Iranian Gardening Discourse in the Safavid Era

Iranian (Persian) gardens are an enduring legacy of ancient material and spiritual culture. A garden is not only a place for growing plants but also a place that has always been associated with mystical concepts by Iranians, a space for human interaction with the world, providing a sacred connection with nature. In other words, an Iranian garden is more than a cultivated plot of land; it is a gateway to another world. The aim of this paper is to analyze Iranian garden discourse during the Safavid period (1501—1736) and related concepts prevalent in Iranian culture and art.

During the Safavid era, centralized royal workshops were established to support artists, where poets, painters, and other artists collaborated. During this time, religious themes became increasingly prominent, contributing to the incorporation of mystical concepts into the artistic sphere. Carpet weaving was an important form of art during this era. Garden carpets (as a form of carpet weaving) are a striking manifestation of the Persian garden phenomenon, which has always been a focal point in Iranian art.

We examine the theme of the garden in an interdisciplinary context — as a dominant trend in artistic discourse during the Safavid era. The discursive theories of E. Laclau and C. Mouffe, as well as M. Foucault’s discourse theory, serve as the methodological basis for analyzing the phenomenon of the Iranian (Persian) garden. The scientific novelty of this study lies not only in its unconventional approach to exploring the theme of the garden in Iranian carpet art but also in the introduction of Persian texts, previously unused in the context of this topic in Russian art criticism. The use of these sources allows us to reconstruct the Iranian garden cultural discourse itself and identify the semantic structures that directly influenced the formation of carpet compositions. The results of this study allow us to answer the question of the role that gardening discourse played in the development of artistic expression and carpet weaving during this period. The findings demonstrate that gardening discourse had a significant impact on the development of carpet weaving and inspired artists and weavers to express their ideas.

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