Zakariya al-Qazwini explained

Zakariyya' al-Qazwini (Arabic: أبو يحيى زكرياء بن محمد بن محمود القزويني), also known as Qazvini (Persian: قزوینی), (born in Qazvin, Iran, and died 1283), was a cosmographer and geographer.

He belonged to a family of jurists originally descended from Anas bin Malik (a companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad) which had been well established in Qazvin long before al-Qazwini was born.^[1]

His most famous work is the , a seminal work in cosmography.^[2] He is also the author of the geographical dictionary (lit. 'Monuments of the Lands and Historical Traditions about Their Peoples').^[3]

Career

Born in Qazvin, of either Persian or Arab ancestry,^[4] al-Qazwini served as a legal expert and judge in several localities in Iran. He traveled around in Mesopotamia and the Levant, and finally entered the circle patronized by the Ilkhanid governor of Baghdad, Ata-Malik Juvayni (d. 1283 CE).^[5]

It was to the latter that al-Qazwini dedicated his famous cosmography titled .^[6] This treatise, frequently illustrated, was immensely popular and is preserved today in many copies. It was translated into his native Persian language, and later also into Turkish.^[7] Al-Qazwini was also well known for his geographical dictionary (lit. 'Monuments of the Lands and Historical Traditions about Their Peoples').^[8] Both of these treatises reflect extensive reading and learning in a wide range of disciplines.^[9]

See also

• List of Persian scientists and scholars
• List of pre-modern Arab scientists and scholars

Bibliography

Encyclopedic sources

• Encyclopedia: Bosworth. C. E.. Clifford Edmund Bosworth. 1987–2011. Āṯār al-Belād. Yarshater. Ehsan. Ehsan Yarshater. Encyclopædia Iranica.
• Encyclopedia: Bosworth. C. E.. Clifford Edmund Bosworth. Afshar. I.. 1984–2011. al-Maḵlūqāt. Yarshater. Ehsan. Ehsan Yarshater. Encyclopædia Iranica.
• Encyclopedia: Lewicki. T.. 1960–2007. al-Ḳazwīnī. Bearman. P.. Peri Bearman. Bianquis. Th.. Thierry Bianquis. Bosworth. C.E.. Clifford Edmund Bosworth. van Donzel. E.. Emeri Johannes van Donzel. Heinrichs. W.P.. Wolfhart Heinrichs. Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. 10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_4093.
• Encyclopedia: Maqbul Ahmad. S.. 1981. al-Qazwīnī, Zakariyā ibn Muḥammad ibn Maḥmūd, Abū Yaḥyā. Gillispie. Charles Coulston. Charles Coulston Gillispie. Dictionary of Scientific Biography. New York. Charles Scribners’s Sons. 11. 230–233. https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/al-qazwin.
• Encyclopedia: Richter-Bernburg. Lutz. 1998. al-Qazwīnī, Zakariyyā' ibn Muḥammad (c.600–82/c.1203–83). Meisami. Julie Scott. Starkey. Paul. Paul Starkey. Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature. 2. 637–638. London. Routledge. 0-415-06808-8.
• Encyclopedia: Streck. M.. 1913–1936. al-Ḳazwīnī. Encyclopaedia of Islam, First Edition (1913-1936). Houtsma. M. Th.. Martijn Theodoor Houtsma. Arnold. T. W.. Basset. R.. Hartmann. R.. 10.1163/2214-871X_ei1_SIM_4034.

Secondary literature

• • Book: Berlekamp. Persis. 2011. Wonder, Image, and Cosmos in Medieval Islam. New Haven and London. Yale University Press. 978-030017060-3.
• Book: Black. Jeremy. Jeremy Black (historian). 2014. The Power of Knowledge: How Information and Technology Made the Modern World. New Haven. Yale University Press. 978-0-300-19854-6.

Editions of the Arabic text

• Book: Wüstenfeld. Ferdinand. Ferdinand Wüstenfeld. 1848. Zakarija Ben Mohammad Ben Mahmud el-Cazwini's Kosmographie. Zweiter Teil. كتاب آثار البلاد Die Denkmäler der Länder. Göttingen. Dieterich. 1045333568. (edition of the)
• Book: Wüstenfeld. Ferdinand. Ferdinand Wüstenfeld. 1849. Zakarija Ben Muhammed Ben Mahmud el-Cazwini's Kosmographie. Erster Theil. كتاب عجايب المخلوقات Die Wunder der Schöpfung. Göttingen. Dieterich. (edition of the)

Translations

• Book: Ethé. Hermann. Carl Hermann Ethé. 1868. Zakarija Ben Muhammed Ben Mahmûd El-Kazwîni's Kosmographie. Nach der Wüstenfeldschen Textausgabe, mit Benutzung und Beifügung der reichhaltigen Anmerkungen und Verbesserungen des Herrn Prof. Dr. Fleischer in Leipzig, aus dem Arabischen zum ersten Male vollständig übersetzt. Leipzig. Fues’s Verlag (R. Reisland). (German translation of the)
• Book: Giese. Alma. 1986. Die Wunder des Himmels und der Erde. Bibliothek arabischer Klassiker. 11. Stuttgart and Vienna. Thienemann, Edition Erdmann. 9783522621106. 230831113. (partial German translation of the)

Further reading

• Zadeh, Travis (2023). Wonders and Rarities: The Marvelous Book That Traveled the World and Mapped the Cosmos. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674258452.

External links

• Islamic Medical Manuscripts at the National Library of Medicine. U.S. National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD.
• Kitāb al-ʻajāʾib wa al-gharāʼib. Full online version from the Getty Library.
• Digital version of Kitāb ʿajā'ib al-makhlūqāt va gharā'ib al-mawjūdāt Or. 8907 Leiden University Libraries

Notes and References

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4. According to, "He belonged to a pure Arab family which had, however, been long settled in the east." calls him a "Persian scholar", while describes him as a "famous Arab cosmographer and geographer" who "drew his origin from an Arab family [...] who had been Persianised after settling at Kaẓwīn in Persia." Both Bosworth 1987–2011 and Lewicki 1960–2007 stress that though he wrote in Arabic, this was not his mother tongue. calls him "a Persian of Arab ancestry", "An Arab by descent".
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