaries to a water goddess hardly surprises. The water goddess Anahita77 , “the most

mighty and undefiled,” as she was known, was shown devotion during the reign of

Shapur II78 through the establishment of sanctuary famed for its splendor. Unknown for

centuries, the sanctuary might now have been located in a remote but fertile part of

Azerbaijan where a nearly circular crater lake rests on a level summit. The plateau is

76 Sasanian (224-651 AD), an ancient Iranian dynasty evolved by Ardashir I in years of conquest, 208-224 AD, and destroyed by the Arabs during the years 637-651 AD. The dynasty was named after Sasan, an ancestor of Ardashir I (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010). 77 Anāhiti, also called Anāhitā, ancient Iranian goddess of royalty, war, and fertility; she is particularly associated with the last. Possibly of Mesopotamian origin, her cult was made prominent by Artaxerxes II, and statues and temples were set up in her honor throughout the Persian empire. In the Avesta she is called Ardvī Sūrā Anāhitā (“Damp, Strong, Untainted”); this seems to be an amalgam of two originally separate deities. In Greece Anāhiti was identified with Athena and Artemis (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010). 78 Shapur II, 10th king of the Sasanian Empire of Persia, who withstood Roman strength by astute military strategy and diplomacy and brought the empire to the zenith of its power (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

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called Takht-i-Suleiman79 (Throne of Solomon) in the Zoroastrian city of Shiz. Led by

Dr. Rudolph Naumann, excavations unearthed a fire temple. Shiz has been identified as a

Zoroastrian site since Achaemenid (560-330 B.C) times and was a sacred Medes site

before that. Additions through the years included a high-vaulted ayvan (Eyvan),

constructed in 618 by Khosrou II Byzantine Emperor Heraclius80 destroyed it in 628.

Excavations revealed ceremonial buildings of the Parthian (174 B.C- 224 A.D) or

Sassanian (224- 642 A.D) periods. Islamic palaces were in turn built on the sites of these

early temples as the plateau was fortified (Moynihan 1979, 31).

Water in the Persian garden - Water's fluidity - its pliability - makes it a lifelike as well

as life-giving substance. At once part of as well as apart from its setting, water offers

playful musicality when moving, contemplative reflection when still, and

transformational influence when paired with substances, such as floating flower petals or

bobbing pomegranates. Garden applications find water freshening the air around it when

in fountains, defining the garden space when it is placed at the center of the design, and

extending dimensions when it creates atmosphere.

79 Takht-e Soleymān, (Persian: “Solomon’s Throne”) historically Shīz, Soqurloq, or Saturiq, ancient city and Zoroastrian temple complex of Iran’s Sasanian dynasty, subsequently occupied by other groups, including the Mongol Ilkhanid dynasty. It is located in northwestern Iran in the southeastern highlands of Western Āzarbāyjān province, about 25 miles (40 km) northeast of Takab. Along with several adjacent sites, Takht-e Soleymān was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004 (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010). 80 Heraclius, (575 B.C, Cappadocia—d. Feb. 11, 641, Constantinople), Eastern Roman emperor (610–641) who reorganized and strengthened the imperial administration and the imperial armies but who, nevertheless, lost Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and Byzantine Mesopotamia to the Arab Muslims (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

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Persian literature student Dr. Ralph Pinder-Wilson81 describes the garden of the Golden

Horde, laid out in 1302 by the Ilkhans (1256-1334 A.D.) near Tabriz in northwestern

Iran: Preparations for the festivities had been begun three years previously by a large

team of skilled craftsmen and engineers. A square area had been enclosed by a wall 'in

order to provide a pleasant and agreeable meadow for the sojourn of the emperor.' Tanks

and cisterns were installed to feed rivers and streams (water courses). Avenues were

planted round the edge with willows to provide a passage for the populace who had to be

confined to the periphery of the walled enclosure, the central area being reserved for the

pavilion and the throne and the surrounding buildings (Moynihan 1979, 49).

Enduring from sixth-century B.C., the watercourses of Pasargadae garden constituted the

original diagram of primary axis and secondary axes that intersected water channels at

right angles. The format divided an enclosure and used stone canals to send water to the

expanse of the grounds. Expected to flood at times, the chahar-bagh – chahar meaning

four and bagh meaning garden – layout came to be the basis of Persian garden design.

Putting the elements of water channels, pools, walkways, terraces and pavilions within a

walled rectangle allowed private or royal use with capacity to expand the rectangles

along a central axis as dictated by need or desired by space.

Symbolic Use of Water - To its users in a harsh land, water takes on more importance

than mere refreshment. It is the life-giver. Thus to the denizens of Persia, water has

derived a spiritual element. For gardens, water is design element. Its coursing through

81 Ralph Pinder-Wilson, was a distinguished Persian scholar, Islamic archaeologist and museum curator. He was born on January 17, 1919 in Wimbledon, England. He died on October 6, 2008, aged 89. (The Sunday Times, Nov. 10, 2008)

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tiny spaces and flooding over open quadrangles before it evaporates drives home the

defined timeline of life. It can be seen to ebb away a drop at a time even as its collection

in a pool reassures us of its constancy. Symbol of the purity of paradise, water in garden

pools signals its abundance in a reassuring way. It will not fail us. Its depths will

faithfully await us. The space accorded water in the Persian garden is logical. Water is a

dominant force. Water is a controlling force. The association of water and trees for

Persians became entwined. The moon tree was represented as a conifer, an evergreen,

perhaps a cypress, and came to stand for immortality. Cypress trees frequently border

watercourses, the plot dividers in Persian gardens. The twining of water and evergreens

assures the symbolism of life's never-ending promise.

Element of Continuity - As the one moving part in a garden, water is considered the key

factor that provides continuity. Water moves the length of a garden, leading the eye. A

straight channel of water acts as a symbol of infinity. In design terms, water provides

direction, as with the sheet of water at the Chehel-Sutun garden in Isfahan. Water links

other directional elements in the piece, as when paths or steps ascend or descend to

follow water's level changes. Placement of elements such as tanks, fountains or platforms

near the water path complete the garden's logic. Additionally, water is the continuous

element linking indoors and outdoors, as shown in the Fin garden, Kashan, or connecting

one room and the next, as at the Hasht-Behesht garden in Isfahan.

A place for Contemplation - Persian gardens exist as places for quiet reflection and

contemplation. Visitors seek to sit cross-legged on carpets next to water, taking in its

soothing presence. Or they place themselves on stone or marble benches that cross a

stream to gain cooling effects of those materials. Falling water or fountain jets muffle

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conversation, further removing the immediacy of society. At Chehel-sutun, Isfahan, the

emperor could sit in his Hall of Public Audience, the Diwan-i Am82, under a brightly

painted ceiling and above a black marble throne, light thrown up from a surrounding

pool. The sense of courtly presence ascends from the functions of the elements; the

progression follows from Hall of Public Audience to Hall of Private Audience (Brookes

1987, 141).

Reflection Quality of Water - The flexibility of water can display the creativeness of the

landscape designer. One of the fundamental aspects of water, in terms of its quality, is its

sense of infinity. In a sunny location, the water can reflect the infinite sky, when the

water is still or ,to some extent, when it is moving. On the other hand, it can be infinitely

deep, if it is dark and the bottom of the pool or channel cannot be seen. The reflection of

the sky on the surface of water creates a sense of light and brightness, a sense of space

under the enclosing dark trees. It is a symbolic reflection of paradise. It also re-defines

space around. As in the Chehel Sutun garden (garden of forty columns) in Isfahan, where

the palace has only twenty columns but the designer used water to make forty columns

and the other twenty columns are the reflection in the vast rectangular pool on to which it

faces. It speaks about the realm that is not physically in the world. It talks about the realm

that is beyond the sacred world and brings us to the contemplation of it. The pattern of

Sycamore trees and Poplar trees on the surface of water and their change over the year

symbolize transience. The image of clouds while passing in the sunny sky contrasts with

the concept of infinity and reminds us of the finite earthly life. 82 "Diwan-i Am" means the Hall of Public Audience in Farsi. Princely gardens, particularly during Safavid dynasty, which gardens had courtly functions. "Diwan-i Khas" meaning Hall of Private Audience was smaller in size (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

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Decorative Use of Water - Tranquility, depth, coolness and moisture. The qualities of

water afford a range of opportunities in gardens. Pools that contain fish or ducks

encourage plant growth, each of those elements contributing to a subtle movement of the

water. Tanks or channels with fountains catch the fancy of eyes and ears; besides spray

action, the drops hitting the water surface provide pleasing sounds and rippling

movement. Water's constantly changing behavior offers contrast to the fixed elements of

the garden: walls, footpaths and statuary. As water keeps moving, its circulation affects

the air, cooling and moistening it. Falling water drops play in sunlight, adding a light-

splitting dimension. The sound of falling or moving water alters other sounds, blocking

or transforming them. Still water offers a distinct silence. Directed water can produce

particular effects, such as the plane that forms – horizontally or vertically – when water is

forced through specific-sized openings. Water can slide silently, fall noisily, tumble

gracefully, or splat messily. Thus water's effect on the quality of the environment is

inestimable.

Channels - Water originally flowed through Persian gardens in narrow, shallow

channels, broad expanses of paving extended to either side. The evolution of design let

these channels become wider, changing how water was used in the structure. So strong

was the meaning of water to Persians that even when no water is intended through

channels, the presence of water is felt. Channel decoration such as zigzag or wave

patterns give the illusion of water movement. Textural choices in or along watercourse

can disturb moving water, producing a patterned effect. Water sent tumbling over rocks

can be made to mimic mountain streams. The choices available to designers are endless

once the manipulative effects are understood.

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Pool - Pools carry great importance in Persian gardens. Not for drinking, this water is in

reserve for watering the garden and settling dust on walkways and terraces. Pools vary in

size and shape. Deep pools tend to be straight-sided. Basins are shallow. Typically

situated along the garden's long axis, they sit at right angles to larger areas. Sited on

slopes, they are gravity fed with capacity similarly equalized: overflowing basins create

falls or chutes of water that add to the garden's effect. Pools fill from storage tanks and

serve as reservoirs.

Water's edge is an understandably attractive area in a Persian garden. Custom provides

for access and a hard edge that mirrors the line of the channels. Pool sides often sit higher

than surrounding ground and bear elaborate engravings. Water scarcity keeps pools

shallow, but the discovery that murky water appears deep – thus infinite – gave designers

options. Sky reflecting on still water surfaces brings light and an illusion of space. Clouds

drifting across a still pool add an ephemeral sense. Because making a pool appear

unconfined requires filling it to brimming, gutters must be set along pool peripheries to

take overflow. Such filling also makes pools seem larger. An expanse of water allows

reflection to merge with reality, provoking images of heaven merging with Earth.

Examples of these presentations can be found in existing gardens as well as in artistic

representations, notably miniatures that date from the 15th Century. Evidence of the

elaborate thought put into pool design can be found in Safavid period (1491-1722 A.D)

gardens at Isfahan: Tiered pools with as many as four levels used different shapes for

each pool. So-called free-form pools were not used in Persia. Typical shapes were

rectangular, square, circular, octagonal, lobed or crosses. When pools appeared within

pavilions, they were there to reflect ornately decorated ceilings.

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Jets, fountains - Water jets had places in indoor and outdoor pools. As many as five-

hundred jets served the Hazar Jarib83 garden of the Safavid period in Isfahan. Lead pipes

fed the jets. Elaborate patterns could be created by grouping nozzles and opening and

closing valves to the pipes. Or, as in Isfahan, column bases would bear patterns of holes

through which water would shoot from the columns into pools at their bases. Various

examples demonstrate water under pressure enjoyed extensive use. At Ali Qapu Palace84

in Isfahan, a fourth-floor fountain rested on an open porch. Reports at the time described

oxen power as hoisting the water in a series of buckets from a below-ground cistern to

holding tanks on the fifth or sixth floors of the palace. Certainly for every pleasing show

of dancing water, a behind-the-scenes engineering project was required to produce it

(Wilber 1979, 15).

83 Hazar Jarib, Isfahan was a garden laid out in seventeen century, a mile square and arranged in twelve terraces, each a few feet higher the ones nearer the river. Twelve avenues ran parallel to the direction of the Chahar-bagh and there were three east-west transverse avenues. Along every fourth avenue was a stone-lined canal, with a basin of a different shape on each terrace. Water jets were everywhere, and there were at least five major pavilions. In the spring the entire garden was carpeted with flowers, especially along the canals and around the pools, and "one was surprised by so many fountains appearing on every side as far as one could see, and was charmed by the beauty of the scene, the odor of the flowers, and the flight of the birds, some in aviaries and some among the trees." Much of the construction was in mud brick and only lines of low walls remain today (Wilber 1979, 52). 84 Ali Qapu was originally a monumental gateway on the west side of the Naqsh-e-Jahan square. It was built by Shah Abbas in the early 17th century. It was the point of contact between the palace and the outside world. Here there was a throne room, apartments for the Shah and rooms for entertainment and reception. On the large terrace overlooking the Naqsh-e-Jahan square, the Shah entertained guests and observed the city skyline as well as activities taking place in the square, including polo games. The roof of the porch is supported-by eighteen slender columns. On the floor of the porch is a lead-lined marble basin, where once three fountains played, supplied with water that had been raised by oxen to an upper level.

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Change of Level - From the earliest use of gravity to produce an effect, garden designers

continued to develop systems to manipulate water. By changing the levels at which water

moved, they developed fountains capable of sending a directed cascade of water. Later,

pressure produced more elaborate displays. Early versions used reservoirs of water held

above the location, then the water was directed through pipes of decreasing diameters so

that its weight would force the water through such small apertures it would seem to

perform. Technology such as nozzle design emerged to spray the water in a variety of

patterns that cooled the air and emitted distinctive sounds. Fountains became fixtures of

Persian gardens (Brookes 1987, 195-196). The earliest Persian fountains were found in

Pasargadae. Change-of-level examples include Bagh-e-Shazdeh (near Kerman) and

Bagh-e-Ghadamgah (near Nishabour).

Water Sculpture - The manipulation of water to be seen as a solid presence, like a

sculpture or monument, works the illusory properties of liquid and allows the creation of

art. The effect was serious air-cooling as gardeners sent sheets of water cascading in one

direction or another. Shifting especially large sheets of water is a recent development.

First employment of the effect, on a small scale, could be found in the Zandiyeh (1750-

1799 A.D) and Qajar (1786- 1925 A.D) gardens in Shiraz. Such displays are always part

of a formal layout requiring a developed plan and a continuous natural stream (Brookes

1987, 197).

Water Shapes - Production of shapes in the water in gardens or courtyard fountains

depends on water velocity and nozzle shape. Once water leaves the opening through

which it is forced, it diffuses and spreads, becoming subject to gravity and friction that

affect its surface tension. Tiny holes produce mist. Once in the air, water rises elegantly,

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forms a thin line, spews as a plume, fans out, or falls outward as a mushroom. Whatever

it does, it fascinates endlessly. The bases of Persian fountains added further artistic

expression with carvings or, especially among the Mughals, inlay work. Typical patterns

were swirling water or the shape of the open lotus.

Sound of Water - The sound of water, signaling through tinkling as it does the

immediacy of life, always brought enjoyment. Placing gardens on slopes ensured water

movement necessary to jostle the liquid into musicality. Rushing, sloshing, gurgling,

splashing all came about through arrangement of water channels and the linings therein.

To wit, stone-lined slopes decorated with scale patterns could shift a smooth flow of

water into an explosion of sound.

Water Quality - Garden pools, basins and fountains were never intended for drinking so

little consideration was given to presenting pristine waters unless that was the designer's

desired effect. Instead, designers realized certain substances in the water could affect

presentation: Somewhat dirty channels could produce murky depths that, for instance,

might prompt their observers to think reflective thoughts. In addition to substances that

could be placed in the water's path were items that could be placed on the water's surface.

Floating rose petals, bobbing candles, jutting little boats, drifting leaves, all could effect

the impact basins and pools made on observers. The use of switches to divide pools into

compartments onto which were floated differing varieties of flowers was a particularly

pleasing, if labor-intensive, project. Such an effort reflects an interest in attempting to

produce textile patterns and colors as might be found in carpets, for instance.

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Chini-Khana - Another thoughtful presentation using water were carved recesses or

niches – chini-khana – placed behind waterfalls. Water gave a shimmering effect to the

vases of flowers put in place by day and the lighted candles in use by night.

Irrigation in Garden - While the concept might not have been placed on a par with

agricultural production, irrigation in gardens was equally vital. Similar systems were

used. Gardeners ensured results by employing the geometric pattern typically used for the

canals, even on slopes. Canals defined the areas of grass and planting to be cared for. The

four-part cross-axial set-up was used in palatine gardens, as with crops, because it was

logical and it worked. Water from aqueduct, reservoir or water-lifting device would enter

the canals and be distributed through the quadrants. Water flooded each quadrant for long

enough to reach plant roots. Access was allowed or denied through opening or blocking

entrance points with mud or stones. A timeless design, it still works.

Comparing water channels of the original Persian gardens with Persian gardens of

India - The reach of the Persian garden, enthusiastically spread as it was by conquerors

of Persia, meant the concept was taken into environs that did not share the barren, dry

conditions in which the Persian model developed. Conditions in Kashmir, the northern

territory of Mughal India were diametrically opposed to those of the Iranian plateau.

Instead of expanses of dusty plain that needed feats of engineering to produce water

distribution, Kashmir offered lush greenery-producing rain, mist and dew but little

ground on which to spread a garden. Its mountainous terrain dropped away into lakes.

Terracing was required to produce a surface that might hold a garden. With water in

abundance, designers produced complex presentations. The influences wound up in so-

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called water gardens, first of the Zandiyeh (1750-1799 A.D) and then of the Qajar (1786-

1925 A.D) in Iran.

Water Source in Persian Gardens - The water challenge has afflicted the Persian

plateau throughout time. Settlers always have been forced to extraordinary means to

ensure crops, let alone gardens. Rivers cannot be counted on through the area. Too many

streams that start down the snow-capped mountains shrivel and die in the face of the

desert's harsh conduct. Even the Zayandeh, on whose banks stands Isfahan, goes salty

and useless a few miles beyond the beautiful bridges of Isfahan. Man's answer to nature's

condition was qanats, subterranean channels that provided water when overland sources

couldn't be trusted. Qanats directed water from mountains to villages and field. Isfahan's

gardens receive river water; Yazd gardens are qanat-fed (Brookes 1987, 28).

Case Study : River fed Garden, Hasht Behesht garden, Isfahan - By the 17th Century,

when the river known as Zaindeh-Rud, a water body that ran full in spring, was spent by

fall, Isfahanis stored water in subterranean cisterns. On the north bank, a plan was

effected to install a series of canals to distribute river water to suburban Isfahan. Stone-

lined canals, called Maadi85 of which six remain, successfully distributed the river to

keep the city growing. One Maadi still runs through the courtyard of the Safavid

Madrassa Mader-e-Shah86. A contemporary account from a 16th Century Italian

85 Maadi is the general name for special tunnels in Isfahan which were built during the Safavid dynasty for water channeling from Zayandeh river into different parts of the city. 86 Madrasa Mader-i-Shah, or the Religious School of the Mother of the Shah was completed in 1714. The entrance facade on the avenue presents a brilliant sheen of multicolored tile and polished marble. Within, a spacious court covers an area earlier taken up by the dwellings of the king's children. Around the rectangle of the court are two story arcades which open into separate living rooms for the religious teachers and their students. A great dome rising above the sanctuary chamber delights the eye. The lush

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merchant described the Hasht-Behesht palace standing amid glorious gardens, enclosed

by walls but with portals on three sides, to the north, the south and the east. Galleries at

the eastern entrance overlooked the garden and a main square. A fountain on the

southwest side was described as 25 paces wide. Swans, roses and jasmine were in

evidence as was a central pool with spouting fountains (Hobhouse 2004, 92). Engelbert

Kaempfer87, the Westphalen88 physician and botanist, described in 1685:

The pavilion was located in the middle of a courtyard covered with square pavers. A waterway ran around it, and marble benches were placed at equal distances. Two north- south avenues planted with plane trees led to the pavilion, while water ran in east-west channels to a basin filled with swans and ducks (Hobhouse 2004, 117).

Case Study : Qanat fed Garden: Fin garden - Kashan - The success of the garden is

ensured by a qanat and a strong spring beyond the high mud walls of the space. Cypress

trees dated to 390 years testify to the success of the water source for this garden.

Although a domed pavilion and a large, octagonal pool were added only in the 19th

Century, marshaling of the spring water is mandatory. Its use is measured and monitored.

The water is sent in four directions: one to coat the garden, and three to cover

neighboring fields and farms. Garden run-off goes to a flour mill. The garden receives

green of the trees, the hues of flowers against the bright colors of the tile-work, the reflection of the whitewashed arcades in the shimmering, dark pool: all these striking contrasts dazzle the senses (Wilber 1979, 50).

87 Engelbert Kämpfer, (b. Sept. 16, 1651, Lemgo, Westphalia [Germany]—d. Nov. 2, 1716, Lieme), German traveler whose writings are a valuable source of information on 17th-century Iran and Japan. At Uppsala, Swed., Kämpfer joined a trade mission to Russia and Iran and then went on to visit Batavia, Java (now Jakarta), where in 1690 he joined a Dutch trade mission to Japan. Remaining for two years, he saw more of the country and collected more information than any other European before him. Kämpfer returned to Europe in 1694 (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

88 Westphalia is a former province in NW Germany, now a part of North Rhine-Westphalia: treaty ending the Thirty Years' War 1648 (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

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five-elevenths of the water allotment, which delivers six hundred liters a second and is

constant year-round. Water temperature remains nearly constant yearlong.

The spring bursts forth and into a square pool near the rear wall of the garden. A second

pool, originally lined with blue tiles bearing foliated openings, brings forth more water.

The bottom of the shallow pool is lined with three-inch holes that allow the water to

enter. Once up through these pools, the water takes the watercourses to the garden. Water

cascades across shallow terracing throughout the Fin. Hundreds of fountains –

reproductions – line the channels. They are typical of the older style. Simple, carved of

stone or ceramic, they bear a single jet without a nozzle. Gravity and a simple force

system produce their action. A second channel runs below the visible water route. The

lower channel can be blocked at the end of each terrace to let water run towards the

pools.

Qanat - This system supplies underground water through a series of shafts that uses

gravity to bring water to the surface. Developed by the Persians, qanats are typically dug

where no surface water exists. A main shaft taps deep into the water table. Water runs

down a gently sloping tunnel, gaining volume until it finds alluvial fans and surfaces.

This spot where soil has been enriched by sediments is a likely emergence point.

Farmlands and settlements needing the water situate at lower points than where the water

surfaces. The surface point, or outlet, is where people take the water; it might be in the

main square of a village. The outlet point must be well kept to ensure access, and water

use must be monitored to ensure availability. Water is diverted to fields through a tunnel

called a payab. A corridor slopes from the surface to the payab. The main access point

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for drinking water is the first payab. A series of smaller payabs connects to the main

tunnel.

Qanat history - Achaemenians (560-330 B.C) enlarged irrigation systems to include their

gardens and to expand agriculture. In areas such as Babylon, they further developed a

canal system that delivered water between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. But on the

high, dry Iranian plateau, where surface water typically evaporated, the water system

consisted of subterranean channels called qanats. This irrigation method, which dates to

the ancients, tapped into aquifers and used gravity to deliver water to settlements and

farmlands. The system of tunnels by which water was directed was dug by hand by

workers using simple tools. An excavator used the shadow of a candle, for instance, as a

plumb line (Moynihan 1979, 25-26).

Lives depended on qanats. Diminished water flow could spell the end of a village. When

that happened, people moved on. This at times semi-nomadic life-style explains ruins of

mud houses discovered some distance from foot hills. It explains why caravans were at

hazard of finding abandoned qanat lines the hard way, at night when many desert

travelers were on the move. Accounts of early travelers record tragedy and comedy in

regards to such events. Frequently, multiple qanat channels run parallel to one another.

The untrained eye might not immediately comprehend a Persian landscape marked by

regularly spaced mounds of dirt surrounding the access shafts of qanats.

Cyrus the Great (559-529 B.C.) and his successors extended qanat networks across the

Persian Empire. Until recently, this ancient water management system supported desert

life and sustained rural communities of Iran. More recently used mechanized schemes

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have supplied increasing amounts of water for industry and urbanization. These methods

have exhausted many old qanat networks.

Qanat water in Persian gardens - The direct, ancient means of Iranian irrigation

consisted of watering orchard tree roots, bordering gardens or lining avenues by a series

of water channels called jouies or, more commonly, jubes. These open ditches that

delivered water to roots via seepage were furrows or trenches between rows of trees.

Jubes are still in use in Iran and can be found in the capital, Tehran. The system of qanats

and jubes spread across the Persian Empire into regions that previously had not had

reliable water supplies. Qanat lines have been spotted snaking across southern Arabia,

outlining the old route to Samarkand north of the Kara-Kum desert, dotting Afghanistan

and crossing Central Asia. They are known as kariz Jubes, aryks and juis. By any name,

they remain the common method of irrigation in those areas.

Typically, a qanat tunnel surfaces and becomes an open channel a few hundred yards

from a village. On an upper slope, an abundant water supply can be tapped by qanat

owners or by buyers of the largest shares of water. The channel flow becomes pools in

front of pavilions that are surrounded by orchards and gardens. From there, the water is

used to turn the wheels of mills. On the rural areas of larger communities, water divides

into rivulets that border narrow lanes. Below villages, small channels spread across field

until all the water is used.

Qanat Management – Qanat systems are big operations. They are labor-intensive,

expensive to build, cover large areas, require detailed planning to construct, and require

long-term administration. In short, they are a bureaucracy unto themselves. Supervision

calls for a central director or a communal committee or authority that can organize labor

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and arrange to pay for it, such as by levying taxes. Working apportionment is required to

fairly distribute benefits of an hydraulic system. Construction calls for skilled labor. In

some parts of Persia, the allocation of water was measured in time units based on land

ownership to ensure fair distribution, such as a half-day of water per week. In other areas,

farmers took their water in turn, each farmer opening a sluice gate to flood his fields

before the next farmer in line took his turn in a rotation. A third system, independent of

land ownership, counted water rights as a utility measured in time units that could be sold

or traded like commodities.

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Figure 20 & 21: Kashan, Fin garden: Nozzles and water courses

Figure 22: Kashan, Fin garden: Stone carved Nozzle

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Figure 23 & 24: Kashan, Fin garden: Walkway and water course bordered by cypresses and sycamores

Figure 25: Kashan, Fin garden: The view of the pool located at the central pavilion

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Chapter Five: Plants in Persian Gardens

In 1818, Sir Robert Ker Porter describes the rose plant in Persian gardens:

... in no country of the world does the rose grow in such perfection as in Persia; in no country is it so cultivated, and prized by the natives. Their gardens and courts are crowded with its plants, their rooms ornamented with vases, filled with its gathered bunches and every bath strewn with the full blown flowers, plucked from their ever replenished stems (Brooks 1987 , 107-108)

The Persian love of plants is as ingrained and deep-running as those Iranian plateau

aquifers whose locating takes such dedication. And no wonder. For a people so uncertain

of where the next drop of water would originate, embracing its products was a given.

Plants were the rare gems of Persia. It should come as no surprise that Persians should

develop a garden style. Yet the landscaped garden that prescribes structure never

developed. Plants are placed at random but are no less appreciated for that. Plants are

prized for their analogous references to man. Both share the challenge of survival in

harsh environments. Both sink roots and reach upward to thrive. Both must be washed

over by water to live. These considerations manifest themselves so naturally in literature

and art so that plant and flower representations are everywhere: textiles, fine ceramics,

paintwork. The refinement that has followed garden as foundation have not settled into

routine. Instead, the inspirational quality of gardens renews and refreshes ideas and

interests as surely as sun and rain renew plants and flowers. Persians reveal their feelings

when they reveal their words. The terms bustan or bostan used for garden have come also

to describe poetry collections.

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Another reflection of climatic background, perhaps, was the Persian regard for shade

trees. They constituted a major garden feature. Typically planted in straight rows, they

cast shadows on water, walls and walkways. Sycamores and plane were nearly automatic

choices for garden builders; their somewhat contained branches throwing narrow bands

of shade. Poplars enjoyed widespread use for their quick growth. Cypress, favorite of the

poets as representing eternity and, when failing to regenerate after cutting, death, was

also widespread. Also emblematic, of life and hope, respectively, were rose family

members almond and plum. Low-rising almond trees sent deep roots, making the tree

ideal for growing in varying soils and dry climates. Iranians drew upon a number of tree

varieties to complete garden designs: maple, oak, spruce, elm, ash, pine and willow all

appeared in the neat, straight rows within garden walls. So, too, did the flowering bushes

hawthorn and myrtle appear. Trees tended to be planted one species at a time and to be

used to border features or fill sections. Perhaps recognizing the importance of minerals to

growing things, Shah Abbas was said to have planted gold and silver coins among tree

roots. Tree planting was not done experimentally; trees were considered as was or were

improved by selective breeding. Cultivation of hybrids was not known (Lehrman 1980,

114).

Native Plants of the Persian Plateau - More than 10,000 plant species have been

identified in Iran despite seventy percent of the land being categorized as not arable.

Most are bulbous plants requiring specific environs. Many are difficult to grow in Persian

gardens and rate highly with collectors with esoteric botanic gardens worldwide. Plants

are rarely seen beyond the main routes that cross the plateau, thus they mark sharp

contrast – trees in particular – when they blossom in spring and leaf in summer, their

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colors standing out against buff mud walls. Even gardeners in the smallest villages will

harvest figs, walnuts, pistachios and pomegranates. Across Central Asia, close-set rows

of white-stemmed poplars (Populus alba f. pyramidalis) take to the sardsir, “cold land,”

indicating water and lining wheat fields. Similarly, oleaster (Elaeagnus angustifolia),

willows, alder and ash indicate water. Date palms appear in the garmsir, "warm land," in

the semitropical lowlands of the southern provinces as do the kunar tree (Ziziphus

spinachristi), acacias, prosopis and others. Although the overwhelming expanse of the

plateau is unrelentingly brown, eye-catching oases do occur in valley dips. The original

traveling salesman, Venetian Marco Polo, (c. 1254-1324) cited “fine groves of date

palms, which are pleasant to ride through” between Yazd89 and Kerman90 (Hobhouse

2004, 25). The temperate climes of the Fars produce citrus groves and give Shiraz the

productive lush that lets poets carry on about roses and nightingales. Hydrology of the

day allowed Shah Abbas tap the Zayandeh-Rud, the river that flows through Isfahan, to

water his gardens and fountains.

The array of cover on rocky hills and nearly treeless steppes at lower elevations include

pistachio stands and shrubs like almond, berberis, lonicera and lycium. But even that

89 Yazd, city, central Iran. The city dates from the 5th century ad and was described as the “noble city of Yazd” by Marco Polo. It stands on a mostly barren, sand-ridden plain about 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) above sea level. The climate is completely desertic. A network of qanats (tunnels dug to carry water) links Yazd with the edge of the nearby mountain Shīr Khū. Historically, Yazd has been the link between Fārs and Khorāsān and between Persian Iraq and Kermān. 90 Kerman. city, provincial capital, and ostān (province), southeastern Iran. The city lies on a sandy plain, 5,738 feet (1,749 meters) above sea level, under barren, rocky hills. Surrounded by mountains on the north and east, it has a cool climate and frequent sandstorms in the autumn and spring. The population is mostly Persian-speaking Muslims, with a Zoroastrian minority. Kermān is the largest carpet-exporting centre of Iran. The city formerly owed its industrial reputation to its shawl making, but this industry was surpassed by carpet making, particularly in Māhānī suburb.

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plant presence shrinks to nothing on lower sweeps where rainfall measures fewer than

four inches per year or where kavir, saline swamps, preclude growth. Spine-laden bushes

or brushwood such as the gum-emitting Astragaleta and Acantholimon, and sometimes

gum Arabic (Acacia niloteca), are found among grasses and herbaceous plants like

Aretemisia on the steppes above 6,000 feet. Across the plains, the scrub finds mostly

wormwoods such as Artemisia herba-alba; dwarf bushes, grasses and herbs scatter along

intermediate elevations. Rockier environs support only the likes of ephedra such as red-

flowered E. intermedia, or occasional camel thorn (Acacia gircffae, syn. A. erioloba),

whose bare branches sport red flowers in spring. Vegetation must be cultivated

(Hobhouse 2004, 24). The dasht-e-Kavir, like any good desert, seems to support nothing

but a few defensively spiky, thorny or prickly plants until rare spring rains coax forth a

fuzzy blanket of unexpected greenery.

Planting in historic gardens - Duplicating gardens of centuries past is difficult at best.

The tender and transitory nature of plant life offers the most immediate challenge:

neglected gardens quickly lose the plant record as intended inhabitants reseed

haphazardly or are joined by opportunistic travelers brought in through various means:

wind, migrating birds or tourists. Even the documentation of eager enthusiasts – and

those recordists tend also to be travelers – can mislead should they be unfamiliar with

local species. Would-be historians who take care to define species accurately might

neglect to provide specific design arrangements. Paintings and illustrations cannot be

trusted to be to scale or sufficiently detailed to be botanically accurate. And so on. Yet

such offerings are usually the only materials available to the reconstructing at an historic

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site. Only a few cases of archaeological excavation and analysis exist. Thus all available

materials must be to bear in attempting to plant historical gardens.

Botanical Excavations - Few examinations of Persian gardens have produced valuable

determinations about botanical remains or soil composition. Typically, archaeologists

examine the buildings or structures of a garden, identifying and dating paving materials

or the stone or mud brick of the walls. Soil excavation tends to destroy the integrity of the

structure that needs to be examined. Riding to the rescue of soil analysts are recently

developed technologies such as ground-penetrating radar, the remote-sensing proton

magnetometer, or aerial photography. Alas, they are expensive, which could serve to

keep the soil secrets of historic gardens covered up that much longer.

Plant types in Persian gardens - The unremitting message of the Persian plateau, the

quest for survival, continues to influence the output of the Persian garden. Orchards of

almonds, pears, pomegranates and wild cherries bloom in spring. Bulbous plants and

annuals with quick growth cycles emerge on a schedule to allow them to miss the annual

spring invasion of nomadic herds. That emergence could be before the nomadic shift or

after. Once they bloom, they retreat to dormancy until it's time to reappear. Those found

unpalatable to sheep and goats bear up through the brunt of summer heat. Anemones,

eremurus, irises, muscari, ranunculi, roses and tulips are examples of Iran's indigenous

plants that have translated to western gardens. They stand as the originals of plants

cultivated in Persia.

Iran's climatic extremes have not eliminated certain trees, which remain nearly

ubiquitous: "Cypress, elm, juniper, the sycamore-like maple (Acer velutinum), ole aster or

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Russian olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia), dwarf almond (Prunus dulcis formerly

Amygdalus arabicus), and ash (Fraxinus ornus f. rotundifolia)". Exotic imports are also

widespread. They include the Chinese bead tree (Melia azedarach) with is lavender

flowers, and the white mulberry (Morus alba), which accounts for silkworm production

(Hobhouse 2004, 36).

Many garden trees are considered structural components. Almonds, Asian planes,

cypresses, and elms were among those deployed along a central water channel. By the

19th Century, the weeping mulberry was a popular choice for smaller gardens (Hobhouse

2004, 36-37). Estimated to have been planted in the 16th Century, cypresses line the

pools at the Bagh-e Fin. Cypresses and willows are seen at the Bagh-e Shahzadeh, a 19th

Century garden. Date palms flanking orange groves mark the central vista enclosing the

flowerbeds at the Naranjestan garden in Shiraz. Jubs supply water to elms, poplars, and

plane trees in Isfahan and Shiraz, offering welcome shade in the streets. Specimens

elsewhere include ash, maples, melias, Judas trees, pine trees, and white mulberries. To

the north, white-stemmed poplars replace date palms as oases trees. A more tender

poplar, Populus eupbratica, with silver fluttering leaves, cannot tolerate cold extremes

but grows at Isfahan and Shiraz; it thrives in the Tabas oasis, contrasting nicely with the

dark-leaved fastigiated cypress. Chardin in the 17th Century describes gardens of Persia:

There are all kinds of flowers in Persia that one finds in France and Europe. Fewer kinds grow in the hotter southern parts but by the brightness of coloring the Persian flowers are generally more beautiful than those of Europe. Along the Caspian coast there are whole forests of orange trees, single and double jasmine, all European flowers, and other species besides. At the eastern end of the coast, the entire land is covered with flowers. On the western side of the plateau are found tulips, anemones, ranunculi of the finest red, and imperial crowns. Around Isfahan jonquils increase by themselves and there are flowers blooming all winter long. In season there are seven or eight different sorts of narcissus, the lily of the

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valley, the lily, violets of all hues, pinks, and Spanish jasmine of a beauty and perfume surpassing anything found in Europe. There are beautiful marsh mallows, and, at Isfahan, charming short-stemmed tulips. During the winter there are white and blue hyacinths, lilies of the valley, dainty tulips and myrrh. In spring yellow and red stock and amber seed of all colors, and a most beautiful and unusual flower, called the clove pink, each plant bearing some thirty blooms. The rose is found in five colors, white, red, yellow, Spanish rose, and poppy red. Also there are 'two-faced' roses which are red on one side and yellow on the other. Certain rose bushes bear yellow, yellow-white, and yellow-red roses on the same plant. (Brookes 1987, 200).

Trees - A fundamental feature of Persian gardens is shade trees. The first trees of the

chahar-bagh were fruit trees set in rows. Lately, this format has given way to random

placement of deciduous species, including shrubs. The green canopy more resembles an

arboretum, branches of all heights reaching forth. The chenar, a traditional specimen,

gives adequate shade when it is offered without lower branches. Its stems add a

sculptured effect. Acacias, catalpas, figs and palms, in gardens or courtyards, are other

choices.

Larger gardens gave more space to orchards, the fruit trees spaced regularly in neat rows.

Varieties included apples, apricots, cherries, figs, mulberries, sweet and sour lemons and

limes, oranges, peaches, pears, plums, prunes and quince. Besides shade, they delivered

the owners a tidy cash crop. As crops go, apricots represented Iran's finest product; juicy

and flavorful, tremendous numbers were dried. Apples didn't compare as well among

fruit of noteworthy flavor. Citrus crops came from along the Caspian coast or to the south

or southeast of the country. Pomegranates gave strong showings. A dozen varieties of

grape grew throughout gardens. Palm trees were present from the Persian Gulf north to

about mid-plateau. Only date palms bear well in southern regions. Nut varieties included

English walnuts and hazelnuts, but far more popular were almonds and pistachios.

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Beyond their crop yields, fruit trees added decoration. The blossoms of apple, cherry,

fig, lemon, mulberry, peach, plum, pomegranate and grapes offered well-appreciated

blossoms. Grapevines grew on walls and pergolas, and were brought to harvest as

Quranic proscription on wine was not strictly enforce. Almonds, hazelnuts, pistachios and

walnuts were also grown.

Iran enjoys all the common trees: ash, elm, cypress, maple, plane, poplar, pine, sycamore,

willow. Chief among these are the cypress, plane and poplar. The plane is a giant that

cascades shade upon those who come near. Plus it enjoys a reputation of providing

protection from fevers and airborne infections. The poplar is a fast-growing tree valued

for uses in construction. The cypress is applauded by poets. Grown primarily for shade

are cypress, elm, maple, oak and plane. Chenar, maple and spruce offer color. The

magnolia is fragrant. Cypress, poplar and spruce are seen as sentinels and often line

paths, creating borders, or directing the eye to a focal point. Coconut trees, date palms,

and olives provide foodstuffs.

Grass - Little speaks the volumes of climate distinction in Iran as grass. Throughout

Europe, grass is a given. In Iran, it is a luxury requiring constant water and care. As a

medium in a Persian garden, grass is a jarring consideration. Great base for an English

garden, where the sweep of lawn is a customary feature, grass is out of sync in Iran. Dust

is better considered as the medium of a Persian garden. A Persian garden cannot include

grass and remain faithful to indigenous plants.

Shrubs - Shrubs offer qualities that differ little from trees. The key distinction is one:

fragrance. Almond and quince shrubs bear fruit and offer color. The lilac is a veritable

riot of color and smell. Myrtle, too, offers a fragrant presence. Blossoming hawthorn adds

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color. Shrubs in the Persian garden are used to edge space. Box and hawthorn can be

trimmed sufficiently to respect the geometric dimensions of the Persian garden.

Flowers - Few plants fulfill ceremonial duties better than flowers. They hold reference or

depiction in Achaemenid (560-330 B.C) and Sassanian (224- 642 A.D) times. They can't

be topped for adding color and fragrance. In Persian gardens, new plants were always

welcome. Vegetables and fruits were immediately valuable as foodstuffs. Flowers were

more exotic. Offered to the shah from European visitors as well as travelers from Asia,

flowers nonetheless escaped the notice of artists making early depictions in carpet

designs and poetry. Still, Firdausi's Shahnama recorded some observations. Among

flowers mentioned that can thus be considered to have been in wide evidence were lilacs,

lilies and roses. Irises, marigolds, jonquils and tulips were grown for centuries. Among

other common varieties were jasmine, narcissus, cyclamen, daffodils, hollyhocks, violets

and poppies (Lehrman 1980, 114).

Flowers were particularly precious because the hot, dry climate shortened the season and

had such deleterious effect on blooms. Miniatures took particular note of flowers. They

were planted in mass display for their scent and color, or they were presented

individually or in groups amid sparse grass or beneath trees. Roses, growing as they did

on bushes, not stems, were not presented beneath trees. As the term parterre, from the

French, implies, flower plantings in Persian gardens were likely European-inspired. They

did not observe regular rows or borders. The most famous depiction of flowers – perhaps

to excess – was a 14th Century display of narcissus meadows near Kazerun in Fars

province: a plain covered with flowers and the sweet smell of narcissus that goes to the

head (Lehrman 1980, 114-115).

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Flowers prove so attractive that their collections multiply easily. Chardin's catalogue is

such an example. An early English traveler could have added clove gillyflower, daffodil,

hollyhock, lilac, poppy and saffron. From elsewhere, grape hyacinth, miniature Persian

iris, species tulips, pink and evening primrose. Additionally: primula, oenothera,

delphinium, tuberose and musk flower. Three times as many can be tracked by Persian

names alone. Less noted is the relationships of Persian flowers to native environs. So

many varieties were imported from so many places, particularly in recent times, that a

complete account might be unattainable. Persian names in some cases seek to describe

plants theretofore unknown. Herbaceous plants might be scattered through ground cover

or they might be edging, to wit, anemone, bluebell, hibiscus, larkspur, tulip, violet and

wallflower. Carnation, daffodil, hyacinth, jasmine, lily and rose rate highest for scent.

Some plants are used medicinally. Mint, saffron and sweet marjoram are used for

seasoning. Poppy seeds are edible. Hollyhock and iris provide vertical accents as well as

color; they offer contrast with low, massed cyclamen and lilies of the valley. Less thought

of as flowers, grass and moss are chiefly ground cover. Unique is the lotus, floating

enigmatically on still water.

Rose - The first flower of Persian poetry, the rose is called “the King of the garden.”

Alexander took the rose to Greece as a specimen plant at the conclusion of his Eastern

expedition. Aristotle included it in the first botanical garden in Athens. John Brookes

writes, “The great love shared by all Persians was the rose.” Persians not only admired

the beauty and inhaled the scent, they ingested the juice, used roses in cooking, splashed

on their perfume, even bathed in them. Rose trees could grow to twenty feet and bear a

trunk two feet round. They would be so smothered in flowers of the English hedge-rose

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type the trunks would be concealed. Ker Porter reported: "in no country of the world does

the rose grow in such perfection as in Persia; in no country is it so cultivated, and prized

by the natives. Their gardens and courts are crowded with its plants, their rooms

ornamented with vases, filled with its gathered bunches and every bath strewn with the

full blown flowers, plucked from their ever replenished stems" (Brookes 1987, 107-108).

A famous Persian export was the double yellow rose a variety taken to Spain centuries

ago and to the rest of Europe at least three hundred years ago. Persians claimed a

hundred-petal rose during the 11th Century Mahmud of Ghazni; it appeared again in

Isfahan in the 17th Century. Produced perhaps on a rose plantation, it could have been

included in the daily preparation of attar of roses.

Roses were exalted. First in the heart. Equal to none other. Roses were planted casually

or massed in bowers. They were celebrated in festivals. They were praised by poets.

Hafez accounted for the rose in spring: “Earth rivals the Immortal Garden during the rose

and lily's reign.” One's beloved was compared to a rose. Roses ran the color gamut,

amber to orange, yellow to white, through all the shades of red. Around Isfahan, Chardin

noted: .... The rose is found in five colors: white, yellow, red, Spanish rose and poppy red.

Also there are "two-face" roses which are red on one side and yellow on the other.

Certain rosebushes bear yellow, yellow-white, and yellow-red roses on the same plant

(Hobhouse 2004, 39).

Peony- The great invasion from the East brought new plants to the Persian garden. The

Ilkhans (1256- 1334 A.D.) delivered the peony. A product of China, the peony's

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westward distribution owed to Kublai, son of Jenghiz Khan91, who became the Great

Khan, during whose time Chinese influenced Mongols greatly. The single white or pink

peony grew wild in China but was under cultivation as well. The Chinese produced

double varieties and multiple color shades. If peonies hadn't been unknown in Persia,

they certainly hadn't been promoted to the extent practiced by the Ilkhans, who moved

the flower to a dominant position in Persian decoration. Depicted on carpets and in

textiles, and arrayed throughout the garden, peonies got attention (Moynihan 1979, 48-

49).

Wildlife - Animals, too, took prized places in the Persian garden. Gazelles and peacocks

lived in larger gardens. Nightingales sang from the trees. Fish swam contentedly in

ponds. Swans, pelicans and ducks frequented pools. Some royal gardens were effectively

zoos and aviaries. But just as the rose earned an elevated status among flora, so did the

nightingale among fauna. Iran's national bird, the bulbul, as it is called, inspired the

thickest shade in the finest gardens in hopes of luring the songbird. Persians enjoyed

nothing better than wandering through moonlighted gardens to hear nightingales in full

voice. Thus a most favored garden is the place of nightingales.

Praise of Plants in Persian Poetry - Persian passion for poetry extolled the virtues of

gardens as well by using a great many flower types as poetic metaphors. Every part of a

woman would have attracted its flower label. The epic The Shahnama by Firdawsi

offered a description of the female form: "Her cheeks were as red as pomegranate

91 Genghis Khan, Genghis also spelled Chinggis, Chingis, Jenghiz, or Jinghis, original name Temüjin, also spelled Temuchin (b. 1162, near Lake Baikal, Mongolia—d. Aug. 18, 1227), Mongolian warrior-ruler, one of the most famous conquerors of history, who consolidated tribes into a unified Mongolia and then extended his empire across Asia to the adriatic Sea (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

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blossoms and her lips like its seeds, while two pomegranates grew from her silver breast.

Her eyes were like the narcissus in the garden, and her eyebrows stole the blackness from

the crows feathers. She is a Paradise to look upon." (Ruggles 2006, 57). Not useful for

detailing the elements of a garden, nonetheless, poetry offers images of gardens that can

portray a sense of being in those spaces, even if through an idealized visit. Poetry was

better at offering a sense of a garden's characteristics, such as through scene-setting

references to olive groves, Hewers, birds and pools. Poems involving gardens lent insight

to the prominence of nature to Persian references of beauty.

Plants in Persian Miniatures - Persians were sufficiently mad about flowers as to make

artificial flowers and trees. Depictions of flowers were woven into carpets and frequently

displayed the layout of chahar-baghs. Miniatures also made much of flowers and those

delicate, tiny paintings became a tradition in Mughal India. Species routinely depicted

included delphinium, hollyhock, jasmine, lilac, lotus, narcissus, saffron, stocks and

wallflowers, carnation, coxcomb, heliotrope, hyacinth, love-lies-bleeding, marigold,

narcissus, tuberose, violet and zinnia. European notations included iris, tulips, lilies,

pinks, roses, poppies and peonies. Horticultural lists are incomplete because popular

names were not always recorded. When trying to work out literal applications,

restrictions of soil composition, climate and altitude would apply. Two flowers almost

universally grown were roses and lilies.

Botanical contacts between east and west - From its central spot with easy access to

invaders and conquerors, Persia was in the unique position to send its valuables both east

and west. Thus from the age of Cyrus, who reigned from 559 to 529 B.C., discerning

marauders have taken away the concept of the Persian garden. Greeks and Romans went

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west, where the influences lasted centuries before a separate, distinctive European style

evolved. Cyrus and his descendants extended the life-giving qanat system so gardens

could be build where opposing civilizations had been razed. These methods sent plants to

subjugated lands.

Lysander visited the garden of Cyrus the Younger, who ruled a century after Cyrus the

Great, and beheld a scene described to Xenophon92: “the beauty of the trees, the accuracy

of the spacing, the straightness of the rows, the regularity of the angles and the many

thousand scents of sweet flowers which hung about them" (Hobhouse 2004, 51).

Xenophon thereafter included in his Oeconomicus (“The Complete Householder”), of

399 B.C., Lysander's report that satrap93 planned and plotted their gardens, or paradises.

Husbandry was level in importance to the art of war.

The spread of plant species was seen as desirable for economic effect. In Asia Minor,

Darius I wrote to his satrap, Gadatas, commending a transplantation scheme. "I

commend your plan for improving my country by the transplantation of fruit trees from

92 Xenophon, (b. c. 430 B.C, Attica, Greece—d. shortly before 350, Attica), Greek historian and philosopher whose numerous surviving works are valuable for their depiction of late Classical Greece. His Anabasis (“Upcountry March”) in particular was highly regarded in antiquity and had a strong influence on Latin literature (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

93 satrap, provincial governor in the Achaemenian Empire. The division of the empire into provinces (satrapies) was completed by Darius I (reigned 522–486 B.C), who established 20 satrapies with their annual tribute. The satraps, appointed by the king, normally were members of the royal family or of Persian nobility, and they held office indefinitely. As the head of the administration of his province, the satrap collected taxes and was the supreme judicial authority; he was responsible for internal security and raised and maintained an army. To guard against abuse of powers, Darius instituted a system of control over the satrap (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

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the other side of the Euphrates, in the further part of Asia." Professor R. Ghirshman 94has

written: "Thus we learn that at Damascus the Persians tried to plant a type of vine that

was highly esteemed at their Court; that they introduced the first pistachios in Aleppo;

and that, about this period, the famous nut of Pontus appeared in Greece. It was the

Achaernenians who imported sesame into Egypt and rice into Mesopotamia" ....

(Moynihan 1979, 25). Such tasks could not be undertaken lightly. Knowledge of species

quality, compatibilities, soil and water tolerances would be required. Skills including

pruning would have been required.

A particularly popular gift to the West was wild saffron. Crocus sativus, a product of

eastern Persia, was already a money-spinner by the time the Greeks learned of this golden

delight. With a triple rotation system of planting and the plow, the Greeks made saffron a

top crop for trade with a growing Roman Empire. It was one of many Asiatic plants

making their way West. Professor R. Ghirshman has written that, "The defeated Orient

subjugated Europe." Cotton, the lemon, the melon, sesame seed, the oriental nut, olives,

dates, and figs were among the new plants which brought about "a real agrarian

revolution in Italy” (Moynihan 1979, 28).

Parthians (174 B.C.-224 A.D.) were in charge when peaches, apricots and silk appeared

from China along the trans-Asian highway, later to become known as the Silk Road. The

Parthians sent along an ostrich egg and some magicians in trade. Many centuries would

pass before silkworms were smuggled out of China to allows means of production for

94 Professor R. Ghirshman (b. Oct.3, 1895 - d. Sep. 5 1979) was an archeologist who specialized in ancient Persia and was one of the most prolific and respected experts. He was the first to excavate Teppe Sialk, Kashan, in 1930s. He also worked on city of Susa and Achamedian dynasty.

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sumptuous silks appearing in bazaars from Persia to Constantinople. China took in

Persian vines, cucumbers, onions, saffron and jasmine.

Contemporary historian Al-Makkari wrote that he created a garden in Spain based on

what he had seen in Persia. Adb-ar-Rahman was credited with introducing pomegranates

and jasmine to the Iberian Peninsula, as well as several plants from India, Turkestan and

Syria. "The yellow rose was brought from Iran" (Lehrman 1980, 87). The Ilkhans (1256-

1334 A.D.) delivered the peony. A product of China, the peony's westward distribution

owed to Kublai, son of Jenghiz Khan, who became the Great Khan of Cathay, during

whose time Chinese influenced Mongols greatly. The single white or pink peony grew

wild in China but was under cultivation as well. The Chinese produced double varieties

and multiple color shades.

Symbolic use of plants in Persian gardens - The importance of trees to myths and

religious traditions as oracle or place of transformation extends to Persia. The tradition of

tree as the center of paradise to represent birth, death and immorality was embodied most

often for Persians in the cypress. In a peculiar dichotomy, Persians express a love of

flowers, their colors and scents, and appreciate the shade and produce of fruit trees. Yet

they hold little concern for natural vegetation. Tradition and climate are responsible for

this ambivalence. Persian literature overflows with love of nature but at times society

shows no practical application of the attitude. Conversely, Islamic literature maintains

little love of the wilds of nature. Instead, nature is viewed as harsh and to be retreated

from.

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Plants play aesthetic and symbolic roles in the garden. Persians see the cypress as an

expression for death and eternal life. The death aspect is borne out by a tree that does not

re-sprout when cut to the trunk. The eternal life equation stems from the cypress's status

as an evergreen whose shape thrusts upward. Flowering fruit trees also were used as

symbols. Miniatures of paradise gardens often depicted rows of cypresses alongside

flowering fruit trees. The fruit trees' cheery blossoms and full forms coupled curiously

with the cypresses.

Poplar, Willow and Sycamore signal water under the surface layer of soil. When ordinary

people see these trees, they would know there is water. They represent water in another

form which is important in their symbolism. Water is sacred and since these trees hold

water, they represent washing and cleansing of the spirit.

Topiary - Topiary, the art of shaping trees into decorative shapes, is not generally

appreciated in Persian gardens. Only in the gardens of Spain after the Renaissance did

changes begin to appear in upkeep of hedges and bushes. And more recently, Persian

gardens in Kashmir and India have taken begun to sprout less-than-natural shapes.

Topiary symbolizes man's mastery of nature and an interaction between art and nature.

Lotus - The lotus enjoys a place in Eastern culture like few other plants. Associated with

fertility, it is the center of at least one creation myth. The Achaemenians (560-330 B.C)

used all forms of the plant: bud, flower and palmette. The kings are usually shown

cupping the flower, as if to recognize its association with childbirth. In Persia, the lotus

usually appeared as a rosette showing twelve solar petals. Also associated with fertility,

the pomegranate, called “The Tree of Many Seeds, was an ancient sun symbol. Phyllis

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Ackerman 95writes that by the time of Darius I, the lotus had all but replaced the

pomegranate as the chief symbol of fertility. A lotus tree decorates a section of glazed

brick revetment that survives from Susa (Moynihan 1979, 21-22).

Paintings - Dense shade was highly prized in a Persian garden. Shade's value was the

obvious protection it afforded from an unforgiving sun. But Persian art was characterized

by the absence of shadow. Painters also added symbolism to plants through their

depictions. Intertwining cypress and peach trees represented lovers. Delicate and short-

lived, the peach was so favorable.

Sacred Tree - In the development of religious ritual, trees became vital to worship.

Votive trees gained prominence. A miraculous Cosmic Tree is a mythical motif found

worldwide that survives to this day. Typically, the meaning is regeneration or

immortality. In some cases, a particular tree represents a route heaven. Sacred trees might

be called the Tree of Knowledge or the Tree of Good and Evil. In Revelations (22:1-2)

the Tree of Life is associated with the River of Life. The Quran (13:28) mentions the

Tuba tree of Paradise. Seals of the third millennium found by archaeologists in the Indus

Valley bore the Moon Tree. In Persia, the Moon Tree was drawn as a conifer – possibly

a cypress – that symbolized immortality. Cypress trees are common features in Persian

and Mughal gardens. When lined along watercourses, cypresses, the trees of immortality,

are paired with water, the elixir of life.

95 Phyllis Ackerman was Arthur Upham Pope's wife. They were American archaeologists and historians of Persian art. They were invited to move to Iran in 1966 and spent their final years on Iran and upon their death, they were provided with a magnificent mausoleum built in Professor Pope Park on the banks of Zayandeh river in their beloved city of Isfahan (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

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Artificial Tree - The value of trees was so important in early times that leaders sought to

establish trees as talismans linked to their dynasties. Thus were created great artworks in

the shapes and styles of trees. These works might be of precious metals and decorated

with gems. The poet Firdawsi describes a tree made for the king Kay Khusraw 96in which

a silver trunk bore gold and ruby branches. The branches bore fruits filled with musk and

wine. During the Ghaznavid 97period (926- 1040 A.D), the court displayed trees of gold

flanked by artificial narcissi in pots of silver. At Iran's Mongol court of the 13th and 14th

centuries, a tree made for Timur was life-size with oak-shaped leaves of pearls, rubies,

emeralds, sapphires and turquoises. Enameled birds of varying colors appeared in the

branches (Wilber 1979, 8).

Historic botanical books - All things botanical or relating to the science of agriculture

were recorded with zeal beginning in the late ninth century and continuing into the 10th

Century. The Irshad al-zira'a (Guide to Agriculture) was apparently prompted by an

Uzbek invasion of Khurasan during the Timurid dynasty (1370-1506). A few of the

manuals described the ideal organization of a garden, but more specific information

required getting a look at the gardens themselves (Ruggles 2006, 36). Botanical

96 Khosrow I, byname Khosrow Anūshirvan (Persian: “Khosrow of the Immortal Soul”), or Khosrow the Just (d. ad 579), Persian king who ruled the Sāsānian empire from 531 to 579 and was remembered as a great reformer and patron of the arts and scholarship (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

97 Ghaznavid, (ad 977–1186), Turkish dynasty that ruled in Khorāsān (in northeastern Iran), Afghanistan, and northern India. The founder of the dynasty was Sebuktigin (ruled 977–997), a former Turkish slave who was recognized by the Samanids (an Iranian Muslim dynasty) as governor of Ghazna (modern Ghaznī, Afg.). As the Sāmānid dynasty weakened, Sebüktigin consolidated his position and expanded his domains as far as the Indian border. His son Mahmud (ruled 998–1030) continued the expansionist policy, and by 1005 the Sāmānid territories had been divided (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

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manuscripts had been specific in written descriptions and had divided plants into

taxonomic classifications. At times, these tomes were illustrated. A text would be

developed that could be used in oral presentations. If that proved sufficiently valuable,

the material would be copied. If demand warranted, copies would be made and sent to

libraries, sometimes libraries in different countries where the described plants did not

grow. This body of literature represented the importance of agricultural knowledge, its

practice by laborers, and its development as a science.

Agricultural manuals covered the plants grown in Persian gardens, from shade trees to

medicinal herbs. Although like gardens of early western Islam Persian gardens addressed

many functions – commercial, ornamental, even botanical – the Persian garden was,

above all, the exemplar of irrigated cultivation.

Contemporary collections of information about Persian gardens rarely held enough detail

to reconstruct a medieval garden. Missing were specifics of plantings, relationships based

on aesthetic consideration, and details on layouts. Medieval Persian manuals offer little

useful insight into gardens as agricultural or architectural entities.

Ershad az-zara'a (Guide to Agriculture) - Useful Persian works on garden layouts

appeared in 1515. Author Qasem ibn Yusof offered ideas adopted by the Safavid Persians

and by Babur and the Mughals. A scholar of mathematics and topography, Qasem

discussed soils, crop choice, planting times for grains, vegetables and vines, tree

transplanting, fruit tree grafting, and chahar-bagh design as well as pavilions. He

recommended shade trees, opting for the Samarqand poplar over the pine; fruit trees and

flowers as specimens or grouped in four plots, and using clover instead of grass. Scholars

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interpreting the work have been successful identifying the plants discussed. Qasem's

information came from Mirak Sayyid Ghiyas, a garden builder in Herat, who, with his

son, the designer of Homayun's tomb in Delhi, helped Babur King (Conan, 2007).

The Irshad al-zira'a have been prompted by an agrarian crisis triggered by Uzbek attack

to Khurasan. The guide sought to explain farm management, which required knowledge

of mathematics, geometry, financial accounting, agricultural practice, and hydraulic

engineering, the latter a necessity in the Khurasan area where Herat is located

(Petruccioli 1997, 110). Qasim b. Yusuf Abu Nasri, the accountant in charge of receipts

on lands that supported the shrine of Abdullah Ansari in Herat, was not familiar with

agricultural practices, so he consulted experienced peasants who worked the land. The

guide's influence on the Timurid gardens of Herat in turn influenced the first Mughal

ruler, Babur, and Mughal gardens in Agra and Delhi. The effect was seen in Humayun's

tomb and established an historic connection between the two Mughal dynasties'

landscape design (Ruggles 2006, 17).

It was written for Shah Isma'il I98, al-zira'a introduced the subject in an established

Persian literature genre, the so-called “mirrors for princes,” and it gave the incoming

Safavids an accurate record of agricultural development of the preceding Timurids. It

was an ideological instrument to a professional managerial class who advocated that

agriculture in the area be re-established with the help of the incoming head of Safavid. 98 Shah Isma'il I, also spelled Esmā'īl I (b. July 17, 1487, Ardabīl?, Azerbaijan—d. May 23, 1524, Ardabīl, Safavid Iran), shah of Iran (1501–24) and religious leader who founded the Safavid dynasty (first native dynasty to rule the kingdom in 800 years) and converted Iran from the Sunnī to the Shi'i sect of Islām. According to tradition, Ismā'īl was descended from an īmām. His father, leader of a Shi'i group known as the Kizilbash (Red Heads), died in battle against the Sunnīs when Isma'il was only a year old (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).

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The Irshad al-zira addressed the nine districts (bulukats) of the Heraat region and

reflected practices in Khurasan in the late Timurid period. Of the work's eight chapters,

the last, on quadripartite, makes the work a unique textual source on Persian garden

design and becomes an invaluable source on the history of Persian agriculture. "He

detailed a method of grafting trees he had heard from his teachers, Mirak's servants. The

garden was credited with fifty varieties of melons and Yusuf credited Mirak with

inventing a practice to do with cultivating grapevines. It appears Mirak served as source

for Qasim b. Yusuf's hydrological manual" (Petruccioli 1997, 111).

Bayaz-i-Khwushbu-i (Sweet-smelling Notebook) - It was written between 1628-38 and

offers discourse on land management. It dictates a proportion of 3:2 for a regular

rectangular bed in a formal garden, or baghcha. It directs labor deployment of ordinary

and specialized gardeners, which could distinguish laborers from horticulturalists. It

specifies the number of wells and draft animals needed to work the space. The particular

example of how to do a royal garden describes that grounds of Princess Jahanara, whose

fifty-six bigan (three-fifths of an acre) garden required sixty regular gardeners and fifty-

six royal gardeners, sixty cattle, three wells and twelve buckets. Less well specified was

that the buckets would be used on a saqiya wheel to draw water from the well using a

chain on an axle. Gardens – Persian ones in particular given a conservative trend among

the locals – tended to stay more static than did literature about them. The manuals that

once offered variable proportions in layouts of the ideal gardens began to give

dimensions. The work of Ibn Luyun of Spain was an example of the former, Irshad al-

zira'a of the Timurid period an example of the latter. Difficult to pinpoint is whether

gardens were an increasingly interesting topic or whether societal standards and language

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use had shifted. No matter how specific texts became about laborers, water sources, or

garden sizes, words remained poor messengers in representing three-dimensional bodies.

Losing an entire dimension, flattening a garden to paper, pressures the reader to fill in

adequately the missing information on construct. The sense of familiarity with the

original form goes missing and with it essential information (Ruggles 2006, 60-61).

Iranian horticulturalist - The profile of one notable practitioner has come to light.

Mirak-i Sayyid Ghiyas worked for Timurid rulers (r. 1469-1506). From an important

family of landscape designers whose prominence lasted nearly a century, Mirak-i Sayyid

Ghiyas was born and reared in Herat and learned agronomy, irrigation and architectural

construction from his father. Landscape architect to the sultan, Mirak-i Sayyid Ghiyas,

who would one day contribute to the Irshad al-zira'a, used all three disciplines in

overseeing construction of gardens and their architectural components. His life of

aesthetic considerations and practical output suffered at the hands of invading Uzbeks in

1507. The upheaval that changed the ruling dynasty and coarsened political life, included

regular intervals when the landscapers property would be seized and he would be thrown

into prison. Scientific information traveled among Islamic societies via treatises, a habit

greatly increased when paper became the cheapest medium for writing. But as biographic

profiles of leading lights including Andalusian aesthete Ziryab, and Persian landscape

architect Mirak-i Sayyid Ghiyas, individuals themselves were agents of transmission.

Particularly those who served the good and great, like Mirak-i Sayyid Ghiyas, were

affected by territorial conquest and political change. A lost empire might represent a

newfound opportunity for someone with advanced gardening skills. When they traveled

they talked, about theory and practice (Ruggles 2006, 38).

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Figure 26 (left): Shiraz, Jahan-Nama garden: The walkway leading to the central pavilion

Figure 27 (right): Shiraz, Afif-Abad garden: The central house across from the large pool

Figure 28: Shiraz, Eram garden: The pool and the residence at the center of the garden

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Figure 29 (left): Shiraz, Eram garden: Cypress tree lines alley

Figure 30 (right): Mahan, Shazdeh garden: One of the walkways and its waterway

Figure 31: Yazd, Doulat-Abad garden: View of the wind tower above the central pavilion

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Chapter Six: Preservation Challenges of Persian gardens

Garden Conservation – Correct preservation of a Persian garden involves a number of

steps. First, take a comprehensive survey for the existing garden as well as possible sites.

Conditions should be classified based on how authentic the property can be deemed. A

property in danger of encroachment requires legal action: zoning or acquisition.

Administrative support must be secured as well. As well as a surface survey and

historical documentation, excavation techniques should be used. Coordinating the

interests of culture, tourist and planning boards is paramount to success.

Financial and technical concerns - Financially, restoration and conservation need the

boost of tax concessions, grants or loans. If a tourist attraction can be promoted, it would

provide economic justification. Technical advice should be readily available and should

be sought, including regular inspections. All measures that are part of a comprehensive

plan for restoring and conserving are needed to be used.

Layout Preservation - This effort requires familiarity with an original design or

elements of gardens. Documentation should be secured if it can be found. If a garden's

early layout seems lost, attempt to find traces of water sources, structure foundations,

walls, gateways and paths. Consider a complete reconstruction, including water supply

and containment, tree planting, and incongruous factors to recreate an image of the

garden's previous iteration.

Responsibility - Restoration and conservation need to be guided by art and history as

well as technicians. Putting art and history out front could make their appeal the drivers

in public-awareness campaigns that might be the difference between result and

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disappointment. Promoting local or national cultural heritage could involve government

funding, as well. That said, public enjoyment of gardens shouldn't be sole responsibility

of government entities. Professional societies of architects and landscape architects are

the logical associations to forge private-public efforts and to innovate funding measures.

Gardens and courtyards represent stability and a link to the past even though forward-

looking means to preserve the spaces are increasingly needed.

Water channel preservation - Of all the elements in a garden, water is the most

enduring. Plants, even trees, die off and decay, and soil structures undergo changes from

atmospheric and other changes. But water systems tend to survive because they are

established through use patterns and permanent materials like brick and stone. An

irrigation system will continue to be used; in fact, it will be maintained. Larger systems

have concrete conduits and continue to deliver water to users still relying on ancient

methods of flood irrigating: diverting a water supply into a slightly sunken field, allowing

ground saturation to penetrate root systems, then blocking up access and turning the

water to another field or the next user. Water sources can prove so distant that

archaeological analysis of hydraulics can begin to resemble a geographic study.

No Archeological Research - An emphasis on extant gardens can be a pitfall for writers

considering Persian gardens. Explaining the historic past by visible gardens that have not

been worked over archaeologically is dangerous if credibility is desired. Plantings must

be determined to be historically accurate. Architects, historians and site conservators

need to raise their standards of botanical accuracy. Techniques exist that can identify

plants and trees grown in an area. Garden archaeology is a source of information about

gardens from books or illustrated manuals.

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More of a minefield is attempting to tread through literature. Arabic and Persian verse

were never meant to offer historical accuracy or archaeological detail. Nuggets that might

be gleaned should be viewed as poetic observation, not fact. Poets place higher value on

entertainment than journalism. Also bearing less than full reliability in sourcing are books

of landscapes frequently studied: Spain, Central Asia, Mesopotamia. Extant gardens don't

guarantee useful examples from the time period sought. Nor does regional familiarity

lend an author insight. Picking through the constant tramping of shifting civilizations

merely muddies the material sought.

A ground plan serves a purpose for spatial analysis, but it shrinks landscape to the realm

of an architectural blueprint, a plot on flat paper without indication of topographical

detail or ground water systems that might have been the reasons for the gardens location

and layout. Gardens tend to be presented as distinct from surrounding landscape, taken

out of context, be it desert, shore, mountain or meadow. Additionally, a garden in an

original conceptual state is an imaginary statement that casts into the future for the

moment of maturation of the planted items.

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Figure 32 & 33: Behshahr, Ashraf garden complex:

Interior of the main pavilion of Bagh-e-Cheshmeh garden, preservation process

Figure 34: Behshahr, Ashraf garden complex: Main pavilion of Bagh-e-Cheshmeh garden

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Figure 35 & 36: Isfahan, Chehel-Sutun garden: Preservation of walkways and water courses

Figure 37: Isfahan, Chehel-Sutun garden: Preservation of walkways and water courses

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Conclusion

Chahar-bagh, or quartered garden, is the main design concept of Persian gardens. It

stipulates a centrifugal or outward-directed movement through employment of

intersecting axes. The center spot when the points intersect is the point from which

design elements flow. Visual energy down sight lines. Aural effects out of waterways.

Life forces through spiritual contemplation. All send energy outward from a centered

point, a pavilion or fountain from which radiates an outward motion that rebounds and

inner-directed response. The ripples of water that courses through the garden send ever-

expanding waves that return through contraction.

An enclosed garden as defined space offers an opportunity to consider the world beyond,

that is, the cosmos and a concept of heaven. The order and harmony that visit the senses

through the presentation of a perfectly apportioned space take a garden dweller beyond

his circumstances. Critical to the mix are shapes, numbers, color and materials, but when

the elements coordinate correctly, the sense of peace delivered is monumental. The

essential calm comes through still water, which reflects upwards to reach the creative

soul.

Persians have understood gardens for five thousand years. Dwelling on the hot, dry, harsh

Persian plateau gave a context for imagining paradise or heaven or the home of the gods

as a green, verdant place of cool, refreshing splendor. That kind of place could melt away

troubles, bring inner peace, and restore the soul. Thus came depictions of heaven as

garden across the civilizations. Whether Garden of Eden or Paradise, monotheistic

religions founded by desert dwellers embrace it. Although Moslems who conquered

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Persia didn't condone some of their vanquished more hedonistic rituals, the ordered

garden of the fourfold design fit well with an Islamic concept of an ordered paradise

promised in the Quran. The space as used by Persians for placing a garden's elements

reflected a cosmic truth and beauty suggesting divine law. The garden represented a

physical interpretation of a mystical relationship. The fundamental aspect of life-giving

water made the connection to a life hereafter. Nor did it hurt that the productive quality of

the garden, walled off as it was from harsh elements that would interfere with its

flourishing, made a equation with the power of creation held by God.

The Paradise Garden swept into Persia in the form of Aryans migrating from the East.

From earliest times, they had been influenced by religious symbolism. The gods of

antiquity counted a number of traditions that dovetailed with the gardens Aryans found

on the Persian plateau. Water, trees, octagons, mountains, the tradition of four; all these

components to the Persian garden resonated with Aryans whose creation myths and ideals

let them embrace the garden. The imagery stays with us in representations in carpets,

poems and miniatures. The perfect occasion in the garden involved an octagonal Pavilion,

a reflecting pool of water or an equivalent measure of moving water, a poet reciting an

epic work, and a nightingale singing softly in one or other sacred tree. Each successive

wave of conqueror seemed to embrace the garden magic established by Persians. The

experience of a Persian garden has been likened to entering a mosque. The key is

progression and its rhythm is identified as water. Mosque visitors, too, begin a sacred

effort with water. In the garden, the movement of water directs the movement of a visitor,

carrying him to a spiritual place by linking levels, rushing onward, forming sheets, or

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reaching placidity, all to establish the importance of the ripple effect that expands and

contracts in harmonic tension.

Persians have always related to flowers and the characteristics of gardens in a mystical

way. The design was perfected early on, and the conservative nature of the Persian and

his willingness to embrace tradition have found no reason to change a perfect garden.

They didn't feel pressured to innovate horticultural. They didn't feel a need to change

space allocations to allow for more vigorous entertainments. Hunting parks were good for

exertions. The garden was created for the static, for centering oneself and casting

outward. Persians seldom walked through gardens. They found it preferable to build a

cushy pavilion and locate there, taking in the perfectly placed trees, flowers and water

therein. They were able to be self-sufficient in the garden. They were able to find peace.

Persians. Passion. Poetry. This triumvirate is as stable as the fourfold geometry of the

Persian garden. Flowers completed the picture as Persians reciting poetry to friends in the

garden, a favored bloom in hand, its perfume swirling, a nightingale singing in a tree

branch, and water rippling nearby completed a perfect night. Although the early Persians

left no specific records of these practices, their preferences were recorded by artists

weaving carpets, writing poems, or painting miniatures. An almost mystical sense of

fecundity and fulfillment comes from these interests and these occasions. Arthur Upham

Pope has written, "The fertility theme continued to be central in the life of the plateau

peoples, and the artistic forms which they invented to envisage these principles,

sanctified by long use and deep emotion, provided figures and motifs that persisted

throughout the entire course of Iranian art. All the rich representations of floral

abundance, the various cosmological trees, the exaltation of the garden, the poetic flower

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worship, which has dominated both decorative and representative arts almost to the

present day, were but phases of the appeal for sustenance" (Moynihan 1979, 20).

If the absence of form damages, as, say, when the undistinguished horizon produces snow

blindness, then the Persian antidote for the infinite sky of the Iranian plateau was the

confined space of the garden. The narrow vista and its sense of order brought focus and

sensibility to souls too easily battered senseless by the harshness of reality, whether

climatic or political. Conquerors came and went through Central Asia, but the Persian

garden stayed, offering relief and calm, beauty and shade, perfume and music. How

closer could one be to one's god than by replicating paradise? The spiritual gain of

centering oneself in the garden was incalculable. How else can the garden have

persevered through as many political changes as Persians have suffered. No conquering

invader so much as suggested the garden must go. That's what an overwhelmingly good

construct it was.

Peaceful sanctuary or practical provider, the garden offered all the worthwhile things to

embrace: trees, water, flowers and calm. The custom continues as Iranians with means

own gardens away from the cities and retreat with their families to these sanctuaries for

full days of peace, solitude and cooling shade and water. Royals would conduct the

business of state in the garden. All the magnificence a royal could muster would be on

display in the king's garden. And he would take it on the road, stopping in gardens on

state visits, entourage in tow, the glory of the empire bowing in respect to a simple plan

that conquered hearts.

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The garden is as current as traffic in modern Iran. It plays a major role in the lives of

citizens put upon by bureaucracy or obligations or traffic. Holidays are spent there.

Celebrations are held there. Entertainment is watched there. Eating, talking, listening to

music, all the important tasks of life are done in the garden. A traveler in Shiraz in the

17th century even recounted that he saw: 'ropes or cords stretched from tree to tree in

several gardens, Boys and Girls and sometimes those of riper years swinging upon them'

(Lehrman 1980, 112). The garden is usually a quiet retreat, private and peaceful. Flowers,

trees and water welcome one like comforting friends. A garden's walls offer a protective

embrace and blocks out disruptions to quiet reflection and meditation. Students and

teachers share and discover wisdom in gardens. Business practitioners complete deals in

the garden. Politicians determine policy in the garden. The mystic, the pragmatist, the

philosopher, the lawyer, the laborer, all have a stake and a place in the Persian garden.

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Figure 38: Pasargadae garden: Tomb of Cyrus the Great built around 530 B.C

Figure 39 & 40: Pasargadae palace and garden: View of the ruins of the residential palaces

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Figure 41 & 42: Pasargadae garden: The ruins of stone canals of the royal garden

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Figure 43: Kashan, Fin garden: The large pool, walkways and the view of side buildings

Figure 44: Kashan, Fin garden: cross canals and nozzle

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Figure 45 & 46: Kashan, Fin garden: Water courses, nozzles and walkways

Figure 47: Kashan, Fin garden: Cross walkways and canals leading to the central pavilion

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Figure 48 & 49: Tabas, Golshan garden: Walkways, watercourses, trees and flowers

Figure 50: Tabas, Golshan garden: Central pool and Pelicans of Golshan garden

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Figure 51 (left): Yazd, Doulat-Abad garden: Interior of the reception hall

Figure 52 (right) : Yazd, Doulat-Abad garden: Wind tower above the pavilion and fruit trees

Figure 53: Yazd, Doulat-Abad garden: View of the large pool, walkways and pine trees along the central axis

120

Figure 54 (left): Mahan, Shazdeh garden: Water falling over a chini-khaneh

Figure 55 (right): Mahan, Shazdeh garden: Main walkway, watercourse and Persian roses

Figure 56: Mahan, Shazdeh garden: The central axis, watercourse and the large pool

121

Figure 57: Behshahr, Ashraf garden complex:

Main pavilion of Bagh-e-Cheshmeh garden and surrounding water courses and pools

Figure 58: Behshahr, Ashraf garden complex, Bagh-e-khalvat:

View of the central axis and watercourse from the pavilion terrace

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Figure 59: Sari, Farahabad garden complex: Ruins of the bath house

Figure 60: Sari, Farahabad garden: The central pool and water course of the mosque

123

Figure 61 (left): Shiraz, Eram garden: Cypress tree lines alley well-known of Eram garden

Figure 62 (right): Shiraz, Eram garden: One of the water courses crossing the central axis

Figure 63: Shiraz, Eram garden: The large pool in front of the residence

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Figure 64 (left): Shiraz, Jahan-Nama garden: Surrounding wall and the main entrance

Figure 65 (right): Shiraz, Jahan-Nama garden: View of the tree lined eastern axis

Figure 66: Shiraz, Jahan-Nama garden: View of the pools and walkways along the southern axis

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Figure 67 (left): Shiraz, Delgosha garden: A shady walkway and watercourse

Figure 68 (right): Shiraz, Delgosha garden: Central axis sloping down to the entrance

Figure 69: Shiraz, Delgosha garden: The pavilion along the central axis and watercourse

126

Figure 70 (left): Nishabour, Ghadamgah garden: View of the mausoleum and central axis

Figure 71 (right): Nishabour, Ghadamgah garden: The entrance of the upper garden

Figure 72: Nishabour, Ghadamgah garden: View of the mausoleum along the central axis

127

Figure 73: Isfahan, Chehel-Sotun garden: The interior of the pavilion with the view along the central axis

Figure 74: Isfahan, Chehel-Sotun garden: The iwan at the south end of the garden and the basin's reflecting surface

128

Figure 75: Isfahan, Hasht-Behesht garden: The "muqarnas" ceiling of the pavilion

Figure 76: Isfahan, Hasht-Behesht garden: The walkway bordered by clipped hedges

Figure 77: Isfahan, Hasht-Behesht garden: View of the central pavilion across the pool

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Figure 78: Mahan, Shazdeh garden: The walkway and watercourse along the exterior wall

Figure 79: Shiraz, Eram garden: The view of the residence at the center of the garden

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Chronological Table

Date Dynasty

late 4th millennium – 645 B.C Elamite

800 - 550 B.C Mede

560 - 330 B.C Achaemenid

312 - 129 B.C Seleucid

174 B.C - 224 A.D Parthian

224 - 642 A.D Sassanian

660 - 750 A.D Omavid

750 - 1258 A.D Abbasid

900 - 999 A.D Samanid

935 - 1055 A.D Aal-e-Buyyid

926 - 1040 A.D Qaznavid

1000 - 1157 A.D Seljuk

1256 - 1334 A.D Mughal- Ilkhanid

1370 - 1502 A.D Timurid

1491 - 1722 A.D Safavid

1750 - 1799 A.D Zandiyeh

1786 - 1925 A.D Qajar

1926 - 1979 A.D Pahlavi

1979 - … A.D Islamic Republic

......... .............

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Appendix: Garden Plans

All the drawings are used by permission from Iranian Research Institute of Restoration

and Preservation of Cultural Heritage.

1. Chasma-Shahi, Ashraf Garden Complex, Behshahr City, Mazandaran Province

2. Ghadamgah Garden Complex,

Nishabour City, Khorasan Province

3. Ashraf Garden Complex,

Behshahr City, Mazandaran Province

4. Farahabad Garden Complex,

Sari City, Mazandaran Province

139

5. Bagh-e-Eram, Shiraz City,

Fars Province

6. Bagh-e-Delgosha, Shiraz City,

Fars Province

7. Bagh-e-Afif-Abad, Shiraz City,

Fars Province

8. Bagh-e-Jahan-Nama, Shiraz City,

Fars Province

140

9. Isfahan City, 17 Century

Isfahan Province

10. Hasht-Behesht Garden, Isfahan City

Isfahan Province

11.Hezar-Jarib Garden, Isfahan City,

Isfahan Province

12. Chehel-Sutun Garden, Isfahan City

Isfahan Province

141

13. Shazdeh Garden, Mahan City

Kerman Province

14. Golshan Garden, Tabas City

Khorasan Province

15. Doulat-Abad Garden, Yazd City

Yazd Province

16. Fin Garden, Kashan City

Isfahan Province