English: Zakariya ibn Muhammad ibn Mahmud al-Qazwini (d.1283), Aja'ib al-Makhluqat (On the Wonders of Creation), copied by ‘Ali Asghar ibn Mirza Muhammad ‘Ali Ashtiyani, Persia, Qajar, dated 4 Jumada II 1264 AH/8 May 1848 AD

Persian manuscript on paper, 233 leaves plus 2 fly-leaves, 20 lines to the page written in nasta’liq in black ink, ruled in gold, green, red and blue, 320 illustrations in gouache and ink throughout the text, in lacquer binding with floral cartouches

text panel: 23.5 by 13cm.

leaf: 29 by 19.6cm.

Abu Yahya Zakariya ibn Muhammad ibn Mahmud al-Qazwini (1203-82) was a physician, astronomer and geographer who was born in Qazwin and travelled extensively in Mesopotamia and the Levant. He dedicated his cosmography entitled 'Aja'ib al-Makhluqat wa Ghara'ib al-Maujudat to 'Ata-Malik Juwayni (d.1283), a Persian historian who was appointed governor of Baghdad by the Mongol ruler Hulagu after its sacking in 1258.

The present manuscript contains a wealth of illustrations displaying the extensive nature of the text itself. Brockelmann describes the work as the most precious cosmographical text in the Islamic culture (GAL, S.I, p.882) while Ettinghausen further elaborates that al-Qazwini “succinctly and yet systematically treated every natural phenomenon known in the High Middle Ages” (1977, p.138).