were frequently used to create different ‘rooms’ within the overall layout, also played an intrinsic part in the construction of these traditional designs. Scent within the garden may seem by comparison to be less ‘essential’ than the absolute necessity for water and shade. Yet for much of the ancient world, including Persia, perfume was held in such high esteem that it was virtually seen as being as vital to life as food or water! In the words of the prophet Mohammed:
Three things of the world which I love the most are women, perfume and prayer.
In the Islamic esoteric text The Jasmine of the Fedeli d’Amore, Ruzbehan describes the celestial world as being suffused with a wondrous scent which was associated with the presence of the divinity. The evocative power of perfume was also understood as the silent language of passion and human emotion and was valued as a sacred tool of transformation. Scented plants, therefore, endowed the early Persian paradise garden with a very special quality by providing a direct ‘bridge’ from the mundane to the heavenly and elevated it from being simply an earthly domain into a pairidaeza – a paradise realm. Like an oasis, these fragrant, fertile gardens came to represent a miraculous place of refuge or a haven within a hostile environment. Indeed, like most early gardens, they are found within courtyards or are surrounded by low buildings, rather than lying outside the domestic compound, simply because the outside world was such an unsafe place.
Courtyard of the Generalife Garden – one of the oldest Moorish gardens in Spain – located on the Cerro del Sol, adjacent to the Alhambra Palace.
Jose Ignacio Soto
The Persian gardens also had strongly symbolic connotations and used intricate and exquisite patterns in their design. Like a microcosm of the universe, the formally constructed streams and canals represented the rivers of life flowing to the four corners of the earth, while the fountain issued from the heart at the centre. Cypress trees were associated with death and eternal life, while fruit trees, especially the orange, were planted in great numbers due to their rich and bountiful imagery. In Cordoba, the surviving tenth-century mosque gardens of the Court of Oranges still has 100 orange trees standing in perfect rows beside the water channels.
But above all, it was the fragrant rose that was held in the highest esteem and is still found in all Islamic-style gardens, especially since many legends link the rose with the prophet Mohammed. The famous Persian mystic Avicenna dedicated a whole book to the virtues and spiritual qualities of the rose. Roses and jasmine still abound in the gardens around the Taj Mahal in India, which shows a strong classical Persian influence.
Practical necessity and a highly refined aesthetic sensibility were combined with a profound reverence for nature and a sense of the sacred to create a sanctuary – not away from the world, but within it. Earthly pleasure and divine inspiration partook of the same nature: thus, these early classical, scented gardens were built by the nobility of Persia not only to offer relief from the desert heat but also to provide a secluded place for inner contemplation as well as for amorous dalliance! It is still possible to get a sense of the classical splendour of these ancient Persian masterpieces of design by visiting the Alhambra Palace in Granada, built in southern Spain for the Moorish rulers of the fourteenth century. Here, the soothing sound of water running over stone, the graceful images of trees and arches reflected in still pools, and the heady scent of roses, jasmine and lilies wafting on the warm breeze retain their power to transport the soul to another world.
EARLY AROMATIC GARDENS
Some of the most famous early aromatic gardens are the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which were built by Nebuchadnezzar II for his wife in the sixth century BC. Greek descriptions of these fabulous gardens, which were supported on stone columns and irrigated by streams to keep the terraces moist, depict an image of paradise much like the Persian ideal, with running water, shade and scent. Aromatic wood from the cedar of Lebanon was used extensively in building these gardens and must have created a highly fragrant backdrop for the exotic flowering plants, herbs and trees.
Cedar of Lebanon was also used to make the caskets for embalmed Egyptian kings because of its fine fragrance and great durability. Indeed, the ancient Egyptians were renowned for their knowledge and expertise on aromatic plants, especially regarding their medicinal, cosmetic and ritual applications. In gardens on the banks of the Nile, they cultivated sweet-smelling plants, herbs and spices so as to provide fresh material for their daily requirements, since natural aromatic preparations were considered an intrinsic part of everyday life. One of the first depicted plant expeditions (c. 1495 BC), shown in a wall painting at Karnak, is in search of the incense tree for Queen Hatshepsut. The Egyptians’ exuberant love of nature is evident from the carvings in their temples and their garlanded deities. No fewer than 256 different species are depicted on the walls of the ‘Botanical Garden’, a room in the temple of Amun at Karnak.
Saffron crocus (Crocus sativus), used by the ancient Egyptians as a condiment and perfume material.
Valentina Razumova
Henna flower (Lawsonia inermis), used to make the ancient Egyptian perfume ‘cyprinum’.
Swapan Photography
The Egyptian priesthood also attached great importance to gardens as places of contemplation. Thus we find walled gardens attached to the temples as tranquil places of retreat. More importantly perhaps in botanic terms, was the fact that known medicinal plants were grown in these temple gardens, and form the earliest-known basis for the botanic garden. The Egyptian Papyrus Ebers manuscript, a materia medica written about 1552 BC (in the time of Moses), contains numerous descriptions of fragrant plants, aromatic remedies and their methods of use. Saffron was employed as a condiment and perfume material; galbanum, mastic and eaglewood were used for fumigation and purification purposes; and cannabis or Indian hemp was used as a sedative and for its narcotic properties. The scented oil from the blue lotus was considered sacred and offered to the pharaohs in their tombs along with narcissi and other aromatic materials. Frankincense and myrrh, especially, were considered invaluable plants throughout the whole of the ancient world, because their fragrant gum-resins formed the basis for most incense. The famous kyphi of Egypt, for example, was a liquid incense recipe whose fragrance, according to Plutarch, ‘allayed anxieties and brightened dreams and was made of those things which delight most in the night.’ This precious perfume was made from a mixture of over 16 aromatic substances including juniper, cardamom, calamus, cyperus (a fragrant grass), mastic, saffron, acacia, cinnamon, peppermint, myrrh and henna.
In Cairo, street sellers sang of henna, ‘Oh odours of Paradise: oh flowers of Henna’: these were tiny white, very fragrant flowers which were also used to produce the enticing perfume ‘cyprinum’. Cleopatra drenched her Nile barge with cyprinum to create an aromatic greeting for Mark Anthony. Henna is also the ‘camphire’ mentioned in the Song of Solomon:
A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits: camphire and spikenard, saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes with all the chief spices.
(Rosemary Verey, The Scented Garden)
The enclosed scented garden described in the Bible in the Song of Solomon depicts a sensual paradise where sacred and secular pleasure are united, and provides a model for the medieval ‘hortus conclusus’. Likewise, the Garden of Eden originally showed God and man in
