This unusual manuscript is a copy of one of the most popular treatises of engineering produced in the Islamic tradition, The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Devices . First composed by al-Jazari in 1206 AD, it is a compendium of mechanical devices primarily intended for princely entertainment, such as elaborate clocks, automated fountains and drinking vessels, and machines activated by heat or water. In the treatise the devices are described in detail, and an illustration of each assembled machine is also provided.