Usman Saeed

Bagh-e Noor Jahan, 2024

Crest, YMCA – Garden 

Wing one, Pak Tea House 

Wing two, Hafiz Juice Corner

Anarkali Bazaar, Lahore

Plants, birdbaths, benches under trees and mural painting on YMCA building facade

Usman Saeed’s Bagh-e Noor Jahan (The Garden of Noor Jahan)—named after the powerful Mughal Empress Noor Jahan (1577–1645), queen consort of Emperor Jahangir—is a series of trifold, open-access community gardens that combine early 17th-century Mughal horticultural practices with present-day migrant botanical specimens. It spans three large green areas between Nila Gumbad Road and Anarkali Bazaar, both sites of Mughal heritage, along Mall Road, which was built during British colonial rule.

With the belief ‘a garden for every creation,’ Bagh-e Noor Jahan aims to revitalize biodiversity in one of the city’s busiest and most polluted areas and is designed to increase the small-bird population in this historic and commercial thoroughfare. An aerial view of the constellation of community gardens reveals the distinct shape of a Sarus Crane—a favorite of Jahangir, which has been meticulously detailed in both his memoir and commissioned paintings. As Noor Jahan’s garden designs have come to light after a recent re-evaluation of historical accounts, Nur Jahan’s Garden seeks to restore her place as one of Lahore’s most influential matriarchs, a story overlooked in the colonial representation of Pakistani history.

Usman Saeed (b. 1977) is a gardener, artist, researcher and educator based in Lahore. Usman graduated from the National College of Arts in Lahore, in 1999 and the Royal College of Art in London, in 2006. He works from Bagh-e-Sadia, his home garden studio named in memory of his late mother, Sadia Saeed. His ongoing series Gardenfinds brings into focus nature, its subjects and subjectivities. His practice relies first on studying life from nature and, in turn, on editing the study stylistically. Working as an Associate Professor at the Institute for Art and Culture in Lahore, he specializes in Indo-Persian drawing and painting.