About a millennium ago, in Cairo, an unknown author completed a large and richly illustrated book. In the course of thirty-five chapters, this book guided the reader on a journey from the outermost cosmos and planets to Earth and its lands, islands, features, and inhabitants. This treatise, known as The Book of Curiosities, was unknown to modern scholars until a remarkable manuscript copy surfaced in 2000. Lost Maps of the Caliphs provides the first general overview of The Book of Curiosities and the unique insight it offers into medieval Islamic thought. Opening with an account of the remarkable discovery of the manuscript and its purchase by the Bodleian Library, the authors use The Book of Curiosities to re-evaluate the development of astrology, geography, and cartography in the first four centuries of Islam. Their account assesses the transmission of Late Antique geography to the Islamic world, unearths the logic behind abstract maritime diagrams, and considers the palaces and walls that dominate medieval Islamic plans of towns and ports. Early astronomical maps and drawings demonstrate the medieval understanding of the structure of the cosmos and illustrate the pervasive assumption that almost any visible celestial event had an effect upon life on Earth. Lost Maps of the Caliphs also reconsiders the history of global communication networks at the turn of the previous millennium. It shows the Fatimid Empire, and its capital Cairo, as a global maritime power, with tentacles spanning from the eastern Mediterranean to the Indus Valley and the East African coast. As Lost Maps of the Caliphs makes clear, not only is The Book of Curiosities one of the greatest achievements of medieval mapmaking, it is also a remarkable contribution to the story of Islamic civilization that opens an unexpected window to the medieval Islamic view of the world.
About a millennium ago, in Cairo, an unknown author completed a large and richly illustrated book. In the course of thirty-five chapters, this book guided the reader on a journey from the outermost cosmos and planets to Earth and its lands, islands, features, and inhabitants. This treatise, known as The Book of Curiosities, was unknown to modern scholars until a remarkable manuscript copy surfaced in 2000. Lost Maps of the Caliphs provides the first general overview of The Book of Curiosities and the unique insight it offers into medieval Islamic thought. Opening with an account of the remarkable discovery of the manuscript and its purchase by the Bodleian Library, the authors use The Book of Curiosities to re-evaluate the development of astrology, geography, and cartography in the first four centuries of Islam. Their account assesses the transmission of Late Antique geography to the Islamic world, unearths the logic behind abstract maritime diagrams, and considers the palaces and walls that dominate medieval Islamic plans of towns and ports. Early astronomical maps and drawings demonstrate the medieval understanding of the structure of the cosmos and illustrate the pervasive assumption that almost any visible celestial event had an effect upon life on Earth. Lost Maps of the Caliphs also reconsiders the history of global communication networks at the turn of the previous millennium. It shows the Fatimid Empire, and its capital Cairo, as a global maritime power, with tentacles spanning from the eastern Mediterranean to the Indus Valley and the East African coast. As Lost Maps of the Caliphs makes clear, not only is The Book of Curiosities one of the greatest achievements of medieval mapmaking, it is also a remarkable contribution to the story of Islamic civilization that opens an unexpected window to the medieval Islamic view of the world.
The collection of 41 treatises in 26 Oriental manuscripts now at St John's College, Oxford, reflect the varying ways in which Europeans have sought to make themselves familiar with the cultures of the East. Acquired between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, most are Arabic or Persian, but there are also Syriac, Hebrew, Turkish, Ethiopic, and Gujarati items. No mere catalogue, it includes an essay by Geert Jan van Gelder, the present Laudian Professor of Arabic, University of Oxford on the Arabic poetry that owners over the years jotted down on the margins, and is lavishly illustrated with 37 examples of calligraphy, diagrams, and illuminations.The catalogue provides a detailed description of every item within each manuscript. Most of the manuscript volumes were acquired through the donation of Archbishop William Laud (d. 1645), founder of the Chair of Arabic which bears his name. Several of his volumes were acquired from the traveller and adventurer Sir Kenelm Digby (d.1665), who bought them in Amsterdam, possibly on Laud's behalf. They are an interestingly varied collection, including Qur'ans and Arabic and Persian treatises on astronomical, mathematical, and military subjects. A bi-lingual Hebrew-Latin manuscript, as well as Arabic astronomical tables, came through the donation of Edward Bernard, Savilian Professor of Astronomy from 1673 to 1691. Six more manuscripts were given to the College in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including an Ottoman Turkish letter, a Gujarati merchant's map, and two Hebrew thirteenth-century deeds of conveyance collected by the antiquary John Pointer (d. 1754), one-time chaplain of Merton College, Oxford.
This is a guide to a ninth-century astronomical treatise, the Aratea, on loan from the University of Leiden and exhibited at the Museum. The book describes the manuscript, as a text. Subsequent chapters discuss ancient conceptions of the universe, the zodiacal signs, and the Planetarium miniatures. All miniatures from the manuscript are illustrated.
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