The model for the historic Islamic gardens of the Middle East is found in the Qur'an, which in 164 verses scattered through four chapters describes the colors, sounds, smells, spatial elements, microclimates, trees, flowers, and waters of Heaven.
International garden designers in search of inspiration and useful ideas are exploring the old gardens of Islam, but many emphasize fanciful geometric patterns, elaborate water features, and colorful planting schemes at the expense of the historical, philosophical, metaphysical, and poetic dimensions of these "earthly paradises."
An Islamic garden is a landscape designed according to certain ideological principles, employing certain physical elements, and focused on certain intentions.
Also influential in developing the homogeneous thinking of the designers of the typical Islamic gardens of the Middle East were earlier civilizations, the arid environment, and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. Ultimately, the lack of sufficient water is the limiting factor in design.
The traditional Islamic gardens of the Middle East included certain shared design elements. The most common were enclosing walls (surrounded by walls and/or a cluster of buildings), water features, trees and flowers, and extensive use of the arabesque, the Islamic geometric decoration.
To the nomads of the Arabian deserts, designing with water was in almost unbelievable contrast to their original arid environment. Their application of water as a design element was quite imaginative and highly colorful. Water played many roles within the garden design, emphasizing architectural elements, masking outdoor noise, producing pleasing sounds, irrigating plants, moisturizing and cooling the hot dry microclimate, soothing the dusty wind, and providing a source for ablutions before prayers. The scarcity of water and the difficulty of bringing it to the garden compelled moslem designers to develop efficient methods of irrigation and to embrace a high regard for water as the indispensable support of life.
Another important design element in the Islamic garden was plants. Traditional designers circulated this cool air from the garden through the house, thereby creating a natural cooling system.
The designer of the historic Islamic garden of the Middle East is a product of an age of reason based on faith (Hitti 1966). Beauty without arrogance is a value rooted in the Islamic culture. Water is a life-sustaining resource, and the Islamic garden designer treated it as such. Appreciation of regional variations among the Islamic gardens across the Middle East is the key to its rich and diversified typology.
The typical Islamic garden is a life-sustaining oasis, benefiting humans, birds, and animals. The current, Post-Renaissance notion of what constitutes a garden would have been unintelligible to a medieval moslem. Throughout Europe, the two European schools of thought in exterior design were demonstrated in its gardens. In England, the romantic landscape garden symbolized the unconditional surrender of human spirit to nature. To a modern designer, the Islamic gardens of the Middle East may provide new insights and fresh inspiration.
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