Lost enlightenment : Central Asia's golden age from the Arab conquest to Tamerlane /
S. Frederick Starr.
- xxxvii, 634 pages ; 25 cm
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.