Turkestan Down to the Mongol Invasion

by Vasilii Vladimirovich Bartold

Excellent reprint, a classic. very good production, Indian publisher.

Genres: History

605 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1956

About the author

Васи́лий Влади́мирович Барто́льд

Reviews

[Bryn Hammond · Rating 5 out of 5]

From his entry in Iranica Online:
“His first monumental work, Turkestan v èpokhu mongol’skogo nashestviya (first published in 1898-1900; English edition of 1923 titled Turkestan Down to the Mongol Invasion), contains a detailed survey of the historical geography of Central Asia and a study of its political and, to some extent, social history from the Arab conquest to the Mongol invasion. It laid a firm foundation to our knowledge of this period in the history of Central Asia and eastern Iranian lands in general, on which all subsequent research has been based, and it is still indispensable.” http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles...

Just a foundational book, and the reader is caught up in fascination with its sheer detail.

For the Mongol invasion, its virtue is that it quotes the conflicting accounts of different Muslim historians. Juvaini (Genghis Khan: The History of the World-Conqueror) is a great read, and perhaps most accessible in English, therefore used; but other historians often flatly contradict him – and each other. A confusing situation, but a lesson in how much we don’t know for certain. When I first read this, my general note on it was, ‘an antidote to Juvaini, and Juvaini-derived’. That is, it often surprised me, and I saw that our history still depends on what Juvaini said. My main impression of this was that here we have the alternate accounts of events. For figures, this is typical: “Juzjani maintains that Kharpust collected an army of 130,000 men, with which he prepared to attack Chingiz-Khan, while Juwayni puts the total of his forces at 20,000.” Which is it? I’m rather glad that Barthold doesn’t decide which it is. I’m not sure that we have better means of deciding, either, since 1900. What about atrocities? “Ibn al-Athir says that the town surrendered and was spared, Juwayni that Chingiz-Khan accepted the submission of the inhabitants, but afterwards broke his promise and ordered them to be killed.” In his introduction on the sources, Barthold grants them a lot of historical sincerity – they strove to record the truth, even if they had partialities – but I think the point is, we shouldn’t underestimate the confusion of affairs. How accurate history was meant to be written in the circumstances, I don’t know; and that means we probably can’t write it today, at least without question marks on every page.

Barthold gives enough of the original historians for his book to have the almost first-hand, story-like charm that they do.

[Les · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even though this history was written over 100 years ago, Bartold's work remains one of the foundational texts on the period of Central Asian history from the conquest by the Arabs in the 7th century CE to the rise of Timur in the 14th century CE. The work is dense with references to a multitude of towns and dynasties -- I read it with an atlas open on the desk. This is history of the old school, focused on rulers and wars, but there is some limited discussion of religion and economics which underlay many of the struggles described in the book. Slow going and mainly for those very interested in Central Asian history.

[Ferda Nihat Koksoy · Rating 2 out of 5]

(Dönemine ilişkin çok değerli bir araştırma olması birinci gerçek, kitabın okunmasının boğucu derecede zor olduğu ikinci gerçek)

Çin'in yüzlerce yıl göçebe saldırılarını bertaraf etme yöntemi, bu kabileleri birbirlerine düşürmekti; yöntem kabileleri birleştiren Çingiz'e (Timuçin, anlamı Demirci) kadar başarıyla sürdürülür.

Semerkant'ın Çingiz karşısında düşmesinin ana nedenlerinden biri, şehirdeki 30.000 Türkün Çingiz tarafına geçmesidir (şehir ele geçince tümünü meydanda katlettirir Çingiz).

Göçebe hayatı ve hareketliliği seven Çingiz'in en zayıf tarafı, bu göçebe hayatı ile onun zıddı olan ve yerleşik hayatı gerektiren fikri kültürü barıştırmak istemesiydi; devletinin çöküşünün başlıca sebebi bu oldu.

[Mehmet Koç · Rating 4 out of 5]

Orta Asya Türk tarihinin en büyük uzmanlarından kabul edilen Rus Türkiyatçı Wilhelm Barthold'un, Türk-Moğol boyları ve tarihi üzerine 1926-27'de Taşkent'te verdiği ders notlarındaki özeti...

[Tsai Wei-chieh · Rating 5 out of 5]

大師手筆，經典之作。不須多言推薦。

[Mahmoud · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought the book, the Arabic version. Everyone says it's a good book.

[Abdulkadir · Rating 4 out of 5]

Güzel bir çalışma ama hakikaten sürükleyicilik açısından sorunları var. Tamam roman değil sonuçta ama biraz daha yalın ve akıcı olsa mükemmel olurdu.