Postal Systems in the Pre-Modern Islamic World

A fascinating account of the official methods of communication employed in the pre-modern Near East.

Adam J. Silverstein (Author)

9780521147613, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 24 June 2010

230 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.3 cm, 0.34 kg

"The greatest value of this work to scholars and students interested in the premodern Islamic world is that Silverstein places this detailed description of postal systems into the broader picture of the political traditions of particular dynasties and rulers, notably the pre-Umayyads, Umayyads, Abbasids, Samanids, Chaznavids, Fatimids, Seljuks, Il-Khanids, and Malmuks." - The Historian

Adam Silverstein's book offers a fascinating account of the official methods of communication employed in the Near East from pre-Islamic times through the Mamluk period. Postal systems were set up by rulers in order to maintain control over vast tracts of land. These systems, invented centuries before steam-engines or cars, enabled the swift circulation of different commodities - from letters, people and horses to exotic fruits and ice. As the correspondence transported often included confidential reports from a ruler's provinces, such postal systems doubled as espionage-networks through which news reached the central authorities quickly enough to allow a timely reaction to events. The book sheds light not only on the role of communications technology in Islamic history, but also on how nomadic culture contributed to empire-building in the Near East. This is a long-awaited contribution to the history of pre-modern communications systems in the Near Eastern world.

List of maps
Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
Introduction
Part I. The Pre-Islamic Background: 1. Pre-Islamic postal systems
Part II. Conquest and Centralisation - The Arabs: 2. al-Bar?d: the early Islamic postal system
3. D?w?n al-Bar?d: the Middle Abbasid period
Part III. Conquest and Centralisation - The Mongols: 4. The Mongol Y?m and its legacy
5. The Mamluk Bar?d
Conclusions
Appendix: distances and speeds of the Bar?d
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Islamic studies [JFSR2], Islam [HRH], Middle Eastern history [HBJF1], General & world history [HBG]