This book does not demand extensive technical knowledge; when necessary, technicalities are explained. Similarly, sufficient historical information is provided to enable readers to visualise the social and cultural environment in which Islamic scientists and engineers worked. Knowledge of Arabic is unnecessary, but for those wishing to undertake further research, most of the works listed in the Bibliography cite numerous Arabic sources.

Four exact sciences are dealt with, that is to say, sciences which are now almost wholly quantified but which in medieval times incorporated both quantified and qualitative elements. The engineering chapters are concerned with the various types of construction that were built or manufactured in the medieval Islamic world.

It will help to explain the methodology I used in preparing this book if I describe briefly how I came to an interest in Islamic technology. Being a working engineer, but also holding a PhD in Arabic studies, in 1970 I attended a conference at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, which was also attended by the late, great historian of technology, Lynn White Jr. Having learned of my somewhat unusual qualifications, Lynn persuaded me, gently but firmly, that my first duty was to prepare an annotated translation of al-Jazarī's machine book. This I did, following it up with a similar work on the Banū Mūsā and with other books and articles. In the engineering chapters of the present book I have therefore been able to draw directly and extensively on the Arabic sources.

The same cannot be said of the sciences. Although in the passage of over two decades I have read a good deal of material on these, I have not had the time to read more than a handful of primary sources. There are, however, a number of eminent historians of science who, building on established traditions, have made profound studies of the Arabic sources and have published their results, sometimes based upon previously untapped manuscript sources.