Raiders, Rulers and Traders by David Chaffetz
Raiders, Rulers and Traders | The Horse and The Rose of Empires by David Chaffetz is a fascinating historical narrative exploring the profound impact of the horse on human civilization.
A captivating history of civilization that reveals the central role of the horse in culture, commerce, and conquest.
No animal is so entangled in human history as the horse. The thread starts in prehistory, with a small, shy animal, hunted for food. Over time, the domestication of horses, followed by the advent of riding, powered mighty empires: Persian, Mongol, Mughal. For more than two millennia, from Iran and Afghanistan to China, India, and, later, Russia, the deep and ancient bond between humans and their horses connected a vast continent, forged trade routes, linked cultures, and fueled war machines.
Scholar of Asian history David Chaffetz tells the story of the steppe raiders, rulers, and traders who amassed power and wealth on horseback from the Bronze Age through the twentieth century. Drawing on a wealth of primary sources—in Persian, Turkish, Russian, and Chinese—Chaffetz presents a groundbreaking new view of what has been known as the “Silk Road,” and a lively history of the great horse empires that shaped civilization.
David Chaffetz, a regular Asian Review of Books contributor, member of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs, and author of A Journey through Afghanistan and Three Asian Divas, has traveled extensively in Asia for more than forty years. He divides his time between Lisbon and Paris.
- ISBN: 1324051469
- ISBN-13: 978-1324051466
- 384 pages
- July 30, 2024
Published by: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Reviews
‘Raiders, Rulers, and Traders’ Review: How the Horse Conquered the World
July 26, 2024 | by Tunku Varadarajan
The horse shaped the fate of empires, allowing mounted warriors to subdue enemy foot soldiers and overtake large swaths of territory.
Mention of the Silk Road transports many of us to a time of legend. We picture intrepid traders bringing to the humdrum markets of medieval Venice and Vienna never-before-seen wares from such places as the Xanadu of Kublai Khan. David Chaffetz sees the matter rather more hardheadedly, though not without a tinge of romance. “What we now call the Silk Road,” he writes, “should more accurately be called the Horse Road.” In “Raiders, Rulers, and Traders,” he offers a wise and jaunty chronicle of the role played by horses in the rise of empires. It was not silk but the horse, he tells us, that drew buyers and sellers to the fabled trading route that linked Europe—by arduous caravan expeditions and flights of the imagination—to the luscious and coveted Orient.
Read more of Tunku Varadarajan review of Raiders, Rulers, and Traders.
Raiders, Rulers, and Traders
7/30/2024 | Review by Deborah Hopkinson
David Chaffetz’s charming, masterful Raiders, Rulers, and Traders glimmers with fascinating insights into how horses have helped build our world.
Don’t be put off by the erudite title of David Chaffetz’s vividly narrated book. Raiders, Rulers, and Traders: The Horse and the Rise of Empires reads like an enthralling travel memoir. It begins with the author perched uncomfortably on the back of a sure-footed pony on the steppes of Mongolia, where his arrival at a remote yurt is celebrated with ayraq, fermented mare’s milk. “We could no more drink all of the milky liquor on offer than we could take in all of the Milky Way above our heads,” he writes, charmingly. Likewise, Chaffetz’s account of how horses and landscapes shaped the distant past glimmers with myriad fascinating insights, seamlessly woven into a cohesive whole.
Read more of Deborah Hopkinson’s review of Raiders, Rulers, and Traders.
