The Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia's Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane
Book Author: Frederick Starr
Have you ever wondered where the origin of the word Algebra comes from? Or the first clinical trials? Many more of these early inventions came from a region, Frederick Starr labels lost.
Admittedly, Frederick Starr embarks on a monumental task: to introduce the stories of Central Asia's profound influence on global knowledge and culture. This is an ambitious undertaking, given the breadth of the geography and the depth of the contributions. Starr does his best to meticulously chart the intellectual achievements of a region that served as the world's epicenter of science, mathematics, and philosophy during the medieval period. Starr's narrative weaves together the lives of luminaries such as Al-Khwarizmi, Al-Farabi, and Avicenna, who not only advanced human understanding in their respective fields but also bridged the cultural divides between the East and the West.
Starr’s background in Soviet Studies and understanding of the cultural nuance in the Central Asian and greater Eurasian region allows him to access the vast treasure trove of local literature in Russian on the countries today infamously known as the -stans. Once we glance past the nomenclature, we can see that Starr does a great job both elegantly and in accessible terms, making complex historical and scientific concepts readily understandable to the reader. His detailed accounts of the scholars' works and the societal contexts in which they thrived are enlightening, offering a glimpse into a time when Central Asia was a melting pot of ideas and cultures.
The more accurate time was the 10th century to the 13th century. The tail end of the golden age of Islam (7th to 13th CE). Starr begins with introducing the geography, which most readers will underestimate (its sheer size is already daunting, it’s larger than India!), followed by a more timeline centric introduction of the scholars and contributions. The critique here would be that Central Asia is more than a geography, it is a connector. And hence it was more fluid than just what the land enabled. It was a unique concoction of peace, prosperity and human curiosity that allowed the golden age to take place.
To further the connector thought, although Starr does introduce Central Asia to his readers, what he does err in is that it was lost. The scholars of the Silk Road were building and developing ideas from both their peers and their predecessors (Aristotle, Hippocraties, Confucius, just to name a few). Hence calling them lost or disconnected could not be further from the truth. Infact, they were very much Central.
To this day, their centrality can be seen throughout our day-to-day lives. Algebra, was named after Al-Khorazmi, or as the Arabs called him Al-jabr or as we know it today Algebra. Clinical trials were first designed by Ibn Sina (Avicenna) in his encyclopedia - Canon of Medicine.
Why would I recommend this book
Taking the omissions and point-of-view with a grain of salt, Frederick Starr does a masterful job of introducing a treasure trove of knowledge in a very consumable and entertaining way. But more importantly to our Fresco Book club readers, the book shows how one should not underestimate a region or a community just based on mainstream narrative and digging deeper almost always helps uncover a gem. Team Fresco is always on the lookout for the gems :)
