The Gardens Trust is offering a series of four online talks exploring the history and evolution of Persian Gardens on Tuesdays beginning February 22. This ticket costs £16 for the entire course of 4 sessions or you may purchase a ticket for individual sessions, costing £5, through Eventbrite. The Persian Garden sits at the heart of the western horticultural tradition. Though its origins lie in the arid steppes of modern-day Iran, the Islamic conquerors of the sixth century added the spiritual dimension to the Persian prototype. Today its combination of exquisite beauty, sensory delight and spiritual consolation shape the Christian concept of Eden and the Islamic idea of Paradise. Through the centuries, as Islam spread from India, across North Africa, to Southern Europe, the Persian garden absorbed local horticultural traditions, evolving and adapting to accommodate different cultures and environments. Its inventive techniques enabled the greening of the desert, the creation of splendid gardens and the establishing of lush, productive orchards in the most inhospitable settings. From desert oases to dense urban settlements, from mosques, madrassas and royal palaces to intimate private courtyards, the Persian garden has provided an image of heaven on earth – reflecting the Islamic idea that our secular realm is a pale reflection of the celestial delights to come. Whether providing a simple refuge from harsh surroundings, a magnificent pleasure ground or a spiritual retreat, the modest materials and formal geometries of the Persian garden have informed our grandest gardens and inspired our most avant-garde designers. Gardens of Delight will explore the evolution, and legacy, of the Persian garden. While featuring the Taj Mahal, the Alhambra, the garden city of Isfahan and Morocco’s famous Agdal, it will also look at lesser-known gardens, and examine the legacy of the Persian tradition in the work of modern designers.
Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk. A link to the recorded session (available for 1 week) will be sent shortly afterwards. Register HERE.
Week One is entitled Gardens Beneath Which Rivers Flow: the Persian Garden Then and Now. The Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, written more than four thousand years ago, describes the dwelling place of the gods as an ‘immortal garden’, in which ‘a tree stands (beside) a sacred fountain’. Here, in one of the oldest surviving human texts, we have the essence of the Persian garden: water and shade. Early on the Persians developed a system of underground channels to transport water from mountain aquifers into the arid plain. Walls, to protect from desert winds, created a sanctuary, while the characteristic four-part division was established by bisecting irrigation channels. As subsequent rulers recognized that the ability to make things grow conferred on them a god-like status, they embellished their gardens with sensuous fruit, beautiful flowers, exotic trees and elegant palace-pavilions. From Cyrus the Great’s legendary Pasargadae through Shah Abbas’ modest mountain refuge Bagh e Fin to the miraculous oasis of Shiraz, we will explore the legacy of Persian gardens in modern-day Iran, and beyond in the works of such international designers as Gabriel Guvrekian, Norah Lindsay, Marilyn Abbott and Vladimir Djurovic.
