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Medieval Islamic View of the Cosmos: The Newly Discovered Book of Curiosities

In June 2002, the Department of Oriental Collections of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, acquired an Arabic manuscript of considerable importance to the history of medieval cartography.1 This newly discovered manuscript contains a remarkable series of early maps and astronomical diagrams, most of which are unparalleled in any Greek, Latin or Arabic material known to be preserved today. The rhyming title of the volume, Kitāb Gharā’ib al-funūn wa-mulahD al-‘uyūn, loosely translates as The Book of Curiosities of the Sciences and Marvels for the Eyes. The volume contains a single Arabic treatise formed of two books: the first, on celestial matters, is composed of 10 chapters, and the second, on terrestrial matters, is divided into 25 chapters. The author of The Book of Curiosities is not named and has not been identified. Internal evidence suggests that the book was composed in the first half of the 11th century, after 1020 and before 1050, most probably in Egypt. Physical evidence, however, suggests that the copy we have today is more recent. The paper, inks and pigments are consistent with Egyptian–Syrian products made from the end of the 12th through the 14th century. The script suggests that it was copied about 1200. As is typical of many medieval compositions, the treatise begins with a description of the heavens and their influence upon events on earth. It contains a number of unique illustrations and rare texts, including an illustrated discourse on comets and several pages depicting the ‘lunar mansions’ — star-groups near the ecliptic whose risings and settings were traditionally used to predict rain and other meteorological events — with neighbouring prominent stars. The author’s interest here is primarily astrological and divinatory, and no mathematical astronomy is presented. The second book, on the earth, is of greater interest to historians of cartography. According to the author, this second book is largely dependent upon the Geography of Ptolemy. In general, though, our author’s interest is descriptive and historical rather than mathematical. Along with geographical and historical texts, the author provides two world maps, one rectangular and one circular. He then follows with maps of the great seas known to him, which were the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean and the Caspian. The author was particularly interested in depicting the shores of the Mediterranean, of which he probably had first-hand knowledge. Besides the detailed schematic map of the coasts and islands of the Mediterranean, the treatise also contains unique maps of Sicily, Cyprus and the commercial centres of al-Mahdiyah in North Africa and Tinnis in Egypt. The treatise also includes five unique river-maps of the Nile, the Euphrates, the Tigris, the Oxus and the Indus.