Cosmology and wonder-tales, splendidly illustrated

Qazwini, Zakariyya ibn Muhammad al-. 'Aja'ib al-Makhluqat wa Ghara'ib al-Mawjudat [A section of The Wonders of Creation and the Oddities of Existence].

€ 45.000,00

The great work of the cosmographer al-Qazwini: a manuscript comprising several sections of his "'Aja'ib al-Makhluqat", wonderfully illustrated with over one hundred and seventy miniatures. These colourful paintings show the astrological signs, an astronomer at work with telescope and astrolabe, a series of Islamic angels, a particularly wide range of mystical beasts, including a phoenix and dragon, numerous fish both real and imagined, including one full-page watery scene, depictions of weather events like lightning and a rainbow, botanical miniatures with identifiable oranges, grape vines, and date palms, and more.

The "Wonders of Creation" is, as a text, a parade 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, Islamic 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 another 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.