BĀḠ-e PĪRŪZĪ (or Fīrūzī), literally “Garden of Triumph,” a royal garden in Ḡazna lying beside the Fīrūzī palace and the ʿArūs-al-Falak mosque, founded and built by Sultan Maḥmūd of Ḡazna. Maḥmūd was a great builder and possessed palaces and gardens in every important city (see Šabānkāraʾī, pp. 68, 70; Nāẓim, pp. 166-67; Bosworth, Ghaznavids, pp. 139ff.) but he especially loved this garden and was buried there on Thursday, 23 Rabīʿ II 421/30 April 1030, according to his own will and the common practice of the Ghaznavids (Bayhaqī, pp. 13, 335; Šabānkāraʾī, p. 66; Jīlānī Jalālī, p. 217). Two days after his arrival in Ḡazna on 8 Jomādā II 422/2 June 1031, Sultan Masʿūd visited his father’s tomb and ordered a rebāṭ to be built there. He also insisted on consuming its legacies as they were indicated, then forbade anyone to come to the garden for pleasure. Farroḵī Sīstānī in his elegy for Sultan Maḥmūd says that he can never again see the flowered Bāḡ-e Fīrūzī without Maḥmūd (Dīvān, p. 91). Bayhaqī (p. 890) mentions that when he wrote his book (probably in 451/1059, see S. Naficy [Nafīsī] in EI2 I, p. 1131), the building of the garden and its central square (meydān) has been changed and dilapidated. During Masʿūd’s reign some ceremonies took place in the garden, particularly army reviews (Bayhaqī, pp. 526, 654, 702, 736-37, 890, in the years 425/1033-34, 427/1035-36, 429/1037-38, 430/1038-39, 432/1040-41). The lawn (ḵażrāʾ) of the garden was the temporary jail of Amir Moḥammad’s four sons in 432/1040-41 (Bayhaqī, pp. 893-94).
The Bāḡ-e Pīrūzī has now been completely destroyed but the extant tomb of Maḥmūd, which is situated in a little village named Rawża-ye Solṭān (The sultan’s tomb) about two miles to the north of the present town of Ḡazna (Nāẓim, p. 167; S. Flury, Syria 6, 1925, pp. 61-90), shows where it was located (see Bombaci and Scerrato, p. 19).
Bibliography:
A. Bombaci and U. Scerrato, “Summary Report on the Italian Archaeological Mission in Afghanistan,” East and West, N.S. 10/1-2, 1959, pp. 3-55.
Bosworth, Ghaznavids, pp. 139-41, 286 n. 29.
Farroḵī Sīstānī, Dīvān, ed. M. Dabīrsīāqī, 3rd ed., Tehran, 1363 Š./1984.
Ḡ. Jīlānī Jalālī, Ḡazna wa ḡaznavīān, Kabul, 1351 Š./1972, pp. 187, 217.
Ḵ. Ḵalīlī, “Āṯār-e bāstānī-e šahr-e Ḡaznī,” Aḵbār-e Dānešgāh-e Mašhad 2/5, 1339 Š./1960.
Idem, Dīvān, ed. M.-Ḥ. Omīdvār Harātī, Tehran, 1341 Š./1962, pp. 228-41.
Dehḵodā, s.v. M. A. Madadī, Ważʿ-e ejtemāʿī-e dawra-ye ḡaznavīān, Kabul, 1356 Š./1977, pp. 509-15.
M. Nāẓim, The Life and Times of Sulṭān Maḥmūd of Ghazna, Cambridge, 1931, pp. 166-67.
Moḥammad b. ʿAlī b. Moḥammad Šabānkāraʾī, Majmaʿ al-ansāb, ed. M. Ḥ. Moḥaddeṯ, Tehran, 1363 Š./1984.
G. T. Vigne, A Personal Narrative of a Visit to Ghuzni, Kabol, and Afghanistan, London, 1840.
D. N. Wilber, Afghanistan, New Haven, 1956, p. 373.
Ḡ.-Ḥ. Yūsofī, Farroḵī Sīstānī, šarḥ-e aḥwāl o rūzgār o šeʿr-e ū, Mašhad, 1341 Š./1962, pp. 229-32.
Search terms:
| باغ پیروزی | bagh e pirouz | bagh e piroz | bagh e pirouzi |
| baaghe pirouzi |
(Ḡ.-Ḥ. Yūsofī)
Originally Published: December 15, 1988
Last Updated: August 22, 2011
This article is available in print.
Vol. III, Fasc. 4, pp. 401-402
