Persian gardens

Dowlatabad Garden Palace, Yazd, 18th century. Photograph: ©Patrick Ringgenberg.

At the time of the Achaemenids (6th-4th century BC), the kings had acclimatization gardens: paradeisos in Greek, where our word “paradise” comes from. Carefully irrigated, the trees and plants from different sources offered a summary of the fragrant colors of the universe. Royal prerogative, symbols of cosmic order and imperial harmony, these “paradises” were a place of rest, banquet and hunting.

bagh pasargad

Map of Pasargadae, Achaemenid palatial capital founded by Cyrus the Great (6th century BCE). We see the first known example of a Persian garden, the chahar bagh or “four gardens”: a quadrangular space divided into four by two canals intersecting in a cross.
Source of illustration: ©Patrick Ringgenberg, Cultural Guide to Iran, Tehran: Rowzaneh, 2006.

Fin Garden, Kashan, 17th century. Photograph: ©Patrick Ringgenberg.

The garden tradition continued with the Sassanids, and Persian culture transmitted to the Muslim world the love of flowers and these miniature springs. She also created an original garden, called chahar bagh (literally: “four gardens”). We can already see its principle in Pasargadae, the capital of Cyrus II in the 6th century BC. Two canals intersect at right angles and form a cross, the center of which is occupied by a basin: fruit trees and flowers flourish on the four flowerbeds structured by the cross. In palaces or rich houses, a kiosk or a vaulted room overlooks this music of water and efflorescence.

Represented on carpets (“garden carpets”), the chahar bagh also inspired garden city urban planning, like the Isfahan of the Safavids. They draw their symbolism from the Koran (XLVII, 15), which compares the contemplative beatitudes of paradise to four rivers and to a fragrant garden, crossed by running waters, generous in fruits. The central pool is an image of the spiritual heart, which unites with the Divine like the water mirror with the sky that it reflects. It also symbolizes the Source of Life, whose water (channels) diffuses in all directions of the universe. Vegetation offers a palette of colors, scents and beauty, but also symbolic meanings and medicinal qualities.

Shahzadeh Garden, Mahan, late 19th century. Photograph: ©Patrick Ringgenberg.

Of the royal gardens of the first Muslim dynasties, unfortunately only literary evocations remain. The oldest gardens date from the Safavid period, such as the Fin Garden in Kashan, from the 18th century (Dowlatabad Garden in Yazd), and especially from the Qajar period, such as the magnificent Shahzadeh Garden in Mahan, from the end of the 19th century. But the Persian garden has sown its lands of heaven far and wide. Its influence is mainly found in Mughal India of the 17th century, such as the famous Shalimars of Srinagar (Kashmir), Delhi and Lahore, or the gardens of the Taj Mahal mausoleum in Agra.

To learn more about Persian gardens, we can recommend these books: