Dr. Etienne de la Vaissiere, Professor of Central Asian Medieval History, Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHSS)
An East Asian Languages and Civilizations’ Speakers’ Colloquium. In-person attendance at Cherpak Lounge, Williams Hall.
Abstract
The publication last year of Asie centrale 300-850 is an attempt to provide a total but detailed history of Early Medieval Central Asia, i.e. to deal in a few hundred pages with 9 million sq. km on more than 500 years with sources in 20 languages. I will try to present some of the main results of the book but also the conceptual framework underlying it, as such a period and space cannot be dealt without making use of some clear overarching concepts, for fear of being lost in thousands of intricacies.