Talk:Garden of Ridván, Baghdad

Text and/or other creative content from this version of Ridván was copied or moved into Garden of Ridván, Baghdad with this edit on 22 April 2011. The former page's history now serves to provide attribution for that content in the latter page, and it must not be deleted as long as the latter page exists.

A fact from Garden of Ridván, Baghdad appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 29 April 2011, and was viewed approximately 1,300 times (disclaimer) (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that the festival of Ridván, the "King of Festivals" of the Bahá'í Faith, celebrates events that took place in a garden in Baghdad (pictured) almost 150 years ago?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2011/April.

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Picture available?

Is there a picture of the garden or the hospital available?

On http://bahai-library.com/walbridge_encyclopedia_ridvan is John Walbridge states:

In the twentieth century the Royal Hospital was established there and it is now the site of Medical City, a large modern teaching hospital. Wiki-uk 05:10, 5 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I have found a picture now, and uploaded it. Wiki-uk 14:31, 14 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

might have a period map we can use?

See ECAI Iraq, Historic Site Profile, under Maps, which links to this map from 1849. It doesn't show the island exactly but it show the vicinity near the period.The question is can we use it here? Smkolins (talk) 13:24, 22 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The Story of Ridván by David Merrick notes:

The Garden of Ridvan was a large agricultural area immediately north of Baghdad city walls, on the east bank of the River Tigris, about 450 metres from the Mu'azzam gate, and directly across the river from the district where Bahá'u'lláh lived. Being on the road of exile to Istanbul, it was well-placed to assemble the caravan for the journey and receive visitors. Early images show it as a wooded garden. Najib Pasha built a palace there and a wall around the garden. Dying in May 1851, the garden was presumably in his heirs' hands at the time of this story. It was purchased by the government in 1870 to use as a guest house for the Shah's visit, and in the 20th century, the Royal Hospital was established there, now Medical City, a large modern teaching hospital.

Smkolins (talk) 13:40, 22 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I found this file on Wikicommons, so why not? Won't two pictures be too much for such a small article? Wiki-uk (talk) 13:47, 22 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

That's London - I think you may have meant File:Ridvan-garden-baghdad.jpg but it's not linking right in the article right now (I'd presumed that was because the file was deleted but I guess not.) As for two pictures - yes for the size of the article as is. Begs the question if it should be expanded I suppose. But then I'm not sure which one would be better. Smkolins (talk) 15:47, 22 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Darn - something's wrong with my browser. The picture comes up in Firefox. Another bug to report... Smkolins (talk) 15:50, 22 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I checked with the librarian chat service about the 1849 map and they said "The map is in the public domain, and we are not claiming copyright on the scan. You can use it in any way you wish.". Smkolins (talk) 16:55, 22 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The problem with the Name

The real name of this place is Najibiyyeh Garden. As stated in the article, the garden was built by Muhammad Najib Pasha, the Ottoman governor of Iraq. Najib died in 1851, so when Bahaullah visited in 1863, he met with Najib's heirs. The heirs sold the place to the Ottoman government in 1870. It's never been called Garden of Ridvan by the real owners.