Review by Choice Review
The papers in this collection edited by Hebrew University historians Amitai and Biran break new ground in the study of Eurasian nomadic interactions with sedentary peoples from 1100 BCE to 1999 CE. Several main themes run throughout this excellently written work. First is the importance of considering concrete historical circumstances and realities, as in Manz's discovery of the cruciality of urban populations to Timurid military and rule. Second is the reconsideration of previous perspectives. Shelach demonstrates that three factors interacted simultaneously: transition to pastoralism, intensification of regional interactions, and emergence to the steppe art style. He notes that the chicken-and-egg models of these factors are incorrect. Other topics include diachronic and synchronic analyses of pastoral nomadic contacts, survival, and religion, and critiques of sources, including Mongol histories. Fresh analytical and theoretical foci run throughout, as in Ivantchik's use of Assyrian sources and Amatai's application of "cold war" to the Mongol-Mamluk conflict. The papers in this collection, enhanced by maps, drawings, tables, and chapter bibliographies, open many valuable new avenues for future research. ^BSumming Up: Essential. Central and Inner Asian collections; all Asian, political science, and anthropology collections, upper-division undergraduate and above. L. A. Kimball Western Washington University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
