-Hadith "smell is the food of the soul, and the soul is the vehicle of the faculties of human" attributed to the Prophet of Islam
We have heard talk of literary history, social history, economic history, even some measures drawn from literary sources, but rarely a horticultural study based on literary texts. Ali Akbar Husain, an architect and Professor of architecture studies undertakes this new adventure. The result is a rotten delicious pot of disciplines: history, architecture, landscaping, poetry, horticulture and, given the context of Islam. Perfume in an Islamic Garden: study of literary Sources in Persian and Urdu is a remarkable book for another reason, too. It drew scholarly attention largely neglected part of the Islamic India: Deccan.
William Dalrymple, write the Introduction to the book, rightly points out:
"By any standard, anywhere in the world, the deccani civilization which reached its most remarkable flowering in Hyderabad of 16th century was rich and remarkable. Yet, she remains surprisingly little studied. So dominant are the Mughals in the historical memory of the India, the different deccani sultanates were almost completely forgotten outside of a small group of specialists and academics. Almost all visitors to the India visit the Taj Mahal and discover of Shah Jahan, but few visit Bijapur, Bidar, or same Golconda, and less still to read the non less remarkable facts and gestures of the Adil Shahi and Qutb Shahi sultans. »
In setting out to correct an old evil, Ali Akbar Husain brings not only to the life, architecture, culture and the contribution of the sultans deccani but also place before us the importance of the garden in the course of Islamic thought. A terrestrial analogue for the life in paradise that awaits the Momin, the garden is a recurring image in the Holy Qur'an. The Paradisal garden, the residence promised to the true believer, known by different names such as Iram, Fisch, in paradise, is another essential garden that man lost by sin, but whose image cannot be recovered from the anima mundi. Descriptions of fair maidens, young Immortals, gushing fountains of fresh water, the trees of fruits, gentle hills underneath which rivers flow - evoke not only images of fullness and freedom of envy but also shade and rest and reward.
Over time, these images acquired near-mythic proportions and found reflection in the various art forms in different parts of the Islamic world. Gardens closed of Cordoba and the Moorish Spain, burial gardens centered around a tomb or mausoleum of the Mughals, the classical formalism of the bagh chaar (four streams representing milk, honey, wine and water) and finely worked pavilions and fountains of Andalusia - each sought to reproduce an imaginary space, each introduced local elementsbe it in the choice of plants or the requirements of the topography and landscaping.
In the crucible of the Deccan, we find a place weird experience. A mixture of Hindu elements with Islamic motifs, a mixture of Hindu art with Islamic architecture, a superposition of a Persian mizaj on sensitivity of inherently Indian drawing combined to create an exuberant Indo-Islamic workshop. The forts, tombs, palaces and pavilions dotted with Hyderabad, Golconda, Bijapur, Bidar, etc amply bear witness to this synergistic flowering. And the gardens that surround the built heritage were splendid examples of private and public spaces. Given that most of these gardens have disappeared into the mouth of urbanization, what remains are references to these literary sources in Persian and Urdu. Playback of Husain of deccani masnawis to extract nuggets of information therefore is a singular contribution.
The choice of plants, trees, shrubs and herbiage - native and naturalized - as also the aromatic and medicinal properties of each are set forth in detail. Trees in bloom as Castro, kadamb, amaltas, nagkesar; those fruit trees such as mango, amla, banana, jamun, momo, shahtoot as pomegranate, Citron, orange, lime, shaddock, fig, grape, phalsa; fragrant flowers such as rose, tuberose, chandni, mogra, chameli compete for space in these Islamic scented gardens of the Deccan with medicinal plants such as Kafur, sandalwood, firanjmushk, etc. Two large 17th century deccani masnawis, Gulshan-e-Ishq de Mulla Nasrati and Ibrahim Nama of Abdul Dehalvi, in addition to the analogy between the garden and the world. The scent of these fragrant gardens lingers in lines like these:
Nazr ke rang Dene yek har kun gul rang ka kasa
Muatr mann ke karne kun har huqqa PG ka kali
(To brighten the eye, each (flower) was a colorful Cup
For scenting the heart, each Bud was a box of perfume PG)
Read also:
1 Ebba Koch, full of Taj Mahal and Agra Riverfront gardens, London: Thames and Hudson 2006.
2 D. f. Ruggles, Islamic gardens and landscapes, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007
3 Frances Hodgson Burnett, the Secret Garden, London: Heinemann
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This review appeared in The Herald, Karachi, July 2012. Blogs by http://hindustaniawaaz-rakhshanda.blogspot.com jalil
Rakhshanda Jalil is the media and the cultural Coordinator at Jamia Millia Islamia. His latest book is "city Invisible: Hidden Monuments'. '.
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