S. Frederick Starr

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. Central Asians achieved signal breakthroughs in astronomy, mathematics, geology, medicine, chemistry, music, social science, philosophy, and theology, among other subjects. They gave algebra its name, calculated the earth's diameter with unprecedented precision, wrote the books that later defined European medicine, and penned some of the world's greatest poetry. One scholar, working in Afghanistan, even predicted the existence of North and South America--five centuries before Columbus. Rarely in history has a more impressive group of polymaths appeared at one place and time. No wonder that their writings influenced European culture from the time of St. Thomas Aquinas down to the scientific revolution, and had a similarly deep impact in India and much of Asia. Lost Enlightenment chronicles this forgotten age of achievement, seeks to explain its rise, and explores the competing theories about the cause of its eventual demise. Informed by the latest scholarship yet written in a lively and accessible style, this is a book that will surprise general readers and specialists alike.

Central Asia's Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane

Lost Enlightenment

Kayip Aydinlanma

"This is a book about two of the most outstanding thinkers to have lived between ancient Greece and the European Renaissance: Ibn Sina and Biruni. Both are known to specialists who have explored and analyzed their writings (what remains of them) for 150 years. But the general public has yet to discover these men and to appreciate their achievements. I hope this will help in that effort"--

Ibn Sina, Biruni and the Lost Enlightenment

The Genius of Their Age

Kayıp Aydınlanma

Graham E. Fuller

Institute for Security and Development Policy. Silk Road Studies Program

Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. Central Asia-Caucasus Institute

The Xinjiang Problem

Karen Dawisha

First Published in 2015. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an Informa company.

Volume 4: The Making of Foreign Policy in Russia and the New States of Eurasia

The International Politics of Eurasia

Eastern Turkestan, now known as Xinjiang or the New Territory, makes up a sixth of China's land mass. Absorbed by the Qing in the 1880s and reconquered by Mao in 1949, this Turkic-Muslim region of China's remote northwest borders on formerly Soviet Central Asia, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Mongolia, and Tibet, Will Xinjiang participate in twenty-first century ascendancy, or will nascent Islamic radicalism in Xinjiang expand the orbit of instability in a dangerous part of the world? This comprehensive survey of contemporary Xinjiang is the result of a major collaborative research project begun in 1998. The authors have combined their fieldwork experience, linguistic skills, and disciplinary expertise to assemble the first multifaceted introduction to Xinjiang. The volume surveys the region's geography; its history of military and political subjugation to China; economic, social, and commercial conditions; demography, public health, and ecology; and patterns of adaption, resistance, opposition, and evolving identities.

China's Muslim Borderland

Xinjiang: China's Muslim Borderland

Revealing how Gottschalk's music anticipated ragtime by fifty years, the life story of America's first internationally recognized composer includes a colorful portrait of New Orleans in the 1830s, Gottschalk's successes in Europe, and a look at America's first Bohemian circle. UP.

The Life and Times of Louis Moreau Gottschalk

Bamboula!

Tigran Martirosyan

Silvia Maretti

This handbook is designed to help researchers, journalists, students, and business people to locate the rich array of Washington institutions and organizations that focus on issues pertaining to Central Asia and the Caucasus region, particularly in the post-Soviet period. Washington's status as a major repository of documentation on every aspect of the region is strong and growing daily. Beyond the Library of Congress, which intensively collects newspapers and other published materials from the region, and the Foreign Broadcast Information Service, which does the same for radio, there are hundreds of national and international public, non-profit, and private organizations and institutions in Washington with extensive links to Central Asia and the Caucasus, all of which maintain active archives and collections. The Guide includes more than 270 entries. It describes the structure and scholarly and technical resources of libraries, archives and manuscript repositories, museums and galleries, collections of sound and visual recordings, map and film collections, and the holdings of research centers and information agencies. Academic programs and departments of the metropolitan area's many institutions of higher learning are covered, along with international organizations, U.S. and foreign government agencies, association and advocacy groups, scientific organizations, educational and cultural organizations, corporations, technical assistance organizations, religious organizations, publications and media operations, bookstores and online resources. An index of organizations and institutions enhances the Guide's usefulness.

Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan

Scholars' Guide to Washington, D.C. for Central Asian and Caucasus Studies

Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) prowled the streets of New Orleans from 1877 to 1888 before moving on to a new life and global fame as a chronicler of Japan. Hearn's influence on our perceptions of New Orleans, however, has unjustly remained unknown. In ten years of serving as a correspondent and selling his writing in such periodicals as the "New Orleans Daily Item," "Times-Democrat," "Harper's Weekly," and "Scribner's Magazine" he crystallized the way Americans view New Orleans and its south Louisiana environs. Hearn was prolific, producing colorful and vivid sketches, vignettes, news articles, essays, translations of French and Spanish literature, book reviews, short stories, and woodblock prints. He haunted the French Quarter to cover such events as the death of Marie Laveau. His descriptions of the seamy side of New Orleans, tainted with voodoo, debauchery, and mystery made a lasting impression on the nation. Denizens of the Crescent City and devotees who flock there for escapades and pleasures will recognize these original tales of corruption, of decay and benign frivolity, and of endless partying. With his writing, Hearn virtually invented the national image of New Orleans as a kind of alternative reality to the United States as a whole. S. Frederick Starr, a leading authority on New Orleans and Louisiana culture, edits the volume, adding an introduction that places Hearn in a social, historical, and literary context. Hearn was sensitive to the unique cultural milieu of New Orleans and Louisiana. During the decade that he spent in New Orleans, Hearn collected songs for the well-known New York music critic Henry Edward Krehbiel and extensively studied Creole French, making valuable and lasting contributions to ethnomusicology and linguistics. Hearn's writings on Japan are famous and have long been available. But "Inventing New Orleans: Writings of Lafcadio Hearn" brings together a selection of Hearn's nonfiction on New Orleans and Louisiana, creating a previously unavailable sampling. In these pieces Hearn, an Anglo-Greek immigrant who came to America by way of Ireland, is alternately playful, lyrical, and morbid. This gathering also features ten newly discovered sketches. Using his broad stylistic palette, Hearn conjures up a lost New Orleans which later writers such as William Faulkner and Tennessee Williams used to evoke the city as both reality and symbol. Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) was a prolific writer, critic, amateur engraver, and journalist. His many books-on a diverse range of subjects-include "La Cuisine Creole: A Collection of Culinary Recipes" (1885), "Gombo Zhebes" (1885), "Chita" (1889), and "Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan" (1894). S. Frederick Starr is chair of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at Johns Hopkins University. His previous writings on Louisiana culture include "New Orleans Unmasqued" (1989), "Southern Comfort: The Garden District of New Orleans" (1998), and "Louis Moreau Gottschalk" (2000).

Writings of Lafcadio Hearn

Inventing New Orleans

First Published in 1997. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an Informa company.

The International Politics of Eurasia: v. 9: The End of Empire? Comparative Perspectives on the Soviet Collapse

The collapse of the Soviet Union was part of a process of imperial disintegration, new state-building and potential imperial reconstruction unprecedented in recent decades. This volume assembles an interdisciplinary group of scholars to construct, deconstruct and reconstruct the Soviet empire.

The Transformation of the USSR in Comparative Perspective

The End of Empire?

Svante E. Cornell

Oil Window to the West

The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline

Southern Comfort details the magnificent architecture and planning of the Garden District of New Orleans. Through the histories of the developers, owners, architects, laborers, and craftspeople who shaped this district, the book creates a picture of the uniquely cosmopolitan city in the American South. "This book is a valuable contribution to Southern history and to the history of both American architecture and American cities....Southern Comfort is a landmark piece of scholarship on the area." Anne Rice, New York Times Book Review "There's no part of New Orleans so steeped in architectural history as the Garden District. Southern Comfort: The Garden District of New Orleans tells the story in words and rich photos." Hemispheres

The Garden District of New Orleans

Southern Comfort

In the past 25 years, America and Europe both developed relations with Central Asia and the Caucasus. This book argues that American and European policies suffer from both conceptual and structural impediments. It provides detailed analysis of these policies and proposes constructive recommendations for their improvement.

US and EU Strategy for Central Asia and the Caucasus

The Long Game on the Silk Road

The romantic and definitive biography of an early and significant American composer. It examines Louis Moreau Gottshalk's music, his frenetic life on the road, his virtuosity as a performer, his effect on his audiences, and the scandals surrounding his romantic dalliances.

Louis Moreau Gottschalk

First Published in 1995. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an Informa company.

National Identity and Ethnicity in Russia and the New States of Eurasia

The Ferghana Valley can reasonably be said to lie in the heart of Central Asia. As such, the Valley has made an inordinate contribution to the history and culture of the region as a whole, as well as significantly affecting the economic, political and religious spheres. This book looks at the region over time, from its early history to the present. It embraces not just the obvious fields of politics, economics and religion, but also ethnography, sociology and culture, and includes the insights of leading scholars from all three Ferghana countries. The book discusses various questions of identity relating to the region, showing how the identity of the Ferghana Valley relates to the emerging national identities of the three post-colonial states that are still gradually emerging from the demise of the Soviet Union, as well as how an understanding of the Ferghana Valley is key to understanding Central Asia itself.

The Heart of Central Asia

Ferghana Valley

In the summer of 2008, a conflict that appeared to have begun in the breakaway Georgian territory of South Ossetia rapidly escalated to become the most significant crisis in European security in a decade. The implications of the Russian-Georgian war will be understood differently depending on one's narrative of what transpired and perspective on the broader context. This book is designed to present the facts about the events of August 2008 along with comprehensive coverage of the background to those events. It brings together a wealth of expertise on the South Caucasus and Russian foreign policy, with contributions by Russian, Georgian, European, and American experts on the region.

S. Frederick Starr

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