Gardens of Delight [antikvár]

FOREWORDlY STEFANO BIANCAAt all periods and in every culture, garden architecture and design has endeavoured to re-present a whole world in a nutshell, as it were, by compressing the cosmos and translating it into a visual and sensual experience. This has been true regardless of whether a creator actually had such intentions, or whether the process was simply guided by the architect's unconscious imagination and creativity Beyond practical and purely decorative concerns that will often have played a part in the design process, such imitatio expresses mankind's existential need to materialize archetypal visions and images impressed upon the human soul. Therefore, the structure of elaborate historic gardens reveals much about how particular societies interpret themselves and how they relate to the creation. Through garden architecture, man has always attempted to reflect a cosmic order and thereby to enhance and transcend his daily life.Muslim societies - in this context we look at Islam as a specific civilization rather than a dogmaticreligion - have always displayed a great affinity with garden architecture. There are many reasons for this. First and foremost is the fact that in the Quran, the holy book of Islam, gardens play a prominent role as a sensual and yet super-sensory image of Paradise, always depicted in a vivid manner. Furthermore, we must not forget that most Arabs and other Muslim peoples live in geographical regions of the world where the desert and its antithesis, the oasis, are inherent parts of their perception and a powerful daily experience. A result of this is the keen appreciation of water as a most valuable, life-giving resource, as well as the prevailing regard for skilful irrigation -a prerequisite of the earthly garden. Water captured the Muslims' imagination not only as a precious physical commodity, but also in its spiritual dimension as a symbol of divine power and presence. Its combined practical and symbolic value is highlighted by the fact that Islam prescribes ritual ablution toTfirougfi garden architecture, man fias always attempted to reflect a cosmic order and thereby to enhance and transcend his daily life.be carried out by the believer several times a day before prayers. This very rite endows water with the quality not only of cleansing the exterior of the body but also of reinstating man's primordial state of purity again and again - as a precondition for his communication with God.Because of the omnipresence of spirituality in Islamic culture, several levels of reality and meaning have been able to interact without contradicting each other. This explains the perfect balance between the temporal and the timeless, or between the physical and the metaphysical planes that was characteristic of the life of traditional Muslim societies. The interrelation between both worids is sustained by many sequences of the Quran which describe the natural growth and decay, i.e., the unfolding and retraction of the divine creation, as signs and symbols (ayaf) of the omnipresence of the one and only God. Believers are encouraged to contemplate and venerate the divine forces at work in this world through a process of continued active "remembering" (dtiikr), which could also be described as an interiorization of spiritual realityIslamic culture has developed many visual supports for this process of ritual remembrance, which is closely related to meditation. Such supports indude, for instance, calligraphy, as a tangible, rhythmic representation of the word of God; they include interlaced geometric patterns as a symbolic image of the connections existing between the variety of manifestations emanating from the sole, but hidden source of being. They also include the concept of the courtyard as a sacred core of the house and the family, and, related to it, the concept of the garden, as embedded in particular architectural structures. In the light of what has been said, the garden can be understood as the perfect match between nature's creative power and human inventiveness, both being manifestations of a higher order. Through the interaction of divine and human powers.