Paradise Gardens - my new book

Plants and gardens have been, and in many cases continue to be, cornerstones of religions. Plants imbued with symbolism and gardens created as an earthly expression of a paradisaical afterlife. 

Think about it - the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil with its 'apple' (I know, the garden in Eden is supposed to have been a real place on Earth not an afterlife concept), the chahar bagh form of the Islamic garden, all those great Ancient Greek myths, the Epic of Gilgamesh, the lotus in Buddhism and the Island of the Blessed in Taoist mythology, etc., etc., etc.

So, my splendid new tome, Paradise Gardens is the story of plants and gardens within seventeen different global religions over a five millennia time frame. And, even though I say it myself it is a fascinating story. Moreover many of the religio-garden forms have been and are still an inspiration for secular gardens the world over.  

For some more information about the book, check out its Amazon page....

Quincunx

Today's guest post is by Debs Wiles.  Thank you @dawiles.

Recently a friend who is starting up a new landscaping business asked my opinion on a logo design. My friend's mission is to create and maintain gardens that appeal to all of our five senses and he was sketching out logos that contained images pertaining to each sense. Naturally, I immediately thought of a Quincunx, a geometric pattern of five points arranged on a cross.

 Cosmatesque floor pattern

The term comes from the Latin quinque + uncia, literally translating to “five ounces”. It has applications in the sciences of botany, astronomy, and modern computer science, not to mention the practices of architecture, agriculture, horticulture, and a style of geometric decorative inlay stonework called Cosmati, or Cosmatesque (Harry Potter fans may recognize this style on the inlaid marble floors of Gringotts Bank). 

 

Sir Thomas Browne (above), a 17th century luminary, wrote a lengthy and formidable essay on the Quincunx (The Garden of Cyrus also entitled The Quincunciall, Lozenge, or Network Plantations of the Ancients, naturally, artificially, mystically considered, 1658). In it he quotes Quintilian, a 1st century Roman rhetorician who uses the term in his Institutio Oratoria, first published c.95 AD: “Quid [illo] quincunce speciosius, qui, in quamcumque partem spectaveris, rectus est?" which translates roughly, "What is more beautiful than the quincunx, that, from whatever direction you regard it, presents straight lines?" In context, Quintilian is discussing beauty and utility and writes, “Shall not beauty, then, it may be asked, be regarded in the planting of fruit trees? Undoubtedly; I should arrange my trees in a certain order, and observe regular intervals between them.” He recognizes that planting trees at regular intervals is also advantageous to their growth and health “as each of them then attracts an equal portion of the juices of the soil...”.

The quincuncial arrangement of flower petals in bud, as seen in the rose family. Attrib 

Browne's work recounts the military conquests of Cyrus the Great, founder of the Achaemenid Empire, and especially his achievements in gardening, crediting him with the creation of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Cyrus was “not only a Lord of Gardens, but a manual planter thereof; disposing his trees like his armies in regular ordination. So that while old Laertas hath found a name in Homer for pruning hedges, and clearing away thorns and briars; while King Attalus lives for his poisonous plantations of Aconites, Henbane, Hellebore, and plants hardly admitted with the walls of Paradise; While many of the Ancients do poorly live in the single names of Vegetables; All stories do look upon Cyrus, as the splendid and regular planter”.

A Quincunx Orchard.  Attrib.

A recurring theme in Browne is the regularity created by the quincunx pattern which in Roman times symbolized an orderly world, something Romans were very keen on. The quincunx is still the basis for planting an orchard today and in the Middle Ages, it was one of the patterns used for planting medicinal or exotic plants. In Christianity it symbolized the five wounds of Christ on the cross and a sanctified universe. The arrangement of the cross-in-square used in church architecture from the early 9th to 13th centuries was often expressed three dimensionally – a larger central bay surmounted with a dome framed by four smaller bays likewise surmounted by smaller domes. It's an arrangement that can be seen in 18th century garden follies inspired by the Italian Renaissance, such as the Temple of Four Winds at Castle Howard, with the central bay surrounded by four porticoes. 

DaVinci's sketch illustrating quincunx in branch arrangement.  Attrib

Browne asserts that the term quincunx was “in use long before Varro”, a 1st century BC Roman scholar. Varro was widely read by Quintilius and also by Pliny the Elder, who wrote extensively on nature and the ideal arrangement for gardens. Vitruvius read Varro and DaVinci read Vitruvius. 

Students of art and architecture during the Italian Renaissance read them all, and applied their theories to their creations. Through these early scholars and down through history, the quincunx is still in use in garden design today. When you see the rows of an orchard planted with military precision, or a mass of bedding plants neatly laid out waiting to be installed, you are most likely looking at a quincunx. 

N.B. from Toby. Cyrus's garden at Pasargardæ (a UNESCO World Heritage site) contained the prototype quadripartite garden, a Persian garden form that subsequently so influenced the Islamic chahar bagh.

The Symbolism of the Islamic Garden

Just found this great article by Emma Clark on the site Islamic Arts & Architecture and which I want to share with you. Emma's informative piece provides an excellent summary of the symbolism and meaning of the Islamic garden

Emma is also author of the above tome, The Art of the Islamic Garden.

C is for Chahar Bagh

OK, OK, I know.  For those of you who have visited the blog before this may seem like a little bit of a repeat of my Gardens of Islam post, but please accept my self-indulgence.  For I simply adore Islamic gardens.  

Babur Supervising the Laying Out of the Garden of Fidelity (Manuscript c. 1590). Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland

The words chahar bagh literally mean ‘fourfold garden’ and it is a form that has provided the blue print for the Islamic garden since the 7th century AD - and continues to do so.  However, origins of the quadripartite garden form can be found in the palace garden of Cyrus the Great at Pasargardae (Iran), which dates to the mid-6th century BC.

This quadripartite garden form became popular within Persian gardens and was subsequently assimilated by the Muslim invaders for it fits perfectly with the  ‘Garden of Paradise’ as described at length in the Qua’ran.  At the centre is a fountain or source of water that flows into four rills (narrow canals), which run at right angles and divide the garden into the four beds – hence the name, and which symbolically represent the four rivers of life.  

A small chahar bagh in the cafe of the new Al-Azhar Park, Cairo.

In the earthly expression of the chahar bagh the four beds could be approached in a number of ways:  paved with polished stone laid in patterns the ‘bed’ provide the perfect surface on which to lay carpets and cushions, they can be raised as shown in the  Bagh-e Vafa (Garden of Fidelity), the first garden of the first Mughal Emperor Babur and crated in Afghanistan - see above  Or they can be sunken as was originally the case with the Court of Lions in the Alhambra Palace) to give the impression of walking by a carpet of flowers.  In all cases flower beds were filled with brightly coloured flowering plants.

The Court of Lions in the Alhambra, Grenada in Spain

As Islam spread, so did their garden making, and the conquering artisans assimilated local traditions.  Chahar bagh gardens can be scaled to fit any space from a tiny courtyard to enormous palace complexes, and these gardens can be found from Moorish Spain and North Africa in the west, through the Middle East, Iran and Iraq, to the awesome palaces of Mughal India in the east.  All are different, but all are based on the same core values.  

Gardens of Islam

Another step along our walk through gardening time brings us to the gardens of Islam, a style and form that still is relevant and active today.  But whose origins are over 1,000 old.   As we have seen, garden-making requires a peaceful, stable society.  But with the collapse of the Roman Empire in the 5th century AD, Europe was thrown into turmoil and the conditions favourable to garden making were lost.  The next major garden making influence that swept from Persia across North Africa and into southern Europe was Islam.  

Al-Azhar Park, Cairo

From the Sands
The prophet Muhammad founded Islam in the sands of what is now Saudi Arabia in the 7th century AD.  And in the Qu’ran the faithful are promised that ‘the Garden of Paradise shall be their hospitality, therein to dwell forever’. This garden of Paradise is described at length, and with ‘spreading shade’, ‘fruit and fountains and pomegranates’, and ‘cool pavilions’. 

A Heavenly Paradise
Add to this heady mix, flowers for colour and fragrance, and moving water cool the air, and make a relaxing sound, and to people who inhabited a desiccated and dusty desert land, this truly must have seemed paradise.   

The Generalife, Granada

The Quartered Garden
In Persia, the Muslim conquerors found an established garden making culture, with a garden style that had its origins in the palace garden of Cyrus the Great at Pasargardae.  Made in the 6th century BC, this featured a quadripartite form, that is to say a square divided into to four equal quarters by two water courses running perpendicular to one another.

Plan of the Taj Mahal with its chahar bagh garden

This form had a resonance with Islam and its belief in Jannah (paradise) and the four rivers of life.  So emerged the chahar bagh, which means ‘four gardens (or beds).  At the centre of the chahar bagh is a fountain or source of water which  flows into four rills (narrow canals) that divide the garden into four.  The symbolism of the rills is that they represent the four rivers of life (milk, honey, water and wine).  In the garden itself, the movement of the water would have caught the light and brought a dynamism to the garden. 

Court of Lions, Alhambra

The four beds could be approached in a number of ways - they could simply be paved to create a place to lay cushions and relax.  They could be planted with brightly coloured flowering plants; or they could be sunken beds to give the impression of walking by a carpet of flowers.  The gravel areas in the Court of Lions at the Alhambra were originally sunken beds.  And, as in other religions, many plants have a religious symbolism.

New Garden Forms
As the religion of Islam spread, so did their garden making.  And in all countries that were conquered, the conquering artisans assimilated local traditions.  So today, we have variations on the theme from North Africa to Moorish Spain, from Afghanistan to India - the gardens of the great Mughal Empire, and modern Islamic gardens all over the world, including the Gulf States and Indonesia.

Nishat Bagh, Kashmir

Moreover, the chahar bagh is a an adaptable garden form that allows much ingenuity and adornment, and which can be scaled to fit any space and topography from a tiny, level courtyard in Cairo to an large park that cascades  down a hillside to Lake Dal in Kashmir.

If you want to see an Islamic garden then Spain has the Alhambra in Granada, and the Alaczars in Seville and Cordoba.  There are gardens in Morocco, and, of course the Taj Mahal in India.  A lovely new example is the Al-Azhar Park in Cairo.  See also my earlier post on Persian Gardens.
 

A Tragedy unfolding for the Taj Mahal

It been quite widely reported that the Taj Mahal in Agra, India and one of the wonders of the world is in danger of collapse within two to five years.  In 2010, cracks appeared in parts of the tomb, and the minarets which surround the monument were showing signs of tilting. The problem is the decline in the water level of the Yamuna River which is dropping at a rate of 1.5m a year causing the wooden foundation of the tomb to rot due to lack of water.

The Taj  has a wonderful example of the chahar bagh form of garden in front of it - but sadly now denuded of the riot of flowers with which it was once filled. 

The Taj also has another garden that few visit.  On the other side of the Yamuna River is the Mahtab Bagh or Moonlight Garden (different links).

An 18th century view showing the chahar bagh in the foreground and the mahtab bagh in the distance.

There is more on the Mahtab Bagh at the start of this episode of Monty Don's 'Around the World in 80 Gardens'.

Persian Gardens added to UNESCO World Heritage List

In my opinion, the art of the garden is at least as significant a component of socio-cultural identity and development as any art form; yet the garden continues to be overshadowed by more traditional art forms. 

It is, therefore, always encouraging to see historic gardens receiving the recognition they deserve.  It may be ‘olds’ rather than ‘news’ but for those (who like me) missed the announcement in June 2011, UNESCO has added the generic Persian Garden to its World Heritage List.  

One of the Nine:Bagh-e Fin (click here for attribution)

The UNESCO Persian Garden is nine gardens selected from as many various regions of Iran:  

1. Ancient Garden of Pasargadae
2. Bagh-e Eram, Shiraz.
3. Bagh-e Chehel Sotun, Esfahan.
4. Bagh-e Fin, Kashan
5. Bagh-e Abas Abad, Behshahr.
6. Bagh-e Shahzadeh, Kerman.
7. Bagh-e Dolat Abad, Yazd.
8. Bagh-e Pahlavanpur, Mehriz
9. Bagh-e Akbariyeh, Birjand

The locations of the Persian Gardens.

 To quote the UNESCO citation, the Persian Garden consists of a collection of gardens which ‘tangibly represent the diverse forms that this type of designed garden has assumed over the centuries and in different climatic conditions... Natural elements combine with manmade components in the Persian Garden to create a unique artistic achievement that reflects the ideals of art, philosophical, symbolic and religious concepts. The Persian Garden materialises the concept of Eden or Paradise on Earth.’

The quadri-partite form of the Persian garden saw its genesis in the garden of Cyrus the Great at Pasargardae in the 6th century BCE and evolved into the chahar bagh or earthly paradise of the Islamic garden.  This garden form, which continues to be a vibrant and relevant religio-garden style and may vary in size from a tiny internal courtyard to a garden covering many hectares, found expression across the Islamic world.  From Moorish Spain (eg the Alhambra and the Generalife) in the west to the Mughal Empire in the east (eg the Taj Mahal in India, Babur’s Tomb in Afghamitan and Shalimar Bagh in Kashmir).

The Lakeside Cafe in the Al-Azhar Park, Cairo