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About a millennium ago, someone in Cairo compiled a beautifully illustrated book that would take its readers on a journey from planet Earth to the depths of the cosmos. @BodPublishing have just released a book about that book. This thread takes a look at both. 
يKitāb Gharāʾib al-funūn wa-mulaḥ al-ʿuyūn, or The Book of Curiosities, now resides at the @bodleianlibs. This book's existence, much less it contents, were unknown to us until this manuscript copy resurfaced in 2000.
The Lost Maps of the Caliphs is co-written by Emilie Savage-Smith, alongside Yossef Rapoport. Savage-Smith made this video for us in 2011, providing a great introduction to the book and its contents.
There are 17 maps in the Book of Curiosities, 14 of which are completely unique to this manuscript. Perhaps the most remarkable is this rectangular map of the world. This the only such map to be dated before the renaissance that we know to have survived.
You might have struggled to reconcile that map with the view of the world in your head. One clue that could perhaps help is that in this map, South is at the top, not the bottom. Here's a rotated version.
We have digitized The Book of Curiosities in full. There are also full-colour reproductions in Lost Maps of the Caliphs, of course, alongside almost 300 pages of insight and commentary. digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/p/36eb…
We'll leave you with a sneaky phone snap of one our favourite sections in Lost Maps of the Caliphs. Here are (some of) the eleven comets from the Book of Curiosities said to have been described by Ptolemy. bodleianshop.co.uk/products/lost-…
One of the things this book (indeed, both of these books) can remind the world of is the importance and relevance of Islamic history, knowledge, culture and insight. The Book of Curiosities is truly remarkable and Lost Maps of the Caliphs provides a fascinating overview.
