Sa adat- ābād Garden as Reflected in  Golzār-e Sa adat Poetry

In the study of those historic monuments that are more or less ruined, the reflections and images in written historical manuscripts are of utmost importance. In these cases, any succinct references can be valuable and informative regarding to the historical status and architectural configuration and formal composition of these monuments. One of the less studied resources for architectural history, are poetic collections and anecdotes. This article attempts to investigate architectural descriptions and connotations of a specific historical garden as reflected in a poetry collection. Golzār-e Sa’adat, by Mirza Mohsen Ta’sir Tabrizi, describes the Sa’adat- ābad garden in Safavid era Isfahan. It is one of rare instances of poetry that is completely dedicated to unique architectural portrayal of few renowned buildings. Today, nothing has remained from Sa’adat- ābad garden and thus such information has priceless value in sense of historical architectural monography. This study will explain how Sa’adat- ābad garden is rendered in Golzār-e Sa’adat, and attempts to represent its spatial configuration as described in the related poems. Finally, it will draw a schematic plan of the garden, based on the information derived from the poem. Golzār-e Sa’adat reveals that during the Shah Sultan Hussein’s kingdom, some additional spaces had been added to the garden, which is not yet mentioned in any other historical resources.