Lost Maps of the Caliphs - Couverture rigide

Rapoport, Yossef; Savage-Smith, Emilie

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 1851244913 ISBN 13 : 9781851244911

Editeur : Bodleian Library, 2019

Synopsis

About a millennium ago, in Cairo, someone completed a large and richly illustrated book. In the course of thirty-five chapters, our unknown author guided the reader on a journey from the outermost cosmos and planets to Earth and its lands, islands, features and inhabitants. This treatise, known as The Book of Curiosities, was unknown to modern scholars until a remarkable manuscript copy surfaced in 2000.

Lost Maps of the Caliphs provides the first general overview of The Book of Curiosities and the unique insight it offers into medieval Islamic thought. Opening with an account of the remarkable discovery of the manuscript and its purchase by the Bodleian Library, the authors use The Book of Curiosities to re-evaluate the development of astrology, geography and cartography in the first four centuries of Islam. Early astronomical ‘maps’ and drawings demonstrate the medieval understanding of the structure of the cosmos and illustrate the pervasive assumption that almost any visible celestial event had an effect upon life on Earth. Lost Maps of the Caliphs also reconsiders the history of global communication networks at the turn of the previous millennium.

Not only is The Book of Curiosities one of the greatest achievements of medieval map-making, it is also a remarkable contribution to the story of Islamic civilization.

A propos du livre

À propos de l?auteur

EMILIE SAVAGE-SMITH is Emeritus Professor of the History of Islamic Science at the University of Oxford.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Bodleian Library
• Date d'édition: 2019
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1851244913
• ISBN 13: 9781851244911
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 368
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible