Research Catalog

Title

Scent in the Islamic garden : a study of Deccani Urdu literary sources / Ali Akbar Husain.

Author

Husain, Ali Akbar, 1949-

Publication

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2000.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xiv, 284 p., [32] p. of plates : ill. (some col.), maps, plans; 22 cm.

Summary

"This work explores an enchanting though largely ignored aspect of Muslim culture. The medieval Muslim garden, now a fugitive beauty, lives only in its unforgettable traces - in garden architecture, paintings, Muslim literature, and Muslim medico-botanical writing. This study concentrates on the Muslim garden as represented in Hyderabad, a capital of the Qutb Shahi Sultans. It attempts to conjure up that extinct glory through accounts of gardens in Deccani Urdu romantic narrative poetry, where the garden as the natural setting of love was described in great detail. A unique feature of the Muslim garden was the emphasis on odour; and plants were chosen for their beauty as well as fragrance. Combined with the surviving architecture of the Deccani garden, the descriptions in Deccani Urdu resurrect for the mind's eye a genre that was basically Islamic yet, mixed with the powerful influences of geography and regional culture, reflected a style of its own."--BOOK JACKET.

Subject

• Gardens, Mogul Empire > Deccan
• Islamic gardens > Deccan
• Fragrant gardens > Deccan
• Gardens in literature
• Gardening > Deccan > History
• Urdu poetry > History and criticism
• Urdu literature > History and criticism

Genre/Form

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [269]-278) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

ISBN

019579334X

OCLC

• 45951226
• SCSB-11271558

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library