farfel_n06_079_441

441
Los Angeles
Dawson's
Feb. '96
$100

Arabic manuscript. (18 or 19th C?) folio.
21x30 cm. Persia - 17th C.? - no watermark.
Written in a clear naskhi script on cream
colored paper. 31 lines, 1 column, black
ink with headings in red. Margins frayed somewhat.
recto - 2 plants in colors, within red borders. -(frames)
verso - 1 plant in colors.

Wonders of Creation and Oddities of Existence
(Ajaib al-Makhlukat.) - in some form of recension.
al-Kazwini (1302-83).

- Tabaristan - the name applied by the Arabs to Mazandaran,
a province of Persia, north of mount Alburz (land
of Tabar).
- The work is a 'cosmography', a literary genre
which became popular in the 13th C + which
attempts to sum up the scientific knowledge of
the period - composed about 1270 at Wasit near
Baghdad. The text became extremely popular
from the 16th up to the 19th C + appeared in
both Persian + Ottoman Turkish translations.

- The work is divided inot 2 parts. The 1st part contains
an extensive introduction to the heavely bodies + the
inhabitants of heaven (ie. angels) + concludes with a
chapter on chronology. The *2nd portion describes
sublunar phenomena + elements, natural history +
finally man. The book also contains geographical
details such as descriptions of major seas, rivers,
islands + mountains.