The ultimate ambition in the arts of erudition: a compendium of knowledge from the classical Islamic world

For the first time in English, a catalog of the world through fourteenth-century Arab eyesa kind of Schott's Miscellany for the Islamic Golden Age An astonishing record of the knowledge of a civilization, The Ultimate Ambition in the Arts of Erudition catalogs everything known to exist from the perspective of a fourteenth-century Egyptian scholar and litterateur.

More than 9,000 pages and thirty volumeshere abridged to one volume, and translated into English for the first timeit contains entries on everything from medieval moon-worshipping cults, sexual aphrodisiacs, and the substance of clouds, to how to get the smell of alcohol off one's breath, the deliciousness of cheese made from buffalo milk, and the nesting habits of flamingos.

Similar works by Western authors, including Pliny's Natural History, have been available in English for centuries.

This groundbreaking translation of a remarkable Arabic textexpertly abridged and annotatedoffers a look at the world through the highly literary and impressively knowledgeable societies of the classical Islamic world.

Meticulously arranged and delightfully eclectic, it is a compendium to be treasureda true monument of erudition.From the Trade Paperback edition.