6 ON SOME EARLY GARDEN HISTORY 



poet Sadi's most famous work, and in his preface 

 he writes : — 



" Matm-e consideration as to the arrangements 

 of the book made me deem it expedient that this 

 deUcate garden, and this densely wooded grove 

 should, like Paradise, be divided into eight parts 

 in order that it may become the less likely to 

 fatigue." 



These eight parts or terraces, being taken 

 from the Paradise-garden of the Koran, were 

 always the ideal for the perfect garden. " God 

 Almighty first planted a garden," and the early 

 followers of the Prophet, stem materialists as 

 they were, in spite of their poets, took their ideas 

 of Paradise very literally from the gardens 

 around them. 



Hafiz is another sweet singer through whose 

 songs the beauteous gardens of Shiraz are well 

 known; and that great poet of East Persia, 

 Omar Khayyam of Korassdn, is more popular 

 now, after the lapse of nearly eight centuries, 

 than he was in his own time and country. 



One of his pupils, Khwajah Nizami of Samar- 

 cand, relates how he often used to hold conversa- 

 tions with his teacher in a garden ; and one day 

 the master said to him, " My tomb shall be in a 



