Includes Index

Contents :Introduction: Nature's bulwark -- Empires and boundaries -- Imperial dreams -- Kings and khans -- Life on the line -- Ermolov comes -- Rules and resistance -- The murid way -- Raiding and retribution -- The imam and the viceroy -- The tribes that remain -- The imaginary Caucasus -- Inventing the highlander -- Prisoners,superflous men,and mopingers -- Convoy to tiflis -- There is something to be gained on the heights -- Eros and the circassian -- Nations and revolutions -- Bazaar and boomtown -- The uses of war -- Phantom republics -- Exiles -- Cleansing -- Time of troubles -- Brothers and rivals -- Land and struggle -- Whose nations?whos states? -- The tragic north -- Conclusion: Continental shift