Earthly paradise: Garden and courtyard in Islam - Hardcover

Lehrman, Jonas Benzion

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0500012369 ISBN 13: 9780500012369

Publisher: Thames and Hudson, 1980

Synopsis

Dust jacket notes: "The garden is central to Islamic culture in a way that has no counterpart in the West. A place for relaxation and enjoyment, it is at the same time endowed with spiritual and symbolic qualities of almost infinite subtlety. At its heart is water, the element of life: at rest or in movement, calm or disturbed, free or closely confined, tumbling downwards in a cascade or thrown sparkling into the air from a fountain. Jonas Lehrman has travelled widely throughout the Islamic world, gaining personal experience of every site, often by repeated visits. In the first two chapters he analyzes the courtyard and garden in terms of history, climate, physical setting, design and meaning. The other four chapters are regional. Although Arabia and the Middle East are the Islamic heartlands, gardens have survived best on the periphery - at Granada, Cordova, Cairo, Istanbul, Isfahan, Shiraz, Delhi, Agra and Kashmir. Each is fully described and illustrated, with many annotated plans, and at the end of the book are a horticultural note, a glossary and a bibliography. Mr. Lehrman's photographs of the gardens have a rare quality of communicating their organized but fragile beauty. We see them as they are today, and in a brief epilogue he examines their place in the modern world, and the values that they can still hold for us. At the most immediate level, the book offers a possibility of renewing our own Western garden tradition in an exciting way. The courtyards and gardens of Islam are miniature worlds - enclosed, often small in scale, relying on careful design and studied effect more than on size and grandeur: they are full of lessons that the private gardener can usefully learn. With 258 illustrations, 15 in color, and 49 plans."

About this edition

• Publisher: Thames and Hudson
• Publication date: 1980
• ISBN 10: 0500012369
• ISBN 13: 9780500012369
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 240