History: al-Masʿūdī on the Slavs

The Ṣaqāliba [1] are descended from Mādhāy, son of Japheth, son of Noah [2]; all these peoples trace their descent and reckon their lineage back to him — or so, at least, most of those who have studied the question hold. The Ṣaqāliba — the Slavs — dwell in the north, from where they first spread westward.

They are divided into several distinct nations, who war among themselves and who have kings. Some are Christians of the Jacobite rite [3]; others are heathen, having no scripture and knowing nothing of divine law [4].

Among these various nations that make up this heathen stock, there is one that from ancient times has held sovereign power. Their king is called Mājik [5], and they themselves are known as the Walītābā [6]. In former times all the Slavs acknowledged the supremacy of these, for from among them was chosen the chief ruler, and all the other chieftains counted themselves his servants [7].

Among the other Slavic nations the order is roughly as follows. The nation of the Istrāna [8], whose king in our own day is called Basqlābij [9]; then the nation of the Dūlāba [10], whose king is called Wānjslāf [11]. Others bear the name Namjīn [12], whose king is called Gharānd [13]; among the Slavs these are the bravest and the finest horsemen. Then follow the Manābin [14], whose king bears the name Ratīmīr [15]; then the Sarbīn [16], a Slavic nation greatly feared, for reasons that would take too long to explain and whose deeds would require detailed description — these hold to no particular religion. Then follows the nation called Murāwa [17], and another known as the Kharwātīn [18], and another called the Sāsīn [19], another the Khashānīn [20], and the Barānijābīn [21]. The names of some of their kings that we have given are in fact dynastic titles and not personal names.

The Sarbīn — the Serbs we have mentioned — have the custom of burning themselves alive when their king or chieftain dies; in the fire they also sacrifice their horses. This nation has customs resembling those of the Indians. Earlier in this work, in describing the Caucasus and the Khazars, we noted that in the land of the Khazars there dwells, besides the Khazars themselves, a population of Slavs and Rus, who likewise offer themselves up in the fire. These Slavs and the peoples akin to them spread rather toward the east than toward the west.

The foremost king of the Slavs is al-Dīr [22], whose dominion embraces great cities, much cultivated land, many troops and countless armies. Muslim merchants journey to his capital with all manner of goods.

On the borders of this king of the Slavs comes the king al-Afrāgh [23], who possesses a gold mine, cities, broad and well-tilled fields, a numerous army and a large population. He is, however, at war with the Byzantines, the Franks, the Bazkard [24] and other surrounding nations. The strife among them is unceasing. The neighbour of this king is the king of the Huns. This nation is the fairest, the most numerous and the most warlike of all.

The Slavs consist of many different nations and are widely scattered across the world, but this work is not the place for their fuller description and classification. I began with the king whose sovereignty was acknowledged by all the other rulers from the earliest times — that is, Mājik, king of the Veleti, who are the original, pure-blooded Slavs, the most respected, and pre-eminent over all the other branches of this race. Later, the discord that settled among these nations destroyed their original order, and the various families formed separate groups, each choosing its own king, as we have said. To set down all these events would take very long, the more so as I have already described them, in structured and great detail, in my earlier works, the Historical Chronicle and the Intermediate History.


Notes:

• [1] The Slavs. In the author's usage "Slav" denotes the primary stock or race; the particular peoples — Veleti, Serbs, Germans, Saxons, Rus, Vandals, Obodrites and the like — were all reckoned Slavs. [in the source: Ṣaqāliba]
• [2] A line traced from the Flood described in Genesis, chapters 6–9. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. Japheth had seven sons, one of whom was named Madai (in the source Mādhāy), from whom, according to Muslim tradition, the race of the Slavs descends.
• [3] The Old Oriental Orthodox Christian church, widespread in India and Syria, which traces its origin to St Thomas, one of the disciples of Jesus, who went to preach from Palestine to India.
• [4] This does not mean they had no spiritual knowledge. To a Muslim, a "heathen" or unbeliever is anyone who does not follow the teaching of Abraham.
• [5] [in the source: Mājik] A word left untranslated by the translators; the author reads it as "magus" — a mage, i.e. a sorcerer or prophet.
• [6] [in the source: Walītābā] The author identifies these, most likely, as the Veleti (also Liutici), a tribe of the Baltic Slavs.
• [7] To be understood as subordinates, not as slaves or servants.
• [8] [in the source: Istrāna] A word left unexplained by the translators; the author suggests they may be the present-day inhabitants of Istria (i.e. the Slovenes), or, in the 10th century, perhaps the Stodorani (also Hevelli).
• [9] [in the source: Basqlābij] Perhaps "Václavič," likely a family name; the author proposes possibly a brother of Václav, i.e. Boleslav I "the Cruel."
• [10] [in the source: Dūlāba] The tribe of the Dulebes.
• [11] [in the source: Wānjslāf] The author proposes Václav (Wenceslaus) I.
• [12] [in the source: Namjīn] The author proposes the Germans.
• [13] [in the source: Gharānd] The author proposes Gero "the Great" I.
• [14] [in the source: Manābin] A people left unidentified by the translators; the author suggests, most likely, the population of Lower Pannonia.
• [15] [in the source: Ratīmīr] The author proposes Ratimir, "the Slavic duke on the Drava."
• [16] [in the source: Sarbīn] The author proposes the Serbs.
• [17] [in the source: Murāwa] The author proposes the Moravians.
• [18] [in the source: Kharwātīn] The author proposes the Croats.
• [19] [in the source: Sāsīn] The author proposes the Saxons.
• [20] [in the source: Khashānīn] The author proposes, most likely, the Kashubians.
• [21] [in the source: Barānijābīn] The translator speculates about "some" Serbian tribe; the author offers, as a further conjecture, a tribe that might have given its name, for example, to the Baranavichy plain in Belarus, including the town of Baranavichy.
• [22] [in the source: Aldayr] A king unknown to historians. The author proposes that at that time one of the most powerful rulers of the Rus of the Rurikid dynasty reigned — the so-called Oleg the Prophet — whose realm was also called Garðaríki, "the kingdom of towns." (Other scholars rather connect the name al-Dīr with Dir.)
• [23] [in the source: al-Afragh] The author proposes, through the reading al-a(f)-Pra(g)-ha, the king "of Prague," i.e. Václav (Wenceslaus) I.
• [24] [in the source: Bazkard] Probably the Bāshghird — i.e. the European Huns, dwelling in the territory between Byzantium (south), the Franks (west), the Pechenegs (east) and the Slavs (north).

About the author of the original work:

Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī al-Masʿūdī [896 – 956] was an Arab historian and geographer, also called the Arab Herodotus, who was born in Baghdad. After ceaseless travels he settled at last in Egypt, around the year 941, where he wrote the first draft of his universal history, Murūj al-dhahab wa-maʿādin al-jawhar ("The Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems").

On the sources: The text comes from al-Masʿūdī's Murūj al-dhahab ("The Meadows of Gold"). The standard critical edition and translation is Barbier de Meynard & Pavet de Courteille, Les Prairies d'or (Paris, 1861–1877); the Slavic passage is treated within the corpus of Arabic sources for Slavic history (cf. T. Lewicki, Źródła arabskie do dziejów Słowiańszczyzny). Names in square brackets give the scholarly transliteration; the identifications are the author's proposed readings, and the body follows the international (DIN 31635 / IJMES) convention.

History: Ibn Khurradādhbih on the Radhanites and the Rūs

The routes of the Jewish merchants whom we call al-Rādhāniyya run from west to east and from east to west, by both land and sea. Their routes link the western Mediterranean with India and China. From the western Mediterranean they export Slavic eunuchs [1]; Romance, Frankish and Lombard slaves [2]; young Romance and Andalusian girls and boys; brocade; beaver pelts, marten and other furs; and aromatics such as storax [3] and medicinal substances such as mastic [4]. From the sea-bed near the land of the Franks comes also a substance called busadh, commonly known as coral. They trade in swords as well. From the Far East they import musk, aloes-wood, camphor, cinnamon and other eastern goods. These merchants speak Arabic, Persian, Greek, Latin, Frankish [5], Andalusian [6] and Slavic [7].

The routes of the Rus merchants, whom we call al-Rūs and who are of the race of the Slavs [8], lead from the farthest reaches of the land of the Slavs to the eastern Mediterranean, where they sell the pelts of beaver and black fox, and swords as well. The Byzantine ruler levies a tithe — a tax of one-tenth — upon their goods. They return by sea by way of Samkarsh [9], the Jewish town, and from there make their way onward into Slavic territory.

They travel also by another route, sailing down the river Tanais [10], the river of the Slavs, passing the town of Khamlīj [11], the capital of the Khazars, where the ruler levies a tithe upon them. From there they descend to the Caspian Sea, making for a place known to them. This sea is five hundred farsakhs [12] in length. Sometimes they carry their goods on the backs of camels from the town of Jurjān [13] to Baghdad, where Slavic-speaking eunuchs serve as their interpreters. They pass themselves off as Christians, and like them pay the jizya — a head-tax [14].


Notes:

• [1] Castrated "guardians of the bedchamber," employed in the Arab world to guard women or an entire harem, but also serving as courtiers, singers, religious specialists, soldiers, and even royal guards.
• [2] The Lombards: a West Germanic people originally from the lower Elbe, who in the 6th century CE conquered northern Italy and founded their kingdom there.
• [3] Also styrax, a tree resin used to treat various ailments, but above all as incense in Greek Orthodox worship.
• [4] Also mastix, a gum resin from a shrub, used medicinally and, for example, as a natural chewing gum to cleanse the mouth and teeth.
• [5] Note: not the modern French language, but rather some form of the Old Germanic speech used by the merchants of the Frankish Empire.
• [6] Note: not modern Spanish, but some form of the Old Romance speech used by merchants in the southern part of the Frankish Empire, in Andalusia and the northern Mediterranean.
• [7] Note: not any modern national language, but an early (Old) Slavic form of speech used by merchants in the Slavic and Rus lands.
• [8] Ṣaqāliba — the Slavs. In the medieval Arabic sources "Slav" denotes the broad ethnic stock; the individual peoples (Veleti, Serbs, Croats, Rus and others) were all reckoned among them.
• [9] [in the source: Samkarsh] Phanagoria of the Byzantine chronicles, i.e. the present-day Russian town of Taman, on the eastern shore of the Kerch Strait.
• [10] The present-day river Don. The Don, however, flows not into the Caspian but into the Black Sea; so either the author was mistaken and meant the Volga, or he omitted the portage from the Don to the Volga.
• [11] [in the source: Khamlīj] A trading quarter in the capital of the Khazar Empire, the city of Itil, which — together with the empire itself — was destroyed around 969 by the Rus ruler Sviatoslav I Igorevich.
• [12] [in the source: farsakh] Also parasang, an ancient Persian measure of distance.
• [13] [in the source: Jurjān] The present-day town of Gorgan, about 30 km from the southern shore of the Caspian Sea.
• [14] [in the source: jizya] The annual head-tax on the non-Muslim population, the so-called dhimmī; it was a payment for their legal protection in a Muslim land under Muslim law, guaranteeing the protection of their customs and rights, with certain restrictions.

About the author of the original work:

Abū'l-Qāsim ʿUbaydallāh ibn ʿAbdallāh ibn Khurradādhbih [c. 820 – 912] served for many years as director of the barīd, the Abbasid postal and intelligence service. A friend of the caliph al-Muʿtamid, who reigned from 870 to 892, he wrote works on music theory, literature and geography. His Kitāb al-masālik wa-l-mamālik ("The Book of Routes and Kingdoms") is among the earliest surviving works of descriptive geography in Arabic. Later Arab geographers expanded and improved upon it with observations from their own travels; from quotations in those later authors we know that what survives is only an abridged version of his great work.

On the sources: The passage is taken from Ibn Khurradādhbih's Kitāb al-masālik wa-l-mamālik ("The Book of Routes and Kingdoms"). The standard critical edition and French translation is M. J. de Goeje, Kitāb al-Masālik wa-l-Mamālik, Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum VI (Leiden, 1889). Names in square brackets give the scholarly transliteration; the body of the article follows the international (DIN 31635 / IJMES) convention.