Towards an interpretation of the use of water in Islamic courtyards and courtyard gardens

Abstract

The relation between courtyard and garden is particularly close in Islamic architecture, a fact attributable in part to their common origin in the irrigated and walled enceinte or paradeisos of the ancient Near Fast. The interpenetration of these two types was enhanced in the medieval period when courtyards centred around pools and surrounded by iwans (halls with arched openings, totally open on one side) became typical of a wide variety of religious and secular monumental types such as madrasas (theological colleges), hospitals, and palaces. While the two types remain to a certain measure independent of one another, there are numerous instances, ranging from the ninth-century palaces of Samarra to the fourteenth-century Court of the Lions at the Alhambra palace, where the synthesis between garden and courtyard is virtually complete. Generally speaking, however, the one element present in most courtyards and all gardens is water.