Friday, February 17, 2006

Griffin, Nicholas Caucasus:
A Journey to the Land between Christianity and Islam.

A rugged land between the Black and Caspian seas, the Caucasus is a battle ground for a fascinating and formidable clash of cultures: Russia on one side, the predominantly Muslim mountains on the other. In Caucasus, award-winning author Nicholas Griffin recounts his journey to this war torn region to explore the roots of today's conflict, centering his travelogue on Imam Shamil, the great nineteenth century Muslim warrior who commanded a quarter-century resistance against invading Russian forces.
Delving deep into the Caucasus, Griffin transcends the headlines trumpeting Chechen insurgency to give the land and its conflicts dimension: evoking the weather, terrain, and geography alongside national traditions, religious affiliations, and personal legends as barriers to peaceful co-existence. In focusing his tale on Shamil while retracing his steps, Griffin compellingly demonstrates the way history repeats itself.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments and Thanks
Foreword
1 Jagged Land2 Based in Baku
3 Back in Time
4 Reverberation5 Living History
6 Born in the Land of Splintered Stars
7 Three Hundred Tongues
8 The First Imam9 Heading North
10 The Consolidation of Power
11 Lying in Wait12 Gambits and Guile
13 Staggered Borders and Soft Lands
14 Titled Characters
15 Georgian Nights16 Hostages of Worth
17 Walking over the Past
18 Guests of the Mountains
19 The Highwire of History
20 Towards Freedom21 Tours and Travels
22 Driven from the Mountains
23 The Echoes of Blood
24 Into the Black Garden25 The Shadow of Shamil
26 The History of Hostafes
27 The Resurrection of Shamil
28 A Time to Leave
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography and Further Reading
Index

Subjects:
HISTORY: Asian History
HISTORY: Military History
RELIGION: Islam
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