This collection of studies deals with the nomads of western Central Eurasia (Khazars, Oghuz, and Qipchaqs in particular) between the 6th and 13th centuries and their political and cultural interaction with their sedentary neighbors, especially Kievan Rus' and Christian Transcaucasia.

The author of the present volume aims to investigate the relationships between Romanians and nomadic Turkic groups (Pechenegs, Uzes, Cumans) in the southern half of Moldavia, north of the Danube Delta, between the tenth century and the great Mongol invasion of 1241-1242. The Carpathian-Danubian area particularly favoured the development of sedentary life, throughout the millennia, but, at various times, nomadic pastoralists of the steppes also found this area favourable to their own way of life. Due to the basic features of its landscape, the above-mentioned area, which includes a vast plain, became the main political stage of the Romanian ethnic space, a stage on which local communities had to cope with the pressures of successive intrusions of nomadic Turks, attracted by the rich pastures north of the Lower Danube. Contacts of the Romanians and of the Turkic nomads with Byzantium, Kievan Rus’, Bulgaria and Hungary are also investigated. The conclusions of the volume are based on an analysis of both written sources (narrative, diplomatic, cartographic) and archaeological finds.

The setting for the studies collected here is the West-Eurasian steppe region, extending from present-day Kazakhstan through southern Russia, Ukraine and Moldavia to the Carpathian Basin. The first articles deal with pre-Mongol, Turkic peoples of the region and their relations with the Byzantine Empire to the south, but the core of the volume is the history of the Golden Horde and its successor states, such as the Kazan and Crimean Khanates, whose Turco-Mongol overlords are often referred to as Tatars. These played a decisive role in the history of Western Central Asia and Eastern Europe in the 13th-16th centuries and had a fundamental influence on the rise of the Russian state. Particular articles look at Mongol institutions and terminology, others at the interaction of the medieval Tatar and Russian worlds.

Translating a collection of the most important descriptions of the Turks found in medieval Arabic texts into English, this book aims at delineating the coming of the Turkic people in the eleventh century, their military successes in Iran and Iraq, and the emergence of the sultanate. The book introduces the reader to the history of the Islamic Caliphate and the Turkic people. This introduction is followed by annotated translated sources which illuminate; the view of the Eurasian steppes in Muslim-Arabic geographical writing from the pre-Saljūq period, the self-image and ideology of the victorious Saljūqs and their fundamental claim to legitimacy, and the conventional narrative of the coming of the Saljūqs in later Arabic historiography. Illustrating the variety of sources available on the history of Turkic tribes in the Eurasian steppes and in central Islamic lands, ranging from geographical writing, to chronicles, to mythological legends, this book will be an essential resource for students and scholars with an interest in Turks and image, History, and Middle East Studies.

This book investigates the early history of the Seljuq Turks, founders of one of the most important empires of the mediaeval Islamic world, from their origins in the Eurasian steppe to their conquest of Iran, Iraq and Anatolia. The first work available in a western language on this important episode in Turkish and Islamic history, this book offers a new understanding of the emergence of this major nomadic empire Focusing on perhaps the most important and least understood phase, the transformation of the Seljuqs from tribesmen in Central Asia to rulers of a great Muslim Empire, the author examines previously neglected sources to demonstrate the central role of tribalism in the evolution of their state. The book also seeks to understand the impact of the invasions on the settled peoples of the Middle East and the beginnings of Turkish settlement in the region, which was to transform it demographically forever. Arguing that the nomadic, steppe origins of the Seljuqs were of much greater importance in determining the early development of the empire than is usually believed, this book sheds new light on the arrival of the Turks in the Islamic world. A significant contribution to our understanding of the history of the Middle East, this book will be of interest to scholars of Byzantium as well as Islamic history, as well as Islamic studies and anthropology.

An epic account of how a new world order under Tamerlane was born out of the decline of the Mongol Empire By the mid-fourteenth century, the world empire founded by Genghis Khan was in crisis. The Mongol Ilkhanate had ended in Iran and Iraq, China’s Mongol rulers were threatened by the native Ming, and the Golden Horde and the Central Asian Mongols were prey to internal discord. Into this void moved the warlord Tamerlane, the last major conqueror to emerge from Inner Asia. In this authoritative account, Peter Jackson traces Tamerlane’s rise to power against the backdrop of the decline of Mongol rule. Jackson argues that Tamerlane, a keen exponent of Mongol custom and tradition, operated in Genghis Khan’s shadow and took care to draw parallels between himself and his great precursor. But, as a Muslim, Tamerlane drew on Islamic traditions, and his waging of wars in the name of jihad, whether sincere or not, had a more powerful impact than those of any Muslim Mongol ruler before him.

The ERC-funded research project BuddhistRoad aims to create a new framework to enable understanding of the complexities in the dynamics of cultural encounter and religious transfer in pre-modern Eastern Central Asia. Buddhism was one major factor in this exchange: for the first time the multi-layered relationships between the trans-regional Buddhist traditions (Chinese, Indian, Tibetan) and those based on local Buddhist cultures (Khotanese, Uyghur, Tangut, Khitan) will be explored in a systematic way. The first volume Buddhism in Central Asia (Part I): Patronage, Legitimation, Sacred Space, and Pilgrimage is based on the start-up conference held on May 23rd–25th, 2018, at CERES, Ruhr-Universität Bochum (Germany) and focuses on the first two of altogether six thematic topics to be dealt with in the project, namely on “patronage and legitimation strategy” as well as "sacred space and pilgrimage."