D. Fairchild Ruggles is Associate Professor in Landscape History at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She is the editor of Women, Patronage, and Self-Representation in Islamic Societies (2000).
“Though Ruggles’s book usefully brings together much new and
little-known information about the palace gardens of al-Andalus, it
is by no means a straightforward account of the evolution of these
gardens but it is intended rather as a grand interpretative work
written from a multidisciplinary perspective. . . The overall
result is clear-headed, highly readable, stimulating and largely
persuasive.”—Michael Jacobs, Times Literary Supplement
“Ruggles’s splendidly full and broad-ranging new book is a
fundamental resource on the complex of images evoked in Faisal’s
wonderful line, treating the gardens of al-Andalus in their
historical and ideological contexts as well as in the more familiar
architectural and botanical ones. . . . Ruggles’s always clear
narrative interweaves all the fundamental threads of the historical
and political events necessary to fully appreciate the cultural
bases of everything that had to do with that dramatic
transformation of the Iberian landscape. She seems as at home
talking about the changing yields of crop harvests as about the
variations in the concepts of paradise as a garden across different
cultures.”—Maria Rosa Menocal, The Medieval Review (TMR)
“Ruggles's always clear narrative interweaves all the fundamental
threads of the historical and political events necessary to fully
appreciate the cultural bases of everything that had to do with
that dramatic transformation of the Iberian landscape. She seems as
at home talking about the changing yields of crop harvests as about
the variations in the concepts of paradise as a garden across
different cultures.”—Maria Rosa Menocal, The Medieval Review
(TMR)
“Though Ruggles's book usefully brings together much new and
little-known information about the palace gardens of al-Andalus, it
is by no means a straightforward account of the evolution of these
gardens but is intended rather as a grand interpretative work
written from a multidisciplinary perspective. . . . The overall
result is clear-headed, highly readable, stimulating, and largely
persuasive.”—Michael Jacobs, Times Literary Supplement
“Ruggles has made a significant contribution to our understanding
of an important aspect of Islamic art and culture. Her analysis of
the political and economic basis of Islamic garden design in Spain
. . . and her new interpretation of the Alhambra and Generalife
gardens and palaces constitute a significant contribution to the
history of landscape architecture.”—Marilyn Stokstad, Speculum: A
Journal of Medieval Studies
“Her book, Gardens Landscape & Vision in the Palaces of Islamic
Spain, is a meticulous examination of the symbolic significance
that gardens played as part of the visual whole of the architecture
of the age.”—Elizabeth Iracki, Bloomsbury Review
“Like a Muslim woman slowly revealing herself as she unveils, the
text gradually enchants the reader. Indeed, the book is a fine and
clear-sighted essay that in a most original fashion strives to
understand the complex relationships that have led to the creation
of the Muslim gardens seen in Spain today.”—Ana Luengo, Garden
History
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