Palace Gardens in Lower Mesopotamia

Safa Mahmoudian is a Senior Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of Vienna, funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). She has previously held academic positions at the Khalili Research Centre at the University of Oxford, the Institute of Iranian Studies at the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Department of Art History of the University of Vienna. Her earlier work explored the riverine landscape of a main water ‎‎‎canal‎ – ‎Fadan Mādī‎ – in seventeenth-century Isfahan from various angles, and her current research focuses on cross-cultural interactions between Khorasan and Lower Mesopotamia during the early Islamic period.

• List of FiguresList of PlatesAcknowledgementsNote on Transliterations, Translations, Dates and MeasuresIntroduction1. Garden and River in the Land between Two Rivers2. Flora and Fauna3. Water Features4. Relationship between Throne Hall and Garden: ‎A Discussion Based on Bahw and Sidillī5. Gardens with Physical RemainsBibliographyIndex

With this systematic interdisciplinary study, Safa Mahmoudian opens a new window on the magnificent gardens of a little-studied period of Islamic history. Her thorough insights contribute remarkably to our knowledge of these once lively gardens and our understanding of palace architecture of the Abbasid nobility and their court culture.