The Principles of Garden Design in the Qajar Period (Based on Mefâtih-āl-Râzaq)

The book of Mefâtih-āl-Râzaq¸ written by Muhammad Yusef Nouri¸ is one of the most comprehensive resources of agricultural and gardening principles of the Qajar Dynasty. Yusef Nouri who worked as Tax Officer in Fars Province¸ for an unknown reason, regretted being as a Government Official and decided to quit his job, and start farming (which was the method of the prophets). At the same time as he engaged in agriculture and horticulture, started writing (1270) this book. The book is not just about gardening and garden design and a significant part of it is also devoted to folk beliefs and superstitions about plants and trees. In the most important part of this book, Yusef Nouri presents and introduces the procedure and method of planting and arrangement of plants in a garden, which is a kind of archetype for gardens of this era. By comparison with other historical sources that are allocated to garden (like Ershād al-Zerā’a and Âthar va Ahya), this book presents significant differences in the arrangement of patches and garden space. The Garden Design Style which is presented in Nouri’s book¸ has some remarkable points that should be analyzed to understand how garden changed and developed in this era. In this paper, the principles of garden design will be discussed based on this book. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how garden design and priority of gardening changed in this era. These changes include: garden space¸ organization and hierarchy of patches¸ axes and water stream¸ arrangement of plants and trees and even cited references for garden design.