Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. The beginnings; 2. The Kok Turks, Chinese expansion and the Arab conquest; 3. The Samanids; 4. The Uighur kingdom of Qocho; 5. The Qarakhanids; 6. Seljukids and Ghaznavids; 7. The conquering Mongols; 8. The Chaghatayids; 9. Timur and the Timurids; 10. The last Timurids and the first Uzbeks; 11. The Shaybanids; 12. The rise of Russia, the fall of the Golden Horde, and the resilient Chaghatayids; 13. The Buddhist Mongols; 14. Bukhara, Khiva, and Khoqand in the seventeenth - nineteenth centuries; 15. The Russian conquest and rule of Central Asia; 16. From the Governates-General to Union Republics; 17. Soviet Central Asia; 18. Central Asia becomes independent; 19. Sinkiang as part of China; 20. Independent Central Asian Republics; 21. The Republic of Mongolia.

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The history of Inner Asia from the arrival of Islam to the present day.

Reviews

'... an up-to-date and systematic, and at the same time short and accessible historical introduction to the countries and nations of Central Asia.' Acta Orientalia 'The information presented is comprehensive and of remarkably fluid reading considering the complexity of the subject. ... It is indeed a distinct merit of Soucek's to subscribe to the integrity of this field with a work of sound scholarship and broad reach.' New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies