8 introduction
‘texts’, but also the recognition of the fact that the sedentary world
had encountered the nomads much earlier than the sixth century and
had therefore long established stereotypes and clichés for the descrip-
tion of the Other. This, of course, means that the same is true about
the nomads’ image of the sedentary world.
Such remarks imply that at stake is a pre-understanding and pre-
knowledge of the Other, which often takes the form of prejudice. Such
a form of pre-knowledge changed gradually as a result of the contact
and interaction with the outside Other that happened earlier than the
mid-sixth century; and it was even deepened after the beginning of
the nomadic expansion to the south, in the direction of the seden-
tary world. The ‘interpretative clichés’, which had accumulated in the
nomadic consciousness until that period began to give way to some
other forms of knowing the Other. The changes in these preliminary
knowledge-frames also occur as a result of the changes in the political
boundaries existing until then between the sedentary and the nomadic
worlds. It inevitably contributed to a better acquaintance with the
world of the sedentary civilizations even more so as a considerable
part of the nomads settled down in Sogdiana, on the Crimean penin-
sula, in the Eastern Caucasus region, as well as in the Balkans, which
were some of the most important contact zones. In this way, after so
many centuries, the nomads finally moved out of the ‘backyard’ of
world history. By conquering parts of the ‘central’ world, they effec-
tively moved into the center of world history. This, however, happened
at a price, the abandonment of the nomadic way of life.^13 One of the
most interesting consequences of this process of sedentization was the
rapid change of stereotypes referring to the Other. The old acquain-
tance between nomads and sedentary populations in Eurasia is a very
important feature of the history of the region, as well as of the gradual
change taking place after the sixth or seventh century^14 in the nomadic
perception of the Other.
(^13) Kradin 2001, 30.
(^14) Khazanov 1994b, 83–84, 198 ff., points out the different means of nomads’ adap-
tation to the external sedentary world claiming that in such situations the former
nomads tended to break down with the old mental and behavioral stereotypes, i.e.
with traditional system of values and lifestyle. This threat was intentionally used by
some of the nomads’ elites in order, firstly, to integrate the nomads both ethnically
and culturally and, secondly, to develop amongst the latter a negative attitude toward
the sedentary world.