History: al-Marwazī on the Rūs

The Rūs live on an island. The island extends three days' journey in every direction. It is covered with groves and forests and surrounded by a lake. They are many, and they look to the sword as their livelihood and their calling. When one of them dies and leaves behind sons and daughters, all his property passes to the daughters, while the sons receive only a sword, with the words: "Your father won his wealth by the sword — imitate him in this and follow him." Such was their upbringing, until the time they adopted Christianity in the year 300 [1].

When they adopted Christianity, the faith blunted their swords; the door of their livelihood was closed to them, they returned to hardship and poverty, and their means grew scarce. So they resolved to become Muslims, that raiding and holy war — jihād — might be lawful to them, and that they might return to some of their former ways. They therefore sent envoys to the ruler of Khwārazm [2] — four kinsmen of their independent king, whom they called Vladimir, just as the Turks call theirs khāqān and the Bulghārs theirs yiltawār [3]. The envoys reached Khwārazm with their message. The Khwārazm-Shāh [4] was pleased at their wish to become Muslims and sent them one who would instruct them in the religious laws of Islam. And so they were converted.

They are strong and mighty men who travel on foot into distant lands for their expeditions. They likewise sail in ships upon the Khazar Sea [5], seizing vessels and plundering cargo. They sail also to Constantinople [6] across the Pontic Sea [7], despite the chains across the strait. Once, sailing the Khazar Sea, they made themselves for a time masters of the city of Bardhaʿa [8]. Their bravery and courage are so well known that each one of them is worth several men of any other nation. Were they to have horses and become riders, they would be a great scourge upon mankind. [9]


Notes:

• [1] The year 300 of the Islamic calendar, i.e. roughly 913 CE. This early date is today read as reflecting an earlier wave of Christianization among the Rūs, rather than the baptism of the Rus under Prince Vladimir I in 988.
• [2] The kingdom of Khwārazm (Chorasmia) lay south of the Aral Sea, on the lower course of the Amu Darya (the Greek Oxus), between present-day Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
• [3] The author presents the name Vladimir not as a personal name but as a title — a designation of the ruler of the Rūs, "the one who rules." Modern scholars read this as al-Marwazī having mistaken for a title the personal name of the famous Prince Vladimir I.
• [4] The ruler, or sovereign, of Khwārazm.
• [5] The present-day Caspian Sea.
• [6] Tsargrad, present-day Istanbul.
• [7] The present-day Black Sea.
• [8] [in the source: Bardhaʿa] The present-day town of Barda in Azerbaijan, on the Terter (Tartar) river.
• [9] The Rus did use cavalry, but not on their naval expeditions.

About the author of the original text:

Sharaf al-Zamān Ṭāhir al-Marwazī, or simply al-Marwazī, was a physician and the author of an encyclopaedia, Ṭabāʾiʿ al-ḥayawān ("The Natures of Animals"), from which the anthropological passage on the Rūs above is drawn. He came from the city of Marw (also known as Alexandria Margiana), in the realm of Khurāsān in Persia, in the territory of present-day Turkmenistan. He served the Seljuk sultan Malik-Shāh, who reigned from 1072 to 1092 CE, and his successors, until his own death around 1130.

On the sources: The passage is taken from al-Marwazī's encyclopaedia Ṭabāʾiʿ al-ḥayawān ("The Natures of Animals"), from its section on China, the Turks and India. The standard edition and English translation is V. Minorsky, Sharaf al-Zamān Ṭāhir Marvazī on China, the Turks and India (Royal Asiatic Society, London, 1942). Names in square brackets, "[in the source: …]", give the scholarly transliteration; the body of the article follows the international (DIN 31635 / IJMES) convention.