The Genius of their Age: Ibn Sina, Biruni, and the Lost Enlightenment

Ibn Sina (980–1037), known in the West as Vicenna, and al-Biruni (973–1048) are the well-deserved focus of this book. Starr (chair, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute; Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia’s Golden Age) makes the case that they were perhaps the foremost intellectual figures of the Middle Age. They turned out a torrent of innovative and influential tracts in disciplines as far ranging as metaphysics, medicine, and mathematics. Starr makes a convincing case for his subjects’ greatness. He notes that Ibn Sina was probably the most significant philosopher in the Islamic tradition; it was his medical treatise that became the standard medical textbook in Europe, India, and the Middle East for more than 600 years. Mathematician al-Biruni’s achievement is also impressive, undogmatic, and inventive; he was the first to effectively measure Earth’s radius, which made chemist and science historian George Sarton rate his achievements equal to Galileo’s.