The Seljuks of Anatolia: Court and Society in the Mediaeval Middle East

摘要

Any new book on the Seljuks by Andrew Peacock is always likely to cause a stir even if he is only the editor. Shock waves from his last book on the early Seljuks (Early Seljuk History: a new interpretation, 2010) continue to reverberate, with teaching syllabuses on this period still adjusting to the upheaval forced on our assumptions since it first appeared. In the present volume Peacock has contributed only one chapter himself and co-authored the introduction with his fellow editor, Sara Nur Yildiz, but, as Gary Leiser's concluding chapter makes very clear, this book will resound beyond the confines of Seljukid Anatolia. Leiser's overview addresses what he regards as the marginalisation of the study of mediaeval Anatolia, and hence he highlights the incalculable potential that this period contains for the advancement of research into its neighbours' histories.