The New Wonders of Creation — An Ottoman Cosmography of the 21st Century

In 1717 an anonymous Ottoman workshop finished a copy of al-Qazwini's "Wonders of Creation", an illustrated encyclopedia of every marvel of the known world, from sea monsters to trees whose fruits can talk. I built a Recraft V4 Style from seven of its 444 miniatures and asked one question: how would that same naturalist describe our world? The answer is eight new pages for the old encyclopedia. Every creature keeps the flat mineral pigments, gold leaf and naive wonder of the original; only the marvels have changed.

THE PLATES I. The Leviathan of Memory — a whale whose scales are server racks and whose tentacles are cables. II. The Simurgh of the Heavens — the mythical bird reborn as a satellite with solar-panel wings. III. The Waq-Waq Tree of Voices — Qazwini's famous talking tree, now bearing phones and earbuds. IV. The Rukh of Burdens — the giant bird that once carried elephants now delivers parcels. V. The Many-Eyed Watcher — a hydra whose every head is a camera that never sleeps. VI. The Clockwork Bees of the Garden — iron insects wound up each morning to tend the flowers. VII. The Fire-Tailed Ascender — a burning iron vessel that climbs to the stars. VIII. The Carriage Without a Driver — a coach that finds its own way, no hand on the reins.

BEFORE / AFTER The blue fish of fol. 177a became the Leviathan of Memory. The many-headed dragon of fol. 175a became the Many-Eyed Watcher. The water-horse of fol. 176b became the Carriage Without a Driver.

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