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FOREWORD
The present book is chiefly based on the record oi the ancient Ta'rtkh
al-bab (fourth/eleventh century), another chapter of which—that on the
Transcaucasian dynasty of the Shaddadids—formed the subject of my
publication entitled Studies in Caucasian History, 1953. It was hoped
that the chapters on Sharvan and Darband (Bab al-Abwab) would see
the light as part II of the same Cambridge Oriental series. Some changes
in the regulations prevente d the realisation of this hope, and I am deeply
grateful to the London School of Oriental and African Studies which
made arrangem ents for the publication of my new book by Messrs, Heffer,
Cambridge. I wish to thank my friend and former colleague, Professor
J. R. Firth, for having acted as my sponsor. I have had to add some
general information to my text in order to make it self-supporting and
independent, but its close connection with my history of the Shaddadids
must be kept in mind.
As I was half-way through the proofs of this book, a crisis occurred
with my eyes, and though my wife bravely stepped into the breach,
reading distinctly every word to me and spelling out every letter of the
Oriental words, the refraction between the visual and the auditive must
be taken into account, and readers will, it is hoped, kindly overlook some
possible minor discrepancies in spellings and perhaps some repetitions in
the numerous notes meant to facilitate the explanation of thorny problems.
I regret that it has proved impossible to utilise all the cartographical
material collected for the book, but as a substitute I reproduce here the
map of Daghestan from my Hudud al-*Alam, 1937, p. 359 (with some
additions) and the map of eastern Transcaucasia from my Studies in
Caucasian History, p. 76. I have added two small sketches of the site
of Darband and of the position of Ur-Karakh, essential for my commentary
on the new text. I am grateful to Messrs. Heffers for having
produced the book with great care, in conjunction with Messrs. Stephen
Austin, Hertford, who are responsible for the Arabic text, I am full of
admiration for the expert compositors and readers of both Presses.
March, 1958. V. MINORSKY,