An Islamic garden is generally an expressive estate of land that includes themes of water and shade. Their most identifiable architectural design reflects the charbagh (or chahār bāgh) quadrilateral layout with four smaller gardens divided by walkways or flowing water. Unlike English gardens, which are often designed for walking, Islamic gardens are intended for rest, reflection, and contemplation. A major focus of the Islamic gardens was to provide a sensory experience, which was accomplished through the use of water and aromatic plants.
Before Islam had expanded to other climates, these gardens were historically used to provide respite from a hot and arid environment. They encompassed a wide variety of forms and purposes which no longer exist. The Qur'an has many references to gardens and states that gardens are used as an earthly analogue for the life in paradise which is promised to believers:
Along with the popular paradisiacal interpretation of gardens, there are several other non-pious associations with Islamic gardens including wealth, power, territory, pleasure, hunting, leisure, love, and time and space. These other associations provide more symbolism in the manner of serene thoughts and reflection and are associated with a scholarly sense.
While many Islamic gardens no longer exist, scholars have inferred much about them from Arabic and Persian literature on the subject. Numerous formal Islamic gardens have survived in a wide zone extending from Spain and Morocco in the west to India in the east. Historians disagree as to which gardens ought to be considered part of the Islamic garden tradition, which has influenced three continents over several centuries.
Architectural design and influences
After the Arab invasions of the 7th century CE, the traditional design of the Persian garden was used in many Islamic gardens. Persian gardens were traditionally enclosed by walls and the Persian word for an enclosed space is pairi-daeza, leading to the paradise garden. Hellenistic influences are also apparent in their design, as seen in the use of straight lines in a few garden plans that are also blended with Sassanid ornamental plantations and fountains.Marie-Luise Gothein, A History of Garden Art, Diederichs, 1914, p. 148.
One of the most identifiable garden designs, known as the charbagh (or chahār bāgh), consists of four quadrants most commonly divided by either water channels or walkways, that took on many forms. One of these variations included sunken quadrants with planted trees filling them, so that they would be level to the viewer. Another variation is a courtyard at the center intersection, with pools built either in the courtyard or surrounding the courtyard. While the charbagh gardens are the most identified gardens, very few were actually built, possibly due to their high costs or because they belonged to the higher class, who had the capabilities to ensure their survival. Notable examples of the charbagh include the former Bulkawara Palace in Samarra, Iraq, and Madinat al-Zahra near Córdoba, Spain.
An interpretation of the charbagh design is conveyed as a metaphor for a "whirling wheel of time" that challenges time and change. This idea of cyclical time places man at the center of this wheel or space and reinforces perpetual renewal and the idea that the garden represents the antithesis of deterioration. The enclosed garden forms a space that is permanent, a space where time does not decay the elements within the walls, representing an unworldly domain. At the center of the cycle of time is the human being who, after being released, eventually reaches eternity.
Aside from gardens typically found in palaces, they also found their way into other locations. The Great Mosque of Córdoba contains a continuously planted garden in which rows of fruit trees, similar to an orchard, were planted in the courtyard. This garden was irrigated by a nearby aqueduct and served to provide shade and possibly fruit for the mosque's caretaker. Another type of garden design includes stepped terraces, in which water flows through a central axis, creating a trickling sound and animation effect with each step, which could also be used to power water jets. Examples of the stepped terrace gardens include the Shālamār Bāgh, the Bāgh-i Bābur, and Madinat al-Zahra.
Elements Islamic gardens present a variety of devices that contribute to the stimulation of several senses and the mind, to enhance a person's experience within the garden. These devices include the manipulation of water and the use of aromatic plants.
Arabic and Persian literature reflect how people historically interacted with Islamic gardens. The gardens' worldly embodiment of paradise provided the space for poets to contemplate the nature and beauty of life. Water is the most prevalent motif in Islamic garden poetry, as poets render water as semi-precious stones and features of their beloved women or men. Poets also engaged multiple sensations to interpret the dematerialized nature of the garden. Sounds, sights, and scents in the garden led poets to transcend the dry climate in desert-like locations. Classical literature and poetry on the subject allow scholars to investigate the cultural significance of water and plants, which embody religious, symbolic, and practical qualities.
Water Water was an integral part of the landscape architecture and served many sensory functions, such as a desire for interaction, illusionary reflections, and animation of still objects, thereby stimulating visual, auditory and somatosensory senses. The centrally placed pools and fountains in Islamic gardens remind visitors of the essence of water in the Islamic world.
Islam emerged in the desert, and the thirst and gratitude for water are embedded in its nature. In the Qur'an, rivers are the primary constituents of the paradise, and references to rain and fountains abound. Water is the materia prima of the Islamic world, as stated in the Qur'an 31:30: "God preferred water over any other created thing and made it the basis of creation, as He said: 'And We made every living thing of water'." Water embodies the virtues God expects from His subjects. "Then the water was told, 'Be still'. And it was still, awaiting God's command. This is implied water, which contains neither impurity nor foam" (Tales of the Prophets, al-Kisa'). Examining their reflections in the water allows the faithful to integrate the water's stillness and purity, and the religious implication of water sets the undertone for the experience of being in an Islamic garden.
Based on the spiritual experience, water serves as the means of physical and emotional cleansing and refreshment. Due to the hot and arid conditions where gardens were often built, water was used as a way to refresh, cleanse, and cool an exhausted visitor. Therefore, many people would come to the gardens solely to interact with the water.
Reflecting pools were strategically placed to reflect the building structures, interconnecting the exterior and interior spaces. The reflection created an illusion that enlarged the building and doubled the effect of solemnity and formality. The effect of rippling water from jets and shimmering sunlight further emphasized the reflection. In general, mirroring the surrounding structures combined with the vegetation and the sky creates a visual effect that expands the enclosed space of a garden. Given the water's direct connection to paradise, its illusionary effects contribute to a visitor's spiritual experience.
Another use of water was to provide kinetic motion and sound to the stillness of a walled garden, enlivening the imposing atmosphere. Fountains, called salsabil fountains for "the fountain in the paradise" in Arabic, are prevalent in medieval Islamic palaces and residences. Unlike the pools that manifest stillness, these structures demonstrate the movement of water, yet celebrate the solidity of water as it runs through narrow channels extending from the basin.
In the Alhambra palaces, around the rim of the basin of the Fountain of the Lions, the admiration for the water's virtue is inscribed: "Silver melting which flows between jewels, one like the other in beauty, white in purity; a running stream evokes the illusion of a solid substance; for the eyes, so that we wonder which one is fluid. Don't you see that it is the water that is running over the rim of the fountain, whereas it is the structure that offers channels for the water flow." By rendering the streams of water melting silver, the poem implies that though the fountain creates dynamics, the water flowing in the narrow channels allow the structure to blend into the solemn architectural style as opposed to disrupting the harmony. Many Nasrid palaces included a sculpture in their garden in which a jet of water would flow out of the structure's mouth, adding motion and a "roaring sound" of water to the garden.
As the central component of Islamic architecture, water incorporates the religious implications and contributes to the spiritual, bodily and emotional experience that visitors could hardly acquire from the outside world.
Sensory plants
Irrigation and fertile soil were used to support a botanical variety which could not otherwise exist in a dry climate. Many of the extant gardens do not contain the same vegetation as when they were first created, due to the lack of botanical accuracy in written texts. Historical texts tended to focus on the sensory experience, rather than details of the agriculture. There is, however, record of various fruit-bearing trees and flowers that contributed to the aromatic aspect of the garden, such as cherries, peaches, almonds, jasmine, roses, narcissi, violets, and lilies. According to the medico-botanical literature, many plants in the Islamic garden produce therapeutic and erotic aromatics.
Muslim scientist al-Ghazzi, who believed in the healing powers of nature, experimented with medicinal plants and wrote extensively on scented plants. A garden retreat was often a "royal" prescription for treating headaches and fevers. The patient was advised to "remain in cool areas, surrounded by plants that have cooling effects such as sandalwood trees and camphor trees."
Yunani medicine explains the role of scent as a mood booster, describing scent as "the food of the spirit". Scent enhances one's perceptions, stirs memories, and makes the experience of visiting the garden more personal and intimate. Islamic medico-botanical literature suggests the erotic nature of some aromatic plants, and medieval Muslim poets note the role of scents in love games. Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah reflects the scents worn by lovers to attract each other, and the presence of aromatic bouquets that provides sensual pleasures in garden spaces.
Exotic plants were also sought by royalty for their exclusivity as status symbols, to signify the power and wealth of the country. Examples of exotic plants found in royal gardens include pomegranates, Dunaqāl figs, a variety of pears, bananas, sugar cane and apples, which provided a rare taste. By the tenth century, the royal gardens of the Umayyads at Cordova were at the forefront of botanical gardens, experimenting with seeds, cuttings, and roots brought from the outermost reaches of the known world.
Dematerialization