This balanced history of Xinjiang and its Uyghur inhabitants traces the development of this ethnic group from imperial China to the present and its fraught relationship with the Chinese state. Morris Rossabi focuses especially on CCP policies, both progressive and repressive, toward the Uyghurs since 1949.

This compelling autobiography encapsulates the profound changes that transformed the underdeveloped world in the twentieth century. Jamsrangiin Sambuu, born in 1895 to a herder family in a remote region of Mongolia, rose to become ambassador and eventually president of a haltingly industrialized and urbanized Communist country. In the process, he came to know Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and other leading figures. Sambuu relates horrifying vignettes of the harsh and oppressive rule over Mongolia by the Chinese, the Manchus, and the Mongolian nobility and lamas until 1911. Yet his stories of exploitation and torture are balanced by a lively, picturesque, and informative portrait of traditional herding life, including diet, popular religion, marital ceremonies, and medicine. Sambuu relates how his visceral hatred of the avaricious Mongolian Buddhist monks and nobles prompted him to join the Communist movement in the early 1920s. Valued for his education and work ethic, he rose rapidly in the Party bureaucracy, becoming ambassador to the Soviet Union during World War II and to North Korea during the Korean War. Recounting his eventful diplomatic career, Sambuu paints vivid portraits of Stalin, Anastas Mikoyan, and other prominent Soviet leaders. Enriched by a thoughtful introduction by leading scholar Morris Rossabi that sets the historical stage, this life story of a still-beloved Mongolian illuminates a world few in the West have seen.

With its easy-to-use format, this book provides a collection of annual data on China's 56 ethnic groups. It is a resource book that profiles the demography, employment and wages, livelihood, agriculture, industry, education, science and technology, culture, sports, and public health for each of these ethnic groups. This material, which is compiled from a variety of sources, will be of great value to researchers, businesses, government agencies, and news media. In this book, data are presented on an ethnic group-by-ethnic group basis, and the ethnic groups are ordered alphabetically, from the Achang to the Zhuang. Though most of the data are as of 2011 - the latest year when our research was conducted, we also provide some historical data for a few of indicators. This is intended to help readers to conduct time-series comparisons and analyses.

With its easy-to-use format, this book provides a collection of annual data on China’s 56 ethnic groups. It is a resource book that profiles the demography, employment and wages, livelihood, agriculture, industry, education, science and technology, culture, sports, and public health for each of these ethnic groups. This material, which is compiled from a variety of sources, will be of great value to researchers, businesses, government agencies, and news media. In this book, data are presented on an ethnic group-by-ethnic group basis, and the ethnic groups are ordered alphabetically, from the Achang to the Zhuang. Though most of the data are as of 2011 – the latest year when our research was conducted, we also provide some historical data for a few of indicators. This is intended to help readers to conduct time-series comparisons and analyses.

Toward the end of the thirteenth century, at about the time Marco Polo was being received by the great Khubilai Khan, a Nestorian Christian monk from China called Rabban Sauma was making the reverse journey from the Mongol capital (what is now Beijing) to Jerusalem. Upon reaching Baghdad - the first traveler to arrive from China - Sauma learned that his pilgrimage could not be fulfilled because of Islamic control of the Holy Land. In "Voyager from Xanadu", Morris Rossabi traces Sauma's trans-Eurasian travels against the turbulent era of the Mongol Empire and the last Crusades. His indispensable book provides a unique first-hand Asian perspective on Europe and illuminates a crucial period in the early history of global, diplomatic, and commercial networking.

Living from 1215 to 1294, Khubilai Khan is one of history's most renowned figures. Morris Rossabi draws on sources from a variety of East Asian, Middle Eastern, and European languages as he focuses on the life and times of the great Mongol monarch. This 20th anniversary edition is updated with a new preface examining how twenty years of scholarly and popular portraits of Khubilai have shaped our understanding of the man and his time.

Bertrandon de la Broquiere was esquire to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. Philip had plans for a new Crusade to the Holy Land and as part of this plan he persuaded Bertrandon to undertake a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to gather intelligence. Bertrandon set off in 1432 disguised as a pilgrim but acting as a spy for Philip, noting important details of the military, political and cultural aspects of Mamluk and Ottoman lands. The resulting account of his travels, translated into English by Thomas Johnes in 1807, provides invaluable information on the region, including the military tactics of the Turks and the early use of gunpowder by the Mamluks. It is also one of the key documents for the history of the Crusades in the late medieval period.

The essays in this volume dispel some of the myths concerning the Mongolians and other Inner Asian peoples. This remarkable volume edited by and dedicated to Morris Rossabi challenges the depictions of these mostly nomadic pastoral groups as barbaric plunderers and killers while not denying the destruction and loss of life they engendered. Several essays pioneer in consulting Mongolian and other Inner Asian rather than exclusively Chinese and Persian sources, offering new and different perspectives. Such research reveals the divisions among the Mongolians, which weakened them and led to the collapse of their Empire. Two essays dispel myths about modern Mongolia and reveal the country's significance, even in an era of superpowers, two of which surround it. Contributors are: Christopher Atwood, Bettine Birge, Michael Brose, Pamela Crossley, Johan Elverskog, Jargalsaikhan Enkhsaikhan, Yuki Konagaya, James Millward, David Morgan, and David Robinson.

Open-access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295804057 Upon coming to power in 1949, the Chinese Communist government proclaimed that its stance toward ethnic minorities--who comprise approximately eight percent of China's population--differed from that of previous regimes and that it would help preserve the linguistic and cultural heritage of the fifty-five official "minority nationalities." However, minority culture suffered widespread destruction in the early decades of the People's Republic of China, and minority areas still lag far behind Han (majority) areas economically. Since the mid-1990s, both domestic and foreign developments have refocused government attention on the inhabitants of China's minority regions, their relationship to the Chinese state, and their foreign ties. Intense economic development of and Han settlement in China's remote minority regions threaten to displace indigenous populations, post-Soviet establishment of independent countries composed mainly of Muslim and Turkic-speaking peoples presents questions for related groups in China, freedom of Mongolia from Soviet control raises the specter of a pan-Mongolian movement encompassing Chinese Mongols, and international groups press for a more autonomous or even independent Tibet. In Governing China's Multiethnic Frontiers, leading scholars examine the Chinese government's administration of its ethnic minority regions, particularly border areas where ethnicity is at times a volatile issue and where separatist movements are feared. Seven essays focus on the Muslim Hui, multiethnic southwest China, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Tibet. Together these studies provide an overview of government relations with key minority populations, against which one can view evolving dialogues and disputes.

The collapse of the Ming dynasty and the takeover of China by Manchu rulers in the 1640s were of crucial importance in the late history of China. But because traditional Chinese sources arbitrarily divide the century at the change of dynasty in 1644, it has been difficult to form a clear picture of the transition. The nine essays in this book will contribute significantly toward understanding the complexity of change and continuity over the span of time leading up to and resulting from the tumult of the mid-1600s. "The fullest introduction in English to the Ming-Ch'ing transition."-Tom Fisher, Pacific Affairs "No other recent work compares with its scope, and no older work can stand up to the introduction of its new materials and perspectives."-Library Journal "[This book] makes a valuable contribution to Ming-Ch'ing studies and should be required reading for anyone interested in the two dynasties."-James B. Parsons, American Historical Review

The Mongols carved out the largest land-based empire in world history, stretching from Korea to Russia in the north and from China to Syria in the south in the thirteenth century. Along with their leader Chinggis Khan they conjure up images of plunder and total destruction. Chinggis and his descendants introduced a level of violence that had perhaps never been seen in world history. Although this book does not ignore the devastation and killings wrought by the Mongols, it also reveals their contributions. Within two generations, they developed from conquerors and predators seeking booty to rulers who devised policies to foster the economies of the lands they had subjugated. Adopting political and economic institutions familiar to the conquered populations and recruiting native officials, they won over many of their non-Mongol subjects. Mongol nobles were ardent patrons of art and culture. They supported and influenced the production of Chinese porcelains and textiles, Iranian tiles and illustrated manuscripts, and Russian metalwork. Their most significant contribution was to foster the greatest contacts among diverse civilizations in world history. The Mongol peace they imposed on much of Asia and their promotion of trade resulted in considerable travel and relations among numerous merchants, scientists, artists, missionaries, and entertainers of different ethnic groups. It is no accident that Europeans, including Marco Polo, first reached China in this period. Eurasian and perhaps global history starts with the Mongol empire. Rossabi follows the Mongol empire through to collapse due to internal disunity. Struggles for succession and ill-planned and expensive military campaigns ultimately tore apart one of the most influential empires in world history. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

This balanced history of Xinjiang and its Uyghur inhabitants traces the development of this ethnic group from imperial China to the present and its fraught relationship with the Chinese state. Morris Rossabi focuses especially on CCP policies, both progressive and repressive, toward the Uyghurs since 1949.

Sketches on the Shores of the Caspian is the product of the author's journey through the Caspian region as part of an expedition headed by his cousin James Brant, the British Consul at Erzeroum. Holmes provides a wonderfully intimate portrait of the country. Written in a very accessible style it nonetheless provides a wealth of detail on the towns, the climate, trade, military, people and culture as well as valuable information on the Russian presence in the region at the time. This very scarce volume is here published with a new Introduction by leading scholar of Asia, Morris Rossabi, Professor of Inner Asian History, Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University and Distinguished Professor of History, Queens College, The City University of New York.

Land-locked between its giant neighbors, Russia and China, Mongolia was the first Asian country to adopt communism and the first to abandon it. When the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s, Mongolia turned to international financial agencies--including the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank--for help in compensating for the economic changes caused by disruptions in the communist world. "Modern Mongolia "is the best-informed and most thorough account to date of the political economy of Mongolia during the past decade. In it, Morris Rossabi explores the effects of the withdrawal of Soviet assistance, the role of international financial agencies in supporting a pure market economy, and the ways that new policies have led to greater political freedom but also to unemployment, poverty, increasingly inequitable distribution of income, and deterioration in the education, health, and well-being of Mongolian society.
Rossabi demonstrates that the agencies providing grants and loans insisted on Mongolia's adherence to a set of policies that did not generally take into account the country's unique heritage and society. Though the sale of state assets, minimalist government, liberalization of trade and prices, a balanced budget, and austerity were supposed to yield marked economic growth, Mongolia--the world's fifth-largest per capita recipient of foreign aid--did not recover as expected. As he details this painful transition from a collective to a capitalist economy, Rossabi also analyzes the cultural effects of the sudden opening of Mongolia to democracy. He looks at the broader implications of Mongolia's international situation and considers itsfuture, particularly in relation to China.

Scholars have long accepted China's own view of its traditional foreign relations: that China devised its own world order and maintained it from the second century B.C. to the nineteenth century. China ruled out equality with any nation: foreign rulers and their envoys were treated as subordinates or inferiors, required to send periodic tribute embassies to the Chinese emperor. The Chinese court was otherwise uninterested in foreign lands. Its principal interests were to maintain peace with what it perceived to be barbarian neighbors and to coax or coerce them into admitting China's superiority and accepting the Chinese emperor as the Son of Heaven. But Chinese foreign policy was not monolithic. Court officials in traditional times were much more realistic and pragmatic than is commonly assumed. They did not scorn foreign trade, nor were ignorant of foreign lands. Challenging the accepted view of Chinese foreign relations, the authors of China among Equals contribute to a clearer assessment of Chinese foreign relations and policy. From the tenth to the thirteenth centuries, China did not dogmatically enforce its own world order. Chinese were eager for foreign trade and knowledgeable about their neighbors. The Sung (960-1279), the principal dynasty during that era, was flexible in its dealings with foreigners. Its officials recognized the military and political weakness of the dynasty, and in general they adopted a realistic and pragmatic foreign policy. They were compelled to accept foreign states as equals, and the relations between China and other states were defined by diplomatic parity.