Game of Blood: How the Sky, the Law, and a Piece of Felt Ruled the Great Steppe

In the Great Steppe, power could not simply be seized—it could only be inherited. Legitimacy was the scarcest resource, one for which entire peoples were wiped off the face of the earth. How did the steppe nomads solve the problem of the monopoly on power? Why did the ancient Turkic law prove stronger than any dynasty, and why was the consent of the people more important than lineage? An in-depth…