Allen J. Frank

The Cambridge History of Inner Asia: The Chinggisid Age

Nicola Di Cosmo, Allen J. Frank, Peter B. Golden, The Cambridge History of Inner Asia: The Chinggisid Age. Cambridge University Press, 2009. xxvii+488 p.This volume centres on the history and legacy of the Mongol World Empire founded by Chinggis Khan and his sons, including its impact upon the modern world. An international team of scholars examines the political and cultural history of the Mongol empire, its Chinggisid successor states, and the non-Chinggisid dynasties that came to dominate Inner Asia in its wake. Geographically, it focuses on the continental region from East Asia to Eastern Europe. Beginning in the twelfth century, the volume moves through to the establishment of Chinese and Russian political hegemony in Inner Asia from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Contributors use recent research and new approaches that have revitalized Inner Asian studies to highlight the world-historical importance of the regimes and states formed during and after the Mongol conquest. Their conclusions testify to the importance of a region whose modern fate has been overshadowed by Russia and China.

Islamic Historiography and "Bulghar" Identity among the Tatars and Bashkirs of Russia

Allen J. Frank, Islamic Historiography and "Bulghar" Identity among the Tatars and Bashkirs of Russia. Leiden: Brill, 1998. ix + 232 pp.This text deals with the development of Bulghar regional identity among Tartars and Bashkirs — Muslims living in the Volga-Ural region. Based on locally-produced Islamic manuscripts, the book examines how these Muslims manipulated legends, conversion narratives, and sacred geography to create a body of sacred historiography that expressed a meaningful regional identity, and one which responds to the changing relationship between these Muslims and the Russian state over the 19th century. The book also traces the debate between traditionalist supporters and reformist detractors of this sacred historiography in the 19th century, and addresses the fate of Bulghar identity in the 20th century, including its transformation in Soviet and post-Soviet times into a secularized national identity.

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