Wonders and Rarities (Paperback)

Travis Zadeh

ISBN 10: 0674299337 / ISBN 13: 9780674299337

Published by Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass, 2025

About this Item

Paperback. "Like al-Qazwini himself, Travis Zadeh has written a deliciously baggy tome, full of delights and diversions in its tour of the cosmic horizons. This is a book to get lost in, whether one wants to or not." -Nile Green, Los Angeles Review of Books "As Zadeh concludes, reformers and modernists have closed the rich and varied archive revealed in Wonders and RaritiesIn this beautifully written and engaging text, Zadeh takes his readers back to the world of surprise and enchantment that preceded this closure."-Malise Ruthven, Financial Times "This book about a book, like the book it describes, is a rare and marvelous thing." -Justin Marozzi, The Spectator During the thirteenth century, the Persian naturalist and judge Zakariyyā' Qazwini authored what became one of the most influential works of natural history in the world: Wonders and Rarities. Exploring the dazzling movements of the stars above, the strange minutiae of the minerals beneath the earth, and everything in between, Qazwini offered a captivating account of the cosmos. Wonders and Rarities inspired generations as it traveled through madrasas and courts, unveiling the magical powers of nature. But Qazwini's compendium eventually came to stand as a strange, if beautiful, emblem of medieval ignorance. Restoring Qazwini to his place as a herald of the rare and astonishing, Travis Zadeh dramatically revises the place of wonder in the history of Islamic philosophy, science, and literature. Wonder provided an enduring way to conceive of the world-at once constituting an affective reaction, an aesthetic stance, a performance of piety, and a cognitive state. Yet through the course of colonial modernity, Qazwini's universe of marvels helped advance the notion that Muslims lived in a timeless world of superstition and enchantment, unaware of the western hemisphere or the earth's rotation around the sun. Recovering Qazwini's ideas and his reception, Zadeh invites us into a forgotten world of thought, where wonder mastered the senses through the power of reason and the pleasure of contemplation. Travis Zadeh revives the work of the thirteenth-century Persian scholar Qazwini, whose Wonders and Rarities was for centuries one of the most influential natural histories in the world. Inviting us to embrace anew Qazwinis rationalized study of nature and magic, Zadeh dramatically revises the place of wonder in the history of Islamic thought. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780674299337

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Wonders and Rarities (Paperback)
• Publisher: Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass
• Publication Date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674299337
• ISBN 13: 9780674299337
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

“Like al-Qazwīnī himself, Travis Zadeh has written a deliciously baggy tome, full of delights and diversions in its tour of the cosmic horizons. This is a book to get lost in, whether one wants to or not.” ―Nile Green, Los Angeles Review of Books 

“As Zadeh concludes, reformers and modernists have closed the rich and varied archive revealed in Wonders and Rarities…In this beautifully written and engaging text, Zadeh takes his readers back to the world of surprise and enchantment that preceded this closure.”―Malise Ruthven, Financial Times 

“This book about a book, like the book it describes, is a rare and marvelous thing.” ―Justin Marozzi, The Spectator 

During the thirteenth century, the Persian naturalist and judge Zakariyyāʾ Qazwīnī authored what became one of the most influential works of natural history in the world: Wonders and Rarities. Exploring the dazzling movements of the stars above, the strange minutiae of the minerals beneath the earth, and everything in between, Qazwīnī offered a captivating account of the cosmos. Wonders and Rarities inspired generations as it traveled through madrasas and courts, unveiling the magical powers of nature. But Qazwīnī’s compendium eventually came to stand as a strange, if beautiful, emblem of medieval ignorance. 

Restoring Qazwīnī to his place as a herald of the rare and astonishing, Travis Zadeh dramatically revises the place of wonder in the history of Islamic philosophy, science, and literature. Wonder provided an enduring way to conceive of the world―at once constituting an affective reaction, an aesthetic stance, a performance of piety, and a cognitive state. Yet through the course of colonial modernity, Qazwīnī’s universe of marvels helped advance the notion that Muslims lived in a timeless world of superstition and enchantment, unaware of the western hemisphere or the earth’s rotation around the sun. 

Recovering Qazwīnī’s ideas and his reception, Zadeh invites us into a forgotten world of thought, where wonder mastered the senses through the power of reason and the pleasure of contemplation.

About the Author

Travis Zadeh is Professor of Religious Studies at Yale University. He is the author of Mapping Frontiers across Medieval Islam and The Vernacular Qur’an.