The Eastern Frontier
eBook - ePub

The Eastern Frontier

Limits of Empire in Late Antique and Early Medieval Central Asia

  1. 312 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

The Eastern Frontier

Limits of Empire in Late Antique and Early Medieval Central Asia

About this book

Transoxania, Khurasan, and?ukharistan – which comprise large parts of today's Central Asia – have long been an important frontier zone. In the late antique and early medieval periods, the region was both an eastern political boundary for Persian and Islamic empires and a cultural border separating communities of sedentary farmers from pastoral-nomads. Given its peripheral location, the history of the 'eastern frontier' in this period has often been shown through the lens of expanding empires. However, in this book, Robert Haug argues for a pre-modern Central Asia with a discrete identity, a region that is not just a transitory space or the far-flung corner of empires, but its own historical entity. From this locally specific perspective, the book takes the reader on a 900-year tour of the area, from Sasanian control, through the Umayyads and Abbasids, to the quasi-independent dynasties of the Tahirids and the Samanids. Drawing on an impressive array of literary, numismatic and archaeological sources, Haug reveals the unique and varied challenges the eastern frontier presented to imperial powers that strove to integrate the area into their greater systems. This is essential reading for all scholars working on early Islamic, Iranian and Central Asian history, as well as those with an interest in the dynamics of frontier regions.

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Yes, you can access The Eastern Frontier by Robert Haug in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Politics & International Relations & Central Asian History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Half-Title
  3. Dedication
  4. Title
  5. Contents
  6. List of abbreviations
  7. List of maps
  8. Acknowledgements
  9. Introduction
  10. Chapter 1 The Gate of Iron: Conceptualizing the Eastern Frontier in Medieval Geographic Literature
  11. Chapter 2 Shaping the Eastern Frontier: The Sasanian Empire and Its Eastern Neighbours
  12. Chapter 3 The Arab–Muslim Conquests and the Late Antique Imperial Shatterzone
  13. Chapter 4 The Frontier beyond the Caliphate: Khurāsān and the Second Fitna
  14. Chapter 5 Extending the Frontier: The Umayyads in Sogdiana and Beyond
  15. Chapter 6 The Unsettled Frontier: The Abbasid and Other Revolutions and the Eastern Frontier
  16. Chapter 7 Unifying the Frontier: The Formation of Greater Khurāsān
  17. Conclusion: At the End of the Frontier
  18. Notes
  19. Bibliography
  20. Index
  21. Copyright