The tradition and style of
garden design of
Persian gardens (
Persian ??? ??????) influenced the design of gardens from
Andalusia to
India. The
Taj Mahal is one of the largest Persian gardens of the world, but the gardens of the
Alhambra equally show the influence of Persian garden style on a more intimate scale.
From the time of the Achaemenid dynasty the idea of an earthly paradise spread through Persian literature and example to other cultures, both the [[Hellenistic gardens of the Seleucids and the Ptolemies in Alexandria. The Avestan word pairidaêza-, Old Persian *paridaida-, Median *paridaiza- (walled-around, i.e., a walled garden), was transliterated into Greek paradeisoi, then rendered into the Latin paradisus, and from there entered into European languages, e.g., French paradis, German Paradies, and English paradise. The word entered Semitic languages as well Akkadian pardesu, Hebrew pardes, and Arabic firdaws.[1]
As the word expresses, such gardens would have been enclosed. The garden's purpose was, and is, to provide a place for protected relaxation in a variety of manners spiritual, and leisurely (such as meetings with friends), essentially a paradise on earth. The Persian word for "enclosed space" was pairi-daeza, a term that was adopted by Christian mythology to describe the garden of Eden or Paradise on earth.[2]
The manner in which the garden is constructed may be formal (with an emphasis on structure) or casual (with an emphasis on nature), following several simple rules governing the design. This is said to allow a maximisation, in terms of function and emotion, of what may be done in the garden.
