ABSTRACT
Gardens and garden parties constituted an important part of Ottoman arts and culture. They displayed vivid images of the Ottoman cultural life and anchored Ottoman social order. The Sultan's party takes place in a garden, but the activity is bounded by a low partition which seems to be made of a stretched fabric. Similar to the spatial arrangement of the garden party at Suleymanname, there is a fountain between the musicians and the guests who are listening to the music and enjoying the party. The party took place either in a garden, a meadow, or a garden pavilion, which was the representation of an ideal garden. The special genre of poetry read or cited at garden parties was called gazel. A gazel was a short poem, whose theme was love, beauty and wine; and whose most important characteristic was its artful form and language. It was originally a Persian genre. Garden rituals enabled real gardens to accommodate ideal gardens.
