The role of miraculous writing in the tradition of Iranian visual encyclopediaCase study: Illustrated encyclopedia of The Qazvini’sThe wonders of creatures

The books of the Wonders are one of the most important pictorial encyclopedias in recognizing thoughts, beliefs and customs. The narratives of these books are influenced by religious and ethnic factors, historical events, inventions and discoveries such as the arrival of tourists, Iranians traveling to distant lands and the translation movement. What is called miracle writing today refers to texts that have their roots in the oral culture of the people and have been compiled in the form of encyclopedias. In this article, while reviewing the tradition of miracle writing in Iran, we have introduced and studied one of the illustrated manuscripts of the book The Wonders of Creation by Qazvini which is kept in the Bavaria Library in Munich, Germany. Numerous copies of this book are kept in libraries, museums and private collections. The manuscript that has been studied in this research was produced in 678 A.H. and is the oldest available copy of this book. The method of this research is descriptive-analytical along with library study. Considering the fact that the author of the book (Qazvini) was alive at the time of the book's publication, this issue has been considered in the visual analysis of 467 drawings and 44 line drawings in the text; the painter has depicted what has been described in the text and has avoided making any additions. The drawings depicted in the main text of the Wonders of Creation are completely in line with clarifying the meanings of the text.