F.R. Grahame's comprehensive history looks at the conqauests of the Mongols and other groups in Central Asia and Eastern Europe during antiquity and the Middle Ages. From the introduction:"From the depths of Tartary, or Asiatic Scythia, has originally issued every torrent of invading barbarians that have overrun Eastern Europe for the last nine hundred years. Cradled on the gloomy steppes of Mongolia, where the earth for nine months remains buried under a thick bed of snow, and where the Sole vegetation consists of short grass, and a few scanty tufts of heath, these hordes of martial shepherds have periodically poured down in search of a richer country and more grateful soil, and, spreading over the barren plains of Tartary and Russia, have formed themselves into moving empires, who for a few years have domineered over the surrounding trembling nations, and then vanished and melted away; leaving little other trace of their existence than the record of destruction. Such were the monarchies of the Huns, the Igoura, and Avars; the Chazars, Polotzi, and Monguls; while the Ottoman Turks, who are also Scythian in origin and descent, more fortunate than their predecessors, have maintained a position in one of the finest countries of Europe for the last four hundred years.As the most enduring, most powerful, and the most known, both in ancient and modern times, of these turbulent nations of the north, Russia occupies by far the most prominent part in the history of the Scythian empires; and I shall therefore make the annals of that country my principal subject. After tracing the origin of her people, I shall glance at the progress of the Huns, the Chazars, and the numerous other Tartar tribes, whose names were only known, by their inroads in the middle ages, to the countries and inhabitants of eastern, Europe. Then, sketching, the rise of the Russian monarchy, I shall proceed to the conquests of Zingis Khan and the Monguls, and the wars of his descendant, and still; more formidable countryman Timur, with the short-lived domination of Samarcand."

Excerpt from The Archer and the Steppe, or the Empires of Scythia: A History of Russia and Tartary, From the Earliest Ages Till the Fall of the Mongul Power in Europe, in the Middle of the Sixteenth Century First then from hence Turn to the orient sun, and pass the height Of these uncultured mountains; thence descend To where the wandering Scythians, train'd to beat The distant wounding bow, on wheels aloft Roll on their wattled cottages. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1860.

Brilliant horsemen and great fighters, the Scythians were nomadic horsemen who ranged wide across the grasslands of the Asian steppe from the Altai mountains in the east to the Great Hungarian Plain in the first millennium BC. Their steppe homeland bordered on a number of sedentary states to the south - the Chinese, the Persians and the Greeks - and there were, inevitably, numerous interactions between the nomads and their neighbours. The Scythians fought the Persians on a number of occasions, in one battle killing their king and on another occasion driving the invading army of Darius the Great from the steppe. Relations with the Greeks around the shores of the Black Sea were rather different - both communities benefiting from trading with each other. This led to the development of a brilliant art style, often depicting scenes from Scythian mythology and everyday life. It is from the writings of Greeks like the historian Herodotus that we learn of Scythian life: their beliefs, their burial practices, their love of fighting, and their ambivalent attitudes to gender. It is a world that is also brilliantly illuminated by the rich material culture recovered from Scythian burials, from the graves of kings on the Pontic steppe, with their elaborate gold work and vividly coloured fabrics, to the frozen tombs of the Altai mountains, where all the organic material - wooden carvings, carpets, saddles and even tattooed human bodies - is amazingly well preserved. Barry Cunliffe here marshals this vast array of evidence - both archaeological and textual - in a masterful reconstruction of the lost world of the Scythians, allowing them to emerge in all their considerable vigour and splendour for the first time in over two millennia.