Empires of the Steppes

Prologue: Attila on the road to Roma -- 1. The peopling of the Eurasian steppes -- 2. Surviving on the Eurasian steppes -- 3. Scythians and the Great King of Persia -- 4. Alexander the Great: walling off Gog and Magog -- 5. Modu Chanyu and the Great Wall of China -- 6. The Xiongnu and Chinese emperors at war -- 7. The Sons of Heaven and the Silk Road -- 8. The Parthians, nomadic foes of Imperial Rome -- 9. Heirs of the Xiongnu: the Northern Wei -- 10. The Hephthalites: Huns in Iran -- 11. Huns, allies and foes of Rome -- 12. Attila, the Scourge of God -- 13. The heirs of Attila and the New Rome -- 14. Turkish kaghans and Tang emperors -- 15. Turks and the Caliphate -- 16. The Seljuk Turks and their sultanate -- 17. The legend of Prester John and the Gurkhans of Cathay -- 18. From Temujin to Genghis Khan -- 19. Genghis Khan, the world conqueror -- 20. Batu and the Devil's Horsemen -- 21. The Mongol sack of Baghdad -- 22. Kublai Khan and the unification of China -- 23. Papal envoys, missionaries, and Marco Polo -- 24. Tamerlane, prince of destruction -- Epilogue: Nomadic conquerors: achievements and legacies

"The nomads of the Eurasian steppes played a decisive role in world history, but their achievements have gone largely unnoticed. These tribes produced some of the world's greatest conquerors: Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan and Tamerlane, among others. And their deeds still resonate today.

Indeed, these nomads built long-lasting empires, facilitated the first global trade of the Silk Road and disseminated religions, technology, knowledge and goods of every description that enriched and changed the lives of so many across Europe, China and the Middle East. From a single region emerged a great many peoples – the Huns, the Mongols, the Magyars, the Turks, the Xiongnu, the Scythians, the Goths – all of whom went on to profoundly and irrevocably shape the modern world.

In this enthralling new history, Professor Kenneth W. Harl draws on a lifetime of scholarship to vividly recreate the lives of these peoples from their beginnings to the early modern age. Their brutal struggle to survive on the steppes bred a resilient, pragmatic people ever-ready to learn from their neighbours. In warfare, they dominated the battlefield for over fifteen hundred years. Under charismatic rulers, they could topple empires and win their own." -- Provided by publisher.