Under the category of the History of Arts, Koç University Press published a book titled "Islamic Gardens and Landscapes.'" Written by D. Fairchild Ruggles, who is a history of landscaping professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the book was translated into Turkish by Nurcan Boşdurmaz.
"Islamic Gardens and Landscapes" was published by Koç University Press under the category of History of Arts, and presented for sale. The book offers readers a long journey within the gardens of the Islamic world.
The deep and sophisticated nature of the history of Islamic culture applies also to its architectural values. Thanks to examples like the Al Hambra Palace and the Taj Mahal, Islamic gardens with pragmatic targets, like preparing a legible map to organize the environment in accordance with the requirements to improve nature, increase the fertility of the soil and adequately distribute the resources, became representative of aristocratic taste, imperial splendor and multidimensional symbolism.
Whether they belong to a modest house in a city or to a grand palace surrounded with walls, all the Islamic gardens have a basic principle in common: A Quadripartite plan called "Çehar." This geometrical principle, examples of which are given by Ruggles from the four corners of the Islamic world, from Cordoba to Marrakesh, from Cairo to Istanbul and from Tabriz to Delhi, forced the architects and the protectors of the gardens to be creative by limiting their design options. In a way, it is like the metric system in poetry or the tune in music.
Making use of poems, travel books, agricultural guides and the garden descriptions in miniatures in addition to the literature in the area, "Islamic Gardens and Landscapes" is an impressive book with its scope and surprising with what it offers.
