Lost enlightenment Central Asia's golden age from the Arab conquest to Tamerlane

Starr (Johns Hopkins, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute) undertakes a daunting task--the intellectual history of Central Asia through the medieval period. Happily, he succeeds. Starr begins by asking why Central Asia became a black hole in scientific progress in the early modern period. It is a valid question, as prior to this point the region was a beacon of intellectual activity. The author ties the events in Central Asia to the larger Islamic world by demonstrating quite lucidly that the most brilliant scholars and scientists emerged from Central Asia (including Khurasan in modern Iran). Thus, just as their discoveries affected the entire Muslim world, so did Central Asia's decline. Starr's conclusions are convincing and well reasoned. Although the book's organization, which is loosely chronological and geographical, can be somewhat daunting, Starr does a masterful job of tying chapters together. Despite over 500 pages of text, the book would be quite suitable for classroom use, as well as for the general public. Starr's book is thorough and well researched, and includes ample supplemental material and sources, so that even novice students will find it instructive and useful without being overwhelming. A very good book. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. T. M. May University of North Georgia

Starr (Central Asia-Caucasus Inst., Johns Hopkins Univ.) is that rare scholar with the horsepower to write about the medieval culture of this vast region that is bounded by Persia to the west, China to the east, and India to the southeast. He argues that much of what we subsume as "Arabic" contributions to the intellectual life of medieval Islam, because they were expressed in the Arabic language, should be termed Central Asian instead because the region was not simply Islamic. It was rich in polymath scholars who used geometry, mathematics, and formal logic to explore a variety of subjects with astonishing results. Starr is convincing that Central Asia was for centuries "the center of the intellectual world." By the late 11th century, when the Persian divine Al-Ghazali attacked reason and intellectual disagreement in defense of faith, the atmosphere of intellectual openness that made this rich ferment of ideas possible had dissipated. Central Asia's intellectual dominance of the Islamic world soon ended. Starr's spacious book enables him, for example, to discourse at length on such subjects as Al-Biruni's remarkable 11th-century history of India, an early monument of cultural anthropology. VERDICT An indispensable title for scholars, this lively study should prove equally compelling to serious lay readers with an interest in Arabic and medieval thought.-David Keymer, Modesto, CA (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.