Edge Of Empires

Product Description

Georgia is the most Western-looking state in todays Near or Middle East & despite having one of the longest most turbulent histories in the Christian or Near Eastern world no proper history of the country has been written for decades. Donald Rayfield redresses this balance in Edge of Empires focusing not merely on the post-Soviet era like many other books on Georgia but on the whole of its history accessing a mass of new material from the countrys recently opened archives. The book begins with the first intimations of the existence of Georgians in ancient Anatolia & ends with todays volatile President Saakashvili. It deals not only with the countrys internal politics but with its complex struggles with the empires which have tried to control fragment or even exterminate the country. All the worlds history
- Xenophons Greeks the Arabs the invading Turks the Crusades Chingiz Khan & Timur Lang the Persian empire the Russian empire Soviet totalitarianism
- is reflected in Georgias history. Donald Rayfield describes Georgias swings between disintegration & unity making full use of primary sources many not available before in an English-language book. He examines the history of a country which though small stands at a crossroads between Russia & the Muslim world between Eastern Europe & Central Asia & is a dramatic example of state-building & also of tragic political mistakes.