From al-Qazwini??? Arabic cosmography, this page depicts a shark, a swordfish and a stingray (late 13th century). Zakariya ibn Muhammad ibn Mahmud al-Qazwini (1203-83) was a Persian physician, astronomer, geographer and proto-science fiction writer. His famous Arabic-language cosmography titled ???ja???b al-makhluqat wa-ghe??(literally ???arvels of Creatures and Strange Things Existing?? is a frequently illustrated treatise. It was immensely popular in its time and is preserved today, also translated in Persian and Turkish.