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Book Cover
E-book
Author Silverstein, Adam J.

Title Postal systems in the pre-modern Islamic world / Adam J. Silverstein
Published Cambridge, UK : Cambridge University Press, 2007

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Description 1 online resource (xii, 214 pages) : maps
Series Cambridge studies in Islamic civilisation
Cambridge studies in Islamic civilization.
Contents Cover; Half-title; Series-title; Title; Copyright; Dedication; Contents; Maps; Acknowledgements; Abbreviations; Introduction; Part I The pre-Islamic background; Chapter 1 Pre-Islamic postal systems; Part II Conquest and centralisation -- the Arabs; Chapter 2 al-Barid: the early Islamic postal system; Chapter 3 Diwan al-Barid: the Middle Abbasid period; Part III Conquest and centralisation -- the Mongols; Chapter 4 The Mongol Yam and its legacy; Chapter 5 The Mamluk Barid; Conclusions; Appendix: distances and speeds of the Barid; Bibliography; Index
Summary "Adam Silverstein's book offers an 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 contribution to the history of pre-modern communications systems in the Near Eastern world."
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 194-208) and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Postal service -- Middle East -- History -- To 1500
Communication -- Middle East -- History -- To 1500
Islamic civilization.
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- Commerce.
Civilization
Communication
Islamic civilization
Postal service
Post
SUBJECT Middle East -- Civilization. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85090502
Subject Middle East
Naher Osten
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 0511289693
9780511289699
9780511290299
0511290292
9780511497520
0511497520
9780521147613
0521147611