The Turkmen Wars: Abdysetdar Kazy's Jangnama (Brill's Inner Asian Library)

This brutal, vivid poem of war is the first Turkmen historical epic ever translated into English. Abdysetdar Kazy's poem recounts the momentous battles of 1858-1860 between the Turkmens and Iranians, in which the Turkmens triumphed. Along with the lively translation, Jeff Eden puts these pivotal battles in context with an introduction using rare eyewitness sources in Persian, Turkic, Russian, and French. Revered as a classic in Turkmenistan today, the Jangnama is essential (and often delightful) reading for the history of Central Asia and Iran in the nineteenth century.