The Caspian World is a wide-ranging exploration of the strategic, political, and commercial significance of the Caspian Sea, a site where empires—Russian, Persian, Ottoman, and British—competed, warred, and collaborated. As with the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean, or the Black Sea, the geography of the Caspian Sea creates a sphere of unique political dynamics and possibilities, and the essays in this volume describe the role of the Caspian as a force of connection, as well as a source of threats, to the states on its shores.

Rather than narrating history through binary, state-to-state relationships, however, The Caspian World uncovers the sea as a space of multi-sided exchanges and numerous centers, tracing how the Caspian has shaped the commercial, intellectual, diplomatic, and imperial projects throughout the region.

Contributors: Ulfat Abdurasulov, Abbas Amanat, Elena Andreeva, George Bournoutian, Iurii Demin, Layla S. Diba, Etienne Forestier-Peyrat, Kevin Gledhill, Guido Hausmann, Kayhan A. Nejad, Matthew P. Romaniello, Saghar Sadeghian, Alisa Shablovskaia, Ernest Tucker, Denis V. Volkov, Murat Yaşar, Rustin Zarkar

Abbas Amanat is William Graham Sumner Professor Emeritus of History at Yale University. His many books include Iran, Apocalyptic Islam and Iranian Shi'ism, Pivot of the Universe, and Resurrection and Renewal.

Kevin Gledhill is Assistant Teaching Professor of History at Sacred Heart University.

Kayhan A. Nejad is Farzaneh Family Assistant Professor of Iranian Studies at the University of Oklahoma.

Readers will enjoy the empirical relevance and value of different chapters, for The Caspian World examines a variety of topics.