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the garden and Iran

The Mantle of the Prophet by Roy Mottahedeh opens with a description of the protagonist, Ali, working in his family garden in Qom. The importance of the garden in Iran has a long history, stretching back to pre-Islamic Persia and Cyrus the Great.

remains of Cyrus’s garden in Pasargadae, circa 550 BC

Later, the Islamic garden was influenced by these early Persian Pairidaezas (enclosures/gardens). The most popular style was the Chahar Bagh, a garden made up of four rectangles, separated by four streams going out from a central pool or fountain. This architecture may relate to the belief that four rivers run through paradise:

“Gabriel said, 'This is the Lote Tree of the utmost boundary). Behold! There ran four rivers, two were hidden and two were visible, I asked, 'What are these two kinds of rivers, O Gabriel?' He replied,' As for the hidden rivers, they are two rivers in Paradise and the visible rivers are the Nile and the Euphrates.'” (words of the Prophet according to the Hadiths).

A sketch of the mid 17th century garden of Qazvin by Engelbert Kaemfer