Moving in the Margins: Desert Travel and Power in Medieval Central Asia

Paul D. Wordsworth, Ph.D. (2015), University of Copenhagen, is Lecturer in Silk Roads Archaeology and Heritage at University College, London. He has published on diverse aspects of the archaeology of Islamic Central Asia and the Caucasus, also co-editing the volume Landscapes of the Islamic World (Princeton, 2015).

• ContentsAcknowledgementsList of Figures and TablesNotes on Transliteration, Transcription, and Dates in the Text1 Introduction1 Questions for Understanding Movement2 The Layout of this Volume3 Travel, Routes, Power, and Boundaries2 Traditions of Travel and the Origins of Road Networks in the Eastern Islamic World1 Pre-Islamic Travel and Trade in Central Asia2 Approaching Late Antiquity3 The Arrival of Islam in Khurasan and Transoxania, and the Establishment of Routes across the Karakum Desert4 Beyond the Medieval Period3 Black Sands: the Landscape of the Karakum Past and Present1 Physical Geography2 Climate3 Flora4 Water5 Surveying the Karakum Landscape6 Further Analysis4 Defining the Architecture of Desert Travel1 Large Architectural Remains: ‘Caravanserai’, ‘Khān’, or ‘Ribāṭ’?2 Smaller Architectural Sites: Towers to Sardobas3 The Built Remains as a Corpus5 Moving Material Culture1 Ceramic Forms2 Unglazed Ceramic Wares3 Glazed Ceramics4 Ceramics as a Chronological Indicator5 Ceramics as a Functional Indicator6 Ceramic Distribution and the Origins of Wares7 Stone8 Semi-precious Stones9 Glass10 Metal6 Modelling Landscapes of Movement1 A GIS Approach to Pathways2 Friction and Cost Surfaces3 The Lure of Water – Weighted Analyses4 Visible Tracks – Remote Sensing and Digitization5 Historical Cartographic Comparisons6 Material Comparisons – How Does the Survey Support the Geographical Modelling and Cartographic Evidence?7 Paths, Chronology, and Movement in the Desert7 Rethinking Routes – from Roads of Silk to the Threads of Networks1 Securing Travellers2 Sustaining Travellers3 Controlling Travellers: Power, Ideology, and Desert Travel4 A Model of Travel Peculiar to Deserts? Particular to the Islamic World?5 ConclusionsGlossaryBibliographyIndex