"Orientalism and Empire describes the efforts of imperial integration and incorporation that emerged in the wake of the long war between the Russians and the mountain peoples of the North Caucasus. Austin Jersild discusses religion, ethnicity, archaeology, transcription of languages, customary law, and the fate of Shamil to illustrate the work of empire-builders and the emerging imperial imagination. Drawing on both Russian and Georgian materials from Tbilisi, he shows how shared cultural concerns between Russians and Georgians were especially important to the formation of the empire in the region."--BOOK JACKET.