Will the Caucasus ever be tamed? 

How to get your head around that searingly beautiful but complicated land that lies between the Caspian and Black Seas? The early Arab historian Al Masudi called the Caucasus jabal al-alsun, the mountain of tongues, and through the centuries the place has certainly seen its fair share of peoples, many of them troublesome, many of them troubled. Indeed, for somewhere you might think would be a transcontinental backwater, its outcrops, secluded valleys and expansive plains usefully separating its formidable neighbours – Russia to the north, Turkey and Iran to the south – it’s proved remarkably busy over the centuries; also persistently relevant. The turbulence of the region is rarely far from the news. Chechnya comes to mind – its two separatist wars – and Azerbaijan (upheavals in Nagorno-Karabakh), not to mention Moscow’s determination to make good its hold over Georgia.

Put another way, the Great Caucasus Range provides a natural divide between east Europe and west Asia – yet even this barrier has failed to keep parties of either side out. Rather the opposite; the Caucasus proved a veritable thoroughfare of jealous warlords even before 1220, when the Mongols swept through, overpowering the Armenian army and all but breaking asunder the flourishing kingdom of Georgia. This was a prelude to more devastation in the form of the Black Death. Next came the bloody conqueror Timur, who invaded no fewer than eight times. So, when asked to review a history of the Caucasus, I might have been forgiven for hoping it would turn out to be a handy explainer, a neat little guide to clarify just who brought in what or did what unspeakable deed to whom.

I have to tell you, a handy little guide Christoph Baumer’s book is not.