Lost Enlightenment : (Islamic Heritage), New,
''Central Asia's Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane''
*[A4] Large Hardback with Dustjacket- 680 pages,
by S. Frederick Starr,
Published by Princeton University Press.
RRP : £27.95
Description :
In this sweeping and richly illustrated history, S. Frederick Starr tells the fascinating but largely unknown story of Central Asia's (Islam's) medieval enlightenment through the eventful lives and astonishing accomplishments of its greatest minds--remarkable figures who built a bridge to the modern world. Because nearly all of these figures wrote in Arabic, they were long assumed to have been Arabs. In fact, they were from Central Asia--drawn from the Persianate and Turkic peoples of a region that today extends from Kazakhstan southward through Afghanistan, and from the easternmost province of Iran through Xinjiang, China.
Lost Enlightenment recounts how, between the years 800 and 1200, Central Asia led the world in trade and economic development, the size and sophistication of its cities, the refinement of its arts, and, above all, in the advancement of knowledge in many fields. Central Asians achieved signal breakthroughs in astronomy, mathematics, geology, medicine, chemistry, music, social science, philosophy, and theology, among other subjects. They gave algebra its name, calculated the earth's diameter with unprecedented precision, wrote the books that later defined European medicine, and penned some of the world's greatest poetry. One scholar, working in Afghanistan, even predicted the existence of North and South America--five centuries before Columbus. Rarely in history has a more impressive group of polymaths appeared at one place and time. No wonder that their writings influenced European culture from the time of St. Thomas Aquinas down to the scientific revolution, and had a similarly deep impact in India and much of Asia.
Lost Enlightenment chronicles this forgotten age of achievement, seeks to explain its rise, and explores the competing theories about the cause of its eventual demise. Informed by the latest scholarship yet written in a lively and accessible style, this is a book that will surprise general readers and specialists alike.
S. Frederick Starr is founding chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program, a research and policy center affiliated with the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the Institute for Security and Development Policy in Stockholm. A past president of Oberlin College and the Aspen Institute, he began his career in classical archaeology, excavating at Gordium in modern Turkey and mapping the Persian Royal Road.
Reviews :
"Drawing on his vast knowledge and experience of Central Asia, Fred Starr provides a brilliant account of the history and culture of the land that produced some of the greatest Islamic scholars, scientists, saints, artists, and architects. Thanks to this book, the Central Asian enlightenment is no longer as lost as some might think."---Seyyed Hossein Nasr, George Washington University.
"In the book Lost Enlightenment, historian S. Frederick Starr chronicles the long tradition of scientists, mathematicians, engineers and literary intellectuals that flourished in the Iranian- and Turkish-speaking regions of Central Asia."---Noah Smith, Bloomberg View.
"For more than three hundred years the Islamic world exercised the scientific and philosophical mastery of Europe. With compelling urgency and lucidity, Lost Enlightenment tells the story of the rise and tragic demise of this golden age of Islamic learning in Central Asia. It is a story whose lesson we should never be allowed to forget."---Anthony Pagden, author of The Enlightenment: And Why It Still Matters.
Table of Contents :
---List of Illustrations,
---Preface,
---Dramatis Personae,
---Chronology.
---Chapter [1]. The Center of the World,
---Chapter [2]. Worldly Urbanists, Ancient Land,
---Chapter [3]. A Cauldron of Skills, Ideas, and Faiths,
---Chapter [4]. How Arabs Conquered Central Asia and Central Asia Then Set the Stage to Conquer Baghdad,
---Chapter [5]. East Wind over Baghdad,
---Chapter [6]. Wandering Scholars,
---Chapter [7]. Khurasan: Central Asia's Rising Star,
---Chapter [8]. A Flowering of Central Asia: The Samanid Dynasty,
---Chapter [9]. A Moment in the Desert: Gurganj under the Mamuns,
---Chapter [10]. Turks Take the Stage: Mahmud of Kashgar and Yusuf of Balasagun,
---Chapter [11]. Culture under a Turkic Marauder: Mahmud's Ghazni,
---Chapter [12]. Tremors under the Dome of Seljuk Rule,
---Chapter [13]. The Mongol Century,
---Chapter [14]. Tamerlane and His Successors,
---Chapter [15]. Retrospective: The Sand and the Oyster.
---Notes,
---Index.
* Dimensions : 23 x 15cm.
Hardback - 680 pp. | 6 x 9'' | 29 colour illus. 48 halftones. 2 maps.
