Nishapuri flourished in the 12th century and wrote a succinct history in Persian of the Saljuq Turks, a tribal group from Central Asia who in the 11th century established a vast empire, enduring for some century and a half and bringing about lasting changes to the ethnic composition and the patterns of land utilisation in the northern tier of the Middle East.

General Editor's Preface, Editor's Preface and Acknowledgements, Abbreviations, Map I The western Iranian world, Map 2 The eastern Iranian world, Introduction, Translation, Notes, Bibliography, Indexes