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- Travelers and Explorers in Central Asia
- CEUS-R 311/511
- Ron Sela
This course carries Social and Historical Studies (CASE S&H) Breath of Inquiry credit
This course charts the discovery and exploration of Central Asia (from western China to northeastern Iran) by its many visitors – adventurers, pilgrims, geographers, missionaries, merchants in disguise, diplomats and prisoners of war – from the eighth through the nineteenth centuries. The numerous testimonies left by those visitors will serve as a point of departure for our own exploration of the history of this fascinating but under-studied region, a region that had witnessed, among other things, the unique merger of cultures (Arab, Persian, Turkic, Chinese, Mongol, and Russian), the Arab conquest of an ancient Persian civilization, the Jewish Khazar state, the Mongol hordes under Chinggis Khan, the rule of Timur (Tamerlane) over a vast Kingdom centered in the fabled city of Samarqand, the nomadic invasions of the 16th Century, the rise of the Tribal Dynasties of the 18th and 19th centuries, and the expansion of the Russian Empire. The course focuses on reading primary sources (in the original English or translated from Chinese, Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, Turkish, Latin, German and Russian) which, in addition to underscoring Central Asia's pivotal role as a crossroads of civilizations, will also allow us to evaluate travel logs, diaries, memoirs, and mission reports as sources for the study of (Central Asian) history. We will wonder about the common grounds that modern-day historians and medieval tourists may share and also introduce the potential unanimity and contrast between inside and outside sources.
Course Mechanics
The first couple of weeks will be devoted to briefly acquaint students with Central
Asia’s unique history and geography and will also include one lecture on the nature of the
sources we will engage in the course. Following, almost every week will be divided. On Mondays we will survey the history of the relevant period, as well as give some
introduction to its travelers. The Monday lectures will serve, hopefully, as a useful setting
for our Wednesday discussions, when we analyze the primary sources, their
particularities, and what we can learn from them. On Wednesdays students are expected
to bring the relevant texts (which they have read before the class!) with them and
contribute to the discussion.
Requirements
- Undergraduates: a midterm exam (30%), a take-home final exam (50%), as well as
a blank map quiz and contribution to class discussions (20%). - Graduate students will take both exams (each 25% of the grade), write a short term
paper (25%), and contribute to class discussions (25%).
Readings
- A course reader
- Bregel, Yuri, ed. Historical Maps of Central Asia, 9th-19th Centuries A.D. Bloomington, 2000. (For sale in GB 144)
The following books, on reserve at the Main Library & in the RIFIAS (Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies, Goodbody 144), will serve as historical background reading:
- Christian, David. A History of Russia, Central Asia, and Mongolia. Blackwell, 1998.
- Hambly, Gavin, ed. Central Asia. Delacorte Press, 1969.
- Soucek, Svat. A History of Inner Asia. Cambridge University Press, 2000.
- Sinor, Denis, ed. The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia. Cambridge University Press, 1990.
