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(More customer reviews)This is a quite fine book on its topic, with some new things to say about a (dare I say it?) under-cultivated scholarly garden. The author rightly points out that most books on Islamic art and architecture basically stop when they hit the garden. This book could be interestingly matched up with one of the various histories of art and architecture (like the Yale volumes), as their complement. It is also interesting that the author challenges the standard view of the quadrature garden as being essentially the only pattern out there -- multiple patterns emerge. I particularly liked the discussion of the evolution of tombs and gardens together. The second half of the book is an invaluable selection of sites and site plans throughout the Islamic world.
The book unavoidably carries with it the sadness evoked by the miserable fact that hardly any of the gardens he talks about survive in any fashion at all -- neglected, ignored, built over, redesigned. But we are talking gardens here, after all, so ephemeral comes with the terrain. But it is pretty grim, page after page of destruction.
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"In the course of my research," writes D. Fairchild Ruggles, "I devoured Arabic agricultural manuals from the tenth through the fourteenth centuries. I love gardening, and in these texts I was able to enter the minds of agriculturalists and botanists of a thousand years ago who likewise believed it was important and interesting to record all the known ways of propagating olive trees, the various uses of rosemary, and how best to fertilize a garden bed."Western admirers have long seen the Islamic garden as an earthly reflection of the paradise said to await the faithful. However, such simplification, Ruggles contends, denies the sophistication and diversity of the art form. Islamic Gardens and Landscapes immerses the reader in the world of the architects of the great gardens of the Islamic world, from medieval Morocco to contemporary India.Just as Islamic culture is historically dense, sophisticated, and complex, so too is the history of its built landscapes. Islamic gardens began from the practical need to organize the surrounding space of human civilization, tame nature, enhance the earth's yield, and create a legible map on which to distribute natural resources. Ruggles follows the evolution of these early farming efforts to their aristocratic apex in famous formal gardens of the Alhambra in Spain and the Taj Mahal in Agra.Whether in a humble city home or a royal courtyard, the garden has several defining characteristics, which Ruggles discusses. Most notable is an enclosed space divided into four equal parts surrounding a central design element. The traditional Islamic garden is inwardly focused, usually surrounded by buildings or in the form of a courtyard. Water provides a counterpoint to the portioned green sections.Ranging across poetry, court documents, agronomy manuals, and early garden representations, and richly illustrated with pictures and site plans, Islamic Gardens and Landscapes is a book of impressive scope sure to interest scholars and enthusiasts alike.
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