Caucasus: Mountain Men and Holy Wars
- ISBN-10
- 1250085020
- ISBN-13
- 9781250085023
- Series
- Caucasus
- Category
- Travel
- Pages
- 256
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2015-06-16
- Publisher
- Macmillan
- Author
- Nicholas Griffin
Description
When the Russians bombed the capital of Muslim Chechnya in 2000, a city with almost a half million people was left with barely a single building intact. Rarely since Dresden and Stalingrad has the world witnessed such destruction. The Caucasus is a jagged land. With Turkey to the west, Iran to the south, and Russia to the north, the Caucasus is trapped between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. If it didn't already possess the highest mountain range in Europe, the political pressure exerted from all sides would have forced the land to crack and rise. Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, Peter the Great, Hitler, and Stalin all claimed to have conquered the region, leaving it a rich, but bloody history. A borderland between Christian and Muslim worlds, the Caucasus is the front line of a fascinating and formidable clash of cultures: Russia versus the predominantly Muslim mountains. Award-winning writer Nicholas Griffin travels to the mountains of the Caucasus to find the root of today's conflict. Mapping the rise of Islam through myth, history, and politics, this travelogue centers on the story of Imam Shamil, the greatest Muslim warrior of the nineteenth century, who led a forty-year campaign against the invading Russians. Griffin follows Imam's legacy into the war-torn present and finds his namesake, the Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, continuing his struggle. Enthralling and fiercely beautiful, Caucasus lifts the lid on a little known but crucially important area of world. With approximately 100 billion barrels of crude oil in the Caspian Sea combined with an Islamic religious interest, it is an unfortunate guarantee that the tragedies that have haunted these jagged mountains in the past will show no sign of abating in the near future.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2010-05-01
- 24 pages
- Paperback
- Oxford University Press
-
- 2004-04-27
- 240 pages
- Paperback
- University of Chicago Press
Similar books
-
The Caucasus: An Introduction
By Thomas de WaalIn addition, the book features brief snapshots of fascinating side topics such as Georgian wine, Baku jazz, and how the coast of Abkhazia came to be known as the "Soviet Florida.
-
Bourdieu's Secret Admirer in the Caucasus: A World-System Biography
By Georgi M. DerluguianDrawing on the work of Charles Tilly, Immanuel Wallerstein, and, of course, Bourdieu, Derluguian's explanation of the recent ethnic wars and terrorist acts in Russia succeeds in illuminating the role of human agency in shaping history.
-
Routledge Handbook of the Caucasus
By Galina M. Yemelianova, Laurence BroersThe Routledge Handbook of the Caucasus offers an integrated, multidisciplinary overview of the historical, ethno-linguistic, cultural, socio-economic and political complexities of the Caucasus.
-
The Archaeology of the Caucasus: From Earliest Settlements to the Iron Age
By Antonio SagonaThis conspectus brings together in an accessible and systematic manner a dizzy array of archaeological cultures situated between several worlds.
-
Regional Cooperation in the South Caucasus: Good Neighbours or Distant Relatives?
By Dr Tracey GermanIn this book, German explores the extent of regional cooperation in the South Caucasus, analyses the reasons for the relative lack of regional cooperation and assesses the potential for deeper cooperation in the future.
-
The Caucasus - An Introduction
By Frederik CoeneUntil now there has been no single book for those wishing to learn about this complex region. This book fills the gap, providing a clear, comprehensive introduction to the Caucasus, which is suitable for all readers.
-
The Ghost of Freedom: A History of the Caucasus
By Charles King" ... The first general history of the modern Caucasus, stretching from the beginning of Russian imperial expansion up to rise of new countries after the Soviet Union's collapse."--Cover.
-
State Building and Conflict Resolution in the Caucasus
By Charlotte Mathilde Louise HilleThis book gives an in-depth analysis of the backgrounds of the conflicts, including activities by IGO's and NGOs, and the developments in international law with regard to state building practice.
-
Energy and Security in the Caucasus
By Emmanuel KaragiannisEnergy and Security in the Caucasus is a contribution to the debate revolving around the geo-politics of the Caucasus.
-
Ethnicity, Nationalism and Conflict in the South Caucasus: Nagorno-Karabakh and the Legacy of Soviet Nationalities Policy
By Dr Ohannes GeukjianThis book examines the underlying factors of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the South Caucasus from 1905 to 1994, and explores the ways in which issues of ethnicity and nationalism contributed to that conflict.