The genius of their age Ibn Sina, Biruni, and the lost enlightenment

As 10th-century Central and East Asia flourished commercially and supported a vibrant burst of intellectual insights, the Silk Road boasted lodgings and accommodations, connecting China, India, and the Middle East. Regional rulers expanded their empires to tap this wealth. Within these regions, the legacies of Ibn Sina, Buruni, Abu Bakr al-Razi and others represent Starr's "lost enlightenment." Long before the Mongols, 11th-century regional political disputes forced scholars to seek safety while largely abandoning their libraries and equipment, which was in turn destroyed by the new state. Starr's largely hagiographic biographies reveal the vast range of these thinkers intellectual accomplishments, almost exclusively in the sciences. An expert on Russia and Eurasia, and former president of Oberlin University, Starr conveys the cultural appeal and (presumed) political capital that rulers accumulated when known scholars could be drawn into their respective courts. Scholars functioned as civil servants, serving various administrative functions while compiling and annotating threads of intellectual accomplishments. Specific scientific projects--e.g., measuring the circumference of the Earth, creating more accurate calendars--enjoyed political support as projects benefiting regional rulers and trade. This legacy sparked the ire of the Taliban in 2019 when they partially destroy Biruni's tomb. Throughout, Starr integrates a larger objective of revitalizing and restoring this regional heritage and emerging modern identity. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates; graduate students. --David Aaron Meier, Dickinson State University

Ibn Sina (980--1037), known in the West as Vicenna, and al-Biruni (973--1048) are the well-deserved focus of this book. Starr (chair, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute; Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia's Golden Age) makes the case that they were perhaps the foremost intellectual figures of the Middle Age. They turned out a torrent of innovative and influential tracts in disciplines as far ranging as metaphysics, medicine, and mathematics. Starr makes a convincing case for his subjects' greatness. He notes that Ibn Sina was probably the most significant philosopher in the Islamic tradition; it was his medical treatise that became the standard medical textbook in Europe, India, and the Middle East for more than 600 years. Mathematician al-Biruni's achievement is also impressive, undogmatic, and inventive; he was the first to effectively measure Earth's radius, which made chemist and science historian George Sarton rate his achievements equal to Galileo's. VERDICT An indispensable book about the Arab enlightenment and its key players. Will prove interesting to readers who want to know more about this era and its innovations.--David Keymer