This volume brings together a set of key articles, along with a new introduction to contextualize them, on the role of Turkish peoples in the Western Asiatic world up to the 11th century. It covers the Inner Asian background for the appearance of Turks within the Islamic caliphate from the 9th century onwards, first as military slaves, then as movements of peoples, and the establishment of the Seljuq sultanate and individual military empires such as that of the Ghaznavids, which put in place a Turkish dominance of the northern tier of the Middle East which was to last for centuries.

C. Edmund Bosworth is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Manchester, UK.

Contents: Introduction; The steppe region in world history, Kaare Grÿnbech; A geographical history of Central Asia, K. de B. Codrington; Tribal names and titles amongst the Altaic peoples, Omeljan Pritsak; The oldest mentions of the Turks in Arabic literature, Tadeusz Kowalski; The Turks in the Shah-nama, Tadeusz Kowalski; Khazar Turkish ghulams in caliphal service, Peter B. Golden; Al-Xwarazmi on the peoples of Central Asia, C.E. Bosworth and Sir Gerard Clauson; Turks in the Middle East before the Saljuqs, Richard N. Frye and Aydin M. Sayili; The Turks in the Islamic lands up to the mid-11th century, C.E. Bosworth; Barbarian incursions: the coming of the Turks into the Islamic world, C.E. Bosworth; Notes on the Risala of Ibn-Fadlan, R.N. Frye and R.P. Blake; Mu`tasim and the Turks, Osman S.A. Ismail; Aspects of the early history of the Central Asian guard corps in Islam, C.I. Beckwith; The founding of a new capital: Samarra', Osman S.A. Ismail; The Malik-nama and the history of Seljuqid origins, Claude Cahen; The Turkish tribes of Western Asia during the Seljuqid period, Claude Cahen; Index.