Skip to main content
Advanced Search
The plant colocynth, perhaps from al-Qazvini's The Wonders of Creation and the Oddities of Existence
The plant colocynth, perhaps from al-Qazvini's The Wonders of Creation and the Oddities of Existence

The plant colocynth, perhaps from al-Qazvini's The Wonders of Creation and the Oddities of Existence

Place of OriginIsfahan, Iran
Dateapprox. 1650
MaterialsColors and gold on paper
DimensionsH. 15 1/8 in x W. 9 3/4 in, H. 38.4 cm x W. 24.8 cm
Credit LineGift of Elton L. Puffer
Object number2004.56
DepartmentWest Asian Art
ClassificationsBooks And Manuscripts
On View
Not on view
More Information

This painting and its accompanying text in Persian describe in detail the physical and medicinal properties of colocynth (Arabic: hanzal), a plant effective, among other things, for cleansing the digestive tract. The text prescribes the plant's various uses and mentions its places of origin.

Detailed textual and illustrated descriptions of plants appear in various Islamic medieval scientific manuscripts on medicine and pharmacology. A section on plants also appears in a cosmography, a type of encyclopedic literary text describing the known universe. The most famous cosmography, written in Arabic by al-Qazvini in Baghdad between 1262 and 1283, remained popular for centuries and was rewritten and translated many times into Persian and Turkish.