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Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia's Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane by [Starr, S. Frederick]

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Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia's Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane Kindle Edition

by S. Frederick Starr (Author)

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In this sweeping and richly illustrated history, S. Frederick Starr tells the fascinating but largely unknown story of Central Asia'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.

Some images inside the book are unavailable due to digital copyright restrictions.

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Length: 695 pages	Word Wise: Enabled	Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
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Product details

File Size: 13898 KB
Print Length: 695 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0691165858
Publisher: Princeton University Press (October 6, 2013)
Publication Date: October 6, 2013
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B00F8MIJMQ
Text-to-Speech: Enabled

X-Ray:

Not Enabled

Word Wise: Enabled
Lending: Not Enabled
Screen Reader: Supported

Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #312,557 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #52 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > History > Asia > Central Asia
- #120 in Books > History > Asia > Central Asia
- #203 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > History > Science & Medicine > Philosophy

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NOT A BOOK TO BUY ON KINDLE

July 11, 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This is a very interesting book, but not one to buy on Kindle. The Kindle copy is of very poor quality compared to a hard copy, for the book contains many illustrations and some maps, but in the Kindle copy many of the illustrations are black and it says 'To view this see the hard copy' which sounds like a rip off, and something that is somewhat dishonest. How can one see the hard copy unless you buy or borrow a copy? What is the point of buying a book where parts are missing? Furthermore, the book refers to plate so and so, but how do you find the platefrom the text, and going to the menu and trying to find the location of the plates, there is nothing. So while I would recommend this book as an excellent overview with some detail of the caldron of Central Asia at the time when the Buddhists, Zoroastrians, Christians, Jews and Muslims met, and where the age of Enlightenment preceeded the european equivalent by a thousand years, the is NOT A BOOK TO BUY ON KINDLE.

58 people found this helpful

Comment

Should have something for armchair and academic historians alike to chew on

June 13, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Complex subjects are impossible to fit in a book, but the author of Lost Enlightenment gives it a very game try. The period covered is necessarily vague but 700 CE thru 1100 would cover at least the core period with some going several centuries earlier for the beginning and/or a couple of centuries later for the ending. The area covered, Central Asia,stretches from eastern Iran to western China and on the north/south axis from the southern Russian border to that of northern India. At the crossroads of the of the world's largest landmass Central Asia has, over time, been scene to more turmoil,traffic, technology,trade,conquest,religions,and exchange of ideas than any other comparably sized piece of real estate on the planet and those factors may have very well been the reason for its flowering. A challenging/dangerous place to live in other words but one that is fascinating to read about.
It would have been easy to be overwhelmed by the plethora of places, events,and leading characters in this ambitious history. Add to that the fact that many of the dramatis personae had multiple names(birth,Arabic,known in the West as) and the potential for confusion is high. Not worrying about keeping everything straight(that's what a second reading is for)I found that a couple of hundred pages in the locations, events,and leading characters had been repeated enough that the confusion faded. S. Starr,the author follows various subjects such as the development of specific ideas, main characters, and waves of change more than a strict time line and again this became more clear as the book developed. All this said he has done a masterful job of presenting such a complex and fascinating subject-the interplay of various factors that lead to Central Asia being the most innovative,prosperous and invigorating place on the planet for hundreds of years. The ending saddened me as the twilight approached and I realized that we may never see again such a concentrated time and place with such an immense level of vitality again. He has done his best to weave diverse/warring ideas and personalities without watering them down to tepid pablum. My thanks for such a comprehensive overview that obviously involved so much effort and research. I plan on reading it again.

2 people found this helpful

Comment

John T. Sapienza, Jr.

The Expansion of Science in Muslim Asia

October 1, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This book is an exciting discussion of the growth of science and philosophy in what is now an obscure area in Central Asia. How it happened, how it lasted, and what contributed to its destruction is fascinating. Read through the Dramatis Personae section of the first chapter, and expect to be drawn into the book.

Our knowledge of this period is limited by the repeated destruction of libraries and other records over the centuries. But there has been a great deal of scholarly study, furthered by the gradual discovery of records excavated from ruins, and the translation of books to make them more widely available. So the author emphasizes in the preface that much remains to be learned.

“It is no exaggeration to say that strife within the community of Islam, the umma, the struggle of Suni versus Shiite, was more than anything else responsible for the closing of the Muslim mind in Central Asia.” The chapters showing how this happened, and the great minds involved in the retreat from reason toward doctrinal conformity, are a testimony to what might have happened. And it is a warning of the dangers today of the campaign by fundamentalists against knowledge in favor of biblical literalism, faith vs. evidence. It has happened before.

In the last paragraph of the book, the author expands from history to philosophy. “Meanwhile, it is well for the rest of the world, both East and West, to reflect on the fact that a region that some persist in viewing as marginal and backward was, over a number of centuries, the pivot of the political and economic world and the center of science, philosophy, and intellectual life on the Eurasian land mass. Is it not far wiser, then, to ask how this great movement of culture and ideas arose and endured as long as it did than to focus narrowly on its demise?”

6 people found this helpful

Comment

A fascinating story beautifully told

March 7, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

The author describes a period of several hundred years of Central Asian history through a series of biographies of important thinkers. It is the story of a scientific and philosophical enlightenment in a part of the world where most westerners today can't even name the countries, and it takes place in a time where the great cities of Europe were still villages. It opened my mind in ways I didn't expect.

6 people found this helpful

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