A History of the Tajiks

A HISTORY OF THE TAJIKS – IRANIANS OF THE EAST, by Richard Foltz, London: I.B. Tauris, 2023, xx+257pp. ISBN: 978-0755649655.

Reviewed by: Abdullah Drury, Wellington University of Victoria, New Zealand 

This is a masterful account told with scholarly precision but also with the drive of a well-told story. In this revised volume, author Richard Foltz offers a concise yet expansive historical account of the Tajiks, a Persian-speaking Iranian Muslim ethnic group native to Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Uzbekistan – central Asia.

The book is exceptional not only for its equitable examination of the conflicting views of what really happened in this contentious region in the past but also for its unimpeachable research and firm but polite determination to debunk dangerous historiographical myths . Spanning from proto-Indo-Iranian prehistory to the post-Soviet era, Foltz examines the linguistic, cultural, and political trajectories that have shaped Tajik identity . Key themes include the Samanid-era renaissance of Persian culture in Khorasan and Transoxiana, the shifting politics of ethnic self-definition, and the contemporary Tajik diaspora.