Lost enlightenment : Central Asia's golden age from the Arab conquest to Tamerlane / S. Frederick Starr.

Includes bibliographical references.

Contents: 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.

English