About the book: 2017 / Central Asia in the eyes of most residents of developed countries is a few God-forsaken poor states where- then at the end of the world, whose culture is absolutely unremarkable. The author of the book, Frederick Starr, a recognized expert on the region, proves the fallacy of this opinion. The purpose of his work is to debunk the myth of the backwardness and marginality of Central Asia. It introduces the reader to scientific discoveries, cultural achievements, conquests and other events that played a crucial role in the history of mankind and took place on the territory of modern Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, as well as parts of Afghanistan, Pakistan and China. It is no coincidence that Starr calls this territory Central Asia. It was there that one of the centers of the Enlightenment was located in the Middle Ages (many centuries before the era of the same name in France). From the book you will learn, for example, that the encyclopedist al-Biruni discovered America three centuries before Columbus, that the “Canon of Medical Science” by Ibn Sina , written at the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries, for 600 years it was the main textbook on medicine in all educational institutions of the world, including the most famous universities in Europe, that the famous pointed arches came to Gothic from Central Asian architecture and much more. The publication is addressed to culturologists, historians, philosophers and all those who want to become a true expert and connoisseur of the rich culture of Central Asia.