In Contemplation . . . the Cosmos—Divine Signs of Divine Reason

Roy P. Mottahedeh, Gurney Professor of History, delivered a lecture titled " ʿAja’ib in the Book of Qazwini" on February 1 at the Yarmouk Cultural Center in Kuwait, as part of the Dar Al Athar Al Islamiyyah organization's Cultural Season 21.

The talk considered, from the perspective of social and intellectual history, Zakariya al-Qazwini's 13th-century cosmography, ʿAjā'ib al-makhlūqāt wa gharā'ib al-mawjūdāt (Marvels of creatures and strange things existing), which Mottahedeh described as the most popular survey of heaven and earth in the premodern Islamic Middle East. The Arab Times covered the event and featured it on the front page of the newspaper's February 4 print edition.