Books in the Central Asia Book Series series

For centuries, Central Asia has been a leading civilization, an Islamic heartland, and a geographical link between West and East. This work provides a comprehensive survey of the history of the impact of Russian rule upon the political, economic, social, intellectual, and cultural life of this diverse region.

The terrible events afflicting Muslims in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Tajikistan filled the news, commanding the world's attention. This volume offers insight into the background of these catastrophic conflicts. It analyzes the historical and contemporary situation of Muslims in former communist states.

Arthur Bonner, a New York Times reporter with long experience as a foreign correspondent in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, spent most of 1985 and 1986 in Afghanistan and Pakistan researching the aftermath of the 1979 Soviet invasion of this mountainous, fiercely Islamic country. Bonner made another trip to Pakistan in mid-1987 to test his conclusions against recent events.Bonner therefore brings both recent experience and the sharp eye of a veteran journalist to an analysis of the Afghan situation: the tenacity and courage of the resistance, the massive emmigration, and the toll taken by the seemingly endless conflict on the country and its people.The author has seen both the great and small of Afghanistan--both the seared flesh of the hand that an Afghan mujahidin held in the fire to demonstrate his courage and the geopolitical reasons that impelled the former Soviet Union of set its might and treasure against a people who resisted with a fierce and sometimes (to Western eyes) thoughtless courage. This is the story of these antagonists--sobering, chilling, and finally enlightening.

Offers reminders regarding the historically fluid nature of communal identities.

Offers reminders regarding the historically fluid nature of communal identities.

A contribution to a debate of tribal, religious, and national identity among Muslims in former communist states.

With chapters that examine the situation of Crimean Tatars since the breakup of the USSR in 1991 and the details of the struggle of the Tatars to find peace and acceptance in a homeland, this title features contributors - half of whom are Tatars - who discuss the problematic results of the partial Tatar return to Crimea that began in the 1980s.