History Resources & References
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“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.” Please find below reviews of forthcoming books and resources to be published. In the steppe near Tashkent they came upon a never-ending ladder with wooden rungs and iron rails and that stretched across the earth from horizon to horizon. (...) Whistling and thundering, a snake-like wonder hurtled past them, packed both on the inside and on top with infidels shouting and waving their hands. ‘The End of the World!’ thought both Mahmud-Hodja the Sunni and Djebral the Shiite.
 Set in Uzbekistan between 1900 and 1980, The Railway introduces to us the inhabitants of the small town of Gilas on the ancient Silk Route. Their colourful lives offer a unique and comic picture of a little-known land populated by outgoing Mullahs, incoming Bolsheviks, and a plethora of Uzbeks, Russians, Persians, Jews, Koreans, Tartars and Gypsies. Rich and picaresque, The Railway is full of colour. Fusing literary sophistication with a naive delight in storytelling, it chronicles the dramatic changes felt throughout Central Asia in the twentieth century. About the Author: Hamid Ismailov, regarded as having ‘unacceptably democratic tendencies’ in Uzbekistan, was forced to flee his homeland. He came to London in 1994 and is now head of the BBC Central Asia Service. The Railway is his first novel to be translated into English.
UNKNOWN SANDS Journeys Around the World's Most Isolated Country By John Kropf
As an independent country strategically located between the hot spots of Afghanistan and Iran, with one of the planet's largest natural gas reserves, Turkmenistan remains virtually unknown to the outside world. Unknown Sands penetrates this remote and harsh land. Turkmenistan was once the world's most feared territory. Since the time of the Mongols, the nomadic tribes of its vast desert wasters were deemed ungovernable. Russians and Persians were captured as slaves and carried off by the fierce Turkmen. This is a personal story that blends two years of adventure with Turkmenistan's tumultuous history to present an intriguing profile of the country and its people. This former Soviet territory offers a target-rich environment for the unusual including a surreal cult of Presidential personality, ancient ruins of the Silk Road, and a unique, mystical brand of Islam. With no current literature available, this book can be expected to feed the growing appetite for information on this increasingly important country and could be well positioned should events there change. Please contact us if you know of new books that might be of interest to our members. |
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