Dramatis Personae

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. List of Illustrations ix
4. Preface xiii
5. Dramatis Personae xxi
6. Chronology xxxi
7. Chapter 1. The Center of the World 1
8. Chapter 2. Worldly Urbanists, Ancient Land 28
9. Chapter 3. A Cauldron of Skills, Ideas, and Faiths 62
10. Chapter 4. How Arabs Conquered Central Asia and Central Asia Then Set the Stage to Conquer Baghdad 101
11. Chapter 5. East Wind over Baghdad 126
12. Chapter 6. Wandering Scholars 156
13. Chapter 7. Khurasan: Central Asia’s Rising Star 194
14. Chapter 8. A Flowering of Central Asia: The Samanid Dynasty 225
15. Chapter 9. A Moment in the Desert: Gurganj under the Mamuns 267
16. Chapter 10. Turks Take the Stage: Mahmud of Kashgar and Yusuf of Balasagun 303
17. Chapter 11. Culture under a Turkic Marauder: Mahmud’s Ghazni 332
18. Chapter 12. Tremors under the Dome of Seljuk Rule 381
19. Chapter 13. The Mongol Century 436
20. Chapter 14. Tamerlane and His Successors 478
21. Chapter 15. Retrospective: The Sand and the Oyster 515
22. Notes 541
23. Index 611