Wonder Book Writing: Origin and Chronological Classification

Wonder book writing is one of genres of literatures in the Islamic civilization. Writing wonderful information about territories in the geographical sources simultaneous with descriptive geography made such information an interesting issue for various authors. Then, different factors such as its appeal for people, lack of familiarity of authors with such phenomenon followed by their fantasies as well as use of literary devices like exaggeration and verisimilitude, made it widespread. Gradually writing about marvels influenced various texts, and finally an independent genre emerged. This paper uses a historical as well as descriptive- analytical method to study origin, historical path and evolution of writing of wonder books in Islamic civilization. Accordingly, three eras have been introduced for the historical path of writing wonder books in Islamic civilization: Beginning and formation (1st-3rd century AH / 7th-10th century AD), prosperity and glory (4th-8th AH / 11th-15th AD), and decline and fall (8th century AH / 15th century AD onwards).