Includes bibliographical references (pages 541-609) and index

The center of the world -- Worldly urbanists, ancient land -- A cauldron of skills, ideas, and faiths -- How Arabs conquered Central Asia and Central Asia then set the stage to conquer Baghdad -- East wind over Baghdad -- Wandering scholars -- Khurasan : Central Asia's rising star -- A flowering of Central Asia : the Samanid dynasty -- A moment in the desert : Gurganj under the Mamuns -- Turks take the stage: Mahmud of Kashgar and Yusuf of Balasagun -- Culture under a Turkic marauder : Mahmud's Ghazni -- Tremors under the dome of Seljuk rule -- The Mongol century -- Tamerlane and his successors -- Retrospective : the sand and the oyster

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. -- Publisher website