ISBN10: 0719550165, ISBN13: 9780719550164, [publisher: John Murray, London] Hardcover First Edition Hardcover, xii + 292pp + 8 pages of glossy b&w photos, 4 b&w maps in text, principal sources & index, NOT ex-library. Minor gentle residue of erased pencil writing on the front blank endpaper. Interior is clean and bright, untanned, with unmarked text and firm binding, free of inscriptions and stamps. Clean outer page edges. Dust jacket permanently affixed to the boards. Jacket is unclipped, in good condition (with creases along the upper edges, moderate sunning of spine, regular shelfwear, short scratches). --- As Central Asia rapidly opens up to the West there is an urgent need for something more than a guidebook. Kathleen Hopkirk, who first visited the area nearly 30 years ago, has drawn on the accounts and observations of travellers over the centuries to bring to life its turbulent past and set the scene for its no less turbulent present. Stretching 2000 miles eastwards from the Caspian Sea to China, Central Asia has witnessed some of the most extraordinary events in history. Overrun by waves of barbarians, including Huns, Turks and the Mongol hordes of Genghis Khan, it was also the meeting point of a host of cultures and faiths. Criss-crossed by the camel trails we know as the Silk Road, its caravans carried ideas as well as exotic merchandise between China, India and the eastern Mediterranean. Its fabled cities of Merv, Samarkand and Bokhara became sy ...
