Postal Systems in the Pre-Modern Islamic World

Adam Silverstein's book offers a fascinating account of the official methods of communication employed in the Near East from pre-lslamic 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 and efficient circulation of different commodities-from people and horses to exotic fruits and ice-and, of course, news and letters. 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, and the ways in which the nascent Islamic state distinguished itself from the Byzantine and Sasanid empires that preceded it. This is a long-awaited contribution to the history of pre-modern communications systems in the Near Eastern world.

"...this book is an important and wide-ranging contribution to Middle Eastern history...it is lucid, readable and elegantly produced... is likely to remain a very useful reference work for some time to come." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society

"Silverstein is to be commended for this ambitious project; it is a welcome and much needed addition to the field. Students and scholars of the political, economic, and administrative history of medieval Islam will benefit greatly from the foundation he has provided." International Journal of Middle East Studies