ABSTRACT

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.

part I|221 pages

From the Earliest Times to the Russian Occupation

chapter 1|7 pages

Earliest Times to the Death of Alexander

chapter 2|4 pages

Bactrians and Parthians

chapter 3|8 pages

The Huns and the Yué-Chi

chapter 7|7 pages

Kutayba's Last Campaigns

chapter 8|4 pages

Kutayba's Fall and Death

chapter 9|10 pages

Kutayba's Successors

chapter 10|7 pages

Nasr IBN Sayyār and Abū Muslim

chapter 11|6 pages

Khorāsān Under the First ‘Abbāsids

chapter 15|5 pages

The Sāmānides

chapter 16|9 pages

The Kara-Khānides, or Uïghūrs

chapter 18|7 pages

The Seljūks

chapter 19|8 pages

Sultan Sanjar and the Kara-Khitāys

chapter 20|5 pages

The Khwārazm-Shāhs

chapter 21|6 pages

Chingiz Khān

chapter 22|5 pages

Mongol Invasion of Central Asia

chapter 23|5 pages

The Line of Chaghatāy

chapter 24|8 pages

Tīmūr, the Great Amīr

chapter 25|9 pages

The Successors of Tīmūr

chapter 26|12 pages

The Shaybānides

chapter 27|10 pages

The House of Astrakhan

chapter 28|7 pages

The House of Mangit

chapter 29|11 pages

Amīr Nasrullah, a Bokhāran Nero

part II|194 pages

Russia in Central Asia

chapter 1|13 pages

The Making of Russia

chapter 2|12 pages

Crossing the Threshold of Asia

chapter 3|12 pages

The Struggle with the Khanates

chapter 4|22 pages

Turkomania and the Turkomans

chapter 5|22 pages

The Last Step in Advance

chapter 6|14 pages

The Central Asian Railways

chapter 7|20 pages

Transcaspia in 1898

chapter 8|17 pages

Askabad and Merv

chapter 9|29 pages

Bokhārā, A Protected Native State

chapter 10|22 pages

Samarkand

chapter 11|9 pages

Friends or Foes?