Description of the Rus ibn Fadlan. Ibn Fadlan and his manuscript on the adoption of Islam in the Volga Bulgaria. List of used literature
Ahmad ibn al-Abbas Ibne Fadlan was an Arab traveler and missionary who visited in 921-922. on the banks of the Volga and left a “Note” (Risal) about this journey (in the text itself, the author calls this work a kitab, that is, a book.).
For the first time, extracts from this work of Ibn Fadlan became famous according to the "Geographical Dictionary" of the Arab encyclopedist Iakut, at the beginning of the 18th century, who used excerpts from the book of Ibn Fadlan in his work. In the 20s of the twentieth century, in the Iranian city of Mashhad, a manuscript was found with a more complete text of the Note, which became the basis for further research. Since 1935, a photographic copy of it has been kept in the Department of Manuscripts of the Institute of Oriental Studies in St. Petersburg. Some parts of Ibn Fadlan's book are also found in the work of the Arab scholar Zakaria Kazvini (XIII century), as well as in the work of two Persian authors Najib Hamadani (XII century) and Amin Rosi (XVI century). Excerpts from these works by Persian authors were taken into account by A.P. Kovalevsky in a 1956 publication.
From the “Note” it follows that in response to the request of the ruler of the Volga Bulgars Almysh for help against the Khazars, for the strengthening of those Bulgars who had already become Muslims in the faith of Islam, and for the conversion of still unbelieving people to Islam, an embassy caravan of the caliph was sent to this bank of the Volga al-Muqtadir (908-932). Ibn Fadlan himself was the secretary of this embassy and a mentor in the doctrine.
Leaving Baghdad on June 21, 921, the caravan passes through cities such as Hamadan, Rey, Nishapur, Merv, Bukhara, goes along the Amu Darya to Khorezm, bypasses the Aral Sea and through the Ustyurt Plateau and the Ural River reaches the territory of the Volga region on May 12, 922, where, south of the confluence of the Kama river into the Volga, there was the headquarters of the “king of the Assakaliba”, that was the name of Ibn Fadlan, the ruler of the Volga Bulgars. Such a circuitous route was preferred by the caravan, most likely because of the danger that came from the Khazars.
Ibn Fadlan met a detachment of Russian merchants on the banks of the Volga and in his “Note” spoke in detail about their way of life, attire and jewelry, appearance, religions, the funeral rite of the Russians who came, starting from personal observations of them. These rare information of Ibn Fadlan gave rise to high interest among researchers; significant literature is dedicated to them. It is recognized that the Russians, whom Ibn Fadlan described in their rituals and appearance, look like Scandinavians, although their clothes and traditions contain elements of Finns and Slavs.
The interest of historians was also attracted by the fact that Ibn Fadlan, throughout the entire exposition, called the lords of the Volga Bulgaria "the king of the Assakaliba (Slavs)". The most common version of the reason for this naming was Ibn Fadlan's extensive awareness of the ethnonym Assakaliba (Slavs) as inhabitants of Eastern Europe, which is also observed in some Arabic authors.
For example, al-Masgudi considered the Germans (an-najim), Saxons (Saksins), Hungarians (at-Turk) to be Slavs. There are other hypotheses as well. So, A.Ya. Harkavy thought that a myriad of Slavic peoples lived in the Volga region. Later, scientists renounced this idea, taking archeological data as a basis. Nevertheless, in recent years, this theory has been revived on the basis that the Imenkovskaya culture was discovered in the Volga region, which some historians refer to as Slavic.
On this basis, guesses began to emerge about the reasons for the name of the Volga Bulgars by the Slavs. But it is not known whether these populations survived until the tenth century and whether they were called Slavic peoples. Some scientists believed that the fair-haired Nord people, as well as the Volga people, were called Slavic peoples by Arab authors, flowing not only from these data of Ibn Fadlan, but also from the information of al-Masgudi mentioned above that the Germans and Hungarians also belonged to the Slavs. It is difficult to agree with this hypothesis, since for the Volga peoples among the Arabs there were popular ethnonyms - Bulgarians, Bortases, Bashshdzhirts and others, but not at all Slavs (Assakaliba). There was also such a point of view that Ibn Fadlan called the ruler of the Bulgars the king of Assakaliba from the words of Khan Almysh himself. Khan called himself that, most likely to give prestige in the formation of the anti-Khazar union.
The 18th century author Yaqut modified Ibn Fadlan's text by associating the sakaliba with the Volga Bulgarians. There is also a hypothesis that the Bulgarians could believe that the Slavs were their subjects since the period of domination of the Great Bulgaria in the Black Sea steppe zone over the Ants and the representative class of the so-called Penkov culture, which archaeologists refer to the Slavs.
Mashhad manuscript on the adoption of Islam
The Mashhad Manuscript containing the writings of Ibn al-Faqih, Abu Dulaf and Ibn Fadlan, kept in the library at the tomb of Imam Ali ibn Riz in the city of Mashhad in Iran. The oldest catalog of the Mashhad library, compiled at the direction of Mutavalli-basha Mirza Muhammad Hussein Afzud-al-Mulk, who in 1851 was the envoy of Iran in St. Petersburg. He visited the Public Library and got acquainted with its catalogues. Apparently, this acquaintance prompted him to compile a catalog of the Mashhad library. In the next Mashhad catalog compiled in 1894-1895, this manuscript is listed in the 17th section - "Historical Books" at number 110.
The penetration of Islam as a religious system into the Ural-Itil region begins in the 10th century, as became known from the famous "Mashhad Manuscript" of the Arab traveler Ibn Fadlan.
The merit of the discovery of this unique historical source belongs to the outstanding Bashkir political figure and orientalist Akhmed-Zaki Validi Togan. He also made the manuscript the property of science, for the first time introduced the document into scientific circulation, and thus provided generations of historians, ethnographers, and archaeologists with enormous research opportunities. Among the most important historical facts obtained as a result of the discovery of Ahmed-Zaki Validi Togan, one should include accurate and reliable information about the adoption of Islam by the Volga Bulgaria.
When there was a distance of one day's journey to the headquarters of the king of the Bulgars, according to Ibn Fadlan, the embassy was met by four princes subject to Almush-eltabar, as well as his brothers and sons. They met us, writes Ibn Fadlan, with bread, meat, millet, holding these products in their hands and went with us. The khan himself met us at a distance of 2 farsakhs (about 12 km) from the personal rate. Seeing us, he dismounted from his horse and fell on his face, worshiping and thanking the Great and Mighty Allah. So the embassy caravan, after such a difficult journey, finally reached its final goal. In the next 3-4 days, the princes of his lands, the leaders and the population of the country came to the headquarters of Almysh-iltabar from various parts of Bulgaria to listen to the nationwide recitation of the letter of the ruler of the Muslims. And now the most crucial time of the journey has come - the solemn promulgation of the Caliph's message. For this occasion, 2 brought banners were unfurled, a horse sent as a gift was saddled, Almysh-Iltabar himself was dressed in a savad black robe of the highest officials of the court of the ruler of the Faithful, a turban was put on his head. After that, Ibn Fadlan, who was responsible for conducting this ceremony, took out the message of the Caliph and began to read it slowly, and Almysh-Iltabar listened to him standing. The translator literally translated the message letter by letter. When we finished reading, they shouted in agreement, Great is Allah, so loudly that the earth shook from the cry, - Ibn Fadlan writes about this event. Here is an excerpt from the translation of his manuscript, which was published in 1956 by A.P. Kovalevsky.
By this act, on May 16, 922, Volga Bulgaria officially recognized the religion of Islam as a state religion, and its state as part of the Islamic world. Therefore, the date of the official adoption of Islam by the population living in the territory of present-day Russia should be considered May 16, 922.
In Bulgaria, no doubt, they had information that the caliph himself could not provide support: the Caliphate at that time practically collapsed and did not even have real power in the states neighboring Khazaria. The embassy from the Volga probably first came to the palace of the Bukhara Samanids. However, these rulers are in fact completely independent, they nominally recognized the Baghdat power, and in the matter of Islamization, the "ruler of the faithful" - the Caliph, of course, had to be nominated as the main person. For this reason, the Bulgarian embassy appeared in Baghdad, from where in June 921 a whole group of educated believers was sent to Bulgaria, headed by the sent caliph, the former slave Sussan arRassi. The secretary of the embassy caravan was the client (“maula”) of the caliph Ahmed ibn Fadlan. It was he who described in detail the movement of the embassy. It is typical that the caliph's messengers went by a circuitous, and not a direct route through the Caucasus and Khazaria, whose rulers could not like the direct relationship of the Bulgarian ruler with the head of the Muslim state.
It is interesting that the embassy caravan included translators and everything necessary to call the Bulgars to Islam, the number of mullahs. The embassy did not bring any real political fruit, but Ibn Fadlan's "Note" was not lost in the Baghdad archives, like almost all documents of that period. It was copied, probably because of its content: it contained many curiosities (“adjaib”), thanks to which some of this kind of writings were extremely popular in the Islamic powers. A shortened version of "Risal" ("Notes") was introduced into his work by the geographer of the early 18th century, Yakut ar-Rumi.
This version of Ibn Fadlann's "Notes" formed the classic work of H. Fren. As we said, in the 20s of the twentieth century in the city of Mashhad (Iran) a manuscript was found that contained a more complete text of the Note, which was the basis for the monographs of A.P. Kovalevsky and V. Togan. The author of this work, the Arab historian Professor A.P. Kovalevsky, who was specially engaged in the study of Ibn Fadlan and who in 1939 gave the main complete translation of the surviving text of his writing, initially read the name of the mentioned tribe as "shroud".
Through translators, Ibn Fadlann preached Islam and, among others, converted to faith, the leader of the tribe, whom he named Abdullah.
After the adoption of Islam, the ruler of the Volga Bulgaria, like the ruler of Semander, got rid of submission to the Jews - the rulers of Khazaria, in whose harem he was obliged to send his daughters and give his son as hostages, he also got rid of the payment of tribute. It was not for nothing that the ruler of Volga Bulgaria claimed that the fortress, for the construction of which he asked the caliph for money, was necessary for him to protect himself from the Khazar Jews.
From the point of view of political history, it is typical for the Bulgarian ruler to establish an open connection with the Islamic world and to get engineers from them to build forts. It is noticeable that in 834 the Khazar ruler for the construction of the Sarkel fortress on the Don addressed a similar request to the emperor of Byzantium, but when the Byzantine emperor came with specialists and even delivered columns and capitals for the future Christian temple, he was forbidden to build it.
To clarify the historical circumstance, we recall that until 945 the caliph of Baghdad was a living example of the Muslim world. He could be considered a sovereign sovereign only in the central part of the Caliphate, which then occupied Iraq and Western Iran, but even here he reigned, but did not rule: the true power was in the hands of the commanders of the Turkic guards.
According to Ibn Fadlan, during his period, not all Bulgarians converted to Islam, but only a tribe of Bulgarians, Balanjars, part of the Suvar tribe, another part of the Suvar tribe with their princeling refused to accept Islam and gradually began to migrate to the right side of the Volga, where they mixed with the Mari and formed the people of Chuvashia.
Most of the Bulgarian graves of that period have abundant inventory and, in general, are entirely pagan in appearance, however, over time, they become dominant burials according to the rites of the Islamic religion.
Even before the conversion to Islam, the Bulgarians began to build wooden towns. In the heyday there were dozens of such towns. Initially, they acted as centers of small tribal principalities, the old names of which they repeated, but over time they turned into large craft and trade centers, of which the most important was the one that was the capital of the Bulgar state in the described period.
Before and after the adoption of Islam, Bulgarian merchants carried on long-distance trade with Khazaria, which was considered an intermediary in relations among the peoples of the Volga region, on the one hand, and with the countries of the Near and Middle East, on the other.
Ahmad ibn al-Abbas Ibn Fadlan was an Arab traveler and missionary who visited in 921-922. on the banks of the Volga and left a "Note" (Risala) about this journey (in the text the author himself calls his work a "book" - kitab).
For the first time, excerpts from the work of Ibn Fadlan became known from the "Geographical Dictionary" of an Arab encyclopedist of the early 13th century. Iakut, who included fragments from the book of Ibn Fadlan in his work. In the 20s of the XX century. in the Iranian city of Mashhad, a manuscript with a more complete text of the "Notes" was found, which became the basis for further research. Since 1935, a photocopy of it has been kept in the Department of Manuscripts of the Institute of Oriental Studies in St. Petersburg. Separate parts from the book of Ibn Fadlan are also found in the work of the Arab scholar Zakaria Qazvini (XIII century), as well as the Persian authors Najib Hamadani (XII century) and Amin Razi (XVI century). Fragments from the works of these Persian authors were taken into account by A.P. Kovalevsky in the 1956 edition.
More than a hundred years ago, the famous archaeologist A.A. Spitsyn expressed doubts about the reliability of Ibn Fadlan's book (Spitsyn 1899), which caused controversy, as a result of which the authenticity of the work was proved (Tiesenhausen 1900; Rosen 1904).
It follows from the “Note” that in response to the request of the ruler of the Volga Bulgars, Almush, for help against the Khazars, for the strengthening of those Bulgars who had already become Muslims in the faith of Islam, and for the conversion of non-believers to Islam, an embassy of Caliph al- Muktadira (908-932). Ibn Fadlan was the secretary of this embassy and a teacher in the doctrine.
Leaving Baghdad on June 21, 921, the caravan passed through the cities of Hamadan, Rei, Nishapur, Merv, Bukhara, followed the Amutsarya to Khorezm, passed the Aral Sea and across the Ustyurt plateau and the river. On May 12, 922, the Urals reached the territory of the middle Volga, where, to the south of the confluence of the Volga river. Kama, there was the headquarters of the “King as-Sakaliba”, as Ibn Fadlan called the ruler of the Volga Bulgars. Such a detour was chosen by the mission, apparently because of the danger emanating from the Khazars.
Ibn Fadlan met a detachment of Rus merchants on the banks of the Volga and in his “Note” spoke in detail about the lifestyle, clothes and jewelry, appearance, beliefs, funeral rite of the arrived Rus, based on his own observations of them. These unique information of Ibn Fadlan aroused great interest among researchers; considerable literature is devoted to them. It is recognized that the Russ described by Ibn Fadlan resemble the Scandinavians in ritual and appearance, although their attire and customs contain both Finnish and Slavic elements.
The attention of historians was also attracted by the fact that Ibn Fadlan throughout the entire exposition called the ruler of the Volga Bulgaria "the king of as-sakaliba (Slavs)". The most common point of view is that the reason for this naming was Ibn Fadlan's broad understanding of the ethnonym as-sakaliba (Slavs) as a population of Eastern Europe, which is also found in some other Arab authors. For example, al-Mas'udi considered Germans (an-najim), Saxons (Saxins), Hungarians (at-Turk) to be Slavs. There are other assumptions. So, A.Ya. Garkavy believed that there was a large Slavic population in the Volga region (Garkavi 1870, p. 105). Later, scientists abandoned this idea, based on archeological data. However, in recent years, the theory has been revived on the basis that the so-called Imenkovskaya culture was discovered in the Volga region, which some historians tend to classify as Proto-Slavic (Sedov 1994; Klyashtorny, Sultanov 2004, pp. 156-157). On this basis, speculation began to arise about the reasons for naming the Volga Bulgarians as Slavs. However, it is not known whether this population survived until the 10th century. and whether it called itself or other peoples Slavs. A number of scientists believed that the fair-haired northern peoples, including the Volga region, were called Slavs by Arab authors, based not only on the data of Ibn Fadlan, but also on the aforementioned information of al-Mas'udi that the Germans and Hungarians also belonged to the Slavs (Ibn Fadlan/Togan, S. 104, 295-331; Ibn Fadlan 1956, pp. 15, 159. Note 9). It is difficult to agree with this assumption, since the Arabs had well-known ethnonyms for the peoples of the Volga region - Bulgars, Burtases, Bashjirts, etc., but by no means Slavs (as-sakaliba). The point of view was also expressed that Ibn Fadlan called the ruler of the Bulgars the king of as-sakaliba from the words of the king Almush himself. The latter called himself that to give prestige in the creation of the anti-Khazar coalition. 13th century author Yakut modified the text of Ibn Fadlan, identifying the Sakaliba with the Volga Bulgars (Mishin 2002, pp. 29-33). It was also suggested that the Bulgarians could consider the Slavs their subjects since the time of the dominance of Great Bulgaria in the Black Sea steppes over the Ants and representatives of the so-called Penkov culture, which archaeologists refer to the Proto-Slavs (Petrukhin, Raevsky 1998. p. 225; Klyashtorny, Sultanov 2004. S. 153-157).
Editions and translations: Ibn-Foszlan’s und anderer arabischen Berichte tiber die Russen alterer Zeit / Text und Ubersetzungen mit kritisch-philologischen Anmerkungen, nebst drei Beilagen… von Ch. M. Fraehn. SPb., 1823; A. Zeki Validi Togan. Ibn Fadlan's Reisebericht. Leipzig, 1939; Journey of Ibn Fadlan to the Volga / Per. and comm. [A.P. Kovalevsky] ed. acad. I.Yu. Krachkovsky. M.; L., 1939; Kovalevsky A. 77. Ahmed ibn Fadlan's book about his journey to the Volga in 921-922 Kharkov, 1956; Risala Ibn Fadlan / S. Ad-Dahkhan. Damascus, 1959.
Fragment translations: Harkavy 1870. S. 85-102; Z.A III; Garayeva 2006
Literature: Spitsyn 1899; Tizenhausen 1900; Rosen 1904; Validov 1924; Sobolevsky 1929; Czegledy 1939; Barthold 19636. S. 832-835; Barthold 1973c; Bolshakov 2000; Mishin 2002. S. 29-33; Konovalova 2005
RISALA
(...) And if they arrive(to Bulgaria. - T.K.) Russians or some other [people] from other tribes with slaves, then the king(rebellious. - T.K.) , really, he chooses for himself one head from every ten heads ...
(Translated by A.P. Kovalevsky after: Ibn Fadlan 1956. P. 141)
He said: I saw the Rus when they arrived on their trading business and settled down near the Atyl River. I have not seen [people] with more perfect bodies than they. They are like palm trees, blond, red in color, white in body. They do not wear jackets or khaftans, but their man wears a kisa, with which he covers one side, with one of his arms coming out of it. And with each of them there is an ax, a sword and a knife, [and] he [never] parted with all this. Their swords are flat, furrowed, Frankish. And from the edge of the nails of another of them [Rus] to his neck [there is] a collection of trees, images [pictures] and the like.
And as for their women, a box 10 is attached to [each] of their breasts, either of iron, or of silver, or of copper, or of gold, or of wood, in accordance with the size of their husbands' [cash] funds. And each box has a ring with a knife also attached to its chest. On their necks they have a monista 11 of gold and silver, so that if a man owns ten thousand dirhams, then he celebrates one [row] for his wife, and if he owns twenty thousand, then he celebrates two [rows] monistas for her, and thus every ten thousand, which he adds to them [dirhams], they add [a row] of a monist to his wife, so that on the neck of one of them there are many [rows] of a monist.
The most magnificent decoration [considered] they [the Rus] have green beads made of the same ceramics that are found on ships 12 . They make [for their acquisition] exceptional efforts, buy one such bead for a dirham and string [them] as necklaces for their wives.
Dirhams of the Rus - a gray squirrel without hair, tail, front and hind legs and head, [as well as] sable. If something is missing, then from this the skin becomes defective [coin]. With them they make barter transactions, and from there they cannot be taken out, so they are given for goods. They don’t have scales there, but only standard metal bars. They buy and sell with a measuring cup 13 .
Prayer of a merchant-"Rus" (according to the description of Ibn Fadlan)
They are the most filthy of the creations of Allah - they are not cleansed of either excrement or urine, they are not washed from sexual impurity and they do not wash their hands after eating 14, but they are like wandering donkeys. They arrive from their country and moor their ships on the Atyl 15 - and this is a big river - and build large wooden houses on its banks 16 . And [them] gathers in one [such] house ten and twenty, - less or more. Each [of them] has a bench on which he sits, and with them [sit] beautiful girls for merchants. And now one [of them] is combined with his girlfriend, and his comrade looks at him. And sometimes a [whole] group of them gathers in such a position one against the other, and a merchant enters to buy a girl from one of them, and comes across him, combined with her. He does not leave her until he satisfies his needs.
It is obligatory for them to wash their faces and their heads every day with the dirtiest water that exists, and the most impure. And it [happens] so that the girl comes every day in the morning, carrying a large tub of water, and offers it to her master. He washes his hands, his face and all his hair in it. And he washes them and combs them with a comb into the tub. Then he blows his nose and spits into it and leaves nothing of the mud, no matter what he does in this water. When he finishes what he needs, the girl carries the tub to the one sitting next to him, and [this one] does the same as his friend did. And she does not stop bringing it from one to another until she surrounds everyone in [this] house with it, and each of them blows his nose, spits and washes his face and hair in it 17.
And as soon as their ships arrive at this pier, each of them immediately goes out, [carrying] with him bread, meat, onions, milk and nabiz 18 to go to a long log stuck [into the ground], which [has] a face, like a human face, and around it are small images, and behind these images are long logs stuck in the ground. So, he comes to a large image and worships it, then says to it: “Oh my Lord, 19 I came from a distant country, and with me there are so many girls and so many heads and so many sables and so many skins, - until he names everything that came with him from his goods - and I came to you with this gift, ”- then [he] leaves what he had with him in front of [this] log, -“ so I wish, so that you grant me a merchant who has numerous dinars and dirhams, so that he buys from me in accordance with what I wish, and would not contradict me in anything that I say. Then he leaves.
So, if the sale is difficult for him and his stay is prolonged, then he will come again with a second and third gift, and if it is difficult [for him] to achieve what he wants, he will carry a gift to each of the small images, ask them for intercession and say: "These are the wives of our Lord, his daughters and his sons." So, he does not stop asking one image, then another, asks them to seek their intercession and humbly bows before them. Sometimes the sale will go easily for him, and he will sell. Then he says: "My Lord has satisfied my need, and I should reward him." And so he takes a certain number of sheep or cattle, kills them, distributes part of the meat, and the rest he carries and leaves between that large log and the small ones standing around it, and hangs the heads of the cattle or sheep on this tree stuck [from behind] in the ground. When night falls, the dogs will come and eat it all. And the one who did this says: “My Lord has already become pleased with me and has eaten my gift.”
If one of them is ill, they will pitch a tent for him aside from them, leave him in it, put some bread and water with him and do not approach him or speak to him, especially if he is poor or a slave. 20, but if this is a person who has a crowd of relatives and servants, then people visit him all these days and inquire about him. So if he recovers and gets up, he will return to them, and if he dies, they will burn him. If he was a slave, they will leave him in his position, [so] he is eaten by dogs and birds of prey.
If they catch a thief or a robber, they will lead him to a long thick tree, tie a strong rope around his neck and hang him on it forever until he falls to pieces from the winds and rains.
The funeral of a noble Russian. G. Semiradsky
I have been told more than once what they do with their leaders 21 at [their] death, deeds, the least of which is burning, so I really wanted to get to know this all the time, until [the news] about the death of an eminent husband reached me from among them. So they laid him in his grave and covered it over him for ten days until they finished cutting his clothes and sewing them together.
Namely: if this is a poor person from among them, then they make a small ship 22, put it in it and burn it [the ship]. As for the rich, they collect what he has and divide it into three-thirds, and one [third] - for his family 23, [one] third to tailor clothes for him, and [one] third to prepare nabiz for her, which they drink until the day when his girlfriend kills herself 24 and is burned with her master. They, abusing nabis, drink it night and day, [so] one of them will die holding a goblet in his hand.
In those ten days they drink and mix [with women] and play the saz. And the girl who burns herself with him, drinks and makes merry during these ten days, adorns her head and herself with various kinds of jewelry and dresses, and, dressed up like that, gives herself to people.
Many men and women gather, play the saz, and each of the relatives of the deceased puts a shachash at a distance from his hut. And the girl who wanted to be killed, dressed up, goes to the huts of the relatives of the deceased, walking here and there, enters each of the huts, and the owner of the hut is combined with her and says to her in a loud voice: “Tell your master:“ Really, I committed it is out of love and friendship for you” 35 “. And in the same way, as it passes to the end [all] huts, also [all] the rest are combined with it.
When they are finished with this matter, then, dividing the dog in half, they throw it inside the ship, and also cutting off the head of the rooster, they throw [him and his head] to the right and left of the ship.
When the time came for the descent of the sun 36, on Friday, they brought the girl to something that they had made even earlier, like a gate binding. She put her feet on the palms of her husbands, rose above this harness [looking down over it], and uttered some words in her own language, after which she was lowered. Then they raised her a second time, and she performed the same action, [as] the first time. Then they lowered her and raised her a third time, and she performed the same action as in the first two times. Then they gave her a chicken, - she cut off her head and threw it [head]. They [they] took this chicken and threw it into the ship. So, I asked the interpreter about her actions, and he said: “She said the first time she was raised: “Here I see my father and my mother,” and said the second time: “Here are all my dead relatives 37, sitting,” and she said for the third time: “Here I see my master sitting in the garden, and the garden is beautiful, green, and men and youths are with him, and now he is calling me, so lead me to him.”
So they walked with her in the direction of the ship. And she took off the two bracelets that were with her, and gave them both to that old woman, called the angel of death, who would kill her. And she took off the two ankle-rings that were on her and gave both of them to those two girls who [all the time] served her, and they are both the daughters of a woman known as the angel of death.
After that, that group [of people] who had already combined with the girl before, make their hands a paved path for the girl, so that the girl, placing her feet on the palms of their hands, would go to the ship 38. But they [yet] did not bring her into the hut. The men came, [carrying] with them shields and sticks, they gave her a goblet of nabiz. She sang over it and drank it. And the interpreter told me that she said goodbye to her friends 39 . Then another goblet was handed to her, and she took it and sang the song for a long time, while the old woman hurried her to drink it and enter the tent in which [was] her master.
And I saw that she was at a loss, she wanted to enter the hut, but she stuck her head between him and the ship. Then the old woman grabbed her head and stuck her [head] into the hut and went in with her, and the men began to hit the shields with sticks so that the sound of her cry would not be heard, as a result of which other girls would be worried and would stop striving for death along with their gentlemen 40 . Then six husbands from [among] her husband's relatives entered the hut and all [to one] combined with the girl in the presence of the deceased. Then, as soon as they had finished exercising [their] rights of love, they laid her down next to her master. Two seized both her legs, two both her hands, and the old woman, called the angel of death, put a rope with diverging ends around her neck and gave it to two [men] to pull her, and proceeded [to the matter], having [in her hand ] a huge dagger with a wide blade. So she started sticking it between her ribs and pulling it out while both husbands strangled her with rope until she died.
Then the closest relative of the deceased appeared, took a stick and lit it by the fire. Then he went, walking backwards - with the back of his head towards the ship, and facing the people, [holding] a lit stick in one hand, and his other hand in the anus, being naked, - to light a stacked tree [that was] under the ship. Then people came with wood [for kindling] and firewood. Each of them had a stick, the end of which he lit. Then [he] throws it into this [piled under the ship] tree. And the fire is taken for firewood, then for the ship, then for the hut, and the husband, and the girl, and [for] everything that [is] in it. Then the wind blew, great, terrifying, and the flame of fire increased and its blaze flared up. There was a certain Russian husband next to me. And then I heard that he was talking to the translator who was with me. I asked him about what he told him. He said, "Really, he says, 'You Arabs are stupid'." I asked him about it. He said: “Indeed, you take the most loved by you of the people and the most respected by you and leave him in the dust, and insects and worms eat him, and we burn him in the twinkling of an eye, so that he immediately and immediately enters paradise 41.” Then he laughed outrageously. I asked about it, and he said: “Because of the love of his Lord for him, [here] he sent the wind, so that he [the wind] will take him within 42 hours.” And in fact, less than an hour passed, as the ship, and the firewood, and the girl, and the master turned into ashes, then into [the smallest] ashes.
Then they built something like a round hill in the place of this ship, which they [once] pulled out of the river, and hoisted a large log of hadang 43 in the middle of it, wrote on it the name of [this] husband and the king of the Rus, and left.
He said: One of the customs of the tsar of the Rus is that together with him in his very high 44 castle 45 there are constantly four hundred men from among the heroes 46 , his associates, and the reliable people who are with him from among them die at his death and are killed from -for him. With each of them [there is a girl] who serves him, washes his head and prepares for him what he eats and drinks, and another girl [who] he uses as a concubine in the presence of the king. These four hundred [men] sit and sleep at the foot of his bed at night. And his bed is huge and inlaid with precious gems. And with him sit on this bed forty girls for his bed. Sometimes he uses one of them as a concubine in the presence of his companions, whom we [above] mentioned. And they do not consider this act shameful. He does not get down from his bed, so that if he wants to satisfy a certain need, he will satisfy it in the pelvis, and if he wants to ride, he will bring his horse 47 to the bed in such a way that he will sit on it astride him, and if [he wants to] get off [the horse], then he will bring his horse 48 so [close] to get off his horse on him. And he has no other business than to mix [with girls], drink and indulge in entertainment. He has a deputy 49 who commands the troops, attacks the enemies and replaces him with his subjects.
Their excellent ["respectable"] people show a desire for leather craft and do not consider this dirt disgusting.
In the event that a quarrel and dispute arises between two persons, and their king is unable to achieve reconciliation, he decides that they fight each other with swords, and the one who turns out to be the winner is on the side of that and the truth.
(Translated by A.P. Kovalevsky after: Ibn Fadlan 1956. S. 141-146)
COMMENTS
Here is the Arabic word: jine - "sort, genus". "The word jine means 'sort' and also 'tribe', but not as a tribal organization, but as a mass of ethnically homogeneous people..." (Ibn Fadlan 1956, p. 233, note 652). Here and further comments by A.P. Kovalevsky are reproduced in quotation marks.
The words typed in italics are inserted from the texts of later Persian authors who have preserved fragments from Ibn Fadlan's Notes (Ibn Fadlan 1956. Note 680, p. 236). Najib Hamadani: "... tall, with a white body and a red face"; Amin Razi: "Their people as a whole are red-haired, tall, with a white body." "Regarding the red hair in the work of A. Razi, I believe that initially in his text instead of the red hair of maui -" hair "was still raui - "face"" (Ibn Fadlan 1956. p. 236. note. 679).
Short men's clothing without sleeves (Ibn Fadlan 1956, p. 236, note 680).
Outer wide clothing, covering the whole body, with short sleeves (Ibn Fadlan 1956, p. 236, note 682).
A piece of woolen cloth, which was used to dress and cover the bed (Ibn Fadlan 1956, p. 236, note 684).
Ibn Miskawayh also noted the presence of an ax as a military weapon of the Rus. Apparently, it served both as an artisan's tool and as a weapon (Ibn Fadlan 1956, p. 237, note 685).
The word "never" is only in the retelling of Zakaria Qazvini (Ibn Fadlan 1956, p. 237, note 686).
Amendment O.G. Bolshakova: "Sana" - "skillfully made, skillfully made", and not "flat"" (Bolshakov 2000, p. 57).
Swords of the Frankish type (Ibn Fadlan 1956. S. 237-238. Note. 689).
10 Amendment O.G. Bolshakova: “It should read: “And each of their women has a box attached to their chest”” (Bolshakov 2000, p. 57). These chest boxes are most likely "shell-shaped fibulae known in Northern and Eastern Europe" (Lebedev 1978, pp. 22-23).
11 V.V. Barthold, according to the text of Yakut, translated "necklace" (Barthold 19636, p. 838). A.P. Kovalevsky considered his translation ("monisto." - T.K.) to be more accurate, since it apparently meant a metal necklace of coins (Ibn Fadlan 1956, p. 239, note 696). On the contrary, according to O.G. Bolshakov, "to avoid excessive certainty, it is advisable to translate this word as a neutral "necklace", which is suitable for both a hryvnia hoop and a necklace made of coins, although the latter does not follow from the text. This place is better translated as follows: "And on their neck they - necklaces of gold and silver, because when a man owns ten thousand silver dirhams, then his wife has one necklace, and if twenty thousand, then two necklaces ... "(Bolshakov 2000, p. 57-58).
12 Amendment O.G. Bolshakova: "This incomprehensible phrase is easily deciphered if you read not sufun (ships), but safan, which means, according to al-Munjid (Al-Munjid fi-l-luga at-tab" and al-ishruna. Bayrut, 1969. From 338. Middle column), "stingray skin, which is used on sword hilts". Swords with hilts covered with stingray leather with tubercles resembling beads are well known to specialists" (Bol'shakov 2000, p. 58).
13 Summary of different variants from the texts of Amin Razi and Najib Hamadani (Ibn Fadlan 1956, p. 240, note 705). Neither the Mashhad manuscript nor Iakut has this fragment.
14 The remark is caused by the special attitude of the Arabs to the obligatory rites of ablution during prayer.
15 Volga. A.P. Kovalevsky, based on the text, did not identify the pier, where the Rus arrived and where the auctions took place, with the city of Bulgar (Ibn Fadlan 1956, p. 218, note 5656). However, A. Zeki Validi Togan, K. Tsegledi and others spoke out in favor of Bulgar (Ibn Fadlan/Togan. S. 31: Arab, text. Note 4; Czegtedy 1939. S. 221; Fakhrutdinov 1977. P. 66) .
16 Such large houses were discovered by archaeologists in the trading cities of Northern Europe: Hedeby (Denmark), Ladoga (Lebedev 1978, pp. 23-24).
17 The use of one tub for several people is a feature of everyday life of German origin (Lebedev 1978, p. 23).
18 Intoxicated drink.
19 "The word rabbun in Ibn Fadlan is used only in a religious sense..." (Ibn Fadlan 1956, p. 181, note 176).
20 "... A Mamluk is a 'slave' (a free man enslaved). Ibn Fadlan calls young slaves 'youths' - ghulam..; if he speaks of a slave as such, then "abd.., pl. h. "Ubayd... In such cases, I translate "slave", "slaves"" (Ibn Fadlan 1956, p. 243, note 736). On the term "gulam" see below, note. 27.
21 The term ra "is - "head" is used. According to A.P. Kovalevsky, "leader", on the one hand, is equated with the word malik - "king" in the meaning of "leader", "prince" ... In another case, the flight (ra" is. - T.K.) - "leader" is equated with kabir - "big", "oldest" ... In relation to the Rus, apparently, this word has a second meaning. So, one of the "leaders" of the Rus mentioned here is later referred to first by the more general term "an outstanding husband from among them", and then again "leader" (Ibn Fadlan 1956, p. 244, note 745).
22 "... The Arabic word safina means 'ship', and Ibn Fadlan uses it to mean a large boat..." (Ibn Fadlan 1956, p. 245, note 750). The rite of burning in the boat is Scandinavian in origin (Lebedev 1978, p. 24; Petrukhin 1995, pp. 205-208). However, this ritual was part of a mythological complex characteristic not only of the Scandinavians, but also of the Slavs and the Balts (Veletskaya 1968; Petrukhin 1995, p. 205).
23 The Arabic phrase ahlihi is "his family". In this case, the family is meant in a narrower sense than "household members" (ahl al-bayt - "people of the house"). Moreover, according to A.P. Kovalevsky, only about women (Ibn Fadlan 1956, p. 245, note 751).
24 "It means that the girl agreed to death voluntarily..." (Ibn Fadlan 1956, p. 245-246, note 753).
25 Arab, ra "is. As noted by A.P. Kovalevsky, sometimes the term was equated with the word malik -" lord, sovereign ", in other cases it had the meaning "big, older", in opposition to the common people (Ibn Fadlan 1956. C 241. Note 745) In this case, it means "leader" rather than "lord, ruler". See note 21 above.
26 Ahlihi - "his family". “Here, of course, all his relatives in a broader sense, as well as men participating in the further rite ... The family, consisting of the closest dependents of this person, is called by Ibn Fadlan "iyalun" (Ibn Fadlan 1956, p. 246. Note 757. In addition to relatives, other members of the household also participated in the funeral (Kalinina 1995, pp. 136-137).
27 Arab, ghoul. Perhaps slaves are meant, although this question remains open (Ibn Fadlan 1956, p. 246, note 758; Kalinina 1995, pp. 136-137). O.G. Bolshakov noted that it is better to leave the term ghouls without translation: “Firstly, the youths as members of the squad were free, and the ghouls were slaves or freedmen, and secondly, the youths were junior warriors, and the ghouls often even became commanders” (Bolshakov 2000. S. 54). However, until the XI century. in ancient Russian society, the lad was part of the "servants", i.e. could not be a free person (Sverdlov 1983, p. 203), therefore, the term "gulyam" can be rightly translated as "lad" (Kalinina 1995, p. 137).
28 "These are 'pillars', but not the only supports" (Ibn Fadlan 1956, p. 247, note 767).
29 A.P. Kovalevsky suggested that the terms hadang and khalanj are dialectical variants and can mean: birch, beech, white poplar and maple (Ibn Fadlan 1939, p. 161, note 1131). Later A.P. Kovalevsky believed that the word hadang could mean "pine". In the text of Iakut, this place is khalanj (probably "birch": Ibn Fadlan 1956, p. 214, note 539; p. 247, note 768). B.N. Zakhoder considered the terms non-identical and believed that khalanj is a birch, and hadang could mean "aspen, oak, poplar, or some other tree that is resistant to moisture" (Zakhoder 1962, p. 112).
34 Bones of such animals have been found during archaeological excavations in barrows in both Scandinavia and Eastern Europe (Lewicki 1955. S. 144-146; Zharnov 1991).
35 A.P. Kovalevsky considered this rite to be a remnant of a group marriage (Ibn Fadlan 1956, p. 252, note 808).
36 A.P. Kovalevsky noted that "since the author is a Muslim, one can also translate 'time of evening prayer'" (Ibn Fadlan 1956, p. 252, note 810). For understanding Muslim prayer customs in the climatic conditions of the Volga Bulgaria, this message acquired a special significance (Salakhetdinova 1994).
37 A.P. Kovalevsky rightly believed that the burial rite of the Rus was a symbolic wedding, when a slave girl became the free wife of the deceased (Ibn Fadlan 1956, p. 254, note 819). Most likely, she was precisely a slave concubine, and not a free woman, and only after becoming a victim and, thus, a legal wife, did she move to the rank of a free woman (Kalinina 1995, p. 136).
42 In general, the rite and the words of the Rus correspond to the recommendation that Snorri Sturluson, an Icelandic writer of the 13th century, put into the mouth of the Scandinavian supreme god Odin: “Odin bequeathed all the dead to be burned at the stake along with their property ... People believed then,” continued Snorri, - that the higher the smoke from the funeral pyre rises into the air, the higher in the sky will be the one who is burned "(Circle of the Earth: The Saga of the Ynglings. VIII. IX). However, the rite of cremation of the dead with a horse and other animals is typical for the Slavs, and for the Balts, and for the Scandinavians (Petrukhin 1995, p. 198, 206-207).
43 Here A.P. Kovalevsky prefers the meaning "pine tree" (Ibn Fadlan 1956, p. 263, note 875a).
44 Insertion from the text of Amin Razi. It is also found in Zakaria al-Qazvini: "in a huge palace" (Ibn Fadlan 1956, p. 263, note 876).
Faces of history
Arab traveler of the 10th century. As part of the embassy of the Baghdad caliph, he traveled through Bukhara and Khorezm to the Volga Bulgaria. Upon his return, he compiled "Risale" ("Note") - one of the most important sources on the medieval history of the Volga region, Trans-Volga region and Central Asia.
Ahmed ibn Fadlan took part as a secretary in the embassy of the Baghdad caliph to the Volga-Kama Bulgaria, the Muslim Khan then led the union of the Bulgarian tribes living in the basin of the lower Kama and the Volga (approximately up to the Samara River), and was looking for allies in the Arabs against the Khazars. Of course, the caliph expected to receive great trade privileges from the union.
The full name of the traveler is Ahmed ibn Fadlan ibn al-Abbas ibn Rashid ibn Hammad. Very little is known about this man's life. It is authentically known that he was a senior scribe-official, was under the auspices of the commander Muhammad ibn Suleiman, who conquered Egypt in 904-905 for the Caliph of Baghdad.
The embassy, in which he took part, was officially headed by the caliph's eunuch Susan ar-Rassi, but it was ibn Fadlan who was appointed secretary of the embassy. This speaks of his high business qualities and authority, despite the death by that time of his patron Muhammad ibn Suleiman. It was on the shoulders of the secretary that all the rough work and responsibility for doing business and the final outcome of the enterprise fell.
Ibn Fadlan had to read the letter of the caliph to the king of the Volga Bulgars, present gifts to him and his relatives, observe fakihs-lawyers and muallims-teachers, whom the caliph, at the request of Almush, the son of Shilka-eltabar, sent to teach the Bulgars the laws of Islam.
The embassy left Baghdad on June 21, 921. His path lay through Rei, Nishapur to Bukhara, from there back to the Amu Darya, then down this river to the capital of Khorezm, Kyas, followed by wintering in Dzhurjania (Old Urgench) and, finally, a seventy-day journey north to the banks of the Volga, to the kingdom of the Bulgars.
Although ibn Fadlan constantly emphasizes the haste of the journey, the ambassadors stayed in the city of Rey for eleven whole days, waiting for the ruler of this city, Ahmed ibn Ali, brother of Suluk. Traveling further, they found him at the next stop, Huvar Reysk, where they stayed for three days. As it was said, this Ahmed ibn Ali in 919 arbitrarily captured Rey. He defeated the troops of the ruler of Hamadan sent against him and killed the caliph collector of the kharaj.
The further way of the ambassadors to Nishapur was extremely dangerous due to the domination of the Tabaristan Alids hostile to the Caliph. In Nishapur, they met the commander of the Samanids, Hammawayh Kusu, who had just defeated the Alid army led by Leila ibn Numan.
From Nishapur to Bukhara, the embassy was already traveling along a well-guarded road. The visit to the capital of the Samanids was intended to strengthen the relationship between the Samanid emir and the caliph. Apparently, this was the first official embassy of the caliph to the Samanid court of the young emir Nasr II ibn Ahmed. At the very first audience, the ambassadors congratulated him on his accession to the throne in 914. At the same time, ibn Fadlan notes, not without surprise, that the new emir is a "beardless boy." He especially emphasizes that during the audience, the emir called the caliph his "lord" and was ready to fulfill all his orders.
The consequence of establishing such relations was that the embassy received all kinds of support from the Samanid government, including things and money. However, it was not possible to receive 4,000 dinars for the estate of Ibn-al-Furat, although the embassy spent 28 days in Bukhara. The Khorezmshah made an attempt not to let the embassy go north, but in the end he even gave him an escort.
After wintering in Jurjania, on March 4, 922, the embassy moved further north. It was a defining moment in the journey. The "lads" who left Baghdad with the embassy, as well as the jurist and religious teacher, left the embassy, "being afraid to enter this country." In fact, the main reason for their refusal was that the principal amount of 4,000 dinars, from which, by the way, their salary was supposed to be paid, was never received. Thus, from this moment on, the fulfillment of all the missionary tasks of the embassy falls on one ibn Fadlan. In general, from his departure from Dzhurjaniya, he becomes his actual leader.
Having made a difficult journey through Usport, around March 20, the embassy arrived in the country of the Oguzes (or "ghuzzes"), who then occupied approximately the region of Western Kazakhstan. Ibn Fadlan "saw among the Ghuzzs those who owned ten thousand horses and one hundred thousand heads of sheep." On the other hand, the ambassadors met on the way a poor Oguz who begged for bread. Slavery was also widespread.
Among the nobility, Etrek, the head of the Oghuz army, had the greatest influence. He owned great wealth, "he has servants, retinue and large houses." He considered only the advice of his military leaders, whom he gathered for a meeting on important issues, for example, regarding the passage of an embassy. Ibn Fadlan brought royal gifts to him and his wife.
Etrek reacted to the proposal to convert to Islam very carefully. He received the embassy extremely cordially, arranged a great feast, supplied the ambassadors with provisions, placed race horses at their disposal, himself accompanied them on the trip and showed them his skill in shooting. But regarding the adoption of Islam, he said that he would give the Caliph an answer when the ambassadors were on their way back.
However, the Oghuz commanders, gathered by Etrek for a meeting, discussed not the adoption of Islam, but how to deal with the ambassadors themselves. The proposals were not particularly pleasant for the latter: either cut each of them in half, or rob them clean, or give them to the Khazars in exchange for Oghuz prisoners. Thus, in the country of the Oghuz, the embassy suffered a complete diplomatic setback and was glad that they could at least get out of it safely.
The further path went through the region of hostile Bashkirs, from whom the embassy tried to stay away. Nevertheless, ibn Fadlan managed to collect interesting ethnographic information here, which makes it possible to make some assumptions about the tribal composition of the Bashkirs at that time. Ibn Fadlan says that they had two different systems of religious ideas. Some of the Bashkirs believed that the world was ruled by the supreme god of heaven in agreement with the twelve gods, who were in charge of individual natural phenomena. As can be seen from the context, ibn Fadlan learned about this belief system from a personal conversation (through an interpreter, of course) with one of the Bashkirs. The end of his story gives reason to believe that he even entered into a kind of dispute with this Bashkir on the question of monotheism.
Another group of Bashkirs worshiped either snakes, or fish, or cranes. Ibn Fadlan, apparently, observed these cults himself, but did not speak directly with these people. Yet it is clear that the worshipers of snakes, fish and cranes represented a part of the population that had a more primitive social order than the worshipers of the thirteen gods of nature.
The caliph's ambassadors had nothing to do in the country of the Bashkirs, and therefore they hurriedly drove on to their ultimate goal. It is interesting to note that in the region of the Samarskaya Luka, between the Mocha River and the Bolshoi Cheremshan, the embassy apparently tried to stay away from the Volga, since the Khazars probably dominated here in the mouths of the Samara. It is possible, however, that it avoided the low bank of the Volga flooded in spring with its swamps. Further, the way of the ambassadors went closer to the shore.
Finally, the caliph's embassy arrived in the "country of the Slavs". It was here that the state of the Bulgars was located. At its head was the king of the Bulgars, or the king of the "Slavs", who claimed absolute power. He sat on a throne covered with Byzantine brocade, in his presence everyone, "small and great", including his sons and brothers, must take off their hats and take a respectful pose. Next to the main king there are king-princes. However, these princes, at least four of them, "are at his hand," that is, in submission, or "in obedience." By his order, they go out to meet the embassy, attend the audience of the king and support him in all events. The king is surrounded by the nobility: "leaders", "noble persons from the inhabitants of his state".
According to his position, the king received a tribute - "a sable skin from every house", obligatory offerings from every wedding feast, a tenth of the imported goods and part of the booty of a military detachment, in the campaign of which he personally did not take part. The king, obviously, no longer convened popular assemblies to resolve matters, but at best conferred with the most influential persons from the nobility.
So, on May 12, 922, 70 days after leaving Dzhurzhdania, the embassy arrived to the king of the Bulgars.
When there was a distance of one day's journey to the headquarters of the king of the Bulgars, the embassy was met by four princes subject to Almush-eltabar, as well as his brothers and sons. “They met us,” writes ibn Fadlan, “holding bread, meat, millet in their hands, and went with us. The king himself met us at a distance of two farsakhs (12 kilometers) from his headquarters. Seeing us, he got off his horse and fell on his face, worshiping and thanking the great and mighty Allah. So the embassy, after so many difficulties of the way, finally reached its final goal. In the next three or four days, the princes of his land, the leaders and inhabitants of the country gathered at the headquarters of Almush-eltabar from different parts of Bulgaria to listen in public to the reading of the letter of the ruler of the faithful.
And then came the most crucial moment of the journey - the solemn announcement of the Caliph's letter. For this, two brought banners were unfolded, a horse sent as a gift was saddled, Almush-eltabar himself was dressed in a savad - the black clothes of the highest dignitaries of the court of the ruler of the faithful, a turban was put on his head. After that, ibn Fadlan, who was in charge of conducting the ceremony, took out a letter from the caliph and began to read it slowly, and Almush-eltabar listened to him while standing. “The translator, without ceasing, translated the letter letter by letter. When we finished reading, they exclaimed “Great is Allah!” with such a cry that the earth trembled,” writes ibn Fadlan about this event. By this act, Bulgaria officially recognized Islam as the state religion and thus became part of the Muslim world.
However, on May 19, on Sunday, "when three days had passed after reading the letter and presenting gifts," the king summoned ibn Fadlan to himself, threw the letters of the caliph and the vizier in front of him and made a stormy scene about the undelivered 4,000 dinars. He demanded this money from ibn Fadlan, as the only responsible person in the embassy.
As a result of this change in the mood of the king, the authority of the Caliph's embassy was shaken. However, not wanting to completely break with the caliph, the Tsar further pays special attention to ibn Fadlan and calls him "Abu Bekr the Truthful."
Much later, the king, in a conversation with ibn Fadlan, argued that the money of the caliph, as such, he did not actually need, since he himself had enough silver and gold to build a fortress. He only wanted to receive a blessing from the money of the ruler of the faithful, because the Caliph's funds "are taken from permitted (religious law) sources." These words had not only a diplomatic meaning, but expressed the real "magic" idea of the king about the caliph. Elsewhere the king expresses his fear of the caliph's curse.
After the events described, until about mid-June, ibn Fadlan remained at the king’s headquarters near the Three Lakes (now Lake Chistoye, Kuryshevskoye and Atmanskoye), watched snakes in the neighboring forests, rode with the king on horseback to look at the bones of the deceased giant, and finally spent time at the bazaar on bank of the Atyl (Volga) river. Here, on the bank of the river, on one of the Fridays, he also observed the famous burning of the dead Rus.
The embassy of the caliph found the king of the Bulgars at his headquarters near the Three Lakes, at a distance of several kilometers from the Volga. At the end of June or July, the tsar went north, to the small river Javshir, and demanded that the Bulgar tribes go there with him. There, apparently, the final popular acceptance of Islam was to take place. The embassy, of course, went with the king.
The king of the Bulgars stayed at the Javshir River for two months. Since ibn Fadlan gives exact data on the depth of this river and describes the surrounding area, it is clear that he himself was there. What happened on this river, we do not know, since his "Note" has survived only in abbreviation.
It is impossible to establish any exact time of departure of the embassy. It is only clear that ibn Fadlan did not spend the winter in the north. On the other hand, speaking from the words of local residents about the short days in winter, he adds: "And we (the embassy) did not leave (this) country until the nights lengthened and the days shortened." From the general political situation it is clear that the embassy could not return through Khazaria, but traveled the same way through the country of the Oghuz. This is confirmed by the words of Etrek that he will give an answer to the caliph on the issue of the adoption of Islam during the return journey of the embassy. Undoubtedly, Ibn Fadlan tried to visit him on the way back. Since the stay at the Javshir River lasted two months, and the return trip to Dzhurjania without stops was also supposed to take two months, the embassy arrived in Khorezm by the end of October or later.
In the spring of 923 the embassy returned to Baghdad. It brought not very cheerful news. None of the planned plans were carried out. True, the Samanid emir gave the embassy all possible assistance and honor, and the king of the Bulgars even more. But for the policy of the Caliph government, the results were zero. The Oguzes did not accept Islam, the king of the Bulgars, having not received money for the construction of a fortress, lost faith in the help of the caliph and preferred to maintain close ties with Central Asia. In Khazaria, the Muslim party was subjected to repression and was temporarily suppressed.
Ibn Fadlan described in detail everything "that he saw with his own eyes from the time of his departure from Baghdad until he returned to it." To attract the attention of readers, he also transmitted here some northern legendary stories, including about a huge fish. But everything turned out to be in vain. His true story could not compete with numerous fantastic tales - about an ant on an iron chain, about a fish skull in Yemen, inside which the narrator himself personally entered, straightening up without bending down, through one eye hole and exited through another.
His book was forgotten, then perished and survived only in Central Asia in an abbreviated form and in partial retellings.
Today, "Risale" ("Note") is one of the most important sources on the medieval history of the peoples of the Volga, Trans-Volga and Central Asia. Ibn Fadlan, of course, was not a discoverer, as he followed the trade route, which brought Arab and Persian products from Iraq, Iran and Khorezm to the basin of the lower and middle Volga in exchange for precious northern furs. But he was the first traveler whose reports about the northern Caspian regions and the Trans-Volga region reached us, and, moreover, he gave the first correct list of rivers crossing the Caspian lowland. For all these rivers, Ibn Fadlan gives names that coincide or are very similar to the current ones.
Travels of Ibn Fadlan
As we already wrote, Ibn Fadlan Ahmed ibn al-'Abbas ibn Rashid ibn Hammad was an Arab traveler and writer of the first half of the 10th century. In 921-922, as secretary of the embassy of the Abbasid caliph al-Muktadir, he visited the Volga Bulgaria: the Muslim Khan Arslan then headed the union of the Bulgar tribes living in the basin of the lower Kama and the Volga (approximately to the Samara River), and was looking for allies in the Arabs against the Khazars. Of course, the caliph expected to receive great trade privileges from such an alliance.
Ibn Fadlan is one of the few Arab travelers who personally visited Eastern Europe. In his report "Risale", written in the form of travel notes, he left unique descriptions of the life and political relations of the Oguzes, Bashkirs, Bulgars, Russ and Khazars. The work was very popular in the Arab-Persian world.
In 921, an embassy from Volga Bulgaria arrived in Baghdad. The ruler of the Bulgars sought to free himself from the power of the Khazar Khaganate and for this purpose asked the caliph to send Muslim mentors and builders of mosques, and also to help him build a military fortress.
In February 921, the Arabs began to prepare for the journey: they purchased two-humped camels and "travel bags made of camel skins for crossing rivers." The reciprocal Arab embassy, headed by Susan al-Rasi, left Baghdad on June 21 (Safar 11, 309 AH) and went around the Khazar lands: not through the Caucasus, but through Central Asia: Bukhara and Khorezm, through the Iranian Highlands, the lower reaches of the Tejen rivers and Murgab, descended along the Amu Darya to Khorezm and wintered in Dzhurdzhan.
So, on March 4, a huge caravan - 5,000 people, including a convoy, 3,000 horses (camels were not counted) - set off to the northwest. "We rushed to the country of the Turks<.>and no one met us<.>in the desert without a single mountain [Ustyurt Plateau]. So we drove along it for 10 days and met disasters, difficulties, severe cold and continuous snowstorms.<.>we arrived at a big mountain with many stones. When we crossed the mountain, we went to the tribe of the Turks, known as the Guz. Ibn Fadlan gave a humiliating description of the Oghuz, as well as other pagans whom he met later. But at the same time, he notes that the Oguzes “do not know fornication”, because it is punishable by a cruel execution among them.
After wintering in Khorezm, the embassy moved overland and reached Bulgaria on May 12, 922 (Muharram 12, 310 AH).
Ibn-Fadlan described the way through the Caspian lowland and along the Trans-Volga region sparingly - he basically listed the river crossings after descending from the Ustyurt plateau. The embassy crossed the Yaganda (Shagay) river, flowing from the southern spur of the Mugodzhar, and crossed the Jam (Emba) in travel bags converted into leather canoes, which accommodated six people. Horses and camels were driven by swimming. Then they crossed the Dzhakhysh (Sagiz), Uzil (Wil), a number of other rivers and stopped at Lake Shalkar. The next stop was at the Jaikh (Yaik) river. "This is the biggest river we've seen<.>and with the strongest current. Having crossed the Chagan (the right tributary of the Yaik), the embassy ended up "in the country of the Bashgird people" (Bashkirs). Ibn Fadlan calls them "the worst of the Turks, more than others encroaching on life." Therefore, having entered their land, the Arabs sent forward an armed cavalry detachment. The path was crossed by the left tributaries of the Volga: the upper reaches of the Big Irgiz, the lower reaches of the Samara (and its tributary Kinel) and the Sok, the lower reaches of the Big Cheremshan. The choice of such a route can be explained by the fact that travelers avoided the left low bank of the Volga flooded in spring and stayed away from the river. But, perhaps, they deliberately bypassed the city of Itil - the capital of Khazaria, from which Khan Arslan wanted to secede.
In addition to the Turkic nomadic peoples, the Arabs met merchants from the Rus on the Volga. Apparently, Ibn Fadlan did not visit Khazaria, but he included a story about it in his report. The final part of the "Note" has not been preserved, so nothing is known about the return route of the mission and its real political results.
However, from the testimony of Yakut al-Rumi it follows that Ibn Fadlan brought the story to the point of returning to Baghdad. It is also known that the Oguzes did not convert to Islam, and the Bulgars did not adopt the Baghdad Muslim customs, retaining the Central Asian ones, from which it can be concluded that the embassy did not achieve its goals, at least from the point of view of the caliph.
Although it is said that manuscripts do not burn, the original text of Ibn Fadlan's book has been lost. Fragments have come down to us in the “Geographical Dictionary” of the 13th-century Arab encyclopedist Yakut ar-Rumi. The only known list of "Risale" was discovered by orientalist Akhmet-Zaki Validov in 1923 in the library at the tomb of Imam Ali ibn-Riz in Mashhad (Iran). The manuscript of the 13th century, along with other works, also contains the text of the Notes. But the end of the manuscript is missing. Also, the work of Ibn Fadlan was quoted by two Iranian authors: Ahmed Tusi (second half of the 12th century) and Amin Razi (end of the 15th century).
Already from its very discovery, in the first decades of the 19th century, the wonderful stories of Ahmed Ibn-Fadlan about the kingdom of the Bulgars on the Volga played an outstanding role in solving the main problems of ethnogenesis and cultural history of the Rus, Bulgars, Khazars and other peoples of Eastern Europe. These stories were used by the authors of special studies, general reviews and popular literature.
Interest in it does not weaken in our time. “Ibn Fadlan,” writes academician B. D. Grekov, “is interesting because he personally visited Bulgaria in 922, had the opportunity to observe the life of the Bulgarians in its various social strata and in various manifestations. His messages under these conditions acquire exceptional interest. A. Yu. Yakubovsky also emphasizes that Ibn-Fadlan is "the most reliable source of the 10th century about the Volga region", that his notes "are the product of careful observation of the everyday life of the Bulgarians."
However, there were other opinions as well. The first author to express doubts about Ibn Fadlan's reports was none other than the famous 13th-century compiler Yakut al-Rumi, the same one who preserved in his "Geographical Dictionary" very important extracts from Ibn Fadlan.
Having visited Khorezm three hundred years after Ibn Fadlan, Yakut points out Ibn Fadlan's alleged mistakes or directly accuses him of lying: "The contemptible servant of God (i.e. Yakut) says: This is a lie on his part."
At the beginning of the 20th century, the famous archaeologist A. Spitsyn published an article “On the degree of reliability of Ibn Fadlan’s Notes”. In it, he denied the significance of Ibn Fadlan as a historical source and even his very trip. A. Spitsyn claimed that Ibn Fadlan wrote by hearsay, that there are a lot of inconsistencies, distortions, omissions in his work, that in general “there is nothing that would not raise doubts”.
True, A. Spitsyn's article immediately met with a very resolute rebuke from other, no less well-known historians, but still, not everyone's doubts disappeared. So, the Riga orientalist F. Vestberg back in 1908 considered the opinion of A. Spitsyn that Ibn-Fadlan told from the words of the ambassador Susan, “very witty” and believed that Susan himself received his information mainly from the tailor king of the Bulgars.
But this "hypercritical", negative attitude towards Ibn Fadlan reached its highest point in Marquart's work of 1924, devoted to the analysis of passages from the work of Muhammad al-Awfi. Speaking here in detail about Ibn Fadlan, Markvart proves his inconsistency from all points of view, accuses him of "shameless hoax", arguing that Ibn Fadlan "given away" himself and showed that he had never been on the banks of the Volga, that he not only is he not a truthful narrator, but must be classified "among the belles-lettres".
The turning point in this respect was the discovery in Mashhad of a copy of the original work of Ibn Fadlan. His photocopy, once donated to the USSR Academy of Sciences, is so good that it captures the smallest details and basically completely replaces the original. Since that time, a detailed study of Ibn Fadlan's work has become possible. Today, the dramatic question of whether Ibn Fadlan was on the banks of the Volga and adjacent territories, whether he saw the Rus, is actually resolved.
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Bilyar is a trading city of the Volga Bulgars, who were Turks who ascended the Volga to the Kama from the Caspian Sea. Ibn Fadlan was among the Islamic ambassadors in the Volga Bulgaria, which sought to free itself from Khazar rule and considered converting to Islam for itself.
In 922, in the trading city of Bilyar, Ibn Fadlan communicated with the Rus, who traded with the Volga Bulgars. Fadlan described the appearance of the Rus, their manners and customs. Below is the text of his testimonies that has come down to us.
The appearance of the Russians
“... I saw the Rus when they arrived on their trading business and landed on the Atil (Volga) River. And I have not seen people with more perfect bodies than them. They are like palm trees, ruddy, red. They do not wear jackets or coats, but one of their number wears a veil, with which he covers one side of himself, and one of his hands comes out of it. With each of them there is an ax, and a sword, and a knife, and he never parted with what we have just mentioned.
Their swords are flat, grooved, Frankish. And from the fingertips of any of the Rus to his neck there is a collection of trees and images, and the like (tattoos). And as for each woman of their number, then on her chest is attached a ring either of iron, or of silver, or of copper, or of gold, in accordance with the funds of her husband. And each ring has a box with a knife also attached to the chest. On the necks of women there are several rows of gold and silver monistas.
Morals and hygiene
“The best of the decorations among the Rus are green beads from the ceramics that are on the ships. The Russians conclude trade contracts for them, buy one bead for a dirham and string them like necklaces for their wives. They are the most filthy of Allah's creatures - they are not cleansed of stool or urine, and they do not bathe from sexual impurity and do not wash their hands after eating, but they are like wandering donkeys.
They come from their own country and moor their ships on Atila, which is a large river, and build large houses of wood on its banks, and there are ten or twenty of them in one such house, less and or more, and each of them has a bench. on which he sits, and girls sit with them - a delight for merchants.
And now one of them is combined with his girlfriend, and his friend is looking at him. Sometimes many of them unite in such a position one against the other, and a merchant enters to buy a girl from one of them, and thus finds him combined with her, and the Rus does not leave her, or else partially satisfies his need.
And it is obligatory for them to wash their faces and their heads every day with the dirtiest water that exists, and the most impure, namely, that the girl comes every day in the morning, carrying a large tub of water, and offers it to her master. So he washes both his hands and his face and all his hair in it. And he washes them and combs them with a comb into the tub. Then he blows his nose and spits into it and leaves nothing of the dirt, but does it all in this water. And when he finishes what he needs, the girl carries the tub to the one who sits next to him, and this one does just like his friend does. And she does not cease to carry it from one to another, until she goes around with it all those who are in this house, and each of them blows his nose and spits and washes his face and his hair in it.
Religion
“And as soon as their ships arrive at this pier, each of them goes out and carries with him bread, meat, onions, milk and nabid (an alcoholic drink), until he comes to a tall stuck piece of wood, which has a face similar to the face of a man , and around a piece of wood are small images, and behind these images are tall pieces of wood stuck into the ground.
So, he comes to a large image and worships it, then he says to him: “Oh, my lord, I came from a distant country and with me girls so and so many heads and sables so and so many skins” until he mentions everything that he brought with him from among his goods - "and I came to you with this gift"; - then he leaves what was with him in front of this piece of wood, - “and now, I wish that you grant me a merchant with numerous dinars and dirhams, and that he buys from me as I wish, and would not rebuke me in what I say. Then he leaves.
And so, if it is difficult for him to sell it and his stay is delayed, then he again comes with a gift for the second and third time, and if it still turns out to be difficult to do what he wants, then he carries to each image from among these small images on a gift and asks them for intercession and says: "These are the wives of our master, and his daughters, and his sons." And he does not stop turning to one image after another, asking them and praying for their intercession and bowing humbly before them.
Sometimes selling is easy for him, so he will sell. Then he says: "My master has already done what I needed, and I should reward him." And so, he takes a certain number of sheep or cattle and kills them, distributes part of the meat, and carries the rest and throws it in front of this large piece of wood and the small ones that are around it, and hangs the heads of cattle or sheep on these pieces of wood stuck in the ground . When night falls, the dogs come and eat it all. And the one who did this says: “My lord has already become pleased with me and has eaten my gift.”
Dealing with the sick and criminals
“And if one of them falls ill, they build a hut for him aside from them and leave him in it, and put some bread and water with him, and do not approach him and do not speak to him, but visit him every three days, especially if he is poor or a slave. If he recovers and gets up, he returns to them, and if he dies, they burn him. If he was a slave, they leave him in his position, so that he is eaten by dogs and birds of prey.
And if they catch a thief or a robber, then they lead him to a thick tree, tie a strong rope around his neck and hang him on it forever until he breaks into pieces from the winds and rains.
Burial of a noble Rus
“And even before it was said that they do such things with their leaders at their death, of which the least is burning, so I really wanted to be present at this, until finally the news of the death of one eminent husband from among them reached me.
And so they laid him in his grave and covered it with a roof over him for ten days, until they finished cutting his clothes and sewing them together. And it happens that for a poor man they make a small ship from among them, put him dead in it and burn his ship, but for a rich man they do this: they collect his money and divide it into three thirds, - one third remains for his family, one third is used to make clothes for him, and one third to prepare nabid (an alcoholic drink) for her, which they will drink on the day when his girl kills herself and is burned with her master; and they, completely indulging in nabid, drink it night and day, so that sometimes one of them, one of them dies, holding the cup in his hand.
And if the leader dies, then his family says to his girls and his youths: “Which of you will die with him?” One of them says: "I am." And if he said this, then it is already obligatory, so that he can no longer turn back. And if he wanted it, it would not be allowed. And most of those who do this are girls.
And so, when this man, whom I mentioned earlier, died, they said to his girls: “Who will die with him?” And one of them said: "I am." So they entrusted her to two girls, so that they would protect her and be with her wherever she went, even to the extent that they sometimes washed her feet with their own hands. And the relatives set to work on his business, cutting clothes for him, preparing what he needed. And the girl drank and sang every day, having fun, rejoicing in the future.
When the day came on which he and the girl would be burned, I arrived at the river on which his ship was located - and behold, I see that he had already been pulled ashore and four props made of hadang (white poplar) wood had been placed for him and another tree, and something like a large wooden platform was also placed around the ship. Then the ship was dragged further until it was placed on these wooden structures. And they started to come and go and speak in a language that I don't understand. And he was dead far away in his grave, since they had not yet taken him out.
Then they brought a bench, and placed it on the ship, and covered it with quilted mattresses, and Byzantine brocade, and Byzantine brocade cushions, and an old woman came, who is called the angel of death, and spread out on the bench the beddings we have mentioned. And she directs the dressing of it and the preparation of it, and she kills the girls. And I saw that she was a big and fat witch, gloomy and stern.
When they arrived at his grave, they removed the earth from the wooden tire aside and removed this tree aside and brought him out dead in the shroud in which he died, and behold, I saw that he was already blackened from the cold of this country. And they even before placed with him in his grave a nabid and a certain fruit and a tunbur (musical instrument).
So they took it all out, and now he didn't stink and nothing changed except his color. So, they put on him trousers and leggings, and boots, and a jacket, and a brocade caftan with buttons of gold, and put on his head a hat (kalansuwa) of brocade, sable. And they carried him until they brought him into the tent that is on the ship, and they sat him on a mattress, and propped him up with pillows, and brought nabid, and fruit, and a fragrant plant, and laid him down with him. And they brought bread, and meat, and onions, and threw it before him, and they brought a dog, and cut it in two, and threw it into the ship. Then they brought all his weapons and laid them next to him.
Then they took two horses and drove them both until they were both sweating. Then they cut them both with a sword and threw their meat in the ship, then they brought two bulls and cut them both in the same way and threw them both in it in the ship. Then they brought a rooster and a hen, and killed them, and left them both in the ship.
And the girl who wanted to be killed, leaving and coming in, enters one after another from the yurts, and the owner of this yurt connects with her and says to her: “Tell your master:“ Really, I did it out of love for you. When the time came on Friday afternoon, they brought the girl to something that they had already made like a binding of a large gate, and she put both her feet on the hands of her husbands, and she rose above this binding, surveying the surroundings, and said something in their own language, after which they lowered her, then they raised her a second time, and she performed the same action as the first time, then they lowered her and raised her a third time, and she did the same thing that she did those two times.
Then they gave her a chicken, she cut off her head and threw her head. They took this chicken and threw it in the ship. I asked the interpreter what she had done, and he said: “She said the first time they lifted her up, - here I see my father and my mother, - and said the second time, - these are all my dead relatives sitting, - and she said for the third time, - here I see my master sitting in the garden, and the garden is beautiful, green, and men and youths are with him, and now he is calling me, so lead me to him.
And they walked with her in the direction of the ship. And so she took off the two bracelets that were on her, and gave them both to that woman who is called the angel of death, and she is the one who kills her. And the girl took off the two ankle-rings that were on her, and gave both of them to those two girls who both before served her, and they are both daughters of a woman known as the angel of death. Then they took her to the ship, but did not yet bring her into the tent, and the men came, carrying with them shields and pieces of wood, and gave her a goblet of nabid, and now she sang over it and drank it.
The translator told me that she said goodbye to her friends with this. Then another goblet was given to her, and she took it and sang a song, while the old woman urged her to drink it and to enter the tent in which her master was. And now I saw that she already hesitated and wanted to enter the tent, but stuck her head between her and the ship, the old woman grabbed her head and stuck her head into the tent and went in with her as a girl, and the men began to hit the shields with pieces of wood, so that the sound of her cry would not be heard, and other girls would be excited, and would stop looking for death along with their masters.
Then six men entered the tent and all copulated with the girl. Then they laid her on her side next to her master and two seized both her legs, two both her hands, and the old woman, called the angel of death, placed a rope around her neck, diverging in opposite directions, and gave it to two husbands so that they both pulled her , and she came up, holding a wide-bladed dagger in her hand, and behold, she began to stick it between her ribs and take it out, while both husbands strangled her with a rope until she died. Then the closest relative of this dead man came up, took a piece of wood and lit it by the fire, then went backwards, with the back of his head to the ship. A lit piece of wood in one of his hands, and his other hand lay on the anus, he, being naked, until he lit the piled wood that was under the ship.
Then people came up with pieces of wood and firewood, and with each of them a piece of wood, the end of which he had previously ignited in order to throw it into these pieces of wood. And fire is taken for firewood, then for a ship, then for a tent, and for a husband, and for a girl, and for everything that was in it, a great, terrifying wind blew, and the flame of fire intensified, and an indomitable fire flared up.
And there was a certain Russian man next to me, and behold, I heard that he was talking to an interpreter who was with me. I asked him what he was talking about, and he said: “Really, he says:“ You, O Arabs, are stupid ... It was he who said: “Verily, you take the person most beloved to you and from you the most respected you and throw him into the ground and eat his ashes and gnats and worms, and we burn him in the twinkling of an eye, so that he enters paradise immediately and immediately.
Then I asked about it, and he said: “Because of the love of his master, he has already sent a wind to him, so that he will blow him away in an hour.” And now, indeed, not even an hour had passed, when the ship, and firewood, and the girl, and the master turned into ashes, then into the smallest ashes. Then they built something similar to a round hill in the place of this ship, which they pulled out of the river, and hoisted a large piece of wood hadang (white poplar) in the middle of it, wrote on it the name of this husband and the name of the king of the Rus and left.
About the ruler of the Rus
“... the customs of the king of the Rus include the fact that with him in his palace there are four hundred men from among the heroes, his associates, and the reliable people who are with him from among them die at his death and are killed fighting for him. And with each of them, a girl who serves him, and washes his head, and prepares for him what he eats and drinks, and another girl, whom he uses as a concubine.
And these four hundred (men) sit under his bed, the throne. And his bed is huge and inlaid with precious gems. And with him sit on this bed forty girls for his bed. Sometimes he uses, as a concubine, one of them in the presence of his companions, whom we mentioned above. And he does not get down from his bed, so that if he wants to satisfy a need, then he satisfies it in the basin, and if he wants to ride, then his horse is brought to the bed, so that he sits on it astride from his bed. And if he wants to get off his horse, then his horse is brought to the bed so that he gets off his horse. He has a deputy who directs the troops and attacks the enemies and replaces him with his subjects.
Contradictions in the description of the Rus by Ibn Fadlan
Ibn Fadlan describes the Rus as very beautiful, attractive people who, at the same time, were extremely neglectful of hygiene, including sexual hygiene. There is a contradiction in this, since it is known that such a persistent neglect of hygiene leads to sickly offspring. In a few generations, such a society would consist of weak and ugly people. From this it follows that the "clean" Muslim was lying.
It is also not clear who, in which case, was the object of observation of the Arab: Scandinavian Russ (Germans) or Slavs? Fadlan clearly did not distinguish between them and considered them to be representatives of a single people. Perhaps he came across some unscrupulous Germans or Slavs in the literal sense of the word.
According to Fadlan, which he cites from the words of a Rus he knew, the ruler of the Rus lived on a bed-throne, and moved from it only to the saddle of his horse, which was brought to the bed. There is a clear contradiction in this evidence. The ruler of the Rus has always been the most skilled warrior. The warrior is characterized by constant activity, strength exercises with weapons and hunting, which replaced military exercises. The ruler, who leads a passive lifestyle on the bed, is incompatible with the duties of the kagan (prince, king) of the Rus.
Numerous historical testimonies about the Rurikovich Rus indicate that each ruler was a powerful, battle-hardened warrior, who was loved and respected by the squad and feared by enemies.
In 921, the Russians were ruled by the pupil of the Prophetic Oleg Igor Rurikovich, the husband of Princess Olga (the future saint) and the father of Svyatoslav Igorevich, who destroyed the Khazar Khaganate. It is extremely unlikely that Igor Rurikovich led the lifestyle described by Ibn Fadlan.
Subject: Ibn Faddlan
Geographic coordinates: 54.985272,50.397719
Year: 921
Location: Bilyar
