The Empire of the Steppes - A History of Central Asia by René Grousset - Tr from the French by Naomi Walford (1970).pdf

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THE
EMPIRE
OF
THE
STEPPES
A
History of Central Asia
RENG
GROUSSET
Translated from the French
by
Naomi Walford
RUTGERS UNIVERSITY PRESS
New Brunswick, New Jersey
Copyright
@
1970
By Rutgers University, The State University of
New
Jersey
Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number 77-108-759
SBN: 8135-0827-1
Manufactured in the United States of America
By Quinn
&
Boden Company,
Inc.
Foreword
Attila and the Huns, Jenghiz Khan and the Mongols, Tamerlane
and the Golden Horde-these almost legendary names are familiar
to the educated layman. Unquestionably, he has also read of the
Hungarians, and the Bulgars, and the Ottoman Turks.
If
he has an
interest in ancient history, he may have an acquaintance with the
Cimmerians, the Sc~thians,even the Sarmatians. He may have
heard also of the Avars and the Khazars. But it is improbable that
he will know of the Onogors, Kutrigurs, and Utrigurs-Bulgar
tribes to be encountered in the steppes of southern Russia-or the
Pechenegs, Cumans, and Uzes, the last-named related to the
Seljuk and Ottoman Turks.
These were all nomads, peoples of the vast steppes of Asia and
Russia, and a major force in history. Their historical significance
lies not so much in the empires they established, empires which
in most instances and certainly in the steppes proved ephemeral.
Rather, it was the pressures of their movements eastward and
westward, brought to bear on China, Persia, India, and Europe,
which substantially affected the historical development of these
lands. The early history of the steppe nomads is shrouded in
obscurity, an obscurity which lifts somewhat only after their con-
tact with cultures possessing written histories. But even when in-
formation about them becomes relatively more plentiful, linguistic
complexities make its interpretation extremely difficult. Thus,
while the number of specialized monographs and technical studies
devoted to them is impressive, general works embracing the many
disciplines involved, or syntheses on a grand scale encompassing
the sprawling history of these peoples, are exceedingly scarce.
Among these very few, Renk Grousset's monumental
L'Empire des
Steppes
is uniquely great.
Grousset's classic work was first published in
1939,
and has since
vi
Foreword
appeared in a number of reimpressions, with no significant re-
visions. An appendix discussing publications between
1939
and
1951
on the art of the steppes was added to the
1952
edition, just
before the author's death. Nevertheless, the main body of the text
has retained its validity, and remains to this day the most engross-
ing and vital general account of this immense subject.
The present volume, the first edition in English, was trans-
lated by Naomi Walford from the French edition of
1952.
Traian
Stoianovich, Professor of History at Rutgers University, checked
the translation and helped to establish uniformity in nomenclature
and transliteration. The late James
F.
McRee, Jr., completed the
final typographic editing of the text. The outdated appendix on
the art of the steppes was dropped, and the copious annotation
was brought into conformity with present-day academic usage.
A
large and comprehensive index was compiled and added, and
nineteen maps were prepared expressly for this edition. Our aim
throughout has been to make available an English-language edi-
tion useful to the general reader as well as to the specialist,
but above all an edition which retains the majestic sweep and
grandeur, as well as the overriding intellectual grasp, of Grousset's
original masterwork.
PETER
CHARANIS
Voorhees Professor of History
Rutgers University
Preface
Attila, Jenghiz Khan, Tamerlane: their names are in everyone's
memory. Accounts of them written by western chroniclers and by
Chinese or Persian annalists have served to spread their repute.
The great barbarians irrupt into areas of developed historical civi-
lizations and suddenly, within a few years, reduce the Roman,
Iranian, or Chinese world to a heap of ruins. Their arrival, motives,
and disappearance seem inexplicable, so much so that historians
today come near to adopting the verdict of the writers of old, who
saw in them the scourge of the Lord, sent for the chastisement of
ancient civilizations.
Yet never were men more sons of the earth than these, more the
natural product of their environment; but their motivations and
patterns of behavior acquire clarity as we come to understand
their way of life. These stunted, stocky bodies-invincible, since
they could survive such rigorous conditions-were formed by the
steppes. The bitter winds of the high plateaus, the intense cold
and torrid heat, carved those faces with their wrinkled eyes,
high cheekbones, and sparse hair, and hardened those sinewy
frames. The demands of a pastoral life, governed by seasonal
migrations in search of pasture, defined their specific nomadism,
and the exigencies of their nomadic economy determined their
relations with sedentary peoples: relations consisting by turns of
timid borrowings and bloodthirsty raids.
The three or four great Asiatic nomads who burst upon us to rip
up the web of history seem to us exceptional solely because of our
own ignorance. For three who achieved the astounding feat of
becoming conquerors of the world, how many Attilas and Jenghiz
Khans have failed? Failed, that is, to do more than found limited
empires comprising a quarter of Asia, from Siberia to the Yellow
vii

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