Eram Garden

Eram Garden (Persian: باغ ارم "Bāgh of Eram") is a historic Persian garden in Shiraz, Iran. Eram is the Persianized version of the Arabic word "Iram" meaning heaven in the Muslim's book of Koran. Eram Garden therefore is so called for its beauties and aesthetic attractions resembling "heaven." This garden is located on the northern shore of the Kushk river in the Fars province. Both pavilion and the garden are built during the middle of nineteenth cenutry by the Ilkhanate or a paramount chief of the Qashqai tribes of Pars. The original layout of the garden however, with its quadripartite Persian structure was most likely laied in eighteenth century by the Seljuqs, and was then referred to as the "Bagh-e-Shah" (meaning the "garden of the king" in Persian) and was much less complicated or ornamental.^[1]

Nederlands Traveller Cornelius de Bruyn gives a description of the gardens in the eighteenth century. Over the centuries the structure has been modified, restored or stylistically changed by various participants. The first pavilion facing south along the long axis, was designed by a local architect, Haji Mohammad Hasan. The structure housed 32 rooms on two stories, decorated by tiles with poems from the Persian poet Hafez written on them. The structure underwnet renovation by the Zand dynasty and was also renovated during the time of the Qajar dynasty. The Pahlavi dynasty invested a lot in this garden renovating it to an internationally recognizable status; in fact in 1965, then Britain's embassador to Iran, Sir Denis Wright was invited by Asadollah Alam, Mohammad Reza Shah's close friend, and at the time Chancellor of Shiraz University, to a party in Eram Garden thrown for Princess Alexandra of the Oglivy.^[1] The compound came under the protection of Pahlavi University during the Pahlavi era, and was used as the College of Law.

It is today still a property of Shiraz University, and is open to the public as a museum, protected by Iran's Cultural Heritage Organization.

See also

• Persian gardens
• Iranian architecture
• Qavam House

Sources

1. ^ ^{a b} Penelope Hobhouse, Erica Hunningher, Jerry Harpur (2004). Gardens of Persia. Kales Press. pp. 126. http://books.google.com/books?id=AMFRyiAxZ6YC&pg=PA126&dq=Eram+garden&hl=en&ei=VzpQTcLjNs29tge92cm3AQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Eram%20garden&f=false.