The Book of the Wonders of India

Today's topic is the Kitāb ʻajāyib Al-Hind, or the Book of the Wonders of India, a 10th-century collection of wonders covering east Africa all the way to what might have been Japan. It's something of a sequel to the Abu Zayd episode. I mentioned there that the compiler avoided including the fanciful fables of the sea that sailors were so fond of spreading. This text, on the other hand, is full of them.

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Sources:

• The Book of the Marvels of India, translated by Peter Quennell. George Routledge And Sons, 1928.
• Freeman-Grenville, G.S.P. "Some Thoughts on Buzurg ibn Shahriyar al-Ramhormuzi: 'The Book of the Wonders of India.'" Paideuma, vol. 28, 1982, pp. 63–70.
• Manteghi, Haila. Alexander the Great in the Persian Tradition: History, Myth and Legend in Medieval Iran. I.B Tauris, 2018.
• Ogden, Jack. Diamonds: An Early History of the King of Gems. Yale University Press, 2018.
• Prioreschi, Plinio. A History of Medicine: Medieval Medicine. Horatius Press, 1996.

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