Allah's Mountains

A mixture of travelogue, history and war journalism, Allah's Mountains tells the story of the conflict between a nation of mountain tribes and the might of the Russian army. Ancient travellers called the Caucasus the mountain of languages. Greeks, Persians, Romans, Goths, Arabs, Mongols and Turks have all passed through the region; poets and artists have been inspired by its rugged beauty. Yet its history is a tragic one - for centuries it has been ravaged by virtually continuous conflict. The Caucasus is a hugely strategic part of the world - sandwiched between Iran, Turkey and Russia and crossed by some of the most valuable oil pipelines in the world. The latest conflict to sweep across the area began when Vladimir Putin invaded Chechnya in 1999. Thousands of Russian soldiers and thousands more Chechens - both rebels and civilians - died and Chechnya's towns and cities were bombed beyond recognition. Sebastian Smith travelled to Chechnya during this period. Allah's Mountains is the story of the history, people, and cultures of the Caucasus and of tiny ethnic groups struggling for both physical and cultural survival.

Sebastian Smith has been a foreign correspondent for 30 years, for AFP, The Economist, The Times and others. He has covered wars, natural disasters, countless elections, and stories of human life from the Amazon rainforest to Siberia. At the age of 30 he took to the sea, and since then boats and voyaging have been at the heart of life with his wife and daughters. He has written for SAIL in the US and Practical Boat Owner in the UK.

Acknowledgements * Maps * Introduction * Prologue * The Jigsaw * Fires of Liberty * The Jigsaw in Pieces * The Chechen Wolf * The Fury * Chasing Paradise * Bibliography * Index