This book deals with steppes culture and civilization of Central Asia and it consists of three chapters.
The first chapter Steppes Culture and Civilization is a short presentation of Central Asia and it provides an interpretative history of Central Asia, focusing on the dynamics of the interaction and development that have brought a great diversity of peoples who shaped the region over thousands of years. The author has also highlighted some relevant aspects of steppes culture and civilization, steppes empires, the rise of Turkic peoples, and a relatively brief period that witnessed some of the most profound changes in the history of Central Asia – the Mongol conquests, and the Golden Horde: economy, policy and culture. The study then moves onto Islam, the spread of Islam to Central Asia, Islamic culture and the Turks. This chapter also contains a short presentation of ethno-linguistic groups, migration and the development of linguistic and ethnic identity of the Black Sea area taking into account its history related to Turkic peoples, steppes culture and their settlement in the Black Sea area. The last lines of this chapter provide information about the origins of the Crimean Tatar Khanat and its role in Eastern European policy.
The second chapter aims to draw a general image of the major developments that shaped some aspects of the Ottoman relations with the Great Powers in the 19thcentury, the newly formed countries and the Ottoman State in the 19th century. The study then moves on to examine the cultural and economic integration of different Balkan regions which during the European industrial revolution belonged to the Ottoman State, for instance the Black Sea area. That was a complex process, which corresponded to a relatively long period and required the investigation of both phenomena and economic processes in the Ottoman area of influence, particularly in the Black Sea area, as well as in the Balkan territories.
The main part of this chapter presents some aspects of the Crimean War (1853-1856) and the most significant consequence of the Ottoman-Russian wars, which was the enormous influx of the Ottoman subjects, mostly Muslims, who had been living in the area now, subject to the Russian occupation. Hundreds of thousands of Crimean and Nogay refugees had to flee towards the Ottoman lands under unbearable conditions. The most important contribution is the documentation about the process of Crimean Muslim refugees based on documents in the heritage of the Basbakanlık Osmanlı Arsivi (The Ottoman Archives of the Prime Minister’s Office) and the Romanian National Archives.
The last chapter of the book presents the image of the Ottomans and Dobruja in the newspapers and periodicals from 1878 to 1914.In this context, Albina Carpaților was examined for the socio-economic and political conditions of the time. There are articles dedicated to Sultan Abdulhamid II, Osman Pasha and the Circassians and war refugees.
Another major aspect in this chapter refers to the emergence of the Romanian language press in Dobruja and analyses the image of the Crimean Tatars in the newspapers of the time: Farul Constanței, Gazeta Dobrogei, Constanța.
Finally, it is the author’s opinion, based not only on archive documents, but also on publications and periodicals, which shows how the population was informed about the events.
Assoc. Prof. Cristina PRELIPCEANU, Ph.D.
The University of Economic Studies, Bucharest
The Department of Modern Languages and Business Communication