The influence of Persian Gardens on Islamic Decoration
THE
Bariush Borbor
BAGH-I-FIN 1 AN OLD
GARDEN NEAR
KASHAN'IRAN
One of the most typical ofthe Persian gardens.
The Layout of the Persian Garden
Before discussing the influence Persian gardens have had on Islamic decoration, it is necessary to trace briefly the history, character, and layout of these gardens.
The word “paradise”, Firdaus in modern Persian, which was the name applied originally to an enclosed garden owes its origins to the Persian language. It found its way into the European vocabulary through Xenophon’s Oeconmicus in which he relates the story of Cyrus conducting Lysander round his garden in Sardis. The paradise planted in Sardis in Lydia four and a half centuries before the birth of Christ is the first historical record of the Persian garden, the origins being much earlier than Islam, and possibly long before Cyrus.
It is related that Lysander was fascinated by the beauty of the trees, the accuracy of their spacing, the straightness of their rows, and the regularity of their angles. It appears that Cyrus was not only a designer of gardens, but a gardener who had planted part of the paradise at Sardis with his own hands. What Lysander saw was perhaps a Chahar-bagh.
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Chahar-bagh or the “four-gardens” which forms the basis of all traditional Persian garden layouts consists of two tree-lined avenues, crossing each other near the centre and dividing the garden into four rectangular sections. In the more complicated layouts the four sections may increase in number, but even these are the development of the basic chahar-bagh idea.
Water plays an important part in the Persian garden. The big pool or the reservoir is invariably situated at the intersection of the two avenues. The position of the pool may differ according to the land form.
It may be placed near the highest point of the ground, it may be found in front of a pavilion, or it may even be divided into a series of smaller pools placed at intervals on the length of the avenues. If a number of pools are available, they are usually connected together with a shallow canal tiled with blue or emerald tiles. A series of fountains and small waterfalls is also made if the ground is sloping. Most of the pools are geometrical in shape and the edges are slightly raised off the ground so that the running water can brim over the edge into the tiled canal that surrounds the pool. This when viewed from a distance gives the impression of a big sheet of water suspended in the air.
Temperate climates with frequent rainfalls make annual watering of plants unnecessary and thus have given rise to the development of gardens with free forms. The character
of tropical gardens is again dictated by special climatic conditions. In deserts, trees and plants must be watered twice daily. The disposition of trees in straight rows and their regular spacing is entirely d ictated by the economy of watering and the water catchment area of the roots. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Persian garden owes its most essential characteristic of geometry and regimented tree planting to the lack of frequent rainwater.
The traditional Persian garden is designed with a series of shallow canals called jubes which distribute water to all parts of the garden. In those parts where beds of flowers or other plants are to be grown en masse, small rectangular paddyfield-like enclosures are made and connected to the main jttbe network. These areas have slightly raised edges and hold a few inches of water when flooded.
Some attribute the chahar-bagh idea to the ancient cosmological origins of the world having been divided into four parts, as related in the second chapter of Genesis: “a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison... and the name of the second river is Gihon... and the name of the third river is Hiddekel and the fourth river is Euphrates”. If ever there was a Paradise or Garden of Eden, it is likely that it was laid out in the chahar-bagh manner.
Islam and the Human Image
In order to grasp the influence Persian gardens have had on Islamic decoration, it is necessary first of all to point out that Muhamad was not opposed to the painting of human forms. Azraki who was the first serious historian to describe the rebuilding of Ka'ba by Quraysh in A.D. 608 died in the year 858. He recounts that apart from the pictures of- the prophets on the walls, on the column nearest the door was a picture of Abraham and another of Mary with Jesus on her knee. What is more significant still is that he tells us when Muhamad entered Ka'ba in the year 630, he ordered the picture of Mary with Jesus on her knee to be preserved and this picture remained until the distruction of Ka'ba in A.D. 637.
At the time of the rise of Islam, most of the nomadic population of Arabia lived in tents made of camel’s hair. Even the small proportion who were settled and, which did not constitute more than onetenth of the population, lived in temporary mud-brick houses of a very rudimentary nature. Muhamad himself, while in Madina, lived in a primitive mud-brick house the roof of which was made of palm leaves covered with mud. It is unlikely, therefore, that the early Arab Muslims could have
exercised any influence on the conquered Syrians and Persians as far as architecture or decoration is concerned. This is verified by the fact that the early Muslims were not particular where they prayed. When the famous palace of Ctesiphon was captured, the great hall was used for prayers in spite of the paintings which adorned its walls.
In the early days of Islam, the Muslims of Persia utilized the existing buildings. The Friday Mosque at Persepolis, according to Muqaddcisi, was originally a Fire Temple with round columns and bull-headed supports to the roof. The Persian influence, however, quickly spread to Arabia, and we are told that the Persian builders who introduced mosaic decoration while rebuilding Ka'ba in A.D. 684, sang in Persian while working. In fact Persian craftsmen took their songs, music and even their knowledge of musical instruments to other parts of the Islamic world and taught the Arabs how to make these instruments.
In fact the common belief that music and games were thought detrimental in the Muslim world does not appear to have ever been very strictly observed—not in Persia anyway. Sassanicm traditions were in fact so strong that Islam, like a lump of suger which is dropped in a bowl of hot water, melted away. It made the water a little sweeter, but it never changed its colour or character extensively. The sweetened water, though affected by Arabic principles, did
not change its colour, and the sugar was no longer tangible.
Even the use of theKufic script as an artistic motive first developed in Persia and it was extensively used for the decoration of buildings, books, metals, pottery and textiles. The actual script which was first used by the Arabs is perhaps the only contribution to Islamic decoration which has had purely Islamic origins, having taken its name from the town of Kufci in Iraq. But even this was so distorted and played about with, that it became almost a symbolic element of decoration rather than a script.
In the Hermitage museum there is a most beautiful inlaid metal bucket of the Seljuk period which consists of five bands of concentric decoration two of which present hunting and festive scenes, and three bands are decorated with Kitfic and Naskhi inscriptions. Human heads and bodies are playfully and almost jokingly perched on top of the verticals of the Naskhi letters.
It is true that portrait painting was not widely practised during the Islamic occupation, but it is hard to attribute this to Islamic influence, because Persian artists did not make extensive use of portrait painting even before Islam. They did however continue to portray the human image on porcelain, silks, and metalwares. The miniature type paintings were also a continuation of ancient traditions and they bear close afinity to the classic rock-carved Hafl-rangi tile: Period of Shah Abbas, showing human imagery on tiiework.
Victoria and Albert Museum, London. ArtWood Photography.
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bas-reliefs found in Persepolis or Tagh-eBostan. The subject matter and the human image in both cases are treated symbolically rather than realistically. Sculptural traditions such as those which existed in Greece or Rome never found a strong foothold in Persia. It is hard to believe that the reason for this was lack of knowledge, or the availability of the craftsmen. The idea of symbolism must have had a prior religious or cosmological motivation. It might even have been this pre-Islamic symbolism current in Persia, that had later influenced the Arabs as far as the representation of the human image is concerned. A motivation which had become part of everyday life.
It may be purely by coincidence that it developed, perhaps to its finest form, in Islamic times.
Analysing various decorative elements in different periods, it is found that human and animal images keep recurring in each and every branch of Islamic decoration; pottery, miniatures, tilework, materials, and book illustrations. On porcelain ware, pictures of dancers and musicians are a common feature. The early Ray pieces are decorated with large figures of horsemen, musicians, birds and animals. A bowl in the Victoria and Albert Museum, dated 1242, shows a prince with two retainers. In the fourteenth century pottery of Persia, apart from the animals and birds, there are human figures dressed in Mongolian costumes. In the Safavid variety of the so called Kubatcha porcelains, rich realistic
example of this weaving to be found in the Victoria and Albert Museum and which consists of red and white silver threaded silk. Several other pieces with human images are known, and one of these is signed by the reputable weaver Ghiya-alpolychrome paintings of men and women in European dress became popular. None of these were pieces which were meant to be kept in museums or be locked away and used only on special occasions by the elite. They were articles to be used by the general public in everyday life.
The Sassanid influence is perhaps carried through more clearly in the metalware of the early Islamic period. Douglas Barrett talks of “The magnificent dishes and ewers, carved with hunting scenes and figures of deities and fantastic animals, were greatly admired by and traded to the nomad peoples on the Persian borders and gave them a taste for such things long before they burst into the Islamic world”. A silver jug and bowl of the Seljuk period in the Staatliche Museum of Berlin are decorated with human and animal figures.
Much of the human imagery found in Islamic periods has an illustrative idea behind it. This again is a pre-Islamic tradition which has continued. Such illustrations are found in the fine weaves as well as the book illustrations. The most typical of the subjects being from the epic book of poems of Shah-Name or the tragic love story of Laid and Majnun, which have no religious bearing. The latter is illustrated by an
din.
Hunting scenes which are a traditional theme for illustrations are found even in the carpets. There is a hunting carpet, in pure silk and silver gilt in the museum for Art and Industry in Vienna. Apart from the mounted horsemen and a variety of animals such as lions, wolves, bears, leopards and hares, the whole of the border is surrounded with winged human figures presumably representing angels.
The symbolic use of carpets in order to bring the garden into a tent or a room had pre-Islamic origins, and the famous carpet which lay in the courtroom of the Chosroes at Ctesiphon was apparently a garden carpet in silver, gold with thousands of precious jewels. “Spring in Paradise”, the name given to this carpet because of its floral motives, had presumably been in existence for a long time before the Arabs cut it up and distributed the pieces among their armies. In Sassanian art and decoration extensive use was made of palm leaves, undulating vines, heavy foliage and fruit and floral designs. The human image in painting or sculpture never found so much popularity. The carpets made in the Islamic period continued mostly in the same vain.
The patterns were greatly stylised, but a mid-16th century floral carpet in Museo Poldi Pezzoli in Milan is interesting in that it has some very realistically drawn trees meandering all over the carpet. The garden carpet continued and reached its climax during the reign of Shah Abbas and it illustrated the Chahar-Bagh garden in detail. One of the most magnificent of these is now at the Jaipur museum in India.
Made prior to A.D. 1632, it was probably woven near Isfahan and its design was more than likely inspired by the famous gardens of that city.
The furnishings of an Islamic house were of extreme austerity; the main emphasis being on the floor of the rooms with a wall to wall carpet. The walls were all white and the occasional stained glass windows were to subdue the extraordinarily strong light in the country. Cushions were often placed all around the room and there were no tables and chairs. One had an uninterrupted view of the carpet and it gave the impression of looking onto a garden from an upper storey of a garden pavilion.
Garden carpet, showing a chahar-hagh.
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Anthology of Iskandar: Iskandar watches the Sirens bathing. Chiraz 1410. (Lisbon, Gulbenkian Foundation) Photo Editions Skira, Geneva, taken from «Persian Painting».
The tradition of painting as evidenced in Europe or some other countries did not exist in Persia even before Islam. Living conditions and questions of economy, however, influenced the quicker advent of a kind of primitive industrialization. The abundance of the tilework on the Islamic mosques has convinced many people that this form has been adopted and floral motives used in order to avoid the representation of the human image. The floral decor, which is often symmetrical, lends itself much better to the covering of large surfaces, especially curved ones such as vaults and domes, than distorted figures of the human body evident even in the works of Michelangelo. The floral tilework used on the mosques resulted from the need for quicker building techniques. The Sasscnian or pre-Sassanian era of stone construction was no longer either economical or the answer to the need for fast building of the mosques. Brick no doubt was the most practical of all building materials which in certain respects it is even to-day. Brick, however, was never very satisfying to the Persian eye which wanted something gay and colourful as a contrast to the drabness of the desert.
Thus the decorator covered up his brickwork with colourful tiles. He designed each part in one-quarter segments and he made four tiles of the same design. This allowed a very speedy execution which would not have been possible if human forms were transferred on to the tiles. This technique is in fact one of the earliest attempts of industrial art.
Pen box showing realistic human images and ladies in the nude.
The representation of the human image is much more successful in the technique of painting than tilework. Thus we see the human figure profusely illustrated in books, on miniature paintings, murals and even metalwork. There has been of course quite a lot of mural painting of human forms even in the Islamic period, but they have not been so durable as the tileworks.
In the great complex of Lashkari Bazaar, in Afghanistan, large mural paintings of people in handsome costumes painted in the Ghaznavicl period and other paintings found in the palaces of the caliphs of Baghdad and the Persian palaces often contained portraits painted on the walls, but even before Islam the tradition in portrait painting had not been very strong in these countries, although even in this, there is evidence of some high quality work. According to C. H. Butler who discovered Hammam as Saraklt in 1905, there were remains of a painted medallion which had contained a life-sized bust.Only the shoulder, part of the neck, an ear with an ear-ring, and part of a head-dress could be seen. The colouring which was still bright was executed apparently with skill.
The background was yellow, the drapery of the shoulder dark red, and the headdress was painted to present a filmy white material, the transparency of which was well indicated. But according to Musil there was more than this, for he says, “On all the unimpaired walls are remains of paintings and it is evident that all the rooms were once painted”. Unfortunately every trace of painting has since disappeared.
In the miniature paintings, the human form is extensively used. Another characteristic of these paintings is that they invariably illustrate a garden as a background, and if buildings are shown they do not appear to be anything more than a garden pavilion. A well-known Kashan example shows how Cltosro first set eyes on Shirin who was in fact bathing. The illustration of women in the nude is not uncommon in the paintings of the Islamic period. Some of these Kashan pieces tend to show a great deal of the then popular beauties with arched brows and almond shaped eyes.
Another aspect of Persian painting which is of interest is a very particular use it makes of perspective. It hardly ever put the whole picture in perspective, very often, it only put whatever it wanted to emphasize in perspective and the rest of the picture somewhat in plan form. A 16th century lacquer painted leather book cover in the British Museum shows a series of human figures and animals in a garden. The whole picture is painted in plan form, except for the two storey garden pavilion and its staircase in the centre of the painting which is put into perspective in order to emphasize the prince sitting under the canopy. This is a technique 87
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repeatedly found in the fine Persian paintings. The reverse of this is found in a 15th century page from the Shah-Namé, in the British Museum, which illustrates the famous hero Rostam being protected from a lion by his horse while asleep. The lion, the horse and the dense trees and shrubs are all in perspective while the sleeping Rostam is somehow shown in plan form.
This transition from plan to perspective is so skilfully executed that the eye is never aware of the change.
In the above passages, we have tried to show that the representation of the human form has been extensively used in the Islamic period. The reason for the adoption of floral patterns as decorative elements must have been due to reasons apart from religious motivations.
The Roots of Floral Motives in Islamic Decoration
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In a country such as Iran, with a desert type climate, and extremely hot summers, scarcity of rainfall and long distances in between the townships, the psychological lust for water and greenery must not be minimized. The shade of a single tree and the sound of a few drops of water on a hot summer’s day can seem almost a miracle to a desert dweller. We are tracing the reasons for floral patterns in Islamic decoration to the lack of greenery in Islamic countries which are mostly characterised by a desert type climate. We argue that the use of floral motives for decoration was not the result of prohibition, but due to a more deeply rooted cause. The cause may be felt in Ibn Jubayr's words while describing the beauty of the treasury of the Great Mosque at Damascus. He says “it was ornamented with polychrome mosaic as beautiful as a garden...”. „ Symbolism and symmetry in Islamic decoration resulted from the want of faster execution of monumental religious buildings. This desire ruled out the kind of realism which European artists tried to reach by painting floating human figures on the walls and ceilings of churches and cathedrals. The Persian decorators were
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Miniature: Babur giving instructions for the layout of Vafa Garden.
Victoria and Albert Museum, London. ArtWood Photography.
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wiser in their choice of subject matter for the particular architectural forms of their buildings, than say, the famous dome paintings of Michelangelo. These paintings do not constitute architectonic decoration, their worth is in themselves alone, and in the challenge that the artist has taken on, but they have in no way the same close affinity with the structure.
The use of floral motives went back to many centuries before the advent of Islam, and in the words of Arthur Pope, “This passion for colour was favoured by the landscape. Much of Iran for many months of each year is bleak and dreary, only to become in the springtime suddenly radiant with flowers; mountainsides are vivid tapestries, meadows vast expanses of thick bloom, valleys deep pools of enamelbrilliant blossoms. The desert—sterile, hostile, awesome—intensified appreciation of the garden with its foliage, fountains, security and abundance. This vision of Paradaiza permeated all thinking, all arts, and even daily speech; floral abundance became a sacred symbol of life and happiness to be exploited on every occasion and in every way. It was thus natural to seek to preserve in more permanent form the transient beauty of the garden”.
This meant that the Persian and the Muslim, quite apart from his religion or faith, preserved his lust, his want of the garden. He tried to preserve the garden seasonally and eternally. He wanted to symbolise the garden and the colour that he could only get three months of the year at spring and preserve it for the whole year and for eternity. He preserved this in his carpets, and buildings. He sat under the florid dome as if under the bow of interwoven branches of trees high above. He wanted to die under a tree: and so in the words of Ommar Khayyam ; “Ah, with the Grape my fading life provide, And wash my body whence the life has died And in a Winding-sheet of Vine-Leaf wrapt, So bury me by some sweet Garden-side”.
In the greatly stylised decorative forms certain garden elements stand out. The vase and shaft motive common in many mosque portals with squinches to represent the spread of the plant is a common feature of the garden representation in terms of building materials. The idea of the tree of life seems to be excessively exaggerated by western historians. These do not necessarily represent life so directly as they make out, but they represent that want of water that in desert countries gives rise to a rapid growth of trees and plants, fruits and flowers, held so dear to the heart.
The squinches on the sides of the domes are very like the point where a tree starts to branch. Once under a dome, in fact, one has the impression that one is standing in between four huge trees with their branches spread out over one’s head.
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Silk fabric: late 16th century, stylised human imagery on silk.
Victoria and Albert Museum. Art-Wood Photography.
Conclusion The idea of garden design has existed in man’s mind ever since the day of creation.
In his moments of ectasy, man has always imagined and associated himself with magnificent gardens. He has related his beginnings to the garden of Eden with all its beauty and romance, and he hopes to enjoy eternal life in the exotic garden of Paradise. But nowhere has the garden influenced the fashion, the arts, habits, philosophy and even religion as much as in Persia; and so in the words of Hafez-.
“When now the rose upon the meadow from Nothing into being springs When at her feet the humble violet with her head low in worship clings...
Earth rivals the Immortal Garden during the rose and lily’s reign : But what avails when the mortal is sought for on this earth in vain?” The conquering forces of Islam did not impose any ideas in decoration, as they had none. In any case already as early as the 9th century Persia had fallen away from the direct control of the Caliphates and had begun to redirect its social, artistic and political life on Sassanid paths.
The need for faster building techniques, therefore, which had in fact been made necessary from Sassanian times gradually changed from the slow, cumbersome stone building technique to a more rapid brick building style. In order to overcome the dreary colour of the brick, geometrically designed floral patterned tiles made a
quick solution as far as wall and ceiling covering was concerned.
Human forms continued to be painted in frescoes up to the end of the early Islamic period and hostility against the painting of the human image was never very strict.
Ornaments in Persia took on very sumptuous forms and colours in most periods; in the Islamic period they merely continued to take their normal course without much regard for the religion. If they attained an exceptional quality and vigour, it cannot be construed that this was because of Islam.
The verve exercised in Persian art and decoration during Islamic times was in fact the continuation of the Sassanian influence.
The indifference of the early Moslems to the human image and places of worship is well explained by Eutychius who tells a curious story in connection with the capture of Jerusalem. He says that “Omar visited the Basilica of Constantine and prayed at the top of the flight of steps leading up to the entrance, after which he went to Bethlehem and prayed in the southern apse of the Church of Nativity”.
It is very evident that the art and decoration of Persia never had a very individual quality—it appeared rather like a state art for which the framework and the path was already clearly set, and the individual artist and decorator elaborated on the same theme. It was the aim and not the name that mattered the most. This point is not only evident in separate branches of the arts, but no other culture has ever managed to produce such a unity in the arts, in relation to one another, and therefore in its decoration.
This may be attributed to the culmination of an artistic civilization which reached its very climax in the Safavid period and having achieved its end was therefore doomed to die at the beginning of the 18th century; or else it could only be the result of great unimaginativeness, which is rather unlikely judging from the extreme versatility.
The origin of this state art was based on the psychological need for greenery at all seasons and a need for a form of industrialization and mass production of certain decorative objects rather than religious inhibitions.
Darius Borbor
The Diwan of Hafiz, miniature «Lovers Entertained by Musicians and Dancers».
Courtesy of a Private Collector, through the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University.
Photo Editions Skira, Geneva, taken from «Persian Painting».