Yehoshua Frenkel. The Turkic peoples in medieval Arabic writings (2015)

Yehoshua Frenkel. The Turkic peoples in medieval Arabic writings (2015)
Title:The Turkic peoples in medieval Arabic writings
Author:Yehoshua Frenkel
Translator:
Editor:
Language:English
Series:Routledge Studies in the History of Iran and Turkey
Place:Abingdon and New York
Publisher:Routledge
Year:2015
Pages:IX, 143
ISBN:9780415747646, 9781315752952, 0415747643, 1315752956
File:PDF, 3.06 MB
Download:Click here
Translating a collection of the most important descriptions of the Turks found in medieval Arabic texts into English, this book aims at delineating the coming of the Turkic peoples in the eleventh century, their military successes in Iran and Iraq, and the emergence of the sultanate. The book introduces the reader to the history of the Islamic Caliphate and the Turkic peoples. This introduction is followed by annotated translated sources which illuminate the view of the Eurasian steppes in Muslim-Arabic geographical writing from the pre-Saljūq period, the self-image and ideology of the victorious Saljūqs and their fundamental claim to legitimacy, and the conventional narrative of the coming of the Saljūqs in later Arabic historiography. Illustrating the variety of sources available on the history of Turkic tribes in the Eurasian steppes and in the central Islamic lands, ranging from geographical writing, to chronicles, to mythological legends, this book will be an essential resource for students and scholars with an interest in the Turks and their image, History, and Middle East Studies.

PART I
Overview 1
1 The Turkic peoples (atrāk) and the Islamic Caliphate 1
2 Slaves and soldiers 1
3 The Turkic tribes in the steppes 3
4 The image of the Turks in ‘Abbāsid-period writings 3
5 Gog and Magog 6
6 Literary ethnicity (shu’ūbiyya) 9
7 The Eurasian steppes in the ‘Abbāsid Geographical Library 11
8 The Iranian Intermezzo 12
9 Aḍud al-Dawla 13
10 The coming of the Eurasian barbarians 14
11 The Saljūqs 16
12 Ibn Ḥassūl: the structure and subject matter of his epistle 18
13 The new image of the Turks 21
14 From al-Makīn ibn al-‘Amīd to Mamlūk historiography 24
PART II
Translated sources 39
1 The Eurasian steppes before the Saljūqs 39
a) Ibn Khurradādhbih: The Central Asian frontiers (ninth century) 39
b) Ibn Faqīh al-Hamadhānī: On the Turks and their lands 41
c) Abū Dulaf: Pseudo-travel 54
2 Eurasian Turks and the legitimation of the Saljūqs 60
a) Ibn al-Dawādārī: A Turkic creation myth 60
b) al-‘Aynī: Genealogy and tribal division 66
c) Ibn Ḥassūl: The superiority of the Turks over other regiments 68
3 The traditional medieval historical paradigm 83
a) al-Makīn Jirjis Ibn al-‘Amīd: The beginning of the Saljūq dynasty 83
b) Ibn al-Dawādārī: The history of the Turks 92
Bibliography 114
Index 135