Postal systems in the pre-modern Islamic world
"Adam Silverstein's book offers an account of the official methods of communication employed in the Near East from pre-Islamic times through the Mamluk period. Postal systems were set up by rulers in order to maintain control over vast tracts of land. These systems, invented centuries befo...
Autor principal: | |
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Formato: | Libro electrónico |
Idioma: | Inglés |
Publicado: |
Cambridge, UK :
Cambridge University Press
2007.
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Colección: | CUP ebooks.
Cambridge studies in Islamic civilisation. |
Acceso en línea: | Conectar con la versión electrónica |
Ver en Universidad de Navarra: | https://innopac.unav.es/record=b39689451*spi |
Sumario: | "Adam Silverstein's book offers an account of the official methods of communication employed in the Near East from pre-Islamic times through the Mamluk period. Postal systems were set up by rulers in order to maintain control over vast tracts of land. These systems, invented centuries before steam-engines or cars, enabled the swift circulation of different commodities - from letters, people and horses to exotic fruits and ice. As the correspondence transported often included confidential reports from a ruler's provinces, such postal systems doubled as espionage-networks through which news reached the central authorities quickly enough to allow a timely reaction to events. The book sheds light not only on the role of communications technology in Islamic history, but also on how nomadic culture contributed to empire-building in the Near East. This is a contribution to the history of pre-modern communications systems in the Near Eastern world." |
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Descripción Física: | 1 recurso electrónico |
Formato: | Forma de acceso: World Wide Web. |
Bibliografía: | Incluye referencias bibliográficas (p. 194-208) e índice. |
ISBN: | 9780511289699 9780511290299 |