An Old Sufi Laments His Lost Youth

In this garden scene, an elderly sufi (an individual who follows the Islamic mystical tradition) gestures toward a handsome young man in an orange robe. On the left, a man tends to the soil, and on the right, a gardener washes his feet. The water channels, pools, flowerbeds, planted and paved areas, and pathways were typically seen in Mughal India, where garden design reached a high point. Notice how the components of the design are aligned, parallel and perpendicular. Chahar-bagh, the formal garden divided into four parts by straight water channels, was extremely popular in Iran and India.