The Heart of Asia: A History of Russian Turkestan and the Central Asian Khanates from the Earliest Times

by Ross,Edward Denison

• ISBN13: 9780700710171
• ISBN10: 0700710175
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-10-28
• Publisher: RoutledgeCurzon

Summary

'A time when Russia's movements in the East are being watched by all with such keen interest seems a fitting one for the appearance of a work dealing with her Central Asian possessions' (from the original Introduction). Originally published in 1899, The Heart of Asia is a definitive history of Central Asia from pre-history to the contemporary machinations of the Russian empire. The book is valuable not only because of the quality of the historical work on the early period, but also because of the unique picture that it gives of contemporary views on the potential for Anglo-Russian conflict, at a time when the Russian Empire was Britain's closest rival for Asian hegemony. Scholars of modern Russia and Central Asia will find much that echoes, and indeed drives, more recent events. Includes 34 illustrations and two maps.

Table of Contents

PART I FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE RUSSIAN OCCUPATION
Earliest Times To The Death Of Alexander	3	(7)
Bactrians and Parthians	10	(4)
The Huns and the Yue-Chi	14	(8)
The Sasanides, the Ephthalites, and the Turks	22	(12)
The Rise of Islam and Invasions of the Arabs	34	(11)
The First Eastern Campaigns of Kutayba IBN Muslim	45	(11)
Kutayba's Last Campaigns	56	(7)
Kutayba's Fall and Death	63	(4)
Kutayba's Successors	67	(10)
Nasr IBN Sayyar and ABU Muslim	77	(7)
Khorasan Under the First 'Abbasids	84	(6)
The Caliphates of El-Mansur, El-Hadi, and Harun Er-Rashid	90	(8)
Decline of the Caliphs' Authority in Khorasan. the Tahirides	98	(5)
The Saffarides and the Rise of the Samanides	103	(6)
The Samanides	109	(5)
The Kara-Khanides, or Uighurs	114	(9)
The Ghaznavides and the Rise of the Seljuks	123	(6)
The Seljuks	129	(7)
Sultan Sanjar and the Kara-Khitays	136	(8)
The Khwarazm-Shahs	144	(5)
Chingiz Khan	149	(6)
Mongol Invasion of Central Asia	155	(5)
The Line of Chaghatay	160	(5)
Timur, the Great Amir	165	(8)
The Successors of Timur	173	(9)
The Shaybanides	182	(12)
The House of Astrakhan	194	(10)
The House of Mangit	204	(7)
Amir Nasrullah, a Bokharan Nero	211	(14)
PART II RUSSIA IN CENTRAL ASIA
The Making of Russia	225	(13)
Crossing the Threshold of Asia	238	(12)
The Struggle with the Khanates	250	(12)
Turkomania and the Turkomans	262	(22)
The Last Step in Advance	284	(22)
The Central Asian Railways	306	(14)
Transcaspia in 1898	320	(20)
Askabad and Merv	340	(17)
Bokhara, a Protected Native State	357	(29)
Samarkand	386	(22)
Friends or Foes?	408	(9)
Appendix I	417	(7)
Appendix II	424	(5)
Index	429