Raiders, Rulers, and Traders: The Horse and the Rise of Empires

Raiders, Rulers, and Traders: The Horse and the Rise of Empires PDF Author: David Chaffetz
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 1324051477
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
A captivating history of civilization that reveals the central role of the horse in culture, commerce, and conquest. No animal is so entangled in human history as the horse. The thread starts in prehistory, with a slight, shy animal, hunted for food. Domesticating the horse allowed early humans to settle the vast Eurasian steppe; later, their horses enabled new forms of warfare, encouraged long-distance trade routes, and ended up acquiring deep cultural and religious significance. Over time, horses came to power mighty empires in Iran, Afghanistan, China, India, and, later, Russia. Genghis Khan and the thirteenth-century Mongols offer the most famous example, but from ancient Assyria and Persia, to the seventeenth-century Mughals, to the high noon of colonialism in the early twentieth century, horse breeding was indispensable to conquest and statecraft. Scholar of Asian history David Chaffetz tells the story of how the horse made rulers, raiders, and traders interchangeable, providing a novel explanation for the turbulent history of the “Silk Road,” which might be better called the Horse Road. Drawing on recent research in fields including genetics and forensic archeology, Chaffetz presents a lively history of the great horse empires that shaped civilization.

Raiders, Rulers, and Traders: The Horse and the Rise of Empires

Raiders, Rulers, and Traders: The Horse and the Rise of Empires PDF Author: David Chaffetz
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 1324051477
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 284

Get Book Here

Book Description
A captivating history of civilization that reveals the central role of the horse in culture, commerce, and conquest. No animal is so entangled in human history as the horse. The thread starts in prehistory, with a slight, shy animal, hunted for food. Domesticating the horse allowed early humans to settle the vast Eurasian steppe; later, their horses enabled new forms of warfare, encouraged long-distance trade routes, and ended up acquiring deep cultural and religious significance. Over time, horses came to power mighty empires in Iran, Afghanistan, China, India, and, later, Russia. Genghis Khan and the thirteenth-century Mongols offer the most famous example, but from ancient Assyria and Persia, to the seventeenth-century Mughals, to the high noon of colonialism in the early twentieth century, horse breeding was indispensable to conquest and statecraft. Scholar of Asian history David Chaffetz tells the story of how the horse made rulers, raiders, and traders interchangeable, providing a novel explanation for the turbulent history of the “Silk Road,” which might be better called the Horse Road. Drawing on recent research in fields including genetics and forensic archeology, Chaffetz presents a lively history of the great horse empires that shaped civilization.

A Journey Through Afghanistan

A Journey Through Afghanistan PDF Author: David Chaffetz
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226100642
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
Shortly before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, David Chaffetz and a fellow American student slipped from the protection of Western culture and immersed themselves in the customs, fears, and hopes of the Afghan people, setting out on horseback through the mountains and into a lonely, hermetic world of nomads and isolated villages. Chaffetz's vivid, honest, and often poignant account of their experience reveals a great deal about the people of Afghanistan-and Willard Wood, his traveling companion, contributes a foreword considering the experience of the Afghan people in the new light of autumn, 2001.

At Empire's Edge

At Empire's Edge PDF Author: Robert B. Jackson
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300129513
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 376

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Book Description
When Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire in 30 BC after the deaths of Antony and Cleopatra, its vast and mysterious frontier lands had an important impact on the commerce, politics and culture of the empire. This account - part history and part gazetteer -focuses on Rome's Egyptian frontier, describing the ancient fortresses, temples, settlements, quarries and aqueducts scattered throughout the region and conveying a sense of what life was like for its inhabitants. Robert Jackson has journeyed, by jeep and on foot, to virtually every known Roman site in the area, from Siwa Oasis, 45 kilometers from the modern Libyan border, to the Sudan. Drawing on both archaeological and historical information, he discusses these sites, explaining how Rome extracted exotic stone and precious metals from the mountains of the Eastern Desert, channelled the wealth of India and East Africa through the desert via ports on the Red Sea, constructed and manned fortresses in the distant oases of the Western Desert, and facilitated the expansion of agricultural communities in the desert that eventually experienced the earliest large-scale conversions to Christianity in Egypt. Illustrated with many photographs, the volume should be useful to archaeologists, classicists, and travellers to the region.

Shadow Craft

Shadow Craft PDF Author: Gayathri Prabhu
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 9390176263
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
The years between Indian independence (1947) and the dominance of colour cinema (early 1960s) saw the emergence and fruition of a distinct, confident, and nuanced black and white aesthetic in Hindi mainstream cinema. Shadow Craft is an ardent and immersive study of cinematic craftings that emblematise the oeuvres of Kamal Amrohi, Raj Kapoor, Nutan, Bimal Roy, Guru Dutt, and Abrar Alvi. Films such as Aag (1948), Mahal (1949), Seema (1955), Pyaasa (1957), Sujata (1959), Kagaz Ke Phool (1959), Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962), Bandini (1963) remain formative to the visual psyche of generations of South Asian viewers. This enduring visual language demonstrates a minutely attuned and sympathetic camera, evocative pools of shadow, affect-rich atmospheric composition, and the visual autonomy of performance. With seventy five rare and curated images from the archives, Shadow Craft offers for the first time a consolidated and intimate journey through this pioneering black and white cinema aesthetic at its most expressive and climactic moment.

Archery in Medieval England

Archery in Medieval England PDF Author: Richard Wadge
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0752483579
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
How was it that ordinary men in medieval England and Wales became such skilled archers that they defeated noble knights in battle after battle? The archer in medieval England became a forerunner of John Bull as a symbol of the spirit of the ordinary Englishman. He had his own popular literature that left us a romantic version of the lives and activities of outlaws and poachers such as Robin Hood. This remarkable development began 150 years after the traumatic events of the Norman Conquest transformed the English way of life, in ways that were almost never to the benefit of the English. This book is the first account of the way ordinary men used bows and arrows in their day-to-day lives, and the way that their skills became recognised by the kings of England as invaluable in warfare.

Rogue Empires

Rogue Empires PDF Author: Steven Press
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 067497185X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 382

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Book Description
The man who bought a country -- The emergence of an idea -- King Leopold's Borneo -- Bismarck's Borneo -- Epilogue: "A great act of folly

Edge of Empire

Edge of Empire PDF Author: Maya Jasanoff
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
A mansion filled with Western art in the center of old Calcutta, the Mughal emperor's letters in an archive in the French Alps, the names of Italian adventurers scratched into the walls of Egyptian temples. In this book, Jasanoff delves into the stories behind vestiges such as these to uncover the lives of people who lived on the frontiers of the British Empire during a pivotal century of its formation. She traces the exploits of collectors to tell an intimate history of imperialism, offering a fresh account of European imperialism that challenges received wisdom about how imperial power was asserted in Asia and the Middle East. This book enters a world where people lived, loved, mingled, and identified with one another in ways richer and more complex than we might have believed possible.--From publisher description

Kamikaze

Kamikaze PDF Author: James Delgado
Publisher: Arrow
ISBN: 9780099532583
Category : China
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
After finally achieving what had eluded even his grandfather Genghis Khan the conquest of China and inheriting the world s largest navy, Khubilai Khan set his sights on Japan. He commanded an immense armada, the largest fleet the world had ever seen a

Mapping the Great Game

Mapping the Great Game PDF Author: Riaz Dean
Publisher: Casemate
ISBN: 1612008151
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 302

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Book Description
The work of explorers, surveyors and spies in the race to conquer Southern Asia is vividly recounted in this history of British imperial cartography. In the 19th century, the British and Russian empires were engaged in bitter rivalry for the acquisition of Southern Asian. Although India was the ultimate prize, most of the intrigue and action took place along its northern frontier in Afghanistan, Turkestan and Tibet. Mapping the region and gaining knowledge of the enemy were crucial to the interests of both sides. The Great Trigonometrical Survey of India began in the 18th century with the aim of creating a detailed map of the subcontinent. Under the leadership of George Everest—whose name was later bestowed to the world’s tallest mountain—the it mapped the Great Arc running from the country’s southern tip to the Himalayas. Much of the work was done by Indian explorers known as Pundits. They were the first to reveal the mysteries of the forbidden city of Lhasa, and discover the true course of Tibet’s mighty Tsangpo River. These explorers performed essential information gathering for the British Empire and filled in large portions of the map of Asia. Their adventurous exploits are vividly recounted in Mapping the Great Game.

Empire of Horses

Empire of Horses PDF Author: John Man
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1643133829
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 351

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Book Description
The author of landmark histories such as Genghis Khan, Attila, and Xanadu invites us to discover a fertile period in Asian history that prefigured so much of the world that followed. The people of the first nomadic empire left no written records, but from 200 bc they dominated the heart of Asia for four centuries, and changed the world in the process. The Mongols, today’s descendants of Genghis Khan, see these people as ancestors. Their rise cemented Chinese identity and inspired the first Great Wall. Their descendants helped destroy the Roman Empire under the leadership of Attila the Hun. We don’t know what language they spoke, but they became known as Xiongnu, or Hunnu, a term passed down the centuries and surviving today as “Hun,” and Man uncovers new evidence that will transform our understanding of the profound mark they left on half the globe, from Europe to Central Asia and deep into China. Based on meticulous research and new archaeological evidence, Empire of Horses traces this civilization’s epic story and shows how this nomadic cultures of the steppes gave birth to an empire with the wealth and power to threaten the order of the ancient world.