Turko Persia In Historical Perspective

The first book-length study to examine Turko-Persian culture as an entity.

Tanbûrs are long-necked lute-like instruments played in the art, Sûfî, and folk musical traditions along the Silk Road and beyond. This book provides a detailed study of the history of the tanbûr, its role in Ottoman music, construction and playing technique.

Zelkina (Oriental and African studies, U. of London, England) examines the history of the current crisis in the Caucasus, focusing on the Sufi brotherhoods, mainly the Naqshbandiyya, under whose charge the resistance to the Russians was conducted during the first half of the 19th century. She explains the impact of this Muslim mystical order upon the social, religious, and political life of the peoples of Chechnya and Daghestan, with insights on the Islamization of the North Caucasus and on the current role played by the brotherhoods in the region. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR

Since the demise of Soviet power, the newly independent republics are redefining their identities and their relations with the world at large. In Central Asia, which lies at the crossroads of several cultures, the emerging trends are complex and ambiguous. In this volume leading experts explore factors that have driven the region's historical development and that continue to define it today: Overlapping Islamic, Russian, and steppe cultures and their impact on attempts to delimit national borders and to create independent states; the legacy of Soviet and earlier imperial rule in economic and social relations', and the competition between Uzbek, Tajik, and other group identities. The authors make few predictions, but their original and thought-provoking analyses offer readers new insight into those aspects of Central Asia's past that may shape its future.

The foreign policies of Turkey and Iran seem increasingly to dictate the course of events in the Middle East. More recently, and especially following the Syrian crisis, the spotlight has turned to these states' dynamic re-entry onto the political stage, revealing them as key players with an international role in efforts towards the balance of power across the region. This book traces the major determinants of Turkish and Iranian foreign policies and their influence on events in the Middle East. Based on an examination of these states' politics and policies since 1979, and using material gathered from interviews with leading political figures from Turkey, Iran and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Marianna Charountaki offers fresh insights into how we understand the contemporary global order. Of particular importance, this book shows, is the effect of both external and internal factors on foreign policy and how the interaction between state and non-state actors informs political decisions. In placing these issues in a theoretical framework, Marianna Charountaki pioneers a new conceptual map within International Relations. An interdisciplinary study that provides a fresh new perspective, this book will be of particular interest to scholars of International Relations, Politics, Foreign Policy, Kurdish and Middle East Studies.

Introduces readers to the cross-cultural study of ancient and classical civilizations. The book is divided into two sections, the first examining the ongoing interaction between ancient agrarian and nomadic societies and the second focusing on regional patterns in the dissemination of ideas.

This comprehensive study is unique in its chronological breadth, intellectual diversity and historical scope and which demonstrates the central role played by Sufism in Persianate culture in Iran, Central Asia and India

This book studies the Counsel for Kings as an illuminating commentary on the milieu and polity in which it was written and as a composition that seeks to persuade by drawing allusions between the diverse repertoire of wisdom literature available to the author and his audience and the circumstances of the author’s time and place.