The forgotten story of Central Asia's enlightenment―its rise, fall, and enduring legacy

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.

《胜者王冠》讲述了古代世界的体育竞技，以生动有趣的笔法向读者介绍体育，尤其是奥林匹克运动在古典时代的起源、发展以及社会作用。作者的书写横跨几个世纪，从古希腊时代一直到晚期罗马以及早期拜占庭。大卫•波特写道，对古人而言体育竞技不仅关乎宗教信仰以及政治斗争，还很可能是一种社交手段与权利，展示出与现代体育竞技有所不同的竞技风貌。是一本风趣的文化读物。
★★★ ★★★
下笔生动，将古代竞技的细节带到读者眼前。——《独立报》
写得很好，资讯丰富。这本书把一些复杂的内容讲得很清楚。推荐阅读。——S.A.莱西斯，《选择》
生动、权威。波特有技巧地深入古希腊生活中有关竞技的那一部分，并注意到了它和奥林匹克运动的关联。当他写到罗马时期，内容更为活灵活现。他追溯了运动的起源，讲述运动怎样成为一种职业、运动员和角斗士的的生活方式等，解开了一些谜团。这本书很迷人，深具表现力。——詹姆斯·麦康纳西，《星期天泰晤士报》

Christian communities flourished during late antiquity in a Zoroastrian political system, known as the Iranian Empire, that integrated culturally and geographically disparate territories from Arabia to Afghanistan into its institutions and networks. Whereas previous studies have regarded Christians as marginal, insular, and often persecuted participants in this empire, Richard Payne demonstrates their integration into elite networks, adoption of Iranian political practices and imaginaries, and participation in imperial institutions.
The rise of Christianity in Iran depended on the Zoroastrian theory and practice of hierarchical, differentiated inclusion, according to which Christians, Jews, and others occupied legitimate places in Iranian political culture in positions subordinate to the imperial religion. Christians, for their part, positioned themselves in a political culture not of their own making, with recourse to their own ideological and institutional resources, ranging from the writing of saints’ lives to the judicial arbitration of bishops. In placing the social history of East Syrian Christians at the center of the Iranian imperial story, A State of Mixture helps explain the endurance of a culturally diverse empire across four centuries.

本书系“科学文化译丛”之一，主要探索科学、文化与政府之间的深远关系，是对欧洲现代文化的新见解。作者从17世纪罗伯特·玻意耳的实验科学说起，提出了“工程科学”这一概念，认为新兴的机械哲学的精髓是工程实践和技术，继而考察了工程科学被引进爱尔兰殖民地的历程，并通过剖析在爱尔兰开展的绘图法、统计学和地质史、公共卫生等工程，形象地展现了科学在现代国家形成中的作用。爱尔兰现代国家的形成过程表明，科学在政治中的中心地位越来越突出，这是科学-国家网络结构发展的必然结果。