Indiana University: Department of Central Eurasian Studies

U320/U520: Travelers & Explorers in Central Asia (3 CR)
Spring 2003, MW 4:00-5:15, WY 111
Instructor: Ron Sela   (email: rsela@indiana.edu) 

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Textbook & Resources
No single textbook is available on the subject, and we will rely on excerpts, collected in a two-volume Course Reader. Additional handouts will be distributed in class. The following books should serve as historical background (on Reserve at the Main Library):

Pegasus Map
  1. Christian, D. A history of Russia, Central Asia, and Mongolia (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1998).
  2. Hambly, G. (ed.) Central Asia (New York: Delacorte Press, 1969).
  3. Soucek, S. A History of Inner Asia (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000).
  4. The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia, edited by Denis Sinor (Cambridge; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1990). [CHEIA]
Recommended:
Historical Maps of Central Asia (ed. Yuri Bregel, Indiana University, 2000).

Useful Web Links
Travel & Exploration:
Silk-Road Project http://www.silk-road.com/artl/srtravelmain.shtml
Discoverers Web http://www.win.tue.nl/cs/fm/engels/discovery/
Islamic history:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/islam/islamsbook.html 
http://www.princeton.edu/~humcomp/alkhaz.html
Glossary of Islamic terms:
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/reference/glossary.html


For the relevant bibliography on travel literature in Central Asia see Yuri Bregel's Bibliography of Islamic Central Asia, part II: Descriptions & Travel, pp. 774-934 (Bloomington, 1995).
See also, Select Bibliography on Travel Literature (opens in Adobe Acrobat).