Caucasus: Mountain Men and Holy Wars

by NicholasGriffin (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2002

  $3.42

  The Caucasus is a land whose jagged terrain points starkly to the region's rich but bloody past - and to a present that is no less troubled. Nicholas Griffin combines narrative history with travelogue as he explores the Caucasus in search of the legacy of Imam Shamil, 19th-century freedom fighter and guru of today's Chechen resistance. This book lifts the lid on a little known but crucially important area of the world whose future today, as ever, hangs in balance.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2001

  $4.41

  The Caucasus is a jagged land. Sandwiched between the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, Turkey to the west, Iran to the south and Russia to the north, if the Caucasus didn't already possess the highest mountain range in Europe, the massive political pressure exerted from all sides would have forced the land to crack and rise anyway. Conquered in its time by Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, Peter the Great, Hitler and Stalin, its history is eventful to say the least. Noah's Ark lies, apparently, on the borders of Armenia; the Garden of Eden can be found in the south of Azerbaijan; and Prometheus was, for his sins, bound and pecked on the peak of a mountain in Georgia. Here, the author combines history with travelogue as he explores the Caucasus in search of the legacy of Imam Shamil, 19th century freedom fighter and guru of the modern Chechen resistance.