The Russian conquest of Central Asia was perhaps the nineteenth century's most dramatic and successful example of European imperial expansion, adding 1.5 million square miles and at least 6 million people - most of them Muslims - to the Tsar's domains. Alexander Morrison provides the first comprehensive military and diplomatic history of the conquest to be published for over a hundred years. From the earliest conflicts on the steppe frontier in the 1830s to the annexation of the Pamirs in the early 1900s, he gives a detailed account of the logistics and operational history of Russian wars against Khoqand, Bukhara and Khiva, the capture of Tashkent and Samarkand, and the bloody subjection of the Turkmen, as well as Russian diplomatic relations with China, Persia and the British Empire. Based on archival research in Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Georgia and India, memoirs and Islamic chronicles, this book explains how Russia conquered a colonial empire in Central Asia, with consequences that still resonate today.

撒马尔罕是今乌兹别克斯坦第二大城，撒马尔罕州的首府，它位于今天我们所说的河中地区，即阿姆河与锡尔河之间的地区。浩浩荡荡的阿姆河和锡尔河如两位实力不相上下的竞走者一般齐头并进，由南向北奔向咸海，在此两条几乎是平行流淌的大河中游，有一条不大不小的河流由东向西婉延流淌，这就是哺育撒马尔罕城的泽拉夫善河（Zerafshan R）。上述三条河流的位置正像英文大写字母H，如今的撒马尔罕城在H一横的下面，即在泽拉夫善河南岸。
2001年，联合国教科文组织世界遗产委员会将撒马尔罕古城整体作为文化遗产列入《世界遗产名录》。 世界遗产委员会在评价中说，撒马尔罕城已经有两千多年的历史。而考古学家告诉我们，泽拉夫善河南岸，最迟在4万年以前已经有人类活动的迹象了。本文从撒马尔罕地原始人类的栖息地——特锡克塔什岩洞开始叙述，一直论述了今天的撒马尔罕，论述了两千五百年来撒马尔罕的辉煌与屈辱，其间经历了波斯人、希腊人、突厥人、中国人、阿拉伯人、蒙古人、乌兹别克人、俄罗斯人的统治。在此期间，撒马尔罕人表现出英勇不屈，也有委曲求全。在此两千多年中，由于撒马尔罕处于商道上，撒马尔罕城市文化是典型的商业文化。
本书将描述撒马尔罕城的兴衰，光荣和屈辱，描述撒马尔罕城的建筑及繁荣的经济，描述撒马尔罕人的风俗习惯和宗教信仰，描述撒马尔罕人的随和、精明，不屈不挠的顽强精神。