The Eastern Frontier: Limits of Empire in Late Antique and Early Medieval Central Asia

Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Abbreviations
Maps
Acknowledgements
Introduction
	Between the Oxus and the Jaxartes
	Frontiers and the history of the Islamic world
	The geography of the eastern frontier
	Even Greater Khurāsān: Sīstān, Gorgān and Ṭabaristān
	Between the steppe and the sown
	A brief note on organization and sources
Chapter 1: The Gate of Iron: Conceptualizing the Eastern Frontier in Medieval Geographic Literature
	Ḥadd and Thaghr: Borders and frontiers in late-antique and early-medieval Central Asia
	Rāsht as frontier zone
	The Gate of Iron and the Khurāsānī shatterzone
	Nūshajān at the frontier of ambition
	Ghūr, Bāmiyān and the frontier process
	The walled oases of Balkh and Bukhara: The nodal frontier
	The image of the frontier
Chapter 2: Shaping the Eastern Frontier: The Sasanian Empire and Its Eastern Neighbours
	The organization of the Sasanian Empire
	Vassal kings and imperial politics in the third century
	Shifting balances along the Hunnic frontier of the fourth century
	Pīrūz and the Great Wall of Gorgān: Building the frontier
	Qubād and the Sasanian–Hephthalite alliance
	The coming of the Turks and the eastern frontier at the end of the Sasanian Empire
	Change and continuity along the eastern frontier
Chapter 3: The Arab–Muslim Conquests and the Late Antique Imperial Shatterzone
	The opening of the frontier: Military adventures and the Arab–Muslim conquests
	Parthian nobility and Sasanian generals on the frontiers of Khurāsān
	Conflict and cooperation along the Sasanian–Hephthalite frontier
	The first Arab incursions into Sogdiana
	The Sasanian dynasty after Yazdgird III
	The ‘loose-rein’ prefecture and the Tang model of frontier imperialism
	The Arab–Muslim incursions and the imperial shatterzone
Chapter 4: The Frontier beyond the Caliphate: Khurāsān and the Second Fitna
	The Second Fitna in Khurāsān
	The Hephthalites and the Second Fitna
	The rebel kingdom of Termez
	The autonomous governorships of the eastern frontier
Chapter 5: Extending the Frontier: The Umayyads in Sogdiana and Beyond
	The conquests of Qutayba b. Muslim
	The rebellion of the Nīzak Ṭarkhān
	The eastern frontier after Qutayba
	Divided Arabs and divided Sogdians
	The rise of the Türgesh and the defensive frontier
	Conquest and the frontier process
Chapter 6: The Unsettled Frontier: The Abbasid and Other Revolutions and the Eastern Frontier
	The Abbasid Revolution and Umayyad Khurāsān
	Naṣr b. Sayyār and the breakdown of Umayyad Khurāsān
	The shaping of the Abbasid frontier
	Muqannaʿ and the eastern frontier
	Settling the Abbasid frontier
	The cycle of revolt
Chapter 7: Unifying the Frontier: The Formation of Greater Khurāsān
	The origins of the Ṭāhirids and the revolt of Rāfīʿ b. Layth
	The caliph on the frontier and the Ṭāhirid dynasty
	The Sāmānids and a new frontier elite
	The frontier as legitimation
	The Shāhnāma of Abū Manṣūr Maʿmarī
	Iranians and Turks in the service of the Sāmānids
	The Shāhnāma and a broken frontier
	The Qarākhānids and the end of the eastern frontier
	The formation of Greater Khurāsān
Conclusion: At the End of the Frontier
	Introduction
	Chapter 1
	Chapter 2
	Chapter 3
	Chapter 4
	Chapter 5
	Chapter 6
	Chapter 7
Notes
Bibliography
Index