Palace Gardens in Lower Mesopotamia
8th to 11th Centuries
- Draws on a wide range of textual sources, including lexicons, geographies, histories, poetry, and science written by authors who lived primarily in Mesopotamia or visited there during the 8th to 11th centuries
- Takes an interdisciplinary approach by also considering archaeological reports, aerial photographs, and archival sources like archaeologists’ letters and diaries
- Revisits certain prevailing notions concerning the spatial arrangement and function of the adjoining covered spaces
- Challenges the prevalent, essentialist view of an ‘Islamic garden’ typology, which presupposes a continuity in garden traditions, and leads to a more nuanced understanding of their forms and functions.
Gardens were both a setting and showcase for nearly every aspect of social and daily life at the royal court during the early Islamic period in Western Asia. Safa Mahmoudian uses a wide range of primary source materials including contemporary Arabic manuscripts, together with archaeological reports, aerial photographs, and archaeologists’ letters and diaries. Through close readings of this evidence, Mahmoudian creates a picture of these gardens in their historical, architectural and environmental contexts and examines various factors that influenced their design and placement. In doing so, Mahmoudian adds to our understanding of these gardens and palaces and, ultimately, early Islamic-period court culture as a whole.
List of Figures
List of Plates
Acknowledgements
Note on Transliterations, Translations, Dates and Measures
Introduction
1. Garden and River in the Land between Two Rivers
2. Flora and Fauna
3. Water Features
4. Relationship between Throne Hall and Garden: A Discussion Based on Bahw and Sidillī
5. Gardens with Physical Remains
Bibliography
Index
With this systematic interdisciplinary study, Safa Mahmoudian opens a new window on the magnificent gardens of a little-studied period of Islamic history. Her thorough insights contribute remarkably to our knowledge of these once lively gardens and our understanding of palace architecture of the Abbasid nobility and their court culture.
Safa Mahmoudian has unearthed considerable evidence of the gardens of Sawād during the first Islamic centuries to paint a comprehensive picture of these long-overlooked historical landscapes. Through precise analyses, she unravels the layers of architectural, sociocultural, geographical and horticultural significance embedded in these once flourishing royal gardens now largely lost to the desert sands.
This book skilfully and vividly brings the early Islamic gardens of Lower Mesopotamia to life. Safa Mahmoudian’s coverage of the subject is meticulously organised and researched, clear and persuasive in its presentation, and deeply consequential to students, researchers, and enthusiasts of garden history alike. All aspects of case-study gardens are presented: their hardscape, their plantings, and their physical and socio-political contexts. This is a wonderful book, and it will be an invaluable resource.
