Book of Curiosities
The Book of Curiosities (Arabic: Kitāb Gharā’ib al-funūn wa-mulaḥ al-ʿuyūn, literally translated as Book of Curiosities of the Sciences and Marvels for the Eyes) is an anonymous 11th-century Arabic cosmography from Fatimid Egypt containing a series of early illustrated maps of the world and celestial diagrams of the universe and sky.
[3] The author of The Book of Curiosities does not provide his name, but over the course of the treatise reveals information about himself by referencing historical events that occurred during his time.
"[4] During this time, telescopes had not yet been invented so Book I depicts only the five planets that could be seen by the naked eye (Venus, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn).
Book II also contains maps of the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean, and the Caspian, as well as river-maps of the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Indus, the Oxus, and the Nile.
The author does not limit his scope to just sky and sea, and spends the last five chapters of the book discussing "'curiosities' such as monstrous animals and wondrous plants.
"[5] Savage-Smith refers to the manuscript as "a reader’s digest guide to the universe" due to the deluge of information which the author presents in simple wording that lacks technical detail.
[5] The cosmography was thus not intended for practical use on a ship, but more-so for wealthy Fatimid patrons who were less versed in the technicalities of cartography and navigation.
Specialists have been able to date the manuscript's composition using the production process of the paper, for it was most likely produced using a grass mould, a typical method used in Egypt and Syria in the 13th and 14th centuries.
The author intended to depict the inhabited world, so the continent of Africa is left out of the map because it was thought to be uninhabited at the time.
[4] The scale bar at the top of the map is not mathematically correct, but it indicates that the author was familiar with the cartographical concepts of Ptolemy.
