Table of contents : Contents Acknowledgments Notes on Dates and Transliterations 1. Introduction: Nomadic Culture 2 Steppe Land Interactions and Their Effects on Chinese Cultures during the Second and Early First Millennia BCE 3. The Scythians and Their Neighbors 4 From Steppe Roads to Silk Roads: Inner Asian Nomads and Early Interregional Exchange 5 The Use of Sociopolitical Terminology for Nomads: An Excursion into the Term Buluo in Tang China 6. Population Movements in Mongol Eurasia 7. The Mongols and Nomadic Identity: The Case of the Kitans in China 8. Persian Notables and the Families Who Underpinned the Ilkhanate 9. The Mongol Empire and Its Impact on the Arts of China 10. The Impact of the Mongols on the History of Syria: Politics, Society, and Culture 11. The Tatar Factor in the Formation of Muscovy’s Political Culture 12. Mongol Historiography since 1985: Th e Rise of Cultural History Bibliography Contributors Index