The present work is both a historical overview and a report on the current state of affairs in the field of Arab navigation studies, with particular attention to Indian Ocean navigation. Having in view the earliest historical testimonies, and comprising both nautical technical and more general maritime literature, we focus on the late medieval and early modern periods. Although we are aware of the inextricable relation between the studies of different aspects of Indian Ocean Arab navigation, and though we are surveying and profiting from a wide range of sources, our particular research within the ERC RUTTER Project gives a certain angle to our perspective: we are primarily concerned with the seamanship treatises (in Portuguese, livros de marinharia) by Arab authors, and how they were shared with or made their way into other nautical traditions. In this regard, we are fortunate to benefit from the extraordinary pool of knowledge of our colleagues at the Centro Interuniversitário de História das Ciências e da Tecnologia, Lisbon, and we offer a contribution which while not leaving historical stones unturned, is fully apprised with the living reality and practice of nautical sciences.