Caucasus

This travelogue of the Caucasus Mountains "wonderfully weaves historical facts and compelling characters" to examine this critical yet little-known region (Publishers Weekly).

The Caucasus is a jagged land. With Russia to the north, Turkey to the west, and Iran to the south, the Caucuses region is a borderland between Christian and Muslim worlds. Possessing the highest mountain range in Europe, conquerors from Alexander the Great to Hitler and Stalin have sought to possess it. Now award-winning writer Nicholas Griffin travels to the Caucasus Mountains to investigate this rich but bloody history and find the root of today's conflict.


Mapping the rise of Islam through myth, history, and politics, this travelogue centers on the story of Imam Shamil, the greatest Muslim warrior of the nineteenth century, who led a forty-year campaign against the invading Russians. Griffin follows Imam's legacy into the war-torn present and finds his namesake, the Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, continuing his struggle. Caucasus lifts the lid on a little known but crucially important area of world.