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The research presented in this book is based mainly upon the analysis of five illustrated (AjÄ'ib al-makhluqÄt wa-gharÄ'ib al-mawjudÄt manuscripts made between 1280 and 1388. Four contain Zakariya' b. Muhammad al-Qazwini's (d. 1283) Arabic work while the last manuscript has a Persian text composed by Tusi Salmani in the last quarter of the twelfth century. Both works present an inventory of the cosmos from the supralunar spheres to the earth to the constituents of the three kingdoms of nature, including the human being. Qazwini's (AjÄ'ib in particular, and to a lesser degree Tusi Salmani's work, are best described as medieval encyclopaedias of natural history.
Berlekamp approaches the "Wonders of Creation" by building upon Qazwini's declared intention to inspire wonder about creation, its strange phenomena as well as its most familiar elements such as domestic animals or garden plants. Knowing and marvelling at them, Qazwini had argued, would inevitably lead the contemplative reader to acknowledge the power and providence of God. Berlekamp's focus is on the specific role the illustrations played in supporting Qazwini's intention during the formative phase of the illustrative programme. She aims to prove that - within a hundred years from the late thirteenth to the late fourteenth century - a shift in emphasis "from the cosmic frame to human agency" (p. xi) occurred in this programme and, accordingly, in the perception of the text. Later developments are only briefly dealt with in the epilogue,...