Cosmology and wonder-tales, splendidly illustrated
'Aja'ib al-Makhluqat wa Ghara'ib al-Mawjudat [A section of The Wonders of Creation and the Oddities of Existence].
Folio (215 x 325 mm). 140 ff. Partial, lacking colophon. Persian manuscript on paper. Black nasta'liq script, with important words and phrases picked out in red. With 302 miniatures, hand-painted in full colour. Contemporary full rustic leather.
€ 28.000,00
The great work of the cosmographer al-Qazwini: a manuscript comprising several sections of his "'Aja'ib al-Makhluqat", wonderfully illustrated with over three hundred miniatures. These colourful paintings show an elephant giving birth, two unicorns, fifty-eight distinct species of bird, fifty-two animals (including camels, donkeys, and tigers), botanical miniatures with identifiable lemons, grape vines, and gourds, and more. The "Wonders of Creation" is, as a text, a cavalcade of the religious, the scientific, and the fantastic from which al-Qazwini's cosmos was formed. Beginning with Creation, the work in its full length covers an incredible range of philosophy, astronomy, anthropology, Muslim theology, and wonder tales; it was originally written in Arabic, but appears here in its Persian translation and manuscript tradition.
While wide-ranging, the work is not solely a collection of wonder tales: al-Qazwini discusses a vast range of botanical medicine, and his interest in geography and cosmography are well-known; his sources ranged from Classical philosophers like Aristotle to Muslim explorers like Ibn Fadlan (known in the West for recording the only textual witness to a Viking funeral). Al-Qazwini was one of the most wide-ranging encyclopedists of his time, and even wrote a work regarded as proto-science fiction, in which an alien man travels to Earth. His "Wonders of Creation" is fascinating, and the resulting manuscript traditions in Arabic and Persian are beautiful and eclectic.
With ownership inscriptions on endpapers, illegible Arabic ownership stamps.
Covers lightly rubbed; manuscript partial as stated, lacking colophon. Light edgewear and chipping, stain to margin of foreedge, and marginalia throughout. In good condition, with nearly all of its 302 miniatures bright and clean.
T. Lewick, 'Kazwini', in The Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.) IV, 865-867. For the author, see GAL S I, 882.