A colossal history of Afghanistan from its earliest organization into a coherent state up to its turbulent present. Located at the intersection of Asia and the Middle East, Afghanistan has been strategically important for thousands of years. Its ancient routes and strategic position between India, Inner Asia, China, Persia, and beyond has meant the region has been subject to frequent invasions, both peaceful and military. As a result, modern Afghanistan is a culturally and ethnically diverse country, but one divided by conflict, political instability, and by mass displacements of its people. In this magisterial illustrated history, Jonathan L. Lee tells the story of how a small tribal confederacy in a politically and culturally significant but volatile region became a modern nation-state. Drawing on more than forty years of study, Lee places the current conflict in Afghanistan in its historical context and challenges many of the West’s preconceived ideas about the country. Focusing particularly on the powerful Durrani monarchy, which united the country in 1747 and ruled for nearly two and a half centuries, Lee chronicles the origins of the dynasty as clients of Safavid Persia and Mughal India: the reign of each ruler and their efforts to balance tribal, ethnic, regional, and religious factions; the struggle for social and constitutional reform; and the rise of Islamic and Communist factions. Along the way, he offers new cultural and political insights from Persian histories, the memoirs of Afghan government officials, British government and India Office archives, and recently released CIA reports and Wikileaks documents. He also sheds new light on the country’s foreign relations, its internal power struggles, and the impact of foreign military interventions such as the “War on Terror.”

Ethiopia, mythically Jewish until it was converted to Christianity in the fourth century, was almost isolated from Europe by the screen of Islam after the seventh century. Thus it has retained many cultural features that disappeared elsewhere, among them a tradition of talismanic art. Talismans are not considered products of human kill but part of a "mystery" reproduced through revelation. Thus the Ethiopian genius translated into pictorial language on "magic scrolls" the antique theory of correspondence between men, animals, stars, demons, sicknesses, etc. The artist saw their work as interlaces filled with eyes in order to protect a man as defined by his astrological sign. These paintings were considered to command spirits. This book provides a commentary on these ancient scrolls.--Publisher's description.

Born in Hungary, trained in Chinese studies in Germany, Etienne Balazs was, until his sudden and premature death in 1963, a professor at the Sorbonne and an intellectual leader among European specialists on China. In this book, a selection of Dr. Balazs’ essays are presented for the first time in English. Arthur F. Wright, professor of history at Yale, and John K. Fairbank, professor of history at Harvard, have written a joint Preface and Mr. Wright has written an Introduction. Scholars and interested laymen will find a rich feast here in essays ranging over two thousand years of China’s social, economic, political, and intellectual history. A wealth of data supports the various theories Dr. Balazs develops, in a graceful translation by Hope N. Wright. Because Etienne Balazs regarded the Chinese past not as a curiosity but as a repository of relevant human experience, his essays are significant for anyone interested in the past and future of civilization. "If a reader should disagree with some of the brilliant points, he would still find them challenging and refreshing."—Journal of Asian Studies.

Originally published in 1953, this book investigates the most important problems connected with the clan system of the Vedic Brahmans, and also presents the textual evidence for the details of that system at the end of the Vedic period. The volume is composed of an English translation of the Gotra-Pravara-Manjari of Purusottama-Pandita, together with an extensive introduction and critical notes. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in the Brahmanical system and perspectives on Indian religion and society.

The relations between the societies and states of Southeast Asia and China have been of enormous significance to both these regions, extending back for literally thousands of years. This useful single-valume edition of key studies on Southeast Asia-China interactions, which were first published in the 'Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society' (and its precursors), includes classics such as Wang Gungwu's 'The Nanhai Trade' and Paul Wheatley's 'Geographical Notes On Some Commodities Involved in Sung Maritime Trade'. In this compedium, 18 studies examine political, economic, and social interaction as well as the flows of people and technologies which have tied these regions together over the period.