Vol. 26 (2023): Landscapes, Scriptures, Symbols and Architectures of Ancient Iran
Artículos

The Persian garden, an attempt of explanation and search of origins and transcendences

Fernando Escribano Martín
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Tumba de Ciro en Pasagarda
Published November 6, 2024

Keywords:

Paradise, Persian garden, Pasargadae, Achaemenids
How to Cite
Escribano Martín, F. (2024). The Persian garden, an attempt of explanation and search of origins and transcendences. ISIMU, 26, 53–68. https://doi.org/10.15366/isimu2023.26.003

Abstract

Persian gardens are an architectural and landscape element that are maintained and recreated in Iran as a fundamental part of its culture and tradition. This work attempts to analyze what its components are, how they relate to each other, and how this interaction creates a type of construction with a strong symbolic load. However, what we analyze here is fundamentally what engineers, architects and landscapers take into account when analyzing what these gardens are, and how to continue and recover their national tradition.
Next, it is intended to summarize and analyze the latest archaeological works carried out in Pasargadae, which recover the existence and planning of a stable capital, with all the necessary elements to sustain the services that every capital requires, including the first Achaemenid capital. Although there is still work to be done, the works we cite demonstrate the existence of these constituent elements, and this is indicated. In relation to the topic we are dealing with, and it has also been analyzed, Pasargada would be built around a garden, again with a strong symbolic component, in this case the manifestation of royal power, and what we are trying to clarify is how many of these elements, We can also see how they are transmitted in those of the later Persian gardens that are analyzed in the first part of the article.

The Persian garden is an example of the paradise that different religions recreate and point out. This work begins by talking about some of these manifestations, the ones that we all have in our heads, and trying to weave relationships between them. That this conception of paradise had an example or manifestation in the Persian gardens or paradises is undoubtedly an attractive possibility, but, as pointed out at different points in the article, there remains much to investigate and search to understand where it comes from and how it is built and manifests this concept of paradise.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Askari Chaverdi, A. and Callieri, P., 2010, “Preliminary report on the Irano-Italian stratigraphy study of the Tol-e Takht, Pasargad. Investigations on the material culture of the Achaemenid and Post-Achaemenid periods in Fars”, in M. Macuch, D. Weber and D. Durkin-Meisterernst (eds.), Ancient and Middle Iranian studies. Proceedings of the 6th European Conference of Iranian Studies, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, pp. 11-28.

Atayi, M.T. and Boucharlat, R., 2009, “An Achaemenid pavilion and other remains in Tang-i Bulaghi”, ARTA, [online] 2009.005, 33p.: http://www.achemenet.com/document/2009.005-Atai&Boucharlat.pdf.

Biblia de Jerusalén, 2009, Bilbao, Editorial Desclé De Brouwer.

Bahreyni, S.H. and Taghadosi, R., 2003, Studying Sustainable City Planning and Designing Principles. Paper presented at the National Seminar of Iran Urban Planning Issues, Shiraz, Iran.

Benech, C., Boucharlat, R. and Gondet, S., 2012, “Organisation et aménagement de l’espace à Pasargades – Reconnaissances archéologiques de surface, 2003-2008”, ARTA, [online] 2012.003, 37p. http://www.achemenet.com/pdf/arta/2012.003-Benech_Boucharlat_Gondet.pdf.

Boucharlat, R. and Benech, C., 2002, “Organisation et aménagement de l’espace à Pasargades. Reconnaissance archéologique de surface, 1999-2001”, ARTA, [on line] 2002.001, 41pp., http://www.achemenet.com/ressources/enligne/arta/pdf/2002.001-loc.pdf.

Boucharlat, R., 2007, “Achaemenid residences and elusive imperial cities”, in A. Luther, R. Rollinger and J. Wiesehöfer (eds.), Getrennte Wege? Kommunikation, Raum und Wahrnehmung in der Alten Welt, (= Oikumene. Studien zur antiken Weltgeschichte 2), Frankfurt am Main, Verlag Antike, pp. 447-464.

Boucharlat, R., 2011, “Gardens and parks at Pasargadae: Two “paradises?”, in R. Rollinger, B. Truschnegg and R. Bichler (eds.), Herodot und das Persische Reich - Herodotus and the P?rsan Empire, (= Classica et Orientalia 3), Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz Verlag, pp. 457-474.

Boucharlat, R., 2014a, “Achaemenid estate(s) near Pasargadae?” in W. Henkelman, C. Jones, M. Kozuh and C. Woods (eds.), Extraction and control: Studies in honor of Matthew W. Stolper, (= Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization 68), Chicago, The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, pp. 27-35.

Boucharlat, R., 2014b, “Archaeological approaches and their future directions in Pasargadae” in A. Mozaffari, (ed.), World Heritage in Iran. Perspectives on Pasargadae, Farnham, Ashgate, pp. 29-59.

Boucharlat, R., 2016, “À propos de paradayad?m et paradis perse : perplexité de l’archéologue et perspectives”, in C. Rédard (ed.), Des contrées avestiques à Mahabad, via Bisotun. Etudes offertes en Hommage à Pierre Lecoq, (= Civilisations du Proche-Orient série III – Religions et Culture 2), Neuchâtel, Recherches et Publication, pp. 61-80.

Boucharlat, R., 2019, “Tenewal and perspectives in Iranian archaeology over the last two decades”, in J. Bendezu-Sarmiento, J.Mª Córdoba, C. del Cerro & F. Escribano (coords.) Echando la vista atrás y mirando al futuro, Isimu 22, pp. 119-132.

Boucharlat, R., De Schacht, T. and Gondet, S., 2012, “Surface reconnaissance in the Persepolis Plain (2005-2008). New data on the city organisation and landscape management”, Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale” - Series Minor 77, pp. 123-166.

Camarasa, V. “La imagen del paraíso. Los mosaicos de la Mezquita omeya de Damasco.”, https://seordelbiombo.blogspot.com/2011/12/pocos-restos-nos-informan-con-tanta.html, consultado el 21/10/2023.

Dalley, S., 2013, The Mystery of the Hanging Garden of Babylon. An Elusive World Wonder Traced. Oxford University Press.

Daribi, S. and Moradi, A., 2014, “The review of persian garden concept in terms of achieving sustainable city: case study of Dolotaban garden, in Yazd city, Iran”, in Management Research and Practice, vol. 6, Issue 4, pp. 57-71.

Del Cerro Linares, C. y Córdoba Zoilo, J., 2012, “Canales y acequias, balsas de amasado y adobes durante la Edad del Hierro. Una campaña de excavaciones (2011) en al Madam (Sharjah, Emiratos Árabes Unidos)”, Informes y Trabajos: Excavaciones en el exterior, 9, 2012 (Excavaciones en el exterior 2011), pp. 163-177.

Fazeli Nashli, H. (2009). “The Achaemenid/Post Achaemenid remains in Tang-i Bulaghi near Pasargadae: A report on the salvage excavations conducted by five joint teams in 2004-2007”, ARTA, [online] 2009.001, 6p., http://www.achemenet.com/document/2009.001-Fazeli.pdf.

Gondet, S., Mohammadkhani, K., Farjamirad, M., Ibnoerrida, N., Zare Kordshouli, F., Karami, H.R. and Laisney, D., 2016, “Field report on the 2015 current archaeological works of the joint Iran-French project on Pasargadae and its territory”, International Journal of Iranian Heritage, 1, pp. 60-87.

Gondet, S., Mohammadkhani, K., Chambrade, M.-L., Djamali, M., Farjamirad, M., Ibnoerrida, N., Rigot, J.-B., 2021, “Approaching past landscape management in the field: pluridisciplinary and multiscalar studies in the Pasargadae region (Fars province, Iran”, in S. Balatti, J. Wiesehöfer, H. Klinkott (eds.). Paleopersepolis: Environment, Landscape and Society in Ancient Fars, Oriens et Occidens 33, Stuttgart, pp. 95-119.

Heidar Nattaj, V., 2010, The formation norm of Iranian garden on the basis of Safavid samples in the southern coast of Caspian Sea, the case study: gardens in Behshahr. [Unpublished doctoral dissertation], School of Fine Arts., University of Tehran.

Herzfeld, E., 1935, Archaeological History of Iran, London, H. Milford.

Khakpour, M., 2011, “Memari-ye khane-ha-ye Guilan [The architecture of Guilan houses]”, in Encyclopedia of Guilan Culture and Civilization, vol. 9, pp. 18-52, Tehran, Nashr-e Farhang-e Ilia.

Mirfendereski, M., 2001, “Bagh dar mafhum-e bagh” [Garden in the sense of a garden]. Haft Shahr, 1(3), pp. 4-13.

Mansouri, A., 2005, “An introduction to the aesthetics of Iranian Garden”, Bagh-e Nazar, 2(3), pp. 58-63.

Matthiae, P., 1977, Ebla. Un impero ritrovato, Einaudi, Torino.

Mirsafa, S.A. and Pourali, M., 2021, “Application of Persian garden Design Pattern in Gardens of Northern Iran”, Bagh-e Nazar, 17(91), pp. 45-60.

Nielsen, I., 2001, “The Gardens of the Hellenistic Palaces”, in I. Nielsen (ed.), The Royal Palace Institutuion in the First Millennium B.C., Aarhus, The Danish Institute in Athens, pp. 165-187.

Nejad, J.M., Azemati, H., Zarghami, E., and Abad, A.S.H., 2017, “The Role of Water in Persian Gardens”, Open Journal of Ecology 7, pp. 41-54.

Ojaghlou, M. and Khakzand, M., 2019, “The termal comfort characteristic of 5 patterns of a persian garden in a hot-arid climate of Shiraz, Iran”, Journal of Landscape Ecology, Vol: 12 / No. 3, pp. 1-33.

Sami, A., 1956, Pasargadae, Shiraz.

Shahcheraghi, A., 2015, Paradigms of Paradise, Teheran, Jahad Daneshgahi.

Silva Santa-Cruz, N., 2011, “El paraíso en el Islam”, Revista Digital de Iconografía Medieval, vol. III, nº 5, pp. 39-49.

Stronach, D., 1978, Pasargadae: A report on the excavations conducted by the British Institute of P?rsan Studies from 1961 to 1963, Oxford, Clarendon Press.

Stronach, D., 1998, “The Royal garden at Pasargadae: Evolution and Legacy”, in L. De Mayer and E. Haerinch (eds.), Archaeologioca Iranica et Orientalis. Miscellanea in Honorem Louis Vanden Berghe, vol. I, Leuven, pp. 475-502.

Stronach, D., 1990, “The garden as a political statement: Some case studies from the Near East in the First Millennium B.C.”, Bulletin of the Asia Institute 4, pp. 171-180.

Stronach, D., 1994, “Parterres and Stone Watercourses at Pasargadae. Notes on the Iranian Contribution to the Evolution of the Garden Designs”, Journal of Garden History 14, pp. 3-12.

Teimouri, S., Moaddab Chaijan, E., and Pourhashemi Sikaroudi, S.R., 2016, “Skeletal Characteristics of Iranian Garden Design Pattern and Effective Factors in Recreating Iranian Garden in Contemporary Era”, International Journal of Advanced Biotechnology and Research (IJBR), pp. 1-17.

UNESCO, World Heritage Centre. The Persian Garden (Iran), Nº 1372.

Yarahmadi, S., Ansari, M. and Mahdavinejad, M., 2023, “The Role of the Water System in the Eternity of the Persian Garden”, MANZAR, 14(61), 6- 15.