Customer Reviews

The Heritage of Central Asia (Princeton Series on the Middle East)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

With the publication of Dr. Richard Frye's The Heritage of Central Asia from Antiquity to the Turkish Expansion (Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1996, hardcover (ISBN 1558761101 ) and softcover (ISBN 155876111X), 264 pages) at last we have for Central Asia an overview book worth reading by novice and veteran alike. As the title implies, topics in the book include geography, pre-history, Zoroastrianism and Achaemenid Persians, Alexander the Great and the Greeks, the Parthians, nomads, Kushans, Silk Road trade, Buddhism, Sogdians, Muslims, Turks and much more. There are several (somewhat small) maps and a fair number of illustrations and photographs. Appendix topics include sources, geographical names (always a challenge in Central Asia), rulers in Bukhara and Samarkand, Sogdian deities, languages and coinage. The book is fully-indexed. Professor Frye of Harvard University is one of the deans of the field, especially in the area of Persia and author of numerous books including the recently re-published Bukhara. The very real accomplishment of this book is its comprehensive form which for once does not concentrate solely on a single time or place, but instead successfully communicates a feel for what was happening in all the regions throughout these historical periods. Much is to be learned and many questions will be answered. In some areas of research, of course, due to insufficient sources, the jury is still out and Frye does what one wants him to: he sets up the parameters of the question and the possibilities such that when someday new finds are made, the reader can judge them in the proper context. When he speculates, he informs the reader that that is what he is doing and refrains from offering theories without evidence as if they were fact. The conjectures too, as well as the facts, are always interesting coming as they do from a researcher of this stature and experience. Dr. Frye, who met the famous Sir Aurel Stein, first of the Foreign Devils of the Silk Road, and by extension his work, is a link back to the earliest Silk Road research and forward to what may be revealed by future excavations of mummies in Xinjiang and in the newly-independent republics of Central Asia. This book will be a valuable and often-consulted volume in the library of anyone with a passion for the Silk Road.

My review of this book follows five others, which divide between praising or severely criticizing it. Such a dramatic split of opinion is a bit unusual on Amazon.com, but having read--and then re-read--the book, I understand it. And I take a middle (three-star rating) position: the book is best for a beginning student of in-depth academic study of the region, or for the general reader (most likely an upcoming tourist traveller to Central Asia, as I am) who is highly motivated to do background reading and get below the surface. But if you do not fall into either of those categories, i.e. are not considerably motivated, then this book is not for you.

Its strengths:

-- There are very few general surveys--as vs. narrow academic monographs---written about Central Asia prior to the Islamic conquest. So this book doesn't have much competition in its category.

-- We should be grateful that such a survey has been written by a leading scholar in the field, which requires knowledge of various modern and ancient languages as well as diverse functional areas (numismatics, art, etc.) which few individuals combine. Dr. Frye is a rare treasure in this area and was generous in taking time out of his scholarly work to produce a book oriented (sort of) to the layman.

-- Dr. Frye is rigorously honest in indicating what we do or do not know, and it turns out that we know very little of this region prior to the era of the Persian Empire, and our knowledge afterwards continues to be thin until the Islamic conquest...which concludes his book. So, if nothing else, his book acts as a useful "truth meter" against which to measure other authors, perhaps less rigorous (honest) than he, tempted to declare as settled truths what is actually shaky on the evidence. If this book says anything, it is that there are few settled truths about the region during the pre-Islamic period.

-- The book summarizes what little we DO know of that earlier period.

The weaknesses of the book:

-- Dr. Frye may be a great scholar, but he is a poor writer when it comes to the general public. The book is written in academically tedious style.

-- The worst problem: Dr. Frye's rigorous honesty in telling what we do know and what we don't or just guess backfires. Nearly half the book is spent weighing the evidence for various assertions and concluding that, in the end, we don't know this, that, or the other thing. These excursions--essentially academic--could provide a new and devoted student of the subject with a good general guidemap to future specialization and research to resolve the uncertainties. But to the lay reader they are irrelevant detours. The book--already modest at about 240 pages--could have been cut to half that size without loss for the general reader. It would have been sufficient for the author to note at the outset that many facts remain uncertain, to skip telling us what we don't know or the arguments he thinks incorrect leading to certain conclusions, and to simply give a narrative of the current accepted consensus of historians of what DID happen in the area. Such a clean and thus abbreviated narrative would have been especially useful given the numerous waves of nomads and resulting kingdoms which have swept over the area, because for a non-specialist, keeping them all straight on one reading requires a fast-paced, economical narrative without excursions into scholarly byways of the sort in which this book often engages.

A last complaint. The book, like most other general surveys of Central Asia I have read, engages in detailed written geographic descriptions of Central Asia and its ancient kingdoms while providing only 20th or 21st century reprint maps which do not begin to correspond to the text. It's no doubt a matter of money: hiring a cartographer to produce maps specific to a book of ancient history is likely expensive. But the lack of adequate maps in the book, while not crippling, is inconvenient and annoying. If reading it, keep close at hand a good National Geographic Atlas or something comparable.

So I am glad for this book, because we have few others like it, but it is dry and for the general reader it is frankly a "slog" requiring considerable motivation. If travelling to the region, I suggest the following: read it once, highlight the useful passages (about half the book), then read those passages again. Then you will get out of it what you need--a good and coherent narrative of what little we know, without a lot of academic detours regarding what we don't know.

I give this book a four because, although it is awkwardly written, it did provide me with a well-ordered summary of the early history of central Asia. Some reviewers complained about its lack of detail, but I think this is more due to the lack of written historical sources than to the author's failure to grasp the subject. He does a good job with what he has, (or so I must assume because I myself am not a specialist in the field). It was interesting to learn about the Sakas and the Kushans, groups I had never heard of before. But please, I have read several books now on central Asia and I have yet to find one with decent maps. The maps in this book are atrocious. For a university professor not to be able to provide maps is simply not being aware of the resources he has right at hand. Just go to the geography department and ask any graduate student, where you will probably get a quality product and cheap as well. I gather that Bactria was roughly present Afghanistan, that Sogdiana was roughly north and east of that, that the Scythians were roughly north and west of that, and that the Sakas were somewhere in the area of eastern Iran, but I am still only guessing because the maps in this book were no help at all.

"One of the best academic books of the year."
-Choice



"In this handy book, Richard Frye surveys the true history of this much-contested crossroad, touching on the supreme importance of water and oases, analyzing the influence of Zoroastrianism and Islam, and describing in detail a harshly beautiful landscape's various peoples, places, and cultures."
-Washington Post

BOOK REVIEW

The Heritage of Central Asia: From Antiquity to the Turkish Expansion

Professor Frye has made countless contributions, during the past half-century, to the study of the early history of Iran and Central Asia. Much of this--especially though not exclusively on the pre-Islamic period--has been the result of highly specialized research. But, to his great credit, he has not shrunk from writing, from time to time, works of synthesis which have made the results of his own research and that of others accessible to a wider readership. Usually these books have been very successful--a conspicuous example is his celebrated The Heritage of Persia (1962). It is true that its sequel, the oddly named The Golden Age of Persia: The Arabs in the East (1975) was not quite on a level with its predecessor. But in The Heritage of Central Asia Frye has, quite overtly, attempted to write for Central Asia a book which would cover a similar period, and serve a similar purpose for students and other interested readers, as The Heritage of Persia did for the lands to the west.

The books begins with scene-setting chapters, on 'Geographic realities,' 'Peoples, Languages, Customs and Beliefs,' and pre-history. History proper then begins with a discussion of the cult of Zoroaster leading into an account of Achaemenid Persian rule in Central Asia, and on through Alexander and Hellenism via the Kushans, Buddhism, the Sogdians and so forth (not neglecting various important nomad groupings) to arrival of Islam and 'the Iranian-Islamic Oecumene'. The final chapter, 'The Present is Born,' brings the Turks on to the scene. There are six valuable appendices. Each chapter has a limited number of endnotes which provide introductory guidance to further reading.

I have found this a most useful book for undergraduate teaching purposes. It tackles a period and an area unfamiliar to most students in a way that makes its subject both comprehensible and interesting. The book is a worthy companion volume to The Heritage of Persia.

--Journal of Islamic Studies 11, no. 3 (2000)

Opening with consideration on geography, peoples, languages, customs and beliefs, the author indicates the impact that the Zoroastrian cult and the Achaemenid centralization had on the region, where Alexander brought Hellenization, especially to the Bactrians, after discussing the Kushans, he investigates the silk route and the spread of Buddhism to the East, as well as the trading of the Sogdians; the rest of the book deals with Islamic situations, there are several appendices on such topics as literary sources, geographical names, deities in Codlin, languages of Central Asia, etc.; the volume is sparsely illustrated and also contains an index; bibliography is supplied in the notes after each chapter; it is based on the author's intimate knowledge of Central Asia and his familiarity with its archeology, ethnography, folklore, art history and languages, though he is obviously not a true linguist! Through its deep insights, its careful evaluation of the analyzed situations and its abundance of information, this book is incontestably one of the best studies on the history of Central Asia now extant.

--The Journal of Indo-European Studies 25, nos. 3 & 4 ( Fall/Winter 1997)

As my first exposure to Central Asia, this book was a soul-crushing experience; much of my inital enthusiasm quickly evaporated in the face of dry lists of succession, poor writing, and general lack of organization. The maps were worthless- I had to print and label my own in order to follow the obscure smatterings of geographic references. I can not comment on the accuracy of this piece; Frye throws enough arcane material at readers to appear informed, but nevertheless fails to bring the subject to life.

Basically a small, expensive and dull text book printed on cheap paper for a specialist university course. There are too many sweeping statements and little detail provided. The book is poorly illustrated and the maps very basic. I had expected so much more.

Western 'Orientalists' have a rather poor grasp of certain aspects of Asian history and culture. These mainly pertain to the descriptions of the nature of Asiatic religions and their role in history. This is particularly true of the scholars from reputed institutions such as the Harvard University. This book also suffers from the same problem. The ARYAN invasion is of critical importance to the origin of the principle Asiatic cultures and Indo-European linguistics in general. It has been very poorly treated. The later parts on the Achaemenid and Islamic periods have been better dealt with. The kushans while poorly understood have not been particularly well described in this text.