Автор: Denis Sinor
Название: The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia
Издательство: Cambridge University Press
Год: 1990
ISBN: 978-0521243049
Язык: English
Формат: pdf
Размер: 50,6 mb
Страниц: 532

From earliest times Inner Asia has linked and separated the great sedentary civilisations of Europe and Asia. In the pre-modern period it was definable more as a cultural than a geographical entity, its frontiers shifting according to the changing balances of power. Before the advent of efficient firearms, it was their almost irresistible light cavalry which enabled the nomadic people of the steppes to take by force what they could neither produce themselves not procure through trade. Their sedentary neighbours retaliated with constant attempts to dehumanise this nomad enemy, and created the concept of the ‘barbarian’ bent on destroying the civilised world. The early history of Inner Asia is, therefore, the history of the barbarian.

Written by distinguished international scholars who have pioneered the exploration of Inner Asia’s poorly documented past, this book chronologically traces the varying historical achievements of the disparate population-groups in the region. These include the Scythians and Sarmatians, the Hsiung-nu, the Huns and Avars, the people of the Russian steppes, the Turk empire, the Uighurs and the Tibetan empire. It is the editor’s hope that this book will bring Inner Asia more closely into the fabric of world history.