The Forum

One of the best books I have ever read, and if not the most skillfully written fiction, was Bones of the Hills. Perfect pacing, perfect battle description, and perfect characters.
I was a bit confused when Persians, whom I thought to be the rulers of Khwarezm at time of Genghis, were catergorized as Arabs. So were Afganis catergorized as Arab. I just though this to be very, well, inaccurate. I've never heard of any Persian refering to themselves as Arabs, and every book or person I've read or talked to on the subject make clear distinctions between Arabs and Persians. They aren't the same, even remotely.
That fact disapointed me a bit, but the book was plain awesome and your writing is one I'm going to study to improve own. Simply put, it was epic!

Thank you. You're not the first to point this out. I am aware of the differences, but I was pretty sure Genghis wouldn't have been, so I wrote it like that. There are, as you know, western generals who refer to all peoples in the middle east as arabs. It's a matter of geography to some extent. I once had dinner with a Norwegian who asked me how it was possible for the English, Welsh and Scots to dislike each other when we were all 'basically the same'. I asked him if Norwegians were 'basically the same' as Swedes and Danes and he said 'Of course not' - completely failing to see the irony.

Conn

Thank you for your reponse, and I admit I was estatic when I saw you had replied. I just thought it was sort of odd that everyone was underneath the "Arab" umbrella when they didn't compose a large population in the region (Northern Iran, Afganistan).
But why wouldn't the terms shift with the viewpoints, with the Shah's point of view using differentiating terms? Plus, how would Genghis even obtain the term Arab so far away from Arab lands? It was also throughly confusing that Berbers were in the Jihad army, even though they're from north africa.

I enjoyed reading your books about the life of Genghis Khan. I was imagining every moment of Genghis’ life as I went through the story. But it was disappointing to see Iranians and Afghanis were referred as Arabs, even though Persians and Arabs live in middle east but they are culturally and linguistically different.

So, if you don’t mind I mention some facts here:

Arabic name “Khalifa Al Nayhan” has been used in “Bones of the hills”. Khalifa is an Arabic title used for Arab king and rulers for example Sheikh Khalifa Al Nahyan who is the current President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and emir of Abu Dhabi. (WIKIPEDIA)

The Khwarezmian dynasty, also known as Khwarezmids, Khwarezm Shahs or Khwarezm-Shah dynasty (and spelling variants, from Persian Khwārezmšhāḥīān, "Kings of Khwarezmia") was a Sunni Muslim dynasty of Turkic origin. (WIKIPEDIA)

Ala ad-Din Muhammad also known as Khwarezm Shah who was defeated by Chengis was decendent of Anūš Tigin Ghrachaī who was originally from Central Asian Qibchaq Tribe. (WIKIPEDIA)

So from my understanding Kharazm Shahs Army was a mixture of Persian, Afghan and Turkish soldiers.

Thank you again for your great of of art.

This has been brought up before, Dashti.

If you check out the Genghis thread, you'll see an explanation from Conn.

(Quite polite for me, eh?)

True, but he added some interesting detail.....actually it's quite useful because in the fifth book, I'm back in the area around Baghdad and I don't want to make a mistake with the ethnic groups. Persians, Medes and Turkic types it is!

There is a 5th book!?!?!?!
Hallelujah!!!!!!

He's getting old but, as far as we know, not dead yet!

Haha im glad!
The Genghis books have me hooked so to hear there is another after empire of silver is very pleasing!
I know they have to end at some point, i just wish they didnt have to....
Ive read the 1st 3 cover to cover 3 or 4 times and im re reading them again in preparation for the 4th which i should get sometime in September. Cant come soon enough!

Sort of like how in some places in the Middle East they still call Westerners farengis or ferengis, which they supposedly derived from the Arabic word for "Frank"? Or the Persian word for foreigner.I forget which it is.