Publisher's description: ``The author's wide experience investigating hundreds of Islamic astronomical instruments in museums all over the world enables him to present a new chapter in the history of science and the history of Islamic civilization. These instruments, many of which were not previously known, and not a few of which are veritable scientific works of art, attest to the remarkable sophistication of Islamic astronomy and particularly its concern with accuracy in timekeeping. Medieval Europe inherited only the bare essentials of this tradition, and in Renaissance Europe up to ca. 1550, very few innovations of consequence were made that had not been previously conceived by some Muslim astronomer somewhere, sometimes centuries before. But Muslim astronomers never abandoned the medieval framework for their activities or the manuscript tradition of disseminating knowledge, whereas in Europe, where printed books had long since replaced manuscripts, the invention of the telescope and the microscope revealed new worlds to be discovered. ``The first volume of this work [D. A. King, {\it In synchrony with the heavens}, Brill, Leiden, 2004; MR2075023 (2005b:01022)] dealt with astronomical timekeeping and the regulation of the times of Muslim prayer.''