Postal Systems in the Pre-Modern Islamic World
Cambridge University Press
9780521858687 - Postal Systems in the Pre-Modern Islamic World - by Adam J. Silverstein
Table of Contents
Contents
| List of maps | page x | ||
| Acknowledgements | xi | ||
| List of abbreviations | xii | ||
| Introduction | 1 | ||
| PART I THE PRE-ISLAMIC BACKGROUND | 7 | ||
| 1 | Pre-Islamic postal systems | 7 | |
| The East: Iranian postal systems from the Achaemenids to the Sasanids | 7 | ||
| The West: the Cursus Publicus from Rome to Byzantium | 29 | ||
| Communications in pre-Umayyad Arabia | 42 | ||
| PART II CONQUEST AND CENTRALISATION – THE ARABS | 53 | ||
| 2 | al-Barīd: the early Islamic postal system | 53 | |
| 3 | Dīwān al-Barīd: the Middle Abbasid period | 90 | |
| PART III CONQUEST AND CENTRALISATION – THE MONGOLS | 141 | ||
| 4 | The Mongol Yām and its legacy | 141 | |
| 5 | The Mamluk Barīd | 165 | |
| Conclusions | 186 | ||
| Appendix: distances and speeds of the Barīd | 191 | ||
| Bibliography | 194 | ||
| Index | 209 | ||
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