A fascinating account of the official methods of communication employed in the pre-modern Near East.

List of maps; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Introduction; Part I. The Pre-Islamic Background: 1. Pre-Islamic postal systems; Part II. Conquest and Centralisation - The Arabs: 2. al-Bar¿d: the early Islamic postal system; 3. D¿w¿n al-Bar¿d: the Middle Abbasid period; Part III. Conquest and Centralisation - The Mongols: 4. The Mongol Y¿m and its legacy; 5. The Mamluk Bar¿d; Conclusions; Appendix: distances and speeds of the Bar¿d; Bibliography; Index.