History Books on Central Asia

A reading list of history books about Central Asia, each with a short summary and purchase links.

People, Places, Texts, and Topics: Another Look at the Larger Context of the Spread of Chan Buddhism in Eastern Central Asia during the Tibetan Imperial and Post-Imperial Period (7th–10th C.)

Carmen Meinert · 2024

Timur (Tamerlane) and the Timurid Empire in Central Asia

Rafis Abazov · 2008

The Book of Dede Korkut

Anonymous · 1300 CE – 1400 CE

The Integration of non-Tibetan Peoples into the Tibetan Empire: The Zing Clan of the ’A-zha and the Da-myi Tribe —A Preliminary Investigation

Gertraud Taenzer · 2026

Chinese Settler Colonialism: Empire and Life in the Tibetan Borderlands

Carole McGranahan · 2025

8 Religions in the Mongol Empire Revisited: Exchanges, Conversion, Consequences

Michal Biran · 2024

Confucianism in the Mongol Empire

Jesse Sloane · 2022

Apocalyptic Revolts Hurufism & Noqtavids?during the Timurid & Safavid Empires

Rajabali Kavani · 2021

The Kushan Empire

Craig Benjamin · 2021

Kingdom of Georgia

Education Germiyan · 2021

9 Tools of Economic Activity from the Greek Kingdoms of Central Asia to the Kushan Empire

Lauren Morris · 2021

13 Economic Development under the Greek Kingdoms of Central Asia to the Kushan Empire: Empire, Migration, and Monasteries

Lauren Morris · 2021

Tibetan Empire in Central Asia

Christopher I. Beckwith · 2020

Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era Before Empire

John Vincent Bellezza · 2020

Kingdom of Georgia; Notes of Travel in a Land of Woman, Wine and Song, to Which Are Appended Historical, Literary, and Political Sketches, Specimens of the National Music, and a Compendious Bibliography

John Oliver Wardrop · 2018

Religion and the Samanid Amirs

L. Marlow · 2016

An Early Samanid View of History: The Dating of Naṣīḥat al-mulūk

L. Marlow · 2016