A review by ben_smitty
Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia's Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane by S. Frederick Starr

5.0

I have no idea why I've never heard of Central Asia's golden age before, considering how significant this historical period is. Starr's book is basically an account of how Central Asia's golden age deserves to be recognized for having its own Age of Enlightenment which preceded the Western Renaissance. He discusses all the great figures of this era and how they made significant progress in philosophy, religion, mathematics, geometry, astronomy, the arts, etc. and how they are largely ignored today (even though they discovered basically everything before the West did).
Should be required reading, IMO.