This new volume examines the processes of cultural exchange as they occurred in 'empire building, ' looking at Early Mesopotamia, Africa, Greece, Japan, India, the Arab world, and empires in other parts of the globe. The articles draw upon a variety of disciplines from the social sciences and the humanities, a feature not often found in other readers. Unlike other books on world civilizations, this text strives to develop a consistent theme as it focuses on the manner in which imperial authority and cultural interaction worked through different bureaucracies in various empires. The articles also help students understand the cross-cultural interactions and historical events that have laid the foundation for our modern global society. This book also contains useful maps and supplements consisting of images to assist students in visualizing and understanding the textual material. This new text is ideal for courses in world history prior to 1650.

There are many excellent books dealing with Old Turkic, Preclassical and Classical Mongolian and Literary Manchu individually, but none providing in a single volume a comprehensive survey of all the three major Altaic languages. The present volume attempts to fill this gap; at the same time it reviews also the much debated Altaic Hypothesis. The book is intended for use by students at university level as well as by general readers with a basic knowledge of linguistics. The 39 language texts analysed in the volume are discussed within their historical and cultural context, thus vastly enlarging the scope of the purely linguistic investigation.

B. Kellner-Heinkele, Hommage a Denis Sinor V. M. Alpatov, Phonetic and Grammatical Units in the European and Japanese Linguistic Traditions A. Birtalan, Dudlaga. A Genre of Mongolian Shamanic Tradition E. V. Boikova, The Mongolian Factor in the History of Russia L. Johanson, "Der Orientalist" als "Turkologe" S. G. Klyashtorny, The Asian Aspect of the Early Khazar History H. Okada, J. Miyawaki-Okada, The Birth of the World History in the Mongol Empire: History Education in Modern Japan T. A. Pang, Three Versions of a Poem Composed by Emperor Qianlong R. Pop, La notion d'allie matrimonial chez les Mongols A. Pozzi, A Birthday Banquet for our Guest of Honour Professor Denis Sinor a la mode of the Ancestors of Manchu People J. Richard, La cooperation militaire entre Francs et Mongols a l'epreuve: les campagnes de Ghazan en Syrie A. Rona-Tas, Etymological Notes on Hungarian gyapju 'wool' V. Rybatzki, Genealogischer Stammbaum der Mongolen A. Sarkozi, Conquering the World: The Linguistic Legerdemain of the Mongols A. M. Shcherbak, Some Words About the Project of an "Etymological Dictionary of the Manchu-Tungus Languages"

The papers in this volume describe and analyze an array of intriguing linguistic phenomena as they occur in the Saami languages, ranging from etymological nativization of loanwords to the formation of deadjectival and denominal verbs. Saami displays a number of characteristics that are unusual from a cross-linguistic perspective, including partial agreement on verbs, a three-way quantity distinction in consonants and spectacular consonant gradation. The eight papers presented here approach these and other issues from diverse theoretical perspectives in morphology, phonology, and syntax. The volume includes an extensive research bibliography which will be helpful for anyone interested in Saami linguistics.

Lavishly illustrated, the book contains seventy five historical maps and colour plates which visualize the historical background of Hungary and introduces its early history to a broader readership. The early history of Hungarians is embedded into the history of Eurasia and special attention is given to the relationship of the Hungarians with the Khazars and the Bulghar-Turks. The first part deals with methods and sources which can be used for elucidating the ancient history of the Hungarians, relying on research into linguistics, archaeology, anthropology and natural history. The second part traces how the Hungarians came into the Carpathian Basin and answers such questions as: who are the Magyars, from where did they come and how did they conquer the land? It reconstructs and examines their early political and social structure, the economy, and religion, and compares the Hungarian medieval process with the ethnogenetic processes of the Germanic, Slavic and Turkic people.

The Black Master is a Festschrift with 16 papers written by colleagues or former students of Professor Gyorgy Kara, including some of the most renowned scholars in the field. The themes of the articles reflect the wide scope of Gyorgi Kara's research, with texts on Central Eurasian linguistics, history or ethnology. A list of his publications completes the volume. From the table of contents (17 contributions): C. Atwood, Poems of Fraternity: Literary Responses to the Attempted Reunification of Inner Mongolia and the Mongolian's People Republic B. Baumann, "Nakshatra Astrology" in Antoine Mostaert's Manual of Mongolian Astrology and Divination A. Birtalan, An Invocation to Dayan Derx Collected from a Darkhad Shaman's Descendant M. Dobrovits, The Tolis and the Tardus in Old Turkic Inscriptions J. Elverskog, Sagang Sechen on the Qing Conquest J. Janhunen, On the Development of the Sibilant System of Qinghai Bonan M. Kiripolska, A Few Remarks on Some Mongolian Texts in Stockholm R. I. Meserve, The Snowcocks of Central Asia and Mongolia D. Prior, Tonyuquq's Humiliation and an Old Turkic Etymology A. Rona-Tas, Turko-Mongolian Etymologies: Turkic yarp V. Rybatzki, Personal Names and Titles of the Naiman in the Secret History of the Mongols Y. Saito, On the Word in West Middle Mongolian A. Sarkozi, Proper Names in the First Chapter of the Mongolian Suvarnaprabhasottamasutra A.G. Sazykin, Mongolian Xylographs in St. Petersburg's Collections