Reflection of Garden on the Islamic Textiles

Creating an area or sphere replete with clump of trees and a variety of leaves and flowers has been reminiscent of the heavenly paradise for the perfectionist. This matter has been influential in man’s life and been manifested in his work and achievements. Textiles and fabric pieces are among the artifacts to function as a canvas for painters and designers to represent the celestial domain of garden. Regarding the significant, close connection between painting and textile design, it would seem necessary to study schools of painting together with textile designs and motifs. Accordingly, painting has been fairly influential upon textile design and been manifested in the form of vegetal motifs with a pleasant, evergreen atmosphere. The tree motif, with connotations of life and eternity (tree of life), as an example, has been manifested in natural or stylized manners on textiles. The construction of a library, or better to say, an art center besides a painting workshop in Tabriz was a turning point in textile design. Garden representation and a place covered with flowers and plants, as well as arabesque motifs in the few textiles remained from this period are the main designs applied symbolically. Following the cultural-artistic revival of the Mongol conquest, and then that of the Timurid, schools of art at Samarqand and Bukhara flourished. Enjoying a rich cultural background, such artistic schools inclined towards the ancient literature. Meanwhile, the Herat school with an attitude towards the representation of “idealized man” had great effect on textile motifs. Humanism in this school brought about the creation of a mystic, heavenly atmosphere for garden, representing human motif in different scenes of feast, battle and hunting. With the conquest of Herat in Safavid era, the essence of such artistic practice was transmitted to Tabriz and continued under the title Tabriz-Yazd and Tabriz-Kashan schools in textile workshops of Yazd and Kashan in the second Tabriz painting style. Yazd in that time had a unique school of textile design the pioneer of which was Qiās-od-Din Ali Naqshband Yazdi. He presented an atmosphere of imaginative, mystic gardens in his work. The Isfahan school, as well, flourished in that time with an emphasis on the representation of human’s motif and his presence in the nature. This school could offer masterpieces of textile designs. In Qajar textiles the display of human being declined, while gardens with dense, intertwined trees besides arabesque and khatāi designs appeared. Such motifs were occasionally juxtaposed with zoomorphic designs, and rarely with human forms. It seems that in such pieces of fabrics a mere representation of a garden or a mysterious jungle has been considered.