Table of Contents

Preface
Chapter 1: The Islamic Landscape
Place and Memory
Chapter 2: Making the Desert Bloom
Transforming an Inhospitable Earth
Chapter 3: The Science of Gardening
Agricultural and Botanical Manuals
Chapter 4: Organizing the Earth
Cross-axial Gardens and the Chahar Bagh
Chapter 5: Trees and Plants
Botanical Evidence from Texts and Archaeology
Chapter 6: Representations of Gardens and Landscape
Imagery in Manuscript Paintings, Textiles, and Other Media
Chapter 7: Imaginary Gardens
Gardens in Fantasy and Literature
Chapter 8: The Garden as Paradise
The Historical Beginnings of Paradisiac Iconography
Chapter 9: The Here and Hereafter
Mausolea and Tomb Gardens
Chapter 10: A Garden in Landscape
The Taj Mahal and Its Precursors
Chapter 11: Religion and Culture
The Adoption of Islamic Garden Culture by Non-Muslims
List of Gardens and SitesSpain
Sicily
Morocco
Algeria
Tunisia
Egypt
Turkey
Syria and Region
Oman
Iraq
Iran
Central Asia
Pakistan
India
United States
Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments

Promotional Information

A comprehensive survey of Islamic gardens, from antiquity through to the present.

About the Author

D. Fairchild Ruggles is Professor and the Debra L. Mitchell Chair in Landscape History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the author of Gardens, Landscape, and Vision in the Palaces of Islamic Spain.