International Journal of

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Respect and reverence for water and trees are institutionalised in many ancient civilisations due to socio-cultural traditions, values and beliefs. In Iranian societies, respect for trees and water, separately and in composite form as gardens, is a well-known cultural value both before and after Islam. Therefore, the first part of this paper explains the value and importance of plants and gardens according to the religious and socio-cultural beliefs of the Iranian people in various historical periods. The paper continues by focussing on the history of the Persian garden city during the Timurid and Safavid dynasties. The straight streets, long-lasting gardens and the water supply of the three capitals of Samarqand, Herat and Isfahan are explained individually according to their historical references. Furthermore, it explained the special idea that has had direct relation with religious believes. In Safavid period designers often used the gardens as parables of Heaven. This idea influenced on urban design and was important in selection of green spaces as composing elements in urban fabrics. Finally, the paper classifies the features of Charbagh Street as an axis of the city of Isfahan, and compares these features with the features of the axes in the cities of Samarqand and Herat. The results of the study compare the design innovations, features and origins of the Charbagh axis of Isfahan, the Safavid garden city, with earlier garden cities of the Timurid period.

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A review of findings shows that Persian gardens have attracted a wide area of interests between psychologists and environment designers. The main reasons behind the attraction of Persian gardens are natural content and particular landscape configuration. To study these features, overall organization examination is employed according to psychological pattern. One of the impressive psychological patterns to evaluate the natural landscape is preference matrix which has been developed by Stephen and Rachel Kaplan. In this study, characteristics of Persian gardens are reviewed and they are analyzed according to the Kaplan preference factors (coherence, legibility, mystery and complexity). Hence, four gardens namely, Fin, Shazdeh Mahan, Eram and El Goli, with different topographies are randomly selected and have been analyzed based on the four mentioned factors. Because of the inseparable relationship of human behavior and environment, the research methodology applies psychological approach based on a descriptive – analytical method and to implement this method library documents are used. As the discussion demonstrates, concepts created from the relationship between factors and Persian gardens' characteristics are associated with coherence, legibility, mystery and complexity. It shows that elements shaping the Persian gardens have close relationship with these factors because they are important in perception of the natural environment. Based on analysis, the elements in Persian Gardens are used to provide the best psychological and aesthetic responses for viewers. Also, it can be concluded that, the quality of the material and semantic makes them more attractive.

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Persian garden have deep roots in paradigms and beliefs in Iranian culture, from arts and crafts to architecture and landscape and from literature to philosophy and wisdom in particular. The current study was done based on a qualitative methodology. To understand the latent concepts of the quadruple paradigm, those engaged have aimed at testing in practice and analyzing new concepts through the latent directive content analysis. This helped us through the objectives of this article for developing the quadruple paradigm and a new classification of quadruple Persian gardens. In this regard, this study sought the relationship between archetypal and historical Persian gardens and four fold plans as the key factor for finding the secret meanings and symbolic concepts. For the analysis, seven case studies on the Safavied dynasty were selected. This is the first study investigating focused on the quadruple in Persian gardens to the extent of believing and art history as a philosophy of paradigm could be categorized into three main groups and the themes were identified as a major classification: 1) Sacred-Archetypal gardens as an interpretation of supernatural beliefs and paradigms, which might be manifested through a spiritual landscape, carpets, paintings, or architectural façades; 2) governmental and authority gardens, which could be seen in the fields of architecture, landscape, and many Iranian arts and crafts; and 3) orchards as the blessing gardens representing birth and growth, thus bringing spiritual blessing and genius loci for human comfort.