Document 17-3: Babur and His Architect Plan the Bagh-i-Wafu (ca. 1590)

A Mughal Emperor Plans a Persian Garden

Babur (r. 1483–1530), the founder of the Mughal Dynasty, played a key role in bringing Persian gardens to India. Babur’s interest in gardens predated his invasion of India. The Persian miniature included here shows Babur and his architect working on Babur’s very first garden, the Bagh-i-Wafu (Garden of Fidelity) in Kabul, Afghanistan. The Bagh-i-Wafu was a charbagh, a Persian-style garden in which the garden is divided into four quadrants by paths that intersect at the center. The rigid geometry of such gardens was meant to evoke man’s mastery over nature and, from the point of view of the garden’s creator, the ruler’s mastery over his realm. The paths that gave the garden its distinctive look often contained channels that served as artificial streams, recalling the rivers Muslims believe flow through Paradise and providing a handy source of water for the garden. Thus, such gardens were both beautiful and highly symbolic.

image
Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK/Bridgeman Images.

READING AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  1. What practical purposes might such gardens have served? What clues are offered in this image?
  2. Why might Mughal rulers have wanted to be seen as the primary creators of their gardens? What political purposes might such associations have served?
  3. What does this garden suggest about Islamic ideas about nature? About natural beauty?