The Strategic Earth Vol. IV: Fractured Faiths and Trade Networks: (500 CE – 1450 CE)

The Strategic Earth, Volume IV: Fractured Faiths and Trade Networks extends the twelve-volume series into the mediaeval world, covering the period from 500 to 1450 CE. The series describes geography as a fundamental force shaping the struggle for land, sea, resources, and political power. Volume IV develops that approach through a broad Afro-Eurasian historical panorama.

Readers seeking to understand mediaeval history through the interplay of geography, statecraft, warfare, religion, commerce, and strategic mobility will find this volume particularly suited to their needs.

The fifteen chapters cover topics ranging from the Byzantine rampart and the Byzantine–Sasanian struggle to the expansion of the Islamic caliphates and the Abbasid transformation of Baghdad into a major strategic and commercial centre. The narrative then turns toward the Byzantine thematic system, the Indian Ocean’s monsoon-based trade, the Chola maritime network, and the commercial societies of the Swahili coast.

The second half examines fragmented caliphates and sectarian political competition, the Seljuk penetration of Anatolia, the Mongol reconnection of Eurasia, the maritime networks of Song and Ming China, the Ottoman ascent, and the siege and fall of Constantinople.

The book can be positioned at the intersection of world history, geopolitical history, mediaeval civilisations, military history, economic history, Islamic history, Byzantine history, Silk Road studies, and maritime history.

Its principal appeal is its geographical scale. Rather than treating Byzantium, the Islamic world, India, China, Central Asia, and East Africa as isolated historical subjects, the volume places them within connected systems of movement and competition.

The result is a narrative designed for readers who want more than a chronology of mediaeval rulers and battles. It asks how strategic geography influenced imperial survival, how trade networks created political opportunities, how religious divisions affected authority, and how changes in continental and maritime connectivity altered the balance of power.

As Volume IV of The Strategic Earth, it also serves as an important bridge between the series’ ancient and mediaeval volumes and the forthcoming volumes dealing with the emergence of the modern oceanic world.

Available

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1787958361#

Several retailers:https://books2read.com/u/boLd6A

Google Play Books:https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=iK0WEgAAQBAJ

Samawi:https://www.samawy.com/i/1042932/The-Strategic-Earth-Vol-IV-Fractured-Faiths-and-Trade-Networks

Straight from the publisher:https://bookspace.com/gew/the-strategic-earth-vol-iv-f