ÿþ<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=unicode"> <meta name="Author" content="Vassil Karloukovski"> <meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 5.0"> <meta name="ProgId" content="FrontPage.Editor.Document"> <title>Hudud al-'Alam - 44 - Commentary of V. Minorsky</title> </head> <body> <font face="Palatino Linotype"> <b><font size=+1>Hudud al-'Alam, The Regions of the World</font></b> <br><b>V. Minorsky</b> <br>&nbsp; </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><b>§ 44. The Rks.</b> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">See bibliographic note before § 43. The translation and analysis of the principal Muslim sources will be found in the works of Frähn, Chwolson, Garkavi [commented translations from 26 Muslim authors on the Slavs and Rks; the text used mostly in older, now superseded editions]; Barthold, <i>Zap</i>., 1895 (Muh</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">ammad 'Auf+); Toumansky, <i>Zap</i>., 1896 (the text and translation of the present chapter); Marquart, <i>Streifzüge</i>, 200-4, 330-53 (Mas'kdi). The literature in which Muslim data on the Rus' have been utilized is enormous, see V. A. Moshin, <i>Var'ago-russkiy vopros</i> in <i>Slavia</i>, Prague, 1931, x/1-3, pp. 109-36, 343-79, 501-37 (a digest of the more important works on the subject), and his <i>The origins of Rus'. The Normans in Eastern Europe</i> (in Russian), in <i>Byzantinoslavica</i>, Prague, 1931, iii/1, pp. 33-58, iii/2, pp. 285-307. See also Prof. P. Smirnov, <i>The Volga route</i> (in Ukrainian), Kiev, 1926, which particularly deals with the earlier Muslim sources. [Seippel, <i>v.s.</i>, p. 427, and Minorsky, <i>Rks</i> in <i>EI</i>.] </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">Since the beginning of the seventeenth century the origin of the name of Russia (<img SRC="432_4.jpg" height=22 width=111 align=ABSBOTTOM>) has been the subject of hot discussion in Russian and western European literatures. Though the geographical names containing the element <i>Rus</i>- or <i>Ros</i>- may have more than one source, it is certain that the name Rus' as referring to the founders of the Russian state is of Scandinavian origin. The authentic Scandinavian form is doubtful (cf. the name of the coast <i>Roslagen</i>) but even now the Finns call the Swedes <i>Ruotsi</i> and this Finnish form may have given origin to the Slavonic <i>Rus'</i>, as the name of Finland itself <i>Suomi</i> has become <i>Sum'</i> in Russian. The name <i>Rus' </i>practically had the same meaning as the somewhat later <i>Variag</i> (<img SRC="432_5.jpg" height=22 width=64 align=ABSBOTTOM>, i.e., Vargm,&nbsp;<img SRC="432_6.jpg" height=21 width=83 align=ABSBOTTOM>, <i>Waring</i><a href="#432 3.">[3]</a> referring to the parties of Norman adven- <br>&nbsp; </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="432 3."></a><font size=-1><b>3.</b> In Arabic&nbsp;<img SRC="432_7.jpg" height=21 width=39 align=ABSBOTTOM> is first attested in B+rkn+, but cf. § 24, 15. [The late Prof. A. A. Shakhmatov,<i> Introduction to the history of the Russian language</i> (in Russian), Petrograd 1916, p. 62, thought that the name <i>Variag</i> "reflected that of the <i>Franks</i> or <i>Frangs</i>, as all the western Europeans in general were called in the Balkans and the Levant, though the ways of the transformation Frang ></font> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><img SRC="line_down.gif" height=18 width=596> <br>§ 44&nbsp;&nbsp; <i>The Rus</i>&nbsp;&nbsp; 433 </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">turers bound by an agreement or vow (<i>vár</i>). Since the beginning of the ninth century the fluvial system of the present-day Russia and Poland was constantly used by the Normans for their trade and war expeditions, as it appears from the abundant historical, archaeological, and toponymic evidence, cf. lately M. Vasmer,<i> Wikingerspuren in Russland</i>, in <i>Sitz. Preuss. Ak.</i>, phil.-hist. Klasse, 1931, pp. 649-74. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">The traditional version of the Russian chronicles is that the Variags coming from beyond the sea used to levy tribute on the&nbsp; ud', Sloveni, Mer'a, and all <a href="#433 1.">[1]</a> the Krivi i [of whom the first and third are undoubtedly Finnish tribes and the second and fourth Slavs]. In A.D. 862 the Variags were expelled beyond the sea, but in their absence internal wars broke out. Therefore the above-mentioned peoples invited the Variags called <i>Rus'</i> and so the viking <i>R'urik</i> (*<i>HrSrekr</i>) built the town of Ladoga on the Volkhov river and his two brothers occupied the neighbouring country. In 882 R'urik's successor Oleg (*<i>Helgi</i>) occupied the capital of the Dnieper Pol'an'e and this was the beginning of the Russian Kiev state. The Scandinavian element of the new body politic was scarce (court, warriors, and perhaps merchants) and in a century's time the mass of Slav population succeeded in assimilating the strangers, see Niederle, <i>Manuel de l&#39;antiquité slave</i>, Paris, 1923, i, 209. Even Russian chronicles clearly give us to understand that the <i>Rus'</i> were not the first Scandinavian vikings in Eastern Europe. The Byzantine sources know them at least from the earlier part of the ninth century. The most remarkable fact for our purpose is that the Byzantine embassy which in May 839 visited the Emperor Louis the Pious in Ingelheim was accompanied by some men of the people <i>Rhos</i> who were the envoys sent to Constantinople by their king <i>Chacanus</i> and who now wanted to return home; on this occasion it was discovered that the people <i>Rhos</i> was of Swedish origin (<i>gentis esse Sueonum</i>), see V. Thomsen, <i>The Relations between Ancient Russia and Scandinavia</i>, Oxford, 1877, p. 39, cf. Marquart, <i>Streifzüge</i>, 202. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">The principal Muslim sources refer to the momentous period of the establishment of the Northmen among the Slavs and it is essential to disentangle the data referring to its successive stages. Our oldest source I.Kh., as already mentioned p. 429,1. 25, mixes up the Rks with the Slavs and traces their commercial activities between Spain and China. There is no trace in I.Kh. of a Rks state. He calls the Don (?) "river of the Slavs". </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">The common source of I. Rusta,&nbsp;H</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">.-'., Gard+z+, 'Auf+, &amp;c., most formally distinguishes the Rks from the Slavs. The latter, primarily the <br>&nbsp; </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font size=-1>Varang are still obscure." <i>Ibid</i>., 68, he says that the Rks were known long before the so-called "invitation of the Variags". He further gives expression to the view that the Rks were the earlier Scandinavians established among the Slavonic and Finnish tribes, whereas the Variags represented a new wave of Scandinavian movement.]</font> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="433 1."></a><font size=-1><b>1.</b> The Russian word corresponding to "all" is here an evident mistake for the homonymous&nbsp;<img SRC="433_1.jpg" height=15 width=48 align=ABSBOTTOM>, the name of another Finnish tribe.</font> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><img SRC="line_down.gif" height=18 width=596> <br>434&nbsp;&nbsp; <i>Commentary</i>&nbsp;&nbsp; § 44 </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">Western Slavs, are represented as living under their own princes (cf. § 43), whereas the Rks are described as occupying a damp island which has an area of 3 days by 3 days and lies amid a lake. These data point to the northern lands and seem to refer to the times before the foundation of the Kiev state, <a href="#434 1.">[1]</a> but it is characteristic that in spite of the modest size of the territory the king of the Rks is given the pompous title of <i>Khqn Rks</i> and that according to Gard+z+ the island contained a population of 100,000 men (<i>mardum</i>). [Cf. also Yqkt, ii, 834, where a similar statement is ascribed to Maq., though it is not found in <i>BGA</i>, iii.] </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">The Balkh+ tradition (Is</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">t</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">., I.H</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">.) knows very little about the [Western] Slavs (S</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype"><i>aqliba</i>) between whom and the [Volga] Bulghr it places the Rks. Here we have evidently to do with the Kiev period of Russian history. Is</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">t</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">., 225-6, distinguishes three "kinds" (s</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype"><i>inf</i>) of Rks. The prince of those who live nearest to the Bulghr resides in the town of *Kkyba, <i>i.e.</i> probably Kiev (Const. Porph., cap. 8,&nbsp;<img SRC="434_1.jpg" height=20 width=64 align=ABSBOTTOM> or&nbsp;<img SRC="434_2.jpg" height=20 width=51 align=ABSBOTTOM>). The farthest distant Rks are called&nbsp;<img SRC="434_3.jpg" height=22 width=51 align=ABSBOTTOM>S</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype"><i>.lwiya</i>, <a href="#434 2.">[2]</a> which looks very much like a parallel form of&nbsp;S</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype"><i>aqliba</i>, perhaps referring specially to the <i>Sloveni</i> <a href="#434 3.">[3]</a> of Novgorod among whom the Normans first settled. The third group are the&nbsp;<img SRC="434_4.jpg" height=24 width=39 align=ABSBOTTOM> (many variants) whose king lives in&nbsp;<img SRC="434_5.jpg" height=20 width=23 align=ABSBOTTOM> (many variants). They are the wildest and kill the strangers who would penetrate into their country from which they themselves export black martens and <i>ras</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">s</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype"></i> (tin or lead?) by a waterway. Since Frähn&#39;s <i>Ibn Fosslan</i>, Annex I, p. 162, the name Arth (Arq) has been interpreted as <i>Erz'a</i>, which is the name of one of the two great divisions of the Mordva (§ 52). <a href="#434 4.">[4]</a> The Constantinople MS., Is</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">t</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">., 226<i> n</i>, very definitely says that the&nbsp;<img SRC="434_6.jpg" height=22 width=25 align=ABSBOTTOM> (<i>Arb</i>, *<i>Arth</i>) "are [or perhaps: trade?] between the Khazar and the Great (<i>a'<img SRC="z_t.jpg" height=18 width=10 align=ABSBOTTOM>am</i>) Bulghr", which eventually suits <a href="#434 5.">[5]</a> the Erz'a. <a href="#434 6.">[6]</a> If the interpretation is right it indicates that there existed some Rks centre in the Oka region. <a href="#434 7.">[7]</a> Frähn pointed out that at Oleg&#39;s times a lieutenant of his lived in the town of Rostov on the territory of the Finnish Mer&#39;a, and it is possible to imagine a similar situation obtaining in the region of the Mordva who, according to Nestor&#39;s &quot;Initial&quot; Chronicle, <br>&nbsp; </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="434 1."></a><font size=-1><b>1.</b> The "island" most probably refers to Novgorod (in Norse <i>Hólmgarðr</i>, i.e. "the island town"), cf. Thomsen, <i>o.c.</i>, Marquart, <i>Streifzüge</i>, pp. xxxiv, 201, Westberg, <i>o.c.</i>, 1908, iii, 25.</font> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="434 2."></a><font size=-1><b>2.</b> I.H</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">., 285, adds: "and their king is in&nbsp;S</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype"><i>.l</i>, a town of theirs." The variant&nbsp;<img SRC="434_7.jpg" height=20 width=39 align=ABSBOTTOM> might indicate the reading of&nbsp;<img SRC="434_8.jpg" height=20 width=51 align=ABSBOTTOM> * <i>.lv</i>- (?), which, however, would be inexplicable.</font> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="434 3."></a><font size=-1><b>3.</b> According to the Hypatios chronicle the original settlers in Novgorod were Sloveni (<img SRC="434_8b.jpg" height=15 width=68 align=ABSBOTTOM>).</font> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="434 4."></a><font size=-1><b>4.</b> The story of the <i>Arth</i> killing the strangers might favour the theory that&nbsp; the tribe belonged to the Mordva whose name is supposed to be an Iranian equivalent of the Herodotian&nbsp;<img SRC="434_9.jpg" height=18 width=77 align=ABSBOTTOM>, <i>v.i.</i>, § 52.</font> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="434 5."></a><font size=-1><b>5.</b> If the latter is the Bulghr town on the Volga, but the meaning of the term is not clear, <i>v.i.</i>, p. 439, n. 2.</font> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="434 6."></a><font size=-1><b>6.</b> Westberg, <i>o.c.</i>, 1908, p. 398, attaching too much importance to the export of <i>ras</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">s</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype"></i>, interpreted as "tin", thought as tnat Arth was Scandinavia! In the Persian translation of Is</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">t</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">., 226 k,&nbsp;<img SRC="434_10a.jpg" height=21 width=37 align=ABSBOTTOM><img SRC="434_10b.jpg" height=23 width=44 align=ABSBOTTOM>&nbsp; renders&nbsp;<img SRC="434_11.jpg" height=22 width=50 align=ABSBOTTOM>. Our §§ 4, 9. and 25, 13. show that <i>arz+z</i> means both "tin" and "lead"; <i>qal'+</i> which only means "tin" may be an arbitrary addition by the translator who hesitated between the two meanings of <i>arz+z</i>.</font> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="434 7."></a><font size=-1><b>7. </b><i>V.s</i>., p. 217.</font> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><img SRC="line_down.gif" height=18 width=596> <br><b>Map xii</b> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a href="map_xii.jpg"><img SRC="map_xii.jpg" BORDER=1 height=345 width=458></a> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><img SRC="line_down.gif" height=18 width=596> <br>436&nbsp;&nbsp; <i>Commentary</i>&nbsp;&nbsp; § 44 </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">equally paid tribute to the Rks. <a href="#436 1.">[1]</a> The identification <i>Arth = Erz'a</i> conflicts with Is</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">t</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">.'s indication concerning Kkyba being the nearest to Bulghr, but on the other hand Arth must have lain to the east of&nbsp;S</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">lwiya which was the farthest territory of the Rks (with regard to Bulghr from which the description apparently starts). <a href="#436 2.">[2]</a> [<i>Kkyba</i> may be the"<i>territory</i> of K.".] </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">Our text is essentially a rearrangement of the above-mentioned sources. The dependence on the common source used by I. R. and Gard+z+ appears from the following synoptic table. ['Auf+ in the first part of his report closely follows the same tradition.] <br>&nbsp; </font> <table BORDER CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=2 COLS=3 WIDTH="95%" > <tr> <td> <center><font face="Palatino Linotype"><b>I.R.&nbsp;</b></font></center> </td> <td> <center><b><font face="Palatino Linotype">Gard+z+</font></b></center> </td> <td> <center><font face="Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;<b>H</b></font><b><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font></b><font face="Palatino Linotype"><b>.-&#39;.&nbsp;</b></font></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">the Rks live on a wooded, damp island</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">D. 100,000 inhabitants ( !)</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">entirely different (after Is</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">t</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">.)</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">Khqn Rks</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">D.</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">D.</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">raid Slavs by sea, sell them to the Khazar and Bulkr</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">D.</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">A. victorious over the neighbours</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">no agriculture: import food from the Slav land</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">D.</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">country rich in necessaries; Slavs among the Rks</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">newly born presented with swords</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">D.</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">N.</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">no villages *</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">N.&nbsp;</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">N.</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">traders in furs</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">D.</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">furs</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">neatly dressed ; gold bracelets</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">D. linen clothes</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">woollen bonnets [linen mentioned under § 43]</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">kind to slaves and guests</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">D.</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">some of the R. practise chivalry</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">numerous towns *</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">D.</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">vast country</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">sulaymnian swords</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">D.</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">A. valuable swords</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">united against enemies</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">D.</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">N.</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">trial by kings; duels</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">D.</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">N. tithe to the government</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">physicians powerful</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">N.</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">A. physicians respected</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">courageous, enterprising; sailors, not horsemen</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">N.</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">A. warlike</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">trousers of 100 cubits</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">N.</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">D. as in I.R.</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">treacherous</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">N.</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">N. quarrelsome</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">nobles buried with all belongings and wives</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">N.</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">A. as in I.R.</font></td> </tr> </table> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">* Trace of contradictory sources. <br>&nbsp; </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="436 1."></a><font size=-1><b>1.</b> The name of the important town of R'azan' may be also connected with Erz'a. The town (first mentioned under A.D. 1095) was founded in the region where the Slav V'atichi (&lt; <i>Vnti i</i>) lived, but originally (from the 7th to the 9th century) the lands along the Oka probably belonged to the Mordva territory. Cf. V. A. Gorodtsov, <i>The ancient population of the R'azan' province</i>, in <i>Izv. otdel. russ. yaz<img SRC="i_k.jpg" height=17 width=8 align=ABSBOTTOM>ka</i>, 1908, t. 13, pp. 147 9. [However, the Erz'a, at least now, live to the east of the Moksha, <i>v.i.</i>, § 52.]</font> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="436 2."></a><font size=-1><b>2. </b><i>Arth</i> has a variant&nbsp;<img SRC="436_1.jpg" height=21 width=35 align=ABSBOTTOM> which suggested to Chwolson the identification of *<i>Abrma</i> with Biarmia (Perm) of the Scandinavian sagas (Anglo-Saxon <i>Beormas</i>, Old Norse <i>Bjarmar</i>, cf. Thomsen, <i>o.c.</i>, 31). Eventually this identification would have the advantage of explaining our passage on the Pecheneg mountains (Ural ?) which formed the eastern boundary of the Rks and of better suiting the list of produce of the territory. Some indirect evidence in favour of Biarmia might be gathered from the fact that Is</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">t</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">. does not mention the two northernmost</font> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><img SRC="line_down.gif" height=18 width=596> <br>§ 44&nbsp;&nbsp; <i>The Rus</i>&nbsp;&nbsp; 437 </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">The third source (Balkh+ > Is</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">t</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">.) having supplied our author with the names of the three Rks territories [<i>shahr</i>, "town or land"] the item on the damp "island" (I.R., Gard+z+, 'Auf+) had to be thrown overboard. The country was then described as "vast" [cf. I.R.'s inconsequent mention of "many towns"] and couched into the habitual frame of boundaries. In the description of the  towns the details on blades and swords are very probably a simple development of I.R.'s and Gard+z+'s item on the <i>sulaymni </i>swords which the Rks possess (<i>lahum al-suykf al-sulaymniya</i> = <i>va andar miyn shamsh+r-i sulaymn+ farvn bshad</i>). On "Solomonian swords" see the <i>Qor'n</i>, xxxiv, 10-12, cf. Chwolson, <i>o.c.</i>, 195. The detail on&nbsp;S</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">.lba is a development of Is</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">t</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">.'s indication as to its remoteness. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">The only original statements which we can squeeze out of our text are those regarding the frontiers of the Rks and the course of the Rks river (§ 6, 44.). </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">The situation of the Rks country, as understood by our author, appears from the following table: </font> <blockquote><font face="Palatino Linotype"><img SRC="437_1.jpg" height=222 width=376></font></blockquote> <font face="Palatino Linotype">which must be supplemented by the indications that the Majghar+ (§ 23) had the Rks to their north and west [=NW. ?], and that the Turkish Pechenegs (§ 20) lived to the south of the river Rkth (<i>sic</i>) and had the Majghar+ and the Rks to their west [<i>resp</i>. to the west and north-west ?]. As the Pechenegs are placed north both of the *Bulghrs (§51) and *Burt</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">s (§ 52), which peoples were separated by the Volga, it is necessary to admit that the Pechenegs (see note to § 20) lived on both banks of this river. If so, it is difficult to find any other correspondence than the Oka for the river separating the Turkish Pechenegs from the Rks (<i>v.s.</i>, p. 217). The Pecheneg mountains (Ural ?) would then form the Rks boundary somewhere in the region to the north-east of the Volga. <a href="#437 1.">[1]</a> The latter river itself, at least down to its junction <br>&nbsp; </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><font size=-1>peoples&nbsp;*sk (<i>Ves'</i>) and Yura (<i>Yugra</i>) of which the first, according to R. Hennig, must be sought near Cherdin (<img SRC="437_2.jpg" height=18 width=73 align=ABSBOTTOM>) on the Kama, see <i>Der mittelalterl. arab. Handelsverkehr in Osteuropa</i>, in <i>Der Islam</i>, xxii/3, 1935, pp. 239-65. [But cf. Marquart, <i>Arktische Länder</i>, 304, who still follows Frähn&#39;s theory according to which the Isk must be placed near Belozero.] In any case the reading <i>Arth</i> is better attested. Quite lately V. Moshin took Arth for the Tmutarakan' colony of the Rks (on the Taman' peninsula, east of the entrance channel of the Azov sea) but this hypothesis goes counter to Is</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">t</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">.'s indication as to the inaccessibility of the Arth land, and its exports.</font> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="437 1."></a><font size=-1><b>1.</b> See § 5, 19. where a mountain (Urals) is described as stretching between the end of the Rks and the beginning of the Kimäk. Cf. also the eventual restoration of&nbsp;<img SRC="437_3.jpg" height=23 width=65 align=ABSBOTTOM> as *<i>Abrma &lt;&nbsp; Biarmia</i> ?</font> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><img SRC="line_down.gif" height=18 width=596> <br>438&nbsp;&nbsp; <i>Commentary</i>&nbsp;&nbsp; §§ 44-5 </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">with the Oka, was evidently thought to flow in Rks territory (§ 6, 44.) but the description of the &quot;Rks river" (upper Volga) <a href="#438 1.">[1]</a> does not imply that <i>Urtb</i>,&nbsp;S</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype"><i>.laba</i>, and <i>Kkyfa </i>stood on its banks. The text only indicates that the river watered their "confines". Their enumeration logically goes in the inverse order to Is</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">t</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">. who certainly wrote as if he were looking from Bulghr westward. [<i>Urtb <img SRC="438_1.jpg" height=23 width=42 align=ABSBOTTOM></i> corresponds to&nbsp;<img SRC="438_2.jpg" height=24 width=113 align=ABSBOTTOM>, <i>v.s.</i>, p. 434.] </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">In his very interesting work on the "Volga route" Prof. P. Smirnov has lately advanced the thesis (see his conclusions, o.c., 223-9) tnat before the foundation of the Kiev state there existed on the middle Volga a Norman state under a <i>qaghan</i>. To support this theory he very ingeniously utilized such data as the report on the embassy from the <i>Chacanus</i> of the <i>Rhos</i> in A.D. 839, the mention of the <i>Khqn Rks</i> in the common source of I.R.,H</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">.-'., and Gard+z+, and the item of our source on the Rks river. Along the latter he disposed the three towns so that <i>Kkyfa</i> (?) comes to occupy the place of the future Nizhni-Novgorod at the junction of the Oka with the Volga;&nbsp;S</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype"><i>.lba</i>, that of the later Yaroslavl, and <i>Arth</i> (?) is tentatively sough between the two, perhaps in the Oka basin. This hypothesis revolutionizes the accepted views on the origins of the Great-Russian nation. Here is not the place to enter upon its consideration as a new theory, but as regards the arguments derived from our source (which the author knew through Toumansky's excerpts) it is to be feared that no particular and decisive weight can be attributed to a text which is mainly a compilation and a rearrangement of written sources with a dangerous tendency towards artificial systematization. <a href="#438 2.">[2]</a> <br>&nbsp; </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="438 1."></a><font size=-1><b>1.</b> I.Kh., 124, is evidently responsible for the indication that it flows from the Slav territory (see note to § 44).</font> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="438 2."><font size="2"></font></a><font size=-1><b>2.</b> Among other sources Smirnov, <i>o.c.</i>, 202-7, utilizes Idr+s+, ii, 401, who adds to Is</font><font size="2" face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font size="2">t<font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font>.'s data some characteristics of the three towns (S<font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><i>.lwa</i> "sur le sommet d'unemontagne"; <i>Arthn</i> &quot;jolie ville sur une montagne escarpée&quot;, at 4 days&#39; distance from the two other towns, &amp;c.). No trust, however, can be put in these details, for which there is no authority in the earlier sources. These additions left alone, the three names of Russian towns were undoubtedly found by Idr+s+ in the traditional sources and must be clearly distinguished from Idr+s+'s original data on his contemporary <i>Rksiya </i>and <i>Qumniya</i>, ii, 397 400. Therefore Idr+s+'s&nbsp;<img SRC="438_3.jpg" height=24 width=31 align=ABSBOTTOM><i>Kiev</i> may easily be another avatar of the older&nbsp;<img SRC="438_4.jpg" height=25 width=43 align=ABSBOTTOM>. Idr+s+ combines various sources of different epochs and Marquart has shown how inaccurate ("Schwindelwerk") he is in eastern regions, cf.&nbsp;<i>rnaahr</i>, 261-2 (India), <i>Komanen</i>, 102-4 (Central Asia). </font> <br>&nbsp; </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">[<a href="hud_44.html">Previous</a>] [<a href="hud_45.html">Next</a>] <br>[<a href="index.html">Back to Index</a>] </font> </body> </html>