Around 800 BC, the Eurasian steppe underwent a profound culturaltransformation that was to shape world history for the next 2,500years: the nomadic herdsmen of Inner Asia invented cavalry which,with the use of the compound bow, gave them the means to terrorizefirst their neighbors and ultimately, under Chingis Khan and hisdescendants, the whole of Asia and Europe. Why and how they did soand to what effect are the themes of this history of the nomadictribes of Inner Asia - the Mongols, Turks, Uighurs and others,collectively dubbed the Barbarians by the Chinese and theEuropeans. This two-thousand year history of the nomadic tribes is drawnfrom a wide range of sources and told with unprecedented clarityand pace. The author shows that to describe the tribes as barbaricis seriously to underestimate their complexity and underlyingsocial stability. He argues that their relationship with theChinese was as much symbiotic as parasitic and that they understoodtheir dependence on a strong and settled Chinese state. He makessense of the apparently random rise and fall of these mysterious,obscure and fascinating nomad confederacies.