A Comparative Study of the Representations of Mystic Gardens in Traditional Iranian Architecture and a Poem Called “Heart Solitude (Khalvat-e-Del) by Hakim Nezami-e-Ganjavi

Iranian traditional arts refer to some common concepts in different representational forms rooted in the thought foundations of the creators of those arts. Through investigating different arts, we can observe that the concept of the garden has had a continuous representation in any form of art, despite the limitations of each type of art. It is assumed that by eliminating gardens from these works of art, the whole basis of these works is questioned, and it appears that a significant component that the artist meant to include has been eliminated. Thus, the question arises as to for what reasons gardens appear continuously in these arts. It seems that the reason for the frequent emergence of “garden” in different arts in the form of background presence rather than an added feature stems from the thoughts of the creators of such arts. The goal of the present study, which is a qualitative one using an a posteriori approach, has been to investigate the thought and reasoning structure of the creators of traditional Iranian art to represent the aims of these artists in imaging the garden continuously (in natural and abstract forms) within architecture. The method used to analyze the data in the present research was a qualitative content analysis, and the texts were coded to extract the analysis indexes. The poem interpretation method was utilized to explain architecture, and the indexes gained were then assessed. In each stage and after the analysis of the representation of the garden within the art of architecture, rational reasoning has been investigated. Results of the present research showed that ancient artists (masters in their fields) were some mystic characters who were able to observe unseen phenomena within the environment of the heart garden (internal garden) to meet what they wanted in a mystic state. Therefore, this spiritual movement of the mystic architect led to inform the audience regarding the products of their architecture using introversion indexes and related items to create thoughtfulness among the audience, and they were trying to represent a world beyond their common senses. The result has been the creation of a garden atmosphere within traditional Iranian monuments. This conclusion can release Iranian Islamic art from the disadvantages of formalism, sheer decorative features, and lack of content.