Persian Manuscripts : ʻAjāyib al-Makhlūqāt

Qazvīnī, Zakarīyā ibn Muḥammad, ca. 1203-1283Qazwīnī, Zakarīyā ibn Muḥammad, ca. 1203-1283قزوينی، زكريا بن محمد, Anonymous

Persian Manuscripts

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This illuminated and illustrated anonymous Persian translation of the <i>ʻAjā’ib al-Makhlūqāt va Gharāʼib al-Mawjūdāt</i> (Wonders of Creation and Oddities of Existence), Qazvīnī's famous medieval Arabic cosmography, appears incomplete. It nevertheless contains some 200 illustrations in a refined late Mughal style. The volume consists of two distinct physical segments: an initial portion from folios <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(10);return false;'>1b to 126b</a>, which appears to date to the late Mughal era, with the text completed in a very neat nasta‘līq script, which bears a number of repairs, while the remainder appears in a comparatively hasty hand on entirely different paper stock devoid of restoration. That may indicate that a later patron completed what had been either an unfinished or damaged incomplete manuscript. The colophon indicates the second unidentified scribe completed the volume on 8 Ẕī-al-Qa‘dah, 45th year of the reign of Shāh ‘Alām II (19 Feb. 1804 CE).</p>