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'Aja'ib al-makhluqat wa-ghara'ib al-mawjudat


ʿAjā'ib al-makhlūqāt wa gharā'ib al-mawjūdāt (Arabic: عجائب المخلوقات و غرائب الموجودات‎‎, meaning Marvels of creatures and Strange things existing) is book in Arabic and an important work of cosmography by Zakariya ibn Muhammad ibn Mahmud Abu Yahya al-Qazwini who was born in Qazwin year 600 (AH)/1203.

Qazwini mentions fifty names as his sources, the most important of whom are old geographers and historians such as al-Istakhri, Ibn Fadlan, al-Mas‘udi, Ibn Hawqal, al-Biruni, Ibn al-Athir, al-Maqdisi, and al-Razi. Notwithstanding the fact that Qazwini’s work is a compilation of known and unknown sources, it influenced later works of Islamic cosmology and Islamic geography through its style and language. Qazwini’s cosmography is not pure science but it also was intended to entertain its readers by enriching scientific explanations with stories and poetry.

Called the “most precious cosmography of the Islamic culture” by Carl Brockelmann, Qazwini’s cosmography was one of the most read works in the Islamic world since numerous manuscripts and translations from Arabic into Islamic languages have survived. Scholars presented excerpts of it to Western readers. As a product of Islamic thought Qazwini’s ‘Aja'ib al-Makhluqat - that resembles the cosmography of al-Tusi - is characterized by the concept of the unity of God and the unity of creation. Universe is the manifestation of the absolute Truth or God. God's command "Be!" caused all things in the universe to have a place and a reciprocal relationship between themselves. Man in the Islamic tradition has the task to understand the wisdom of God's creation as much as possible. God is the ultimate goal of that cosmic structure. These spiritual concepts have their basis in the Qur'an, hadith and the sciences that developed in pre-Islamic times and were adopted in the Islamic world.


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