The Woodland Bagh entrance to the Aga Khan Garden is a place to consider whether gardens are best enjoyed alone or with company. The writer stresses the importance of companionship, revealing that gardens were more often visited with friends and family than just by oneself. They were social places to enjoy the company of others.

This poem is from a 19th C Urdu version of the The Adventures of Amir Hamza. It is recited by the trickster Amar Ayyar to the general of his beloved companion, Amir Hamza, in order to con him out of some gold. Ayyar pretends to be dead, posing as the Angel of Death. He informs the general that Ayyar has refused to enter the garden of paradise without the general, as the passage states. Fearful of accompany the angel to his death, the general offers the false angel Ayyar a chest of gold in exchange for his life.

The episode is one of many fantastical adventures of Amir Hamza, the uncle of the Prophet Muhammad, that have been retold across the Islamic world since the 7th century. As the scholar Hamid Dabashi puts it, the story "speaks the imagination of peoples and worlds extended all the way from North Africa to Central Asia, from South Asia to China" (Lakhnavi and Bilgrami, 226).

• Bilgrami, Abdullah, and Ghalib Lakhnavi. “Excerpt.” In The Adventures of Amir Hamza, Lord of the Auspicious Planetary Conjunction: A Complete and Unabridged Translation, translated by Musharraf Ali Farooqi, 226. New York: Modern Library, 2007. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/883417767.
• Pritchett, Frances. “The Romance Tradition in Urdu: Adventures from the Dastan-e-Amir Hamzah.” India International Centre Quarterly 19, no. 3 (1992): 27–47. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/6015492798.

• Keshani, Hussein. Woodland Bagh - Entry. Edmonton, 2018. Digital Image.

• Turku, Nomads of the Silk Road. Lesgi. Vol. Nomads of the Silk Road, 2000. https://archive.org/details/Nomads_of_the_Silk_Road_Golden_Festival_2012-11076/Turku_-_03_-_Lesgi.mp3#

At the Woodland Bagh pool, one finds water, plants, minerals (granite), and animals, the spectrum of creation mentioned in the poem. The poem's use of water as a spiritual metaphor suits the quiet ambiance of this court well.

In this passage, the poet Rumi uses flowing water and its source as a metaphor for the endless rejuvenation of creation by the Divine.

Mawlana Rumi was born in Central Asia and died in Konya, Turkey in 1273. Trained as theologian and legal scholar, he distinguished himself as a mystical poet. The excerpt is from a collection of over 40,000 verses called either the Diwan-i Kabir (The Great Collection) or the Diwan-i Shams-i Tabrizi (The Collection of Shams of Tabriz). Rumi composed these works following the spiritual transformation he underwent after meeting and training with his beloved teacher Shams of Tabriz, who sadly disappeared.

Rumi's works ranged from the contemplative to the erotic and were written mostly in Persian but also Arabic, Turkish and Greek, an indication of the multicultural environment in which he lived.

His actual name was Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī or Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi. Rumi referred to the place he was from - Anatolia (i.e. modern Turkey) - which was known as Rome because it was formerly the seat of the Eastern Roman (i.e. Byzantine) empire (Nicholson, xv-li).

Today, his works have been translated into many languages, and he is one of the most popular poets in the English language.

• Ǧalāl-ad-Dīn Rūmī. “XII.” In Selected Poems from the Dīvān-i Shams-i Tabrīz: Ed. and Transl. with an Introd., Notes and App., translated by Reynold Alleyne Nicholson, xv-li; 47. Cambridge: Univ. Press, 1898. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.52959/page/n3. Farsi and English.

• Wallace, Jeff. Aga Khan Garden - Reflective granite basin in the Woodland Bagh. 2018. https://archnet.org/print/preview/mediacontents=134691&views=i

• Turku, Nomads of the Silk Road. Lesgi. Vol. Nomads of the Silk Road, 2000. freemusicarchive.org. http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Turku_Nomads_of_the_Silk_Road/Nomads_of_the_Silk_Road/10_Lesgi.

The downward water sprays in the Chowk are like rain, a focal point in the hymn. As in the text, the source of the water is not obvious, though we know there must be a point of origin.

Zarmar varse sukhamana meha;
Rahet nirinjan jahan van deha.
Nahi tur jahan hai bi tura,
Nahi sur jahan hai bi sura.
Nahi gang jahan hal bi ganga;
Nahi sang tahan hal bi sanga.

This excerpt describes what it is like to achieve a peaceful and joyous state of mind. The passage belongs to a lengthy proselytic Ismaili Muslim hymn (granth) Bhrama Prakash in which concepts of meditation, spiritual progression and the Divine common to Shia Ismaili Islamic and Vedic beliefs are sung about using Ancient Indian religious melodies (Pradhan).

• Pradhan, Shiraz. “The Inward Odyssey.” Ilm, Volume 8, Number 1, November 1982. (Published by the Shia Imami Ismaili Tariqah and Religious Education Board for the United Kingdom.)

• Dialog Design. Detail of Chowk Spray Fountain. 2018. Digital photograph.

• Ustad Abdul Karim Khan. Jamuna Ke Tira Kanha - Bhairavi Thumri (Adha Tal). India: Columbia, 1934. freemusicarchive.org. http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ustad_Abdul_Karim_Khan_-_Bhairavi_thumri_adha_tal/.

The shadows of surrounding trees are often cast onto the Amphitheatre and shadow is an important image conjured by the poem. Just beyond the amphitheatre lies the Chahar Bagh, which, like the garden in the poem, lies out of view and is filled with flowers in the summer.

This poem describes how flowers in a royal garden - in anticipation of the arrival of an emperor - blossom . Authority and power are associated with fertility and fecundity. The poem's author Imam Baksh Nasikh was a leading Urdu poet in the early 19th century, who was fond of both eating and wrestling (Schimmel, 196)! The phrase "Shadow of God" was a famous title that was often used by rulers across the Islamic world who saw themselves as God's representative on earth.

The poem is cited in the Adventures of Hamza to lend colour to a story being told in which an emperor approaches a wondrous garden called Bagh-e Bedad. The servant Alqash has built the garden to impress the emperor and earn his favour but things will not turn out well (Lakhnavi and Bilgrami, 14).

• Imam Baksh Nasikh. “Excerpt.” In The Adventures of Amir Hamza, Lord of the Auspicious Planetary Conjunction: A Complete and Unabridged Translation, translated by Musharraf Ali Farooqi. New York: Modern Library, 2007. p. 14. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/883417767.
• Schimmel, Annemarie. “Urdu Literature from 1700 to 1850.” In Classical Urdu Literature From The Beginning To Iqbal. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1975. pp. 196–97. http://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.202745.

• Wallace, Jeff. Aga Khan Garden - Amphitheatre. 2018. https://archnet.org/sites/16792/media_contents/134700.

• Gnawledge, and Uzman Almerabet. El Arte de Escuchar. Mp3. Vol. Granada Doaba. Spain: Gnawledge Records, 2009. freemusicarchive.org. http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Gnawledge/Granada_Doaba/14_El_Arte_de_Escuchar.

Garden pavilions like this one, which is called the Talar, were not only favourite places to eat and drink together, but also survey the beauty of nature. The Talar is a great place to observe to garden in its full splendour as the poem's narrator does. For the poet, the garden pavilion reminds him of the radiant moon and his beloved. As you stand here, does anyone special come to mind?

Poems about gardens (rawdiyyat), and flowers (nawriyyat), were popular types of poetry in medieval Muslim Spain - al-Andalus - where this poem was written (Bermejo and García Sanchez, 63-4). This passage celebrates the the royal garden estates called Almunia belonging to the Muslim ruler Al-Mansur in Valencia, Spain and reflects how gardens in the courts of Medieval Spain were sites of pleasure and romance.

Partly modelled after quarters in Cordoba and the Syrian countryside, the Almunia of Valencia was home to reigning princes but seems to have become a public park when the poem was written (García Sanchez, 208; Bargebuhr, 243; Sanz, 24-25).

Medieval Spain was a place of vibrant cross-cultural encounters, sometimes peaceful and sometimes contentious, between Europeans, Arabs and North Africans and between Muslims, Jews and Christians. Arabic, Hebrew, and Castillian poetry shared themes and genres, while Christian kings lived in Muslim rulers' palaces, gardens and mosques built upon Roman and Middle Eastern precedents.

• Ali bin Ahmad (Valencia, Spain, 11th C), Inés Eléxpuru, and Margarita Serrano. “Excerpt.” In Al-Andalus, Culinary Magic and Seduction, translated by Unknown. Madrid: Islamic Culture Foundation, 1991. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/434867421.
• Ali ibn Ahmad (Valencia, Spain, 11th C), and Frederick P Bargebuhr. “Excerpt.” In The Alhambra: a cycle of studies on the eleventh century in Moorish Spain, translated by Frederick P Bargebuhr. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1968. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/644952512.
• Bargebuhr, Frederick P. “A. Introduction - Nature Poetry of the Eleventh Century.” In The Alhambra: a cycle of studies on the eleventh century in Moorish Spain, 243. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1968. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/644952512.
• Bermejo, J. Esteban Hernández, and Expiración García Sánchez. “Tulips: An Ornamental Crop in the Andalusian Middle Ages.” Econbota Economic Botany 63, no. 1 (2009): 60–66. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/7025658382.
• García Sánchez, Expiraciòn. “Utility and Aesthetics in the Gardens of Al-Andalus: Species with Multiple Uses.” Health and Healing from the Medieval Garden. 2008, 205–27. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/5894455808.
• Pérès, Henri (1890-1983) Auteur du texte, and Institut d’études orientales (Alger) Auteur du texte. La Poésie Andalouse En Arabe Classique Au XIe Siècle , Ses Aspects Généraux, Ses Principaux Thèmes et Sa Valeur Documentaire. 2e Édition... Par Henri Pérès,..., 1953. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k3338413m.
• Sanz, Vicente Coscollá. La Valencia musulmana. Carena Editors, S.l., 2003.

• Keshani, Hussein. Aga Khan Garden - Talar. 2018.

• Ensemble TAVOIS. Xorazmcha, 2008. www.classicmusic.uz/. http://www.classicmusic.uz/music/Tavois/www.classicmusic.uz_Tavois_Xorazmcha.mp3.

Ibn Gabirol was one of the most famous Hebrew poets of Medieval Spain. Born in Malaga to a Jewish family that had fled Cordoba, Ibn Gabirol became well-versed in the forms and motifs of Arabic literature, knowledge which he used to help lead the revival of Hebrew as an intellectual and literary language (Bargebuhr).

The poem "The Palace and the Garden" is one of Ibn Gabirol's most famous Hebrew works, modelled after the Arabic panegyric and garden poem (rawdiyyat) genres. The poet invites a friend in spring to visit a patron's wondrous garden and then the adjoining palace. They journey from outside to inside and outside again, where animals bicker and and the natural becomes blurred with the artificial (Scheindlin, 34).

• Solomon Ibn Gabirol (Valencia, Spain, d. c. 1058). “Excerpt from The Palace and the Garden.” In The Literature of Al-Andalus, edited by María Rosa Menocal, Michael Anthony Sells, and Raymond P Scheindlin, translated by Raymond P Scheindlin, 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
• Bargebuhr, Frederick P. “Ibn Gabirol.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., May 11, 2016. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ibn-Gabirol.

From the elevated height of the Talar, much of the the garden can be surveyed. Like the garden in the passage, the Aga Khan Garden is filled with flowers and fruit trees and has been created by talented landscape designers, construction workers and horticulturists.

The reference to rare plants is especially appropriate as botanic gardens, like the University of Alberta Botanic Garden, are filled with exotic and rare plants from all over the world.

In the fantastical tales of Amir Hamza, a wondrous garden called the Bagh-Bedad was commissioned and designed by a man named Alqash. Upon completing his garden masterpiece, Alqash invited the emperor and staged an extraordinarily lavish reception. The passage cited was part of Alqash's invitation to the emperor.

Alqash, however, was hiding a secret. The wealth he used to build the garden was obtained after murdering a man who knew of secret treasure. Later the son of the murdered man, who was endowed with supernatural intuition, visited the garden to purchase vegetables for his mother and grew suspicious, only to be abducted by Alqash's servant.

The passage reveals much about garden design and culture in general and mid-18th-century North India in particular. Private gardens appear not only as places of conspicuous consumption to enhance social status and stage opulent events for the elite, but also as a kind of open-air grocery store from which ordinary people could obtain fresh vegetables to eat (Bilgrami and Lakhnavi, 3-25). Palace gardens, like botanical gardens, also served as repositories for exotic plants from around the world.

• Bilgrami, Abdullah, and Ghalib Lakhnavi. “Excerpt.” In The Adventures of Amir Hamza, Lord of the Auspicious Planetary Conjunction: A Complete and Unabridged Translation, translated by Musharraf Ali Farooqi, 13. New York: Modern Library, 2007. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/883417767.
• Pritchett, Frances. “The Romance Tradition in Urdu: Adventures from the Dastan-e-Amir Hamzah.” India International Centre Quarterly 19, no. 3 (1992): 27–47. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/6015492798.

• Keshani, Hussein. NW Talar - View of Chahar Bagh. Edmonton 2018. Digital Image.

• Unknown. Imperial Palace Autumn Moon 《汉宫秋月》, n.d. The Internet Chinese Music Archive The Great Empire of China. https://www.ibiblio.org/chinese-music/MP3/TD03.Imperial_Palace_Autumn_Moon.mp3.

The central stream-like water channel, called the Nahr, is coincidently oriented to the Qibla, the direction of Mecca toward which Muslims generally pray. In Edmonton, the Qibla direction is often understood to be northeast.

From here, you can also see meadow-like lawns bathed in sunlight, all elements mentioned in the passage. For the poet, the adoration of nature and belief in the Divine are deeply intertwined.

من مسلمانم
قبله ام يك گل سرخ
جانمازم چشمه، مهرم نور
دشت سجاده من
من وضو با تپش پنجره ها مي گيرم
در نمازم جريان دارد ماه ، جريان دارد طيف

Born in 1928, the Iranian poet Sohrab Sepehri pursued an illustrious career as an artist and poet, while holding a variety of jobs until his death in 1980. Well-travelled and a student of many spiritual and religious traditions, Sepehri's journey as poet began by learning the conventions of traditional Persian verse, eventually arriving at a more modern, cosmopolitan and accessible style that weaved together poets like Emerson and Rumi the outlooks of Zen Buddhists, Taoists, Sufis and European Romantics.

Nature and the human soul feature prominently in Sepehri's poems, ideal subjects for the discernment of the world's deeper truths. The excerpt above is from one of Sepehri's most well-known poems called Water's Footfall, an autobiographical work that wrestles with the tension between prescriptive tradition and soulless modernity. In this passage, the poet alludes to how the Quran says any place can be used to pray, while drawing together references to spirituality, Islamic ritual practice and the transcendent beauty of nature (Sarshar).

• Sarshar, Houman. “SEPEHRI, Sohrab.” Encyclopaedia Iranica Online Edition, August 15, 2009. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/sepehri-sohrab.
• Sepehri, Sohrab (writ. 1965). “Excerpt.” In Water’s Footfall, translated by Kazim Ali and Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, Bilingual edition. Richmond, Calif.: Omnidawn Publishing, 2011. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/759910187.
• Sepehri, Sohrab (writ. 1965). “The Water’s Footfall.” In The Water’s Footfall: Selected Poems, translated by Ismail Salami and Abbas Zahedi, 18–50 esp. 18–19. Tehran: Zabankadeh Publications, 2004.

• Keshani, Hussein. Aga Khan Garden - Chahar Bagh SW Nahr. 2018.

• Turku, Nomads of the Silk Road. Lesgi. Vol. Nomads of the Silk Road, 2000. freemusicarchive.org. https://archive.org/details/Nomads_of_the_Silk_Road_Golden_Festival_2012-11076/Turku_-_03_-_Lesgi.mp3#.

From the Diwan area, it is easy to see how symmetrical avenues define the garden, which is filled with flowers and water pools, much like the garden mentioned in the passage.

In the The Adventures of Amir Hamza, the devious Alqash convinces the emperor to visit the luxurious garden (Bagh-e Bedad) that he built with ill-gotten wealth. Upon seeing the garden, the emperor marvels out loud at its beauty and the exotic plants it contains (Lakhnavi and Bilgrami, 18).

Throughout time and across the Islamic world, including North India, the gardens of the elite were often used to grow foreign and exotic plant species; they were in effect the botanic gardens of their time.

• Bilgrami, Abdullah, and Ghalib Lakhnavi. “Excerpt.” In The Adventures of Amir Hamza, Lord of the Auspicious Planetary Conjunction: A Complete and Unabridged Translation, translated by Musharraf Ali Farooqi, 18. New York: Modern Library, 2007. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/883417767.
• Pritchett, Frances. “The Romance Tradition in Urdu: Adventures from the Dastan-e-Amir Hamzah.” India International Centre Quarterly 19, no. 3 (1992): 27–47. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/6015492798.

• Keshani, Hussein. Aga Khan Garden - Chahar Bagh Diwan. Edmonton, 2018. Digital Image.

• Unknown. Kemençe Sound Sample. Mp3, n.d. http://www.turkishmusicportal.org. http://www.turkishmusicportal.org/en/api/listen/klasik-turk-muzigi-kemence.

The passage highlights the anticipation felt upon entering a garden in bloom, or when seeking romance. Although there is no door to the garden as the poem mentions, this entrance area, which is called the Jilau Khana, is clearly marked by two metal geometric screens and is one of two principal entrances to the garden, the other being the Woodland Bagh Entry.

This poem describes visiting a palm garden by a brook in Sicily and likens the teeth of a lover's smile to a display of chamomile blossoms, a common reference in Arabic romantic poetry. A fertile blooming garden is likened to a beautiful young woman, joining male heterosexual desire with a love of gardens (Gabrieli, 14).

Arab Muslims, like the Aghlabids and the Fatimids who were based in Tunisia, North Africa (and later the Sicilian Kalbids) ruled in southern Italy from the 9th to the 13th century. They continued to dwell there after the Norman Christian kings took over the region in the 12th century. The traces of Sicily's Arab past are perhaps best seen in its historic capital of Palermo.

Sicily was one of several Mediterranean routes for crosscultural exchange between Europe and the Islamic world in sciences, trade and culture (Scarfiotti and Lunde; Metcalfe). The Arab presence in Sicily led to the introduction of new crops (cotton, hemp, date palms, sugar cane, mulberries and citrus fruits) and technologies (eg. irrigation techniques and paper-making) that would help transform Europe.

• Gabrieli, Francesco. “Arabic Poetry in Sicily.” East and West 2, no. 1 (1951): 13–16 esp. 14. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/6015334683.
• Ibn al-Tazi? (d. 11th C) “Excerpt from Untitled [in Arabic Poetry in Sicily].” Translated by Francesco Gabrieli. East and West 2, no. 1 (1951): 13–16 esp. 14. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/6015334683.
• Metcalfe, Alex. The Muslims of Medieval Italy. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2012. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/917154802.
• Scarfiotti, Gian Luigi, and Paul Lunde. “Muslim Sicily.” Aramco World: Arab and Islamic Cultures and Connections, December 1978. http://archive.aramcoworld.com/issue/197806/muslim.sicily.htm.

• Keshani, Hussein. Chahar Bagh - Jilau Khana. Edmonton, 2018. Digital Image.

• Gnawledge, and Uzman Almerabet. El Arte de Escuchar. Mp3. Vol. Granada Doaba. Spain: Gnawledge Records, 2009. freemusicarchive.org. http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Gnawledge/Granada_Doaba/14_El_Arte_de_Escuchar.

This passage appears at the beginning of a chapter in which the builder of the extraordinary garden, the Bagh-e Bedad, abducts the son of a man he has killed to hide a secret. While foreshadowing the story's events and conveying the garden's overwhelming beauty, the poem also hints at the spiritual danger of becoming enthralled with the material world and forgetting the hereafter.

• Bilgrami, Abdullah, and Ghalib Lakhnavi. “Excerpt.” In The Adventures of Amir Hamza, Lord of the Auspicious Planetary Conjunction: A Complete and Unabridged Translation, translated by Musharraf Ali Farooqi, 20. New York: Modern Library, 2007. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/883417767.
• Pritchett, Frances. “The Romance Tradition in Urdu: Adventures from the Dastan-e-Amir Hamzah.” India International Centre Quarterly 19, no. 3 (1992): 27–47. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/6015492798.

• Keshani, Hussein. Aga Khan Garden - Withered Rose in the Rose Bagh . Edmonton, 2018. Digital Image.

In this couplet from a larger poem, or ghazal, the rose and the bird serve as unwitting reminders, if not embodiments, of beloved ones, perhaps long gone. Similar lines from other poets also allude to the cycle of life, how plants and animals die and provide nourishment to land and creatures only to be reborn.

The poet Mir Muhammad Taqi Mir (1723-1810), known simply as Mir, was a leading Urdu poet in the late-Mughal Delhi and Nawwabi Lucknow. He helped transform Urdu into a courtly and literary language rivalling, and eventually overtaking, Persian in South Asia (Russell and Islam). Though he wrote Persian poetry, he was a master of the Urdu ghazal genre. Ghazals are short poems typically composed of 7 to 12 rhyming couplets about unfulfilled religious and romantic longings. Originating in Arabia, the form became enormously popular throughout the Islamic world and was adapted to regional languages like Persian and Urdu.

• Mir Muhammad Taqi Mir (Delhi, India, writ. 1165/1751-2). “Ghazal 128,8.” In A Garden of Kashmir, n.d.
• Pritchett, Frances. “A Garden of Kashmir: The Ghazals of Mir Muhammad Taqi Mir.” South Asia study resources compiled by Frances Pritchett, Columbia University. Accessed November 29, 2018. http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00garden/index.html.
• Russell, Ralph, and Khurshidul Islam. “Mir: The Man and His Age.” In Three Mughal Poets: Mir, Sauda, Mir Hasan, 231–70. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968. http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00garden/texts/txt_ralphrussell_1968.pdf.

The grand vistas and shimmering water here invite deeper reflection about what is truly important in life, as this poem considers.

بنى آدم اعضای یکدیگرند
که در آفرینش ز یک گوهرند
چو عضوى بدرد آورَد روزگار
دگر عضوها را نمانَد قرار
تو کز محنت دیگران بی غمی
نشاید که نامت نهند آدمی

banī ādam a'zā-ye yekdīgar-and
ke dar āfarīn-aš ze yek gowhar-and
čo 'ozvī be dard āvarad rūzgār
degar 'ozvhā-rā na-mānad qarār
to k-az mehnat-ē dīgarān bīqam-ī
na-šāyad ke nām-at nahand ādamī

These famous lines, written by one of the most famous Persian poets in history, are from a work called the Rose Garden (Gulistan) by the poet Saadi (1184-1292), the pen name for Abū-Muhammad Muslih al-Dīn bin Abdallāh Shīrāzī. After visiting a garden with a friend, who collected flowers only to see them quickly die, Saadi resolved to create a literary garden mixing wit and wisdom that would last.

The poem is known as The Children of Adam (Bani Adam) and is advice he gives to an Arab king he encounters while offering prayers at the tomb of the Jewish/Christian prophet and saint John the Baptist, located in The Great Mosque of Damascus, Syria. Saadi was from Shiraz Iran, but was displaced with the Mongol conquests of Iran and travelled widely across Central Asia and the Middle East, studying for a time in Iraq.

The lines and are woven in gold thread into an elaborate carpet made by the contemporary master Mohammad Seirafian that was gifted by the Islamic Republic of Iran in 2005 to the United Nations in New York, where it now hangs. The lines are in the first ring surrounding the central medallion.

• Saadi (d. 1184-1283/1291?). Selections from Saadi's Gulistan(Global Scholarly Publications). Translated by Richard J. Newman. Farsi.

• Garten, Mark. Photograph of UN Carpet by Mohammad Seirafian. New York, 2006. United Nations Collection, New York. Photo # 133991. https://www.unmultimedia.org/s/photo/detail/133/0133991.html
• Keshani, Hussein. Aga Khan Garden - Mahtabi. 2018.

• Gnawledge, and Uzman Almerabet. El Arte de Escuchar. Mp3. Vol. Granada Doaba. Spain: Gnawledge Records, 2009. freemusicarchive.org. http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Gnawledge/Granada_Doaba/14_El_Arte_de_Escuchar.

This often cited passage speaks of spiritual progression and the unity of creation. Mawlana Rumi was born in Central Asia and died in Konya, Turkey in 1273. Trained as theologian and legal scholar, he distinguished himself as a mystical poet.

The excerpt is from a work called the Diwan-i Kabir (The Great Collection) or the Diwan-i Shams-i Tabrizi (The Collection of Shams of Tabriz). Rumi composed these works following the spiritual transformation he underwent after meeting and training with his beloved teacher Shams of Tabriz, who sadly disappeared.

Rumi's works ranged from the contemplative to the erotic and were written mostly in Persian but also Arabic, Turkish and Greek, an indication of the multicultural environment in which he lived.

His actual name was Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī or Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi. Rumi referred to the place he was from - Anatolia (i.e. modern Turkey) - which was known as Rome because it was formerly the seat of the Eastern Roman (i.e. Byzantine) empire (Nicholson, xv-li).

Today, his works have been translated into many languages, and he is one of the most popular poets in the English language.

• Ǧalāl-ad-Dīn Rūmī. “XII.” In Selected Poems from the Dīvān-i Shams-i Tabrīz: Ed. and Transl. with an Introd., Notes and App., translated by Reynold Alleyne Nicholson, xv-li; 47. Cambridge: Univ. Press, 1898. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.52959/page/n3. Farsi and English.

In the Ice Bagh - wind often blows around mist, drawing attention, like the poem, to invisible breezes that may carry secret messages. Tall trees, though not Ban (i.e Moringa) trees, loom as if they are listening too.

This poem belongs to a genre of landscape poetry in Medieval Arabic, which often used references to nature or the garden to explore the subtleties of romantic love and flirtation. Here the poet speaks of conversing with ban trees and of secret loves conveyed through the winds. The ban, or moringa, tree was known as the love tree and thought to exemplify the qualities of a beautiful woman (Davila, 110).

Ibn Said al-Andalusi or al-Maghrebi (1213-1286) was an anthologist, poet, historian and geographer, who was raised and educated in medieval Islamic Spain and later moved to the Middle East. On the advice of his friend, the son of the famous Ayyubid Sultan Salah al-Din, al-Maghrebi compiled an abridged collection of Arabic poetry called A Collection of the Flowers of Rarities (al-Muqtatʾaf min Azāhir al-Turaf), which this passage is from (Akkach).

• Davila, Carl. Nūbat Ramal Al-Māya in Cultural Context: The Pen, the Voice, the Text. BRILL, 2015.
• Ibn Sa‘īd al-Andalusī, al-Muqtatʾaf min Azāhir al-Turaf (A Collection of the Flowers of Rarities) (Cairo: al-Hay’a al-Misriyya al-‘Āmma lil-Kitāb, 1984), 139. Andalusia/Aleppo, Syria, c. 685/1286. Translated by Samer Akkach. Samer Akkach, "Poetry and Landscape Aesthetics in the Arab-Islamic Tradition," http://web.mit.edu/akpia/www/articleakkach.pdf. Arabic.
• Kropp, Manfred. Zu Den Abschnitten Über Die Nichtklassische (Muwallad-) Dichtung Aus Dem Kitāb al-Muqtaṭaf Min Azāhir Aṭ-Ṭuraf Des Ibn Saʿīd al-Maġribī. Accessed June 22, 2019. https://www.academia.edu/29006028/Zu_den_Abschnitten_%C3%BCber_die_nichtklassische_muwallad-_Dichtung_aus_dem_Kit%C4%81b_al-Muqta%E1%B9%ADaf_min_az%C4%81hir_a%E1%B9%AD-%E1%B9%ADuraf_des_Ibn_Sa%CA%BF%C4%ABd_al-Ma%C4%A1rib%C4%AB.
• Pellat, Ch. ‘Ibn Saʿīd Al-Mag̲h̲ribī’. In Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, edited by P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs, P.J. Bearman (Volumes X, XI, XII), Th. Bianquis (Volumes X, XI, XII), et al. Accessed June 22, 2019. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_3351.

• Nelson Byrd Woltz. Aga Khan Garden: The Ice Chabutra Spouts Mists of Water. Edmonton 2018. Digital Photograph. Nelson Byrd Woltz collection. https://archnet.org/sites/16792/media_contents/133040.

• Kaiho. Sitar Long, 2007. freesound.org. 37715__kaiho__sitar-long.aiff.

The SE Bustan is filled with fruit trees, much like the garden described in the passage.

This passage is part of a poem that follows the amazement a emperor who has just seen the Bagh-e Bedad garden which his servantAlqash has built. In the The Adventures of Amir Hamza, the devious Alqash convinces the emperor to visit the luxurious garden (Bagh-e Bedad) that he built with ill-gotten wealth. Upon seeing the garden, the emperor marvels out loud at its beauty and at the exotic plants and abundant fruit it contains (Lakhnavi and Bilgrami, 18).

• Bilgrami, Abdullah, and Ghalib Lakhnavi. “Excerpt.” In The Adventures of Amir Hamza, Lord of the Auspicious Planetary Conjunction: A Complete and Unabridged Translation, translated by Musharraf Ali Farooqi, 19. New York: Modern Library, 2007. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/883417767.

• Keshani, Hussein. Aga Khan Garden - SE Bustan. 2018.

• Unknown. Imperial Palace Autumn Moon 《汉宫秋月》, n.d. The Internet Chinese Music Archive The Great Empire of China. https://www.ibiblio.org/chinese-music/MP3/TD03.Imperial_Palace_Autumn_Moon.mp3.

The SE Bustan is filled with fruit trees, and the passage makes reference to fruit orchards.

Written by one of the most famous Persian poets in history Saadi (1184-1292), these lines are from the tenth story in the Rose Garden (Gulistan). After visiting a garden with a friend, who collected flowers only to see them quickly die, Saadi resolved to create a literary garden mixing wit and wisdom that would last.

They proceed the well-known extracted poem The Children of Adam (Bani Adam) and are part of his advice to be compassionate, which he gives to an Arab king he encounters while offering prayers at the tomb of the Jewish/Christian prophet and saint John the Baptist, located in The Great Mosque of Damascus, Syria. Saadi was from Shiraz Iran, but was displaced with the Mongol conquests of Iran and travelled widely across Central Asia and the Middle East, studying for a time in Iraq.

• Saʻdī, and Richard Jeffrey Newman. Selections from Saadi’s Gulistan. New York: Global Scholarly Publications : International Society for Iranian Culture, 2004. 39. https://www.academia.edu/38078124/Selections_from_Saadis_Gulistan.

From this viewpoint one can see the restored pond, the planted orchard, the built garden and forest in the background, a pageant of nature of sorts.

محفلِ قدرت ہے، اک دریائے بے پایانِ حسن; آنکھ اگر دیکھے تو ہر قطرے میں ہے طوفانِ حسن

These lines are from a poem found in a 1924 Urdu collection called Call of the Marching Bell (Bang-i Dara), by the famous philosopher-poet, lawyer and politician Muhammad Iqbal, who composed works in Persian, Urdu and English. The collection was written in South Asia and England and the poem speaks to Iqbal's love of Nature, as expression of the Divine. In these lines nature, like the Divine, is both fathomless and beautiful, with every element being a window into the larger whole.

A student of Arabic, English literature and philosophy, Iqbal studied in India and England where he became a barrister and then Germany. He would go on to be a major intellectual figure, who called for the establishment of the nation of Pakistan.

• Iqbal, Muhammad. Bang-i Dara (Call of the Marching Bell). Lahore: Karimi Press, 1924. http://www.allamaiqbal.com/works/poetry/urdu/bang/text/index.htm.
• Iqbal, Muhammad. “Iqbal, the Poet of Nature.” Iqbal Review 18, no. 4 (January 1978). http://allamaiqbal.com/publications/journals/review/jan78/13.htm#_edn3.

• Keshani, Hussein. Aga Khan Garden - NW Bustan. 2018.

• Unknown. Sitar and Tabla Duo. Mp3. Vol. Field Recordings from India. India, 2008. freemusicarchive.org. https://archive.org/details/Field_Recordings_from_India-9888/Broos_-_45_-_sitar__tabla_duo.mp3.

The humorous passage belongs to the text Hikayat Malim Deman (The Epic of Malim Deman) a Malay tale of heroic adventure, based on a Malay tradition of oral adventure stories (cerita lipur lara) and South Asian and Middle Eastern influences. The Malay prince Malim Deman dreams a Muslim saint has told him to go upriver to find a wife among 7 fairy princesses who have descended to earth (Brakel-Papenhuyzen ). He marries, loses and regains his wife in fantastical adventure.

• Brakel-Papenhuyzen, Clara. “Jaka Tarub, a Javanese Culture Hero?” Indonesia and the Malay World 34, no. 98 (March 1, 2006): 75–90. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639810600652352.
• Fang, Liaw Yock. A History of Classical Malay Literature. Institute of Southeast Asian, 2013.
• Sturrock, A. J., and Richard Winstedt. Hikayat Malim Deman. Methodist Publishing House, 1908
• Winstedt, R. O. “Nature in Malay Literature and Folk Verse.” J.R. Asiat. Soc. G.B. Irel. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland 75, no. 1–2 (1943): 27–33.