
Marvels of Things Created and Miraculous Aspects of Things Existing - prismatic
http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/marvels-of-things-created-and-miraculous-aspects-of-things-existing/
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Aelinsaar
You know, I can see the appeal of this, and I live in an age of television,
radio, video games and printed books. If I were a bored person a good long
time ago, this might have been the one exciting and wondrous thing in your
life.

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norswap
The first thing I thought is "this is prime meme material". What has the
internet done with me?

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mcphage
> The text is probably the best known example of ‘ajā’ib or ‘jā’ib al-
> makhlūqāt literature, a genre of classical Islamic literature that was
> concerned with “mirabilia”: cosmographical and geographical topics that
> challenged understanding. Al-Qazwini’s treatise explored an eclectic mix of
> topics, from humans and their anatomy to strange mythical creatures; from
> plants and animals to constellations of stars and zodiacal signs.

So... a medieval "Ripley's Believe It or Not"?

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PhasmaFelis
The 8th image has a thing like a bird with a cat's head. My first thought was
that it looks like a bat after a few rounds of the telephone game.

I quite like the thing that's a complete fish, head to tail, with a surplus
top-half-of-a-woman sticking out of the middle of its back. Not quite the
traditional mermaid...

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nurettin
The title ajaip al mahlukat means "strange creatures". Not "Marvels of Things
created". Gharib also emphasizes "weird" so the other part of the title is
better translated as "weird existences"

