The Heart of Asia

Originally published in 1899, The Heart of Asia is a definitive history of Central Asia from pre-history to the contemporary machinations of the Russian empire. The book is valuable not only because of the quality of the historical work on the early period, but also because of the unique picture that it gives of contemporary views on the potential for Anglo-Russian conflict, at a time when the Russian Empire was Britain's closest rival for Asian hegemony. Scholars of modern Russia and Central Asia will find much that echoes, and indeed drives, more recent events. Includes 34 illustrations and two maps.

Edward Denison Ross, Frances Henry Skrine

Part 1 From the Earliest Times to the Russian Occupation 1. Earliest Times to the Death of Alexander 2. Bactrians and Parthians 3. The Huns and the Yué-Chi 4. The Sasanides, the Ephthalites, and the Turks 5. The Rise of Islam and Invasions of the Arabs 6. The First Eastern Campaigns of Kutayba Ibn Muslim 7. Kutayba's Last Campaigns 8. Kutayba's Fall and Death 9. Kutayba's Successors 10. Nasr Ibn Sayyar and Abu Muslim 11. Khorasan under the First Abbasids 12. The Caliphates of El-Mansur, El-Hadi and Harun Er-Rashid 13. Decline of the Caliphs' Authority in Khorasan, The Tahirides 14. The Saffarides and the Rise of the Samanides 15. The Samanides 16. The Kara-Khanides, or Uighurs 17. The Ghaznavides and the Rise of the Seljuks 18. The Seljuks 19. Sultan Sanjar and the Kara-Khitays 20. The Khwarazm-Shahs 21. Chingiz Khan 22. Mongol Invasion of Central Asia 23. The Line of Chaghatay 24. Timur, the Great Amir 25. The Successors of Timur 26. The Shaybanides 27. The House of Astrakhan 28. The House of Mangit 29. Amir Nasrullah, A Bokharan Nero Part 2 Russia in Central Asia 1. The Making of Russia 2. Crossing the Threshold of Asia 3. The Struggle with the Khanates 4. Turkomania and the Tukomans 5. The Last Step in Advance 6. The Central Asian Railways 7. Transcaspia in 1898 8. Askabad and Merv 9. Bokhara, A Protected Native State 10. Samarkand 11. Friends or Foes? Appendix 1 Appendix 2 Index