The North Caucasus Borderland - (Edinburgh Studies on the Ottoman Empire) by Murat Yasar (Paperback)

About the Book

Explores the role of the North Caucasus as the first borderland between the Ottoman and Russian Empires in the 16th century

Book Synopsis

From the Muscovites' annexation of the nearby Khanate of Astrakhan in 1556 to their expulsion from the region by the Ottomans and their allies in 1605, the North Caucasus was a contested borderland. This book considers the poorly understood first encounter between the Ottoman Empire and the Tsardom of Muscovy, drawing on both documentary and narrative primary sources. These Ottoman and Muscovite sources show the contrasting subject- and territory-making strategies in the early modern period. They also show how their rivalry brought about changes to the internal dynamics and strategies of the polities within the North Caucasus, shaping the region, its political structures and the lives of its peoples in the following centuries.

Review Quotes

Murat Yaşar has assembled a remarkable archival and ethnographic history of the sixteenth century North Caucasus peoples negotiating their way between two encroaching empires: Muscovy and the Ottomans. Cleverly organized around the Milky Way nart sagas, we are introduced to five separate tribal rulers charting their path in a region then and now beset with the fundamentals of survival as they "rode all their horses" in a newly circumscribed world.--Virginia H. Aksan, Professor Emeritus, McMaster University