Central Asia, in the eyes of most residents of developed countries, is a few godforsaken poor states somewhere on the edge of the world, whose culture is absolutely unremarkable. The book's author, Frederick Starr, a recognized expert on the region, proves this belief wrong. The purpose of his work is to debunk the myth of the backwardness and marginality of Central Asia. It introduces the reader to the 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, and also partly Afghanistan, Pakistan and China. It is no coincidence that Starr calls this territory Central Asia. It was there that in the Middle Ages one of the centers of the Enlightenment was located (many centuries before the era of the same name in France). From the book you will learn, for example, that the encyclopedist scientist al-Biruni discovered America three centuries before Columbus, that the “Canon of Medicine” by Ibn Sina , written at the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries, for 600 years 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 connoisseur and connoisseur of the rich culture of Central Asia.