Richard Foltz's excellent A History of the Tajiks: Iranians of the East traces the political–cultural history of the Tajiks from prehistory to the modern day. This updated second edition (the original was published in 2019) adds an important chapter on Tajiks in Uzbekistan, and reflects recent developments in the region.

The book is structured into seven numbered chapters, with an introduction, excursus, and conclusion. The introduction reflects on Tajik identity, which predates the country that was shaped in 1924 by the aftermath of the Russian Revolution and the reshaping of Central Asian republics. The result is that a large number of Tajiks live outside modern-day Tajikistan, with many in Afghanistan and southern/western Uzbekistan, along with an ever-growing diaspora. Foltz argues that the complex history of the region, from pre-Islamic Sogdiana to the present day, means that the term ‘Tajik’ has acquired political and sociological connotations, in addition to cultural and linguistic attributes, and thus it is essential to understand the history of the Tajiks in the longue durée.

The first three chapters cover the early history of the Tajiks. Chapter 1 explores prehistoric pastoral-nomadic cultures and the Oxus civilisation, from the second millennium BCE through to the development of a Sogdian culture. The latter is discussed in some detail, along with Bactrian influences, in Chapter 2. This is followed by a crucial period in the ninth and tenth centuries CE, when the Samanid empire, which centred on the cities of Bukhara and Samarkand, developed the concept of an urban-dominated, Persian-speaking Tajik Muslim culture. Throughout these first three chapters, Foltz emphasises that Tajik identity developed over many centuries and was an amalgamation of several cultures. Language became a central part of this identity and modern-day Tajik is an eastern Iranian version of Persian, closely related to Dari in neighbouring Afghanistan.

In Chapter 4, Foltz explores the interplay of Turkic and Tajik cultures. Rather than seeing these as being in opposition to each other, he emphasises the significant intermingling of the two. This becomes important when he later returns to the recent state-led ethnic, nationalist projects in post-Soviet Central Asia (see below). Chapter 5 masterfully explores the Soviet process of national identity building in Central Asia and how that impacted upon Tajik identity. In 1924, the Soviet government defined national borders to create radically different political identities in Central Asia. In part, the decisions regarding boundaries were a response to the support, or lack of it, for the revolutionary armies during the civil war of 1917–1923. Within the Tajik-speaking regions, many guerrillas, known as basmachi, fought against Bolshevik forces in an attempt to maintain independence. Foltz conducts an excellent review of how the Soviet process completely altered the Tajik socio-cultural space, moving large elements of the Tajik-speaking population, and much of the most fertile land, into Uzbekistan. He also explores how the Tajik language was impacted, as the Soviets forcibly divorced the language from Persian ‘by making local spoken dialect, with all its deviations in pronunciation and vocabulary from formal literary Persian, the new official language of the “Tajik nation”’ (p. 118).

Post-Soviet Tajikistan is explored in some detail in Chapter 6. Following independence in 1991, regional political divisions, and especially the competition of dominant families for power, led to a brutal civil war. Its conclusion in 1997 led to an authoritarian regime that remains in power. State-led attempts were then made to create an enduring sense of a Tajik identity, such as President Emomali Rahmon's book Tajiks in the Mirror of History, an emphasis on Zoroastrianism, and the promotion of Persian New Year, Nawrūz, celebrations (pp. 155–158). These were largely ineffectual and Foltz explores the growth of Islamisation in the country, alongside an emerging presidential cult, that has intensified pressures on women's rights and civil liberties. It paints a complex and somewhat depressing picture of modern-day Tajikistan.

Chapter 7 discusses Tajiks in Uzbekistan and, in an excursus, in Afghanistan, both of which have (similar or) larger Tajik populations than Tajikistan itself. In Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov sought to assimilate Tajiks through a state-sponsored project after independence in 1991, but this swiftly turned into repression (p. 175). The focus of Tajik independence centred on Samarkand and Bukhara, and this was brutally repressed. The Soviet legacy of cutting Tajikistan off from the Persian-speaking cities of Bukhara and Samarkand has severely compromised modern-day Tajik–Uzbek relationships. In Afghanistan, Pashtun-dominated governments and then the Taliban have isolated ethnic Tajiks, who remain largely powerless. Foltz also discusses the wider Tajik diaspora, especially in Russia. The exodus of mainly blue-collar workers from Tajikistan has led to labour shortages and social problems. Today, Tajikistan faces significant structural challenges. Perhaps some coverage of the wider Iranian world and relationships with Iran might have been a useful addition here, but Foltz does very well to cover so many issues in the latter stages of the book.

This book is an essential read for anyone who is interested in Central Asian studies. It is very well supported, with sources and references, and an extensive bibliography. The pre-Soviet historical sections are necessarily relatively brief but do provide an essential context for the twentieth- and twenty-first-century developments. Contemporary relationships with Tajikistan's neighbours are clouded by many of the largely fictional state-based nation-building narratives within the region, emphasising differences that often do not exist. Foltz is particularly good at covering the implications of recent regional developments for the Tajiks, and the depth of his research makes this a key text on Tajik politics. Overall, the book eloquently captures the changing nature of Tajik identity over time and the impact that this has had on Tajikistan, its diaspora communities, and the region as a whole.