> In whittling down al-­Nuwayri’s opus, his selections skew to the crowd-pleasing. Large chunks of history (which made up the bulk of the original text) and scribal etiquette are jettisoned, while the heart of the translation consists of marvelous chapters on wildlife (“mute beasts”), botany and “sexual medicines.”

I'm a little disappointed by this. I understand the need to abridge it, but to skew towards the "crowd-pleasing" is a bit much. Maybe it's just me but I'd have rather had things more proportionally represented (ie have some more history!). From the sound of it, every part of this has its own wonder, and I'd rather the translation reflect that.