The Golden Horde is a definitive work on the Italian revolutionary movements of the 1960s and '70s. An anthology of texts and fragments woven together with an original commentary, The Golden Horde widens our understanding of the full complexity and richness of radical thought and practice in Italy during the 1960s and '70s. The book covers the generational turbulence of Italy's postwar period, the transformations of Italian capitalism, the new analyses by worker-focused intellectuals, the student movement of 1968, the Hot Autumn of 1969, the extra-parliamentary groups of the early 1970s, the Red Brigades, the formation of a radical women's movement, the development of Autonomia, and the build-up to the watershed moment of the spontaneous political movement of 1977. Far from being merely a handbook of political history, The Golden Horde also sheds light on two decades of Italian culture, including the newspapers, songs, journals, festivals, comics, and philosophy that these movements produced. The book features writings by Sergio Bologna, Umberto Eco, Elvio Fachinelli, Lea Melandri, Danilo Montaldi, Toni Negri, Raniero Panzieri, Franco Piperno, Rossana Rossanda, Paolo Virno, and others, as well as an in-depth introduction by translator Richard Braude outlining the work's composition and development.
This revelatory study of Russian medieval history and the age of Mongolian conquest “infuses the subject with fresh insights and interpretations” (History). In the 13th century, a Mongolian confederation known as The Golden Horde dominated a vast region including Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and the Caucuses. Though it would hold power into the 15th century, the influence of the Mongolian Empire on Russian history and culture has been all but ignored. Only in recent years have historians, archeologists, and philologists started to shed much needed light on this significant period of Mongol rule. In this enlightening new study, historian Charles Halperin assesses these recent findings to provide a comprehensive view of this chapter in Russian medieval history, offering a new interpretation of what role the Mongols played in the story of Russia. A Selection of the History Book Club “Combining rigorous analysis of the major scholarly findings with his own research, Halperin has produced both a much-needed synthesis and an important original work." –Library Journal
Cundill Prize Finalist A Financial Times Book of the Year A Spectator Book of the Year A Five Books Book of the Year The Mongols are known for one thing: conquest. But in this first comprehensive history of the Horde, the western portion of the Mongol empire that arose after the death of Chinggis Khan, Marie Favereau takes us inside one of the most powerful engines of economic integration in world history to show that their accomplishments extended far beyond the battlefield. Central to the extraordinary commercial boom that brought distant civilizations in contact for the first time, the Horde had a unique political regime—a complex power-sharing arrangement between the khan and nobility—that rewarded skillful administrators and fostered a mobile, innovative economic order. From their capital on the lower Volga River, the Mongols influenced state structures in Russia and across the Islamic world, disseminated sophisticated theories about the natural world, and introduced new ideas of religious tolerance. An eloquent, ambitious, and definitive portrait of an empire that has long been too little understood, The Horde challenges our assumptions that nomads are peripheral to history and makes it clear that we live in a world shaped by Mongols. “The Mongols have been ill-served by history, the victims of an unfortunate mixture of prejudice and perplexity...The Horde flourished, in Favereau’s fresh, persuasive telling, precisely because it was not the one-trick homicidal rabble of legend.” —Wall Street Journal “Fascinating...The Mongols were a sophisticated people with an impressive talent for government and a sensitive relationship with the natural world...An impressively researched and intelligently reasoned book.” —The Times
This book is the first substantial study of Islamization in any part of Inner Asia from any perspective and the first to emphasize conversion narratives as important sources for understanding the dynamics of Islamization. Challenging the prevailing notions of the nature of Islam in Inner Asia, it explores how conversion to Islam was woven together with indigenous Inner Asian religious values and thereby incorporated as a central and defining element in popular discourse about communal origins and identity. The book traces the many echoes of a single conversion narrative through six centuries, the previously unknown recounting of the dramatic &"contest&" in which the khan &Özbek adopted Islam at the behest of a Sufi saint named Baba T&ükles. DeWeese provides the English-language translation of this and another text as well as translations and analyses of a wide range of passages from historical sources and epic and folkloric materials. Not only does this study deepen our understanding of the peoples of Central Asia, involved in so much turmoil today, but it also provides a model for other scholars to emulate in looking at the process of Islamization and communal religious conversion in general as it occurred elsewhere in the world.
The outermost khanate of the Mongol Empire was the Golden Horde, which conquered the Rus’ in northwestern Russia in the thirteenth century and continued to rule there in some capacity until the Russian Empire annexed Crimea, the khanate’s last holdout, in 1783. Despite vast cultural and geographic differences between Rus’ and the Mongols’ traditional homeland on the steppes of Central Asia, the Golden Horde flourished, with Moscow becoming the dominant principality. This fascinating and little-known history is related in thrilling, panoramic narrative detail and includes profiles of Rus’ leaders such as Alexander Nevsky and Daniel of Moscow.
*Includes pictures *Includes a bibliography for further reading Though history is usually written by the victors, the lack of a particularly strong writing tradition from the Mongols ensured that history was largely written by those who they vanquished. Because of this, their portrayal in the West and the Middle East has been extraordinarily (and in many ways unfairly) negative for centuries, at least until recent revisions to the historical record. The Mongols have long been depicted as wild horse-archers galloping out of the dawn to rape, pillage, murder and enslave, but the Mongol army was a highly sophisticated, minutely organized and incredibly adaptive and innovative institution, as witnessed by the fact that it was successful in conquering enemies who employed completely different weaponry and different styles of fighting, from Chinese armored infantry to Middle Eastern camel cavalry and Western knights and men-at-arms. Likewise, the infrastructure and administrative corps which governed the empire, though largely borrowed from the Chinese, was inventive, practical, and extraordinarily modern and efficient. This was no fly-by-night enterprise but a sophisticated, complex, and extremely well-oiled machine. While the Golden Horde technically refers to part of the Mongol Empire, today the Golden Horde is often used interchangeably with the Mongol forces as a whole. As such, the Golden Horde conjures vivid images of savage, barbarian horsemen riding across the steppes, an unstoppable force mindlessly slaughtering and burning. It is often imagined that they conquered by sheer brutality and terror, and that they epitomized everything that came from the east: uncivilized, brutal and undisciplined. This sensationalized image, impressed upon the West by Hollywood and by the perception of the "Yellow Peril" that has colored Western views toward Asia for a long time, began almost from the beginning. The Mongols treasured art and literature and protected religion, that of their subjects as well as their own, and trade, commerce, and cultural exchanges flourished under the Golden Horde and the other Mongol khanates, but that escaped the notice of their contemporaries. Giovanni de Plano Carpini, a papal envoy journeying through Russia on his way to the Khan of the Golden Horde, noted, "They [the Mongols] attacked Rus', where they made great havoc, destroying cities and fortresses and slaughtering men; and they laid siege to Kiev, the capital of Rus'; after they had besieged the city for a long time, they took it and put the inhabitants to death. When we were journeying through that land we came across countless skulls and bones of dead men lying about on the ground. Kiev had been a very large and thickly populated town, but now it has been reduced almost to nothing, for there are at the present time scarce two hundred houses there and the inhabitants are kept in complete slavery." What can't be disputed is that the Golden Horde directly affected Eastern Europe for nearly 250 years, and even after its rapid rise brought about a long, tortuous decline, it has continued to shape the destiny of that region. The Golden Horde: The History and Legacy of the Mongol Khanate examines the events that led to the rise of the khanate, what life was like there, and how the Mongols fought. Along with pictures depicting important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Golden Horde like never before.
An account of the long struggle between Russia and the Mongol empire between the years 1221-1502, reflecting the modern-day rivalry between Russia and the territories of the Caucasus and Central Asia
Very little is understood about the Mongol conquest of Russia, the attack wing of the Empire. Russian historians have been silent on the subject. Here is the story of Batu Khan, grandson of the man known as The Conqueror, the most talented and able of Chinggis Khan's descendants.Batu was a true nomad prince, having spent his early military career being trained in the Imperial Guards. He was to distinguish himself in battle, with the greatest strategist of the Mongol Army, the great General Subudei, riding with him. In the winter of 1239-40, Batu and his forces completed the subjugation of the southern steppes. Kiev, the mother of Russian cities was taken and destroyed on December 6th, 1240. After the Russian Campaign, the lands of the Mongols extended from the Pacific to the Mediterranean and the Danube, and north to the Land of Darkness, the forest zone, where the sun did not shine for much of the year. Batu could have become the ruler, but he had no intention of moving into the civilized world. He liked growing rich from trade on the Silk Road. The designated successors of Chinggis Khan were weak men and were plunging the empire into bankruptcy and ill-considered wars. Batu made an alliance with the Princess Sorghagtani, the most remarkable woman of her age. In a coup d'état, Batu and Sorghagtani removed the house of Ogodei from the throne and crowned the son of Sorghagtani. Two of her sons were to become emperor, including Khubilai Khan. The consequences have significance to the present day. This is a scoop. This is the story.The Mongols ruled Russia for a period of two hundred years until the time of Ivan the Terrible, the first of the Romanov czars. It was not so much that they conquered, but that they never went away
The slaughter is on! Across the galaxy, Human mercenaries are being ambushed, and an ever-increasing number of companies aren't returning from their contracts. Someone even appears to be plotting the demise of the premier Four Horsemen companies, and disaster for the other three companies has only been averted by the narrowest of margins. Sansar Enkh, the president of The Golden Horde, knows her company is likely to be next, but has no idea who is behind the attacks, or when they will strike her beloved Horde. Acting on a prophesy from her dying mother, she knows her only chance is to take the company off-world to draw out the phantom enemy. The Horde is being scouted and an attack is imminent. As the Revelations Cycle draws to a close, will Sansar be able to figure out who is behind the attacks in time to save Earth's mercenary companies from the horrific fate waiting from them? The fourth horseman is in play, and time is running out to save the Earth and everyone on it!
This book is a concise and comprehensive narrative history of Russia from 980 to 1584. It covers the history of the realm of the Riurikid dynasty from the reign of Vladimir 1 the Saint, through to the reign of Ivan the Terrible, who sealed the end of his dynasty's rule. Presenting developments in social and economic areas, as well as in political history, foreign relations, religion and culture, Medieval Russia, 980-1584 breaks away from the traditional view of Old Russia as a static, immutable culture, and emphasises the 'dynamic' and changing qualities of Russian society. Janet Martin develops clear lines of argument that lead to conclusions concerning how and why the states and society of the lands of the Rus' assumed the forms and characteristics that they did. Broadly accessible with informative and provocative interpretations, this book provides an up-to-date analysis of medieval Russia.
