Who does not want to preserve a balance in personal life? Are we likely to be persuaded by an unbalanced approach to argument or debate? What enterprise can afford to take its eye off the balance sheet?

These preoccupations with the balance may seem peculiarly modern. But the balance is an ancient instrument and it has been both a practical tool and a guiding metaphor in many societies. Ubiquitous in daily life, it was probably more culturally pervasive in the medieval Islamic world than now.