Featuring
By the author
Dr. S. Frederick Starr, Chair, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, SAIS, Johns Hopkins University
Commenting
Dr. Kent E. Calder, Edwin O. Reischauer Professor, Acting director for Korea & Japan Studies, SAIS, Johns Hopkins University
Moderating
Ambassador R. Grant Smith, Senior Fellow, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, SAIS, Johns Hopkins University
Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia’s Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane 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: astronomy, mathematics, geology, medicine, chemistry, music, social science, philosophy, and theology, among other subjects.
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 chronicles this forgotten age of achievement, seeks to explain its rise, and explores the competing theories about the cause of its eventual demise.
Wednesday, October 23, 5-7 p.m.
Rome Auditorium, 1st Fl., the Rome Building
SAIS, Johns Hopkins University
16 19 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036
Light refreshments at 5 p.m.; book signing 6:30-7 p.m.
To register for this Forum please email your name and affiliation to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. latest by noon on Oct. 23, 2013.
With questions about this or other CACI Forums, kindly email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 202-663-7721
The Central Asia-Caucasus Institute is a primary institution in the United States for the study of the Caucasus, Central Asia and the Caspian Region. The Institute, affiliated with Johns Hopkins University-SAIS, forms part of a Joint Center with the Silk Road Studies Program, affiliated with the Stockholm-based Institute for Security and Development Policy. Additional information about the Joint Center, as well as its several publications series, is available at www.cacianalyst.org.