?Georgia is the most Western-looking state in today's Near or Middle East and, despite having one of the longest, most turbulent histories in the Christian or Near Eastern world, no proper history of the country has been written for decades. Donald Rayfield redresses this balance in Edge of Empires: A History of Georgia, focusing not merely on the post-Soviet era, but on the whole of its history, accessing a mass of new material from the country's recently opened archives.
The book begins with the first intimations of the existence of Georgians in ancient Anatolia and ends with today's volatile President Saakashvili. It deals not only with the country's internal politics, but with its complex struggles with the empires which have tried to control, fragment or even exterminate the country. All world history - Xenophon's Greeks, the Arabs, the invading Turks, the Crusades, Chingiz Khan and Timur Lang, the Persian empire, the Russian empire, Soviet totalitarianism - is reflected in Georgia's history.
Donald Rayfield describes Georgia's swings between disintegration and unity, making full use of primary sources, many not available before in English. He examines the history of a country which, though small, stands at a crossroads between Russia and the Muslim world, between Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and is a dramatic example of state-building and, also, of tragic political mistakes.

• We started tracking this book on October 18, 2015.
• This book was £32.62 when we started tracking it.
• The price of this book has changed 77 times in the past 3,489 days.
• The current price of this book is £11.69 last checked 7 hours ago.
• This book is at its lowest price in the past year.
• The lowest price to date was £9.49 last reached on May 2, 2020.
• This book has been £9.49 one time since we started tracking it.
• The highest price to date was £33.25 last reached on January 11, 2019.
• This book has been £33.25 4 times since we started tracking it.

• HistoryMiddle East
• HistoryRussia

• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 485 Pages
• File Size: 82 KB