Wonders and Rarities - Travis Zadeh

“Like al-Qazwini himself, Travis Zadeh has written a deliciously baggy tome, full of delights and diversions in its tour of the cosmic horizons. This is a book to get lost in, whether one wants to or not.” —Nile Green, Los Angeles Review of Books  “As Zadeh concludes, reformers and modernists have closed the rich and varied archive revealed in Wonders and Rarities…In this beautifully written and engaging text, Zadeh takes his readers back to the world of surprise and enchantment that preceded this closure.”—Malise Ruthven, Financial Times  “This book about a book, like the book it describes, is a rare and marvelous thing.” —Justin Marozzi, The Spectator  During the thirteenth century, the Persian naturalist and judge Zakariyya? Qazwini authored what became one of the most influential works of natural history in the world: Wonders and Rarities. Exploring the dazzling movements of the stars above, the strange minutiae of the minerals beneath the earth, and everything in between, Qazwini offered a captivating account of the cosmos. Wonders and Rarities inspired generations as it traveled through madrasas and courts, unveiling the magical powers of nature. But Qazwini’s compendium eventually came to stand as a strange, if beautiful, emblem of medieval ignorance.  Restoring Qazwini to his place as a herald of the rare and astonishing, Travis Zadeh dramatically revises the place of wonder in the histo
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