What an Arab traveler wandered through the countries of the East. Trade routes and discoveries of the Arabs in the Middle Ages
The geographical outlook of the Arabs who appeared in the historical arena of Western Asia was even broader. The Arabs can be considered one of the most traveling peoples of that time. As a result, the image of “a person traveling is becoming popular in oriental literature. Arab tribes living on the Arabian Peninsula acquired a new religion - Islam. The founder of the new religion Mohammed (c. 570-632) was forced to flee from Mecca to the neighboring city of Medina. This event - hijra (in Arabic "resettlement") took place on June 16, 622. This date will be the beginning of a new era, and from it comes the Muslim chronology. After the death of the prophet, the leaders of Muslim communities receive the title of caliph, i.e. "Deputy", "governor".
The first caliphs were Mohammed's closest associates, who completed the unification of Arabia, laying the foundations of the gigantic Arab empire of the Caliphate. The geography of the military campaigns of the Arabs stretched almost throughout the Mediterranean, covering the African coast and the territory of Western Europe. The conquest of Spain in 714 by the Moors led to an increase in the influence of Arab culture.
Not only campaigns of conquest, but also the development of trade is associated with the Arab East. In the IX-X centuries. Arab merchants could be found on the land roads of the East, North Africa and the Mediterranean coast. Ships of Arab traders sailed all over the seas of Europe in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. Of the Arab travelers in Western Asia, the most famous are Suleiman from Basra (V) II century), who traveled to China, visiting Ceylon and Sumatra, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. His notes describe many amazing adventures at sea and on islands inhabited by cannibals.
In the X-XI centuries. travelers have significantly expanded the geography of their wanderings. The Arab writer Ibn Dasta, who lived in Persia, made a long journey, as a result of which a historical and geographical encyclopedia of his time, The Book of Precious Treasures, appeared, containing interesting information about the country of the Eastern Slavs.
Of the most famous Arab travelers of the X century. can be called al-Masoudi from Baghdad, who left the books "Golden Belts and Placers of Jewels" and "Messages and Observations" about his travels, in which he described all the countries of the Near and Middle East, Central Asia, the Caucasus and Eastern Europe. The Khorezm scholar Biruni (924-1048) traveled a lot, summarizing the materials he had collected about Indian culture in his and the Canon of Masud.
Travels were so widespread that the great physician, a native of a small village near Bukhara, Abu Ali Ibn Sina (c. 980-1037), whom the Europeans called Avicenna, in his "Medical Canon" dedicated a special chapter to the travel regime. In this treatise, seven paragraphs, where an outstanding healer provides advice on diet, health prevention and assistance to travelers in different climatic zones, as well as advice for traveling by sea.
In the XII century. the famous Arab traveler al-Idrisi was invited by the Sicilian king to Palermo to compose geographic maps... In 1154, his book "Geographical Entertainments" appeared, in which, in addition to regional geographic information, the idea of Ptolemy was tested. Moreover, his many years of work resulted in world maps, circular and rectangular, on 70 sheets.
Undoubtedly, the most famous Arab traveler is Abu Abdallah Ibn Battuta from Tangier (Morocco), who in the XIV century. visited almost all countries of the then Asia. got acquainted with the northern coast of the African continent and the Nile Valley. On his second trip, he crossed the Sahara in different directions... In his further travels, Ibn Battuta visited the Crimea, visited the lower reaches of the Volga, and visited the Middle Adia. He lived a few pet in India, then he passed through the Indian subcontinent to the south, visited the Maldives, Ceylon and arrived in China by sea. Having traveled by land and sea, in total, more than 130 thousand km, he returned home and dictated a book called "A Gift to the Beholding About the Wonders of Cities and Wonders of Travel", better known as "Travels of Ibn Batuta." The book about his 25-year travels, which contained a large historical, geographical and ethnographic material, was translated into several European languages and became a valuable textbook on medieval geography.
The aggressive campaigns of the Arabs and the development of trade lead to the rapid spread of Islam. All Muslims are ordered to make a pilgrimage to Mecca, a city sacred to all representatives of this religion, at least once in their life. From those times to the present day, streams of Muslim pilgrims rush to Mecca. The main purpose of the pilgrimage to Mecca is to walk around the Kaaba 7 times and touch the black stone. The Kaaba is located in a holy place - Al-Harram, which now represents the most big temple under open air... The second most important holy city for Muslims is Medina, or the City of the Prophet, in which the tomb of the Prophet Mohammed is located.
There are sacred places for Muslims in ancient Jerusalem. This is the city where the Prophet Mohammed was during his legendary night trip from Mecca to distant mosques. In the Muslim Quarter is the Haram El Sheriff ( sacred courtyard) with the shrines of Islam. These are the famous mosques of Omar i Al-Aqsa, the Rock Mosque was built in 691, at the behest of Caliph Omar, hence its second name. Two years later, on the site of the Christian basilica, the Al-Aqsa Mosque was built, in the northern wing of which there is a place - Makom Aziz, where, according to legend, the Prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven from Jerusalem.
9.4. Jerusalem - center of pilgrimage
Pilgrims of different faiths flock to Jerusalem. The history of the city goes back 4 thousand years. At this place, King David created the capital of his state. In the X century. BC. King Solomon, the son of David, built here the First Temple, the ruins of the walls of which - the Wailing Wall - from the 5th century. are a place of pilgrimage for representatives of Judaism. In the VI century. BC NS. the Second Temple was built. The beauty of this majestic building was described by the ancient historian Josephus Flavia, who compared it with a sparkling mountain peak... The second temple was destroyed in the 1st century. AD but the time of the Jewish war. To provide the splendor of this structure, I can also use the exact model of the Second Temple, which was created in the 60s. XX century on a scale of 1:50 and is now on display at one of the hotels. For Jews, Jerusalem is the Promised Land. The Jewish Quarter is still located here. with famous synagogues.
The lands of ancient Palestine are sacred place for the worship of Christians around the world. The first place where the stream of pilgrims rushes is Bethlehem, not Big city in which Jesus was born. Pilgrims rush to worship the holy places in Bethlehem, the city where Jesus Christ was born and where a basilica was built over several caves in 325, and later, during the reign of Emperor Justinian in the 6th century. the Church of the Nativity of Christ was erected, located in the very center of the city. A large number of sacred places for Christians are located in Jerusalem itself, the city that became the place of the execution and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the IV century. Byzantine emperor Constantine ordered to erect the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on the ruins of a Roman pagan temple, for at this place, according to legend, Jesus Christ was crucified, buried and then resurrected. The worship of the Holy Sepulcher is the most important goal of the pilgrimage of Christians. Christian believers try to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ to Calvary. This path has been followed by the pilgrims since the 4th century. AD
Throughout its history, this city was repeatedly attacked by the troops of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, and by the Muslim conquerors, during the Middle Ages, crusader armies rushed here from Europe.
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Arab travelers of the Middle Ages Alexandrovich Maria, 190-11 баГД / 17
18.12.2017
History of Hospitality
Lepeshkin, V.A.
traveler. He began his wanderings in 1325 from Tangier, visited Egypt, Western
Arabia, Yemen, Syria and Iran, then reached Mozambique by sea, and on the way back visited
Bahrain Islands. In his further travels, Ibn Battuta visited the Crimea, was in the lower reaches
Volga and in its middle reaches, crossed the Caspian lowland and the Ustyurt plateau and proceeded to
Central Asia. From there, through the Hindu Kush ridge, he went to the Indus Valley and lived for several years in
Delhi. In 1342 he passed through Hindustan to the south, visited the Maldives, Sri Lanka and the sea
arrived in China. Ibn Battuta returned to Tangier in 1349, again visiting Sri Lanka, Syria and
Egypt. In 1352-1353. his last journey took place, during which he crossed
Western and Central Sahara. Ibn Battuta traveled about 130 thousand km by land and sea in 25 years of his travels. He visited all Muslim possessions in
Europe, Asia and Byzantium, North and East Africa, Western and Central Asia, India, Ceylon and China, bypassed the coast
Indian Ocean... He crossed the Black Sea and from the southern coast of the Crimea drove to the lower reaches of the Volga and the mouth of the Kama. Biruni
made geographic measurements. He determined the angle of inclination of the ecliptic to the equator and established its secular changes. For
1020, his measurements gave the value 23 ° 34 "0". Modern calculations give a value of 23 ° 34 "45" for 1020. During the travelling
to India Biruni developed a method for determining the radius of the Earth. According to his measurements, the radius of the Earth was equal to 1081.66
Farsakh, i.e. about 6490 km. Al-Khwarizmi took part in the measurements. Under al-Mamun, an attempt was made to measure
circumference of the earth. To this end, scientists measured the degree of latitude near the Red Sea, which is 56 Arab miles, or
113.0 km, from here the circumference of the Earth was equal to 40680 km.
Travelers who went to Asian lands could count on accommodation, food, translators and guides there.
In China and India, road networks were built to provide accommodation and food. Oral or oral documents were used as documents.
written recommendations from persons who have previously visited these places or from those who have visited the traveler's homeland. Al-Masoudi Abul-Hasan Ali ibn-Hussein (896-956) - Arab historian, geographer and
traveler. He was the first Arab historian to combine historical and
geographic observations into large-scale general work. Al-Masoudi during
of his travels he visited various provinces of the Persian Empire, the Caucasus,
regions adjacent to the Caspian Sea, in Syria, Arabia and Egypt. Al-Masoudi
also mentions in his works Kievan Rus and Khazaria. He also visited the south
modern Mozambique and made an apt description of the monsoons. Al Masoudi
describes the process of evaporation of moisture from the water surface and its
condensation in the form of clouds. Al-Idrisi Idrisi (1100-1161 or 1165) - Arab geographer, cartographer and traveler.
He traveled to Portugal, France, England, Asia Minor, North Africa. About
1138 moved to Palermo, where he lived at the court of the Sicilian king Roger II (ruled 11301154). On his behalf, he created a map of the part of the world known at that time (in the form of a silver
planes and on paper). Scandinavia, the Baltic Sea, Onega and
Lake Ladoga, the Dvina and the Dnieper rivers. The Volga bifurcates and flows simultaneously into the Black and
Caspian Sea. Shown are the rivers Yenisei, Amur, lake. Baikal, Altai Mountains, Tibet, as well as China and
India. However, he denied the isolation of the Indian Ocean. Idrisi divides the land into 7 climates
(10 parts in every climate). Idrisi's books, including descriptions of all climates and maps to
him - a valuable source on the history and historical geography of Europe and Africa; contains
IX-X centuries - the time of the rise of geographical culture in the countries of the Arab Caliphate. In the VII-VIII centuries. the Arabs spread their conquests over a vast territory, including Spain in the west, and Central Asia and the western part of India in the east. In the newly formed state - the Caliphate - conditions were created that contributed to the prosperity of geography. Detailed descriptions provinces, settlements, agricultural products and crafts were needed to collect taxes and taxes. Geography was viewed as "the science of paths and states." The development of trade was even more important for the accumulation and dissemination of geographical knowledge. These peculiar conditions gave rise to a variety of geographical writings, some of which interpreted geography in a mathematical sense as "the science of latitudes and longitudes." They were based on Ptolemy's Geography, translated into Arabic. In the same language, inscriptions were made on maps, described in the history of cartography as "Arab maps", although their creators came from different corners of the Islamic world.
Arab merchants sailed in all the seas of the Old World, except for the northern ones, they mastered South and Central Asia, Eastern Europe. They penetrated sub-Saharan African countries and crossed the equator. Thanks to the widely developed trade, the Arabs gave the medieval world in the 9th - 14th centuries. a number of distinguished travelers.
One of them was Suleiman, a merchant from Basra. He traveled from the Persian Gulf across the Indian Ocean to China, visiting Ceylon, Sumatra, Nicobar and Andaman islands... About his journey, Suleiman left notes dating back to 851 AD, in which he described the route he traveled and the adventures that happened on the road.
Suleiman's notes were later supplemented by the Arab geographer Abu-Zeid-Hassan, and in this form they became very famous.
This essay presented in a completely new light the trade routes and relations that existed in the 9th century. between the inhabitants of the coasts of Egypt, Arabia, the coastal countries of the Persian Gulf, on the one hand, and the inhabitants of the Indian and Chinese provinces, on the other.
At the turn of the 9th-10th centuries. the Arab writer Ibn-Dasta, a native of Persia, traveled across Western Asia and Eastern Europe. He presented the results of his travels in Arabic in the historical and geographical encyclopedia "The Book of Precious Treasures". In which there is valuable information about the Slavs. Ibn Fadlan is another Arab traveler and writer of the first half of the 10th century. In 921-922. as a secretary of the embassy of the Abbasid caliph al-Muktadir, he visited the Volga Bulgaria. One of the few Arab travelers who have personally visited Eastern Europe. In his report "Risale", written in the form of guiding notes, he left unique descriptions of the life and political relations of the Oguzes, Bashkirs, Bulgars, Rus and Khazars. The work was very popular in the Arab-Persian world.
Among the travelers of the first half of the 10th century. the Baghdad Arab Massoudi, a historian and geographer, stands out. Two of his books have come down to us: "Golden Meadows and Diamond Placers" and "Messages and Observations", which included extensive reports on the nature, history and ethnography of the countries he visited. He visited all the countries of the Near and Middle East, Central Asia. Caucasus and Eastern Europe, and in the south - East Africa up to Madagascar inclusive.
However, the most prominent Arab traveler of the 14th century was the itinerant merchant Ibn Battuta (1304-1377), a Berber by birth, a native of the city of Tangier. Having finished his many wanderings, he dictated descriptions of his travels, relying entirely on his memory.
Ibn Battuta's Travels has been translated into a number of European languages. It contains a huge historical, geographical and ethnographic material, is of great interest to the present day for study. medieval history.
Arab cartography took one of the first places among other scientific disciplines only after ancient books, primarily Greek, and especially the works of Claudius Ptolemy, were translated into Arabic. Caliphs acted as generous patrons, as they understood the importance of ancient knowledge. In order to introduce them into Muslim culture, they encouraged translations into Arabic of the treasures of ancient science. Caliph al-Mamun, for example, gave translators as much gold in coins and bars as the works they translated weighed.
The Arabs not only carefully preserved this heritage, but throughout the Middle Ages constantly enriched cartography with their discoveries, as well as the achievements of Indian scientists. In the period from VII to XII century. the pole of geographical knowledge moved to such large centers of education and science as Baghdad, Cordova, Damascus. Therefore, it would not be wrong to say that, although there were no direct links between Arab and European cartography, the revival of mathematics and astronomy in the 13th century. in Rome, Oxford and Paris was a direct consequence of the progress made by the Arabs in the field of cartography. The Arabs took over the baton, in turn preparing the great flowering of science in Western Europe during the Renaissance.
The Arabs rightly believed that the works of Ptolemy reflected the highest achievements of the Greeks and Romans. However, they did not blindly follow the teachings of the great Greek astronomer, mathematician and geographer. Arab travelers disputed a number of his ideas. For their part, Eastern astronomers have improved the calculation of the degree, having achieved very accurate results. They were not just transmitters of the culture of antiquity. They started from the point where their predecessors stopped, greedily deepening the accumulated knowledge.
In the X century. the most famous of Arab maps The ographers was Abul Hassan Ali al-Masoudi. He was born in Baghdad and spent his youth traveling, visiting India, Ceylon, the South China Sea, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Zanzibar, Madagascar and Oman. He spent the end of his life in Egypt and died in Fustat. Al-Masoudi must have been familiar with most of the geographical literature then available. He mentions many works that have not reached our time. His main work "Gold Washers and Gem Mines" is of a general nature. He has other jobs as well. The planisphere of the world he created is one of the most accurate Arab maps of the time. He believed that the Earth is a sphere, and expanded the boundaries of the then known world, adding two continents: one in southern seas, and the second - for symmetry - in the other hemisphere.
The golden age of Arab cartography, which began to develop in the 9th century, falls on the 10th century (4th century Hijri), when the Atlas of the Muslim World series of maps was created, closely related to many works on "roads and kingdoms." The methodology for describing the Muslim world was proposed by a native of Balkh (al-Balkhi), then continued and expanded by a Persian scholar from Iran (al-Istakhri), whose works in turn served as the basis for Ibn Hawqal, a geographer and great traveler who was born in Baghdad, who revised, corrected and significantly expanded.
These maps had nothing to do with Ptolemaic models. The Atlas of the Muslim World continued to include 21 maps in a strictly defined order, the first of which was a spherical representation of the entire world. This was followed by six maps depicting Arabia, the Persian Sea, the Maghreb, Egypt, Syria and the Mediterranean. The last fourteen maps dealt with the central and eastern parts of the Muslim world. The task was to present the world (it was only about the Muslim world) as it was seen by al-Istahri and especially Ibn Hawqal, who said: "And I described in detail the countries of Islam, province by province, district by district, district district ".
The activities of these cartographers were mainly focused on the eastern part of the Muslim world, but the western part was not forgotten either. The last period of Muslim cartography is associated with the Muslim West, represented by the works of al-Idrisi (XII century). After studying in Cordoba, al-Idrisi settled in Sicily, where King Roger II ordered him a huge planisphere, as well as a detailed commentary on it. The planisphere showed the entire globe in all its diversity. According to the geographer himself, all "regions with their countries and cities, rivers, lands and seas, roads, distances and everything that can be seen there" were depicted there. The planisphere has not survived, but al-Idrisi's comments have come down to us in the work "Entertainment of the yearning for wandering in the regions" ("Kitab nuzhat al-mushtak fi and htirak al afak"), better known as "The Book of Roger" ("Kitab Rudjar") ...
This work helped Western geographers expand their knowledge, and the Portuguese discoverers of the 15th century. - explore new lands. For al-Idrisi, the Earth was "round like a ball," "water naturally adjoined it," "earth and water were suspended in space, like a yolk inside a shell." Al-Idrisi added a world atlas to his comments, and his maps were colored.
Thus, the Arab scientist-travelers of the IX-XIV centuries. made a significant contribution to the history of the discovery and development of new lands, significantly expanded the ideas of ancient authors about the world around them, introduced Western Europe with the Asian continent, continued and described the most important trade routes, contributed to the rapprochement of the Asian and European civilizations.
WITHVII century. n. NS. the Arabs living on the Arabian Peninsula began to spread their power and their new, militant Mohammedan, or Muslim, religion - Islam (in Arabic submission) - over a vast territory. In the east, they conquered the entire Iranian Plateau and Turkestan, north of Arabia - Mesopotamia, the Armenian Highlands and part of the Caucasus, in the north-west - Syria and Palestine, in the west - all North Africa... In 711, the Arabs crossed the strait, which from that time began to be called a distorted Arabic name - Gibraltar and within seven years (711–718) conquered almost the entire Iberian Peninsula. Thus, in the VIII century. n. NS. the Arabs owned the western, southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea, all the shores of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, the northern coast Arabian Sea... They settled on the most important land routes connecting Eastern Europe - through Central Asia or the Caucasus and the Iranian Highlands - with India, and on the western section of the Great Silk Road. Thanks to this, the Arabs became intermediaries in Europe's trade with all of South and Southeast Asia and with China. Even in antiquity and at the beginning of the Middle Ages, the Arabs played a large role in the trade of the countries adjacent to the Indian Ocean. Now they have taken key positions on the great trade routes in the eastern part of the Indian Ocean and have become complete masters in its western part.
Light flat-bottomed Arab medieval ships were built from the trunks of coconut trees. “Their ships are bad, and many of them die, because they are not hammered together with iron nails, but sewn with ropes from the bark of Indian [coconuts] nuts ... These ropes are strong and do not deteriorate from salt water. The ships have one mast, one sail and one oar "( Marco Polo). Arab sailors walked along the coast, and only the very experienced dared to cross the ocean.
The main Asian goods supplied by the Arabs to Europe through the Persian Gulf to Baghdad or through the Red Sea to the Isthmus of Suez were expensive fabrics, ivory, precious stones and pearls, black slaves, gold, but especially spices. The fact is that in medieval Europe, the mass slaughter of livestock took place in late autumn, when pasture began to disappear. The meat was salted for future use in whole barrels, and spices were widely used so that the meat did not lose its taste and did not spoil. And they were valued on the European market literally worth their weight in gold. Tropical spices grew at that time only in the south and southeast of Asia. In trade, the first place was occupied by pepper, which is widespread in almost all of tropical Asia. But the main place of his culture was the Malabar coast, from there also ginger and cardamom came. Indonesia supplied cloves and nutmeg, Sri Lanka cinnamon. And this Indian trade with Europe was monopolized by the Arabs.
slave itinerant merchants and members of various embassies collected from the VIII century. large geographical material about a number European countries, including the remote ones, excluding the Far North, trade with which was carried out through intermediaries. The Arab travelers partly processed this material themselves (among them there were many outstanding writers), partly passed it on to important officials (chiefs of the post office) and "armchair scientists", whose works played a huge role in the history of medieval geography. The first reliable geographical information about Eastern Europe (except for the Black Sea region) has come down to us thanks to Arab authors.
Spanish Jew who wrote in Arabic Ibrahim Ibn Yakub in 965 he participated in the Cordoba embassy to the German emperor Otto I. In the second half of the 10th century. The Slavic countries of Central Europe were "unknown lands" for the Arabs. Ibn Yakub is the only early medieval traveler to the Slavic Baltic states whose personal observations have come down to us. Apparently, for commercial purposes, he alone drove through Magdeburg, on the middle Elbe, to “the fortress of Prince Nakon ... called the Castle ... swamps ". Undoubtedly, Ibn Yakub visited the Slavic city of Mikilin, now Mecklenburg, south of the Baltic port of Wismar.
Jbn Jakub also describes the path from Magdeburg to the south, to the country of Buislav, the Czech prince Boleslav I the Terrible: across the river. Muldavu (Mulde, left tributary of the Elbe), 50 km from it to the forest, which stretches “... 40 miles along the impassable [Ore] Mountains. After passing the forest, you find yourself in Prague. " “The country of Buislav [Czech Republic] stretches from Prague to Krakow in three weeks' journey. The city of Prague ... the largest shopping center in those countries. " Further, Ibn Yakub describes the country of Meshko, i.e. Poland. She was then ruled by the prince Meshko I... “This is the most extensive of those countries, and it is rich in grain, honey and fish ... The country of Meshko is bordered by the Rus in the east, and the beams [Prussians] in the north. Bars settle on the shores of the World Ocean [Baltic Sea], they have their own special language, akin to Lithuanian; They do not understand the language of their neighbors ... ”To the north-west of the Meshko country, in a swampy area, live Slavs; they have a big city on the seashore ... [Yumna-Volin, at the mouth of the Odra]. They are at war with Meshko, and their army is numerous ... "
Ibn Rust on the Volga Bulgarians and Rus
Vthe first decade of the X century. Persian Abu Ali Ibn Rust(or Rusta) compiled a large work in Arabic called "Expensive Values". Only the part devoted to astronomy and geography has reached us: it, by the way, contains information about the peoples of Eastern Europe... He begins with the Turkic-speaking Volga-Kama Bulgarians, among whom, no later than the 9th century. Islam began to spread. Ibn Rust was not in their country, and he collected information, undoubtedly, from itinerant Muslim merchants. “Bulgaria borders on the country of Burtases. The ethnicity of the Burtases is controversial; presumably - Finno-Ugric, related to Mordovians. Bulgarians live on the banks of a river that flows into the Khazar Sea [Caspian] and is called Itil [Volga], flowing between the country of the Khazars and the Slavs. Their country is covered with swamps and dense forests, among which they live. The Khazars bargain with the Bulgarians, and the Rus also bring their goods to them. All [peoples] who live on both banks of the aforementioned river bring their goods to them [Bulgarians] ... sable, ermine, squirrel furs and others. Bulgarians are an agricultural people ... Most of them profess Islam ... Between the Burtases and these Bulgarians there is a distance of three days' journey ... The Bulgarians have horses, chain mail and full armor. Their main wealth is cooney fur ... A hard-earned coin is replaced by coonie fur ”.
Further, Ibn Rust reports on the Slavs and Rus. This confused story is probably borrowed from Muslima al-Jarmi, whose works have not reached us. Ibn Rust read or heard about the city of Kuyab (Kiev), located “at the border of the country of the Slavs ... The way to their country goes through the steppes, through roadless lands, through streams and dense forests. The country of the Slavs is flat and wooded; they live in the forests ... Yake Rus live on the island, among the lakes. This island ... occupies the space of three days' journey. It is covered with forests and swamps ... They raid the Slavs: they approach them on boats, disembark, take them prisoner, take them to Khazaria and Bulgaria and sell them there. They have no arable land, and they feed on what they bring from the land of the Slavs ... their only trade is trade ... in furs. They dress untidy, and their men wear gold bracelets. Slaves are well treated. They have many cities and live in the open. They are tall, prominent and courageous people, but they do not show this courage on horseback - they make all their raids and campaigns on ships. "
Ahmed Ibn Fadlan took part, probably as a secretary at the embassy of the Baghdad Caliph in the Volga-Kama Bulgaria: Muslim Khan Arslan Then he headed the union of the Bulgarian tribes living in the basin of the lower Kama and Volga (approximately up to the Samara river), and looked for allies in the Arabs against the Khazars. Of course, the caliph hoped to receive from such an alliance and great trade privileges. The embassy left Baghdad on June 21, 921 and through the Iranian Highlands, lower pp. Tejen and Murghab passed to Bukhara, from there descended along the Amu Darya to Khorezm and wintered in Djurdjan (the capital of ancient Khorezm, ruins near the city of Kunya-Urgench). In February 922, the Arabs began to prepare for the journey: they acquired two-humped camels and "... travel bags made of camel skins for crossing the rivers ..." Hereinafter, cit. by A. Kovalevsky. On March 4, a huge caravan - 5 thousand people, including a convoy, 3 thousand horses (camels were not counted) - set off to the north-west. “... 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 blizzards ... we arrived at great sorrow with many stones. We are talking about the northern cliff - the steep ledge of Ustyurt, behind which stretches a huge plain, where the Oguz Turks then roamed. Arab and Iranian authors called them Guzes, Russian Authors - bonds and torques. When we crossed the mountain, we went to the tribe of the Turks, known as the Guzes. " Ibn Fadlan gave a humiliating characterization to the Oghuz, as, indeed, to other pagans whom he met later. But at the same time, he notes that the Oghuz "do not know fornication," for he is punished with a cruel execution.
Ibn Fadlan described the path through the Caspian lowland and along the Trans-Volga region sparingly - he mainly listed the river crossings after descending from the Ustyurt cliff. The embassy crossed the river. Yagandy (Shagan), flowing down from the southern spur of the Mugodzhar, and crossed the Jam (Emba) in travel bags, converted into leather canoes, which could accommodate six people. Horses and camels were driven by swimming. Then they crossed Jakhysh (Sagiz), Uzil (Uil), a number of other rivers and stopped at Lake Shalkar. The next stop was at the river. Jaykh (Yaik). "... This is the largest river that we have seen ... and with the strongest current ..."
Having crossed the Chagan (the right tributary of the Yaik), the embassy found itself "in the country of the people ... Bashgird" (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. For all these rivers, Ibn Fadlan gives names that coincide or are very similar to the present ones. The choice of such a route can be explained by the fact that the travelers avoided the left low bank of the Volga, which was 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 leave.
On May 11, 922 the embassy arrived at the new khan's headquarters - the town of Bolgar (or Bulgar); located on the left bank of the Volga, at 55 ° N. sh., near the mouth of the Kama. Together with Arslan, the Arabs wandered for some time, mainly to the south of the Bolgar, along the left bank of the Volga, approximately to the Big Cheremshan. Ibn Fadlan received the first information about the people from the Bulgarians. “... Many merchants go ... to a country called Visu, and bring sables and black foxes ... The king [khan] told me that beyond his country, at a distance of three months' journey, there is a people called Visu. [Summer] night they have less than ... an hour. " Historians, albeit with reservations, identify the "country of Visu" with the territory between Lake Ladoga and White Lakes, which was occupied by the entire people mentioned in the "Tale of Bygone Years". From the khan, Ibn Fadlan first heard about the people of Suvaz (Chuvashes), who lived next door to the Bulgarians, on the right bank of the Volga.
The embassy returned to its homeland in the spring of 923, probably going down the Volga: “... only [this] can explain the extraordinary richness of details description of Khazaria preserved in the geographical dictionary Yakuta"(B. Zakhoder).
In Baghdad, Ibn Fadlan compiled the Risala (Note) - one of the most important sources on the medieval history of the peoples of the Volga region, Trans-Volga region and Central Asia. He, of course, was not a discoverer, as he followed the trade route along which Arab and Persian products were delivered 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 clear, accurate messages 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.
born of Baghdad Abu al-Hasan Ali al-Masoudi(first half of the 10th century), a historian and geographer, traveled most of his life, visited many countries of the Old World - all of Western and Central Asia, the Caucasus and Eastern Europe, North and East Africa. Not limited to personal observations, he collected an enormous survey material and made extensive use of earlier authors. In one of the two works that have come down to us, "Washers of gold and mines of gems", information about the countries and inhabitants of Eastern Europe, including the Slavs, is especially interesting. “Their country has many rivers flowing from the north. None of their lakes is salty ... The country that is further north of them is uninhabited due to the cold and the abundance of water. Most of their tribes are pagans ... they have many cities, there are churches where bells hang ... "
Masoudi gave the first, but very unclear information about the route from the Volga to the Black Sea. True, he himself did not go this way and therefore was mistaken: listening to the stories of experienced people, he took the real portage for an imaginary channel connecting the Volga with the Don or directly with the Sea of Azov. Masudi also reported on the Rus campaign to the Caspian Sea in 912-913. “... About 500 ships, of which each had a hundred people ... reached ... the Khazar [Caspian] Sea ... [which] does not have a sleeve connecting with another sea, for it is small ... known with all sides. " So, the Arabs, Russians and all the Caspian peoples in the X century. knew that the Caspian Sea was a "small sea" closed on all sides, that is, a lake, and not a part of the Black Sea - or the Northern Ocean, as Western European geographers believed for at least three more centuries, before G. Rubruk's travels.
The only Arab traveler who visited the Russian lands in 1150-1153 was a native of Granada Abu Hamid al-Garnati... Having visited several countries of Western Asia, in 1131 he reached Derbent, and from there sailed across the Caspian to the mouth of the Volga and here, in the large trading city of Saksin, he lived for 20 years, preaching Islam, but not missing an opportunity to buy and sell profitably. “And their winter [Khazars] are cold. Their winter houses are made of large pine logs. " In 1135 al-Garnati ascended along the Volga to the Bulgar city. The size of the river amazed him: “... it is like the sea ... And it freezes ... [it] so that it becomes [solid], like the earth ... The Bulgar is also a huge fool, all ... made of pine, and the city the wall is made of oak. And underground there are the tusks of elephants [mammoths], white as snow, heavy as lead. " In Bulgar, al-Garnati heard about the region “which is called Aru, in which they hunt for beavers, and ermines, and ... squirrels. And the day there in the summer is 22 o'clock ... "He saw the inhabitants of this Arsk land of Russian chronicles, Al-Garnati mentioned the Arsk people 200 years earlier than the chronicle: the campaign of the Vyatichi in the Arsk land is reported under 1379. Here and below, cit. according to O. Bolshakov and A. Mongayt. ancestors of modern Udmurts, and describes them, as well as the inhabitants of the Visu country, as red-cheeked, blue-eyed, blond people in linen clothes and fur skins.
In 1150 he again visited Bulgar and, having ascended to the mouth of the Nakhr-as-Sakalib ("Slavic river", ie Oka), set off along it to Russia. "And the water ... [Oki] is black ... like ink, but ... sweet, good, clean." The country of the Slavs “... is vast, abundant in honey and wheat, and barley, and large apples ... They are calculated ... with old squirrel skins ... [without] wool ... which are useless for anything. And for each they give excellent round bread ... "(There was a princely sign on the skins, so no one had the right to refuse them.) Al-Garnati stayed in the land of the Slavs for some time and collected the first information about the Mordovian people: they live" .. . among the trees ... on [the banks] of the huge river [Oka] and they hunt beavers ... ”From the Oka he crossed to the Desna and along it reached Kuyava (Kiev), but he says nothing about the life of the city. Then he proceeded to Hungary, where he lived until 1153, and returned to Kiev, and from there, through the Polovtsian steppes, south of his first route, he arrived at Saksin, at the mouth of the Volga; he passed this journey in silence.
Information about Asia by Arabic-speaking scholars
AZia for the most part became known to Western Europeans precisely through the medieval Arab geographers. They extracted from the "darkness" the inner regions of the Arabian Peninsula, expanded the data of ancient authors about Iran, India, Sri Lanka and Central Asia. They knew about the great highlands of Central Asia and were the first to bring to the West relatively accurate information about North China (Hitai) and South China (Chin), about the Indochina and Malacca peninsulas. They knew about Sumatra, Java and other more distant islands. Only most of North Asia remained for them the land of Darkness. Arab merchants sailed in all the seas of the Old World, except for the northern ones.
The merit of describing the Arabian Peninsula belongs to a Tajik scientist and religious leader Nosir Ibn Khisrov, poet and traveler of the middle of the XI century. In the summer of 1051, he set out from Mecca to the southeast along a caravan road running along the meridional ridge across the steppe, whose inhabitants “all their lives have eaten nothing but camel milk [and meat], since nothing grows in this steppe, except for the brackish grass. " Before turning east, Ibn Khisrov visited one of the districts of the historical region of Asir: “... in the middle of crevasses and rocks ... mountains, round like domes. Their height ... is such that the arrow would not reach the top. They are ... hard and smooth, like an egg, no cracks, no irregularities ... "
After traveling about 500 km to the east, he arrived at the Al-Aflaj oasis, located “... in the middle of the [Dehna] desert; it is a vast country, completely ruined due to internal strife. " There was no money for the further journey, and Ibn Khisrov painted the local mosque and earned money to feed and pay for the guides. In the autumn he reached the Persian Gulf, completing the crossing of Arabia, which he correctly identified as a peninsula: “On three sides ... two regions [Yemen and Hijaz] are surrounded by the sea, and they thus constitute a peninsula. The length ... [of it] is about five hundred Farsakhs from north to south; width from east to west ... about four hundred farsakhs. " He noted that low-lying Tihama stretches along the coast of the Red Sea. "There are many cities and inhabited places ... All ... cities lie in the valleys ..."; the region of Hejaz (in Arabic for "barrier") is sparsely populated; “... mountainous area called Nejd [has] ... many desert and cold places, gorges and mighty castles. " In the eastern part of the peninsula “... there are also many cities ... [and] regions, and each ... is governed by its own king and leader. Residents there do not recognize any bosses - robbers, murderers and impious. " Returning to his homeland, Ibi Khisrov published the "Book of Travels", which we quoted.
Great Khorezm scientist-encyclopedist al-Biruni was also the largest geographer of the XI century. During his long, often forced travels, he explored the Iranian Highlands and most of Central Asia. Accompanying the reluctant conqueror of Khorezm, the Afghan Sultan Mahmuda Ghaznevi in his devastating campaign to the Punjab, Biruni collected extensive materials on Indian culture there and put them, together with personal observations, into the basis of a large work on India.
The first Central Asian Türkologist-encyclopedist of the middle of the XII century. Mahmoud Kashgari was also a geographer and traveler: or, villages and steppes of the Turks. For many years I wandered around the Turkic, Oguz ... Kyrgyz cities, villages, camps, compiled dictionaries of their languages ... "(quoted by Kh. Khasanov). As a result, Kashgari surveyed a vast territory from the eastern coast of the Caspian to the meridian of Lake Lobnor and from the latitude of the river. Or to the southern border of Kashgaria and performed the first zoning of Central and part of Central Asia, with great accuracy determining the boundaries of the settlement of Turkic peoples and tribes. The "Dictionary of Türkic dialects" compiled by him - the oldest summary of information about the Türkic tribes - contains many names of mountains, rivers, lakes, countries and states. The most detailed are the Tien Shan and Seven Rivers; he notes the Issyk-Kul lake, the Balasagun mountains (Kirghiz ridge), the Alai valley and the r. Or. He visited the upper Naryn basin and mentions Chatyrkol and Sizich (Sonkol) lakes. He correctly represented and showed on the map he made mountain system Western Tien Shan in the form of a series of parallel ridges separated by transverse valleys. The sign of Kashgari with the Mangyshlak peninsula - this name is found for the first time with him, from the ridge. Altintag and s. Tarim, “which flows ... to the Uyghur lands [Kashgaria]. There it seeps into the sands ”; he mentions two rivers "... on both sides of the city of Khotan" - Karakash and Yurunkash.
639–709 the Arabs conquered all of North Africa (Maghreb) and took over its trade; The "winds of commerce" brought them to the countries lying to the south of the Sahara. Sahara is a slightly modified Arabic word for sahra (desert). As a result of trade contacts, Arab merchants have mastered the six main caravan routes, known from ancient times. The "breakthrough" through the Sahara into the country of unwritten peoples of Western and Equatorial Africa meant a genuine discovery, in a number of cases, however, a secondary one after the Carthaginians, Bilad al-Sudan ("Country of the Blacks"), which, according to medieval Arabs, stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Upper Nile. In the second half of the XI century. the Arabs knew that the Atlas Mountains stretched from the Green Ocean (Atlantic) to the Gulf of Gabes and were composed of a number of ridges, including the Azwar (High Atlas) mountains with silver mines: “These mountains are abundant in water streams; their length is a ten-day march ... Azwar is that mountain from under which Wadi Dara flows; [R. Dra] " (al-Bakri).Hereinafter, cit. on Sat. Ancient and medieval sources ... M - L., 1965, v. 1–2.
In the VIII century. Arab merchants, who did not disdain the slave trade, penetrated the land of gold Aukar (Ghana), the middle reaches of the Niger, and in exchange for agricultural products, silver and copper, they received slaves and gold. In the middle of the 9th century, passing to the south-west "... along sandy terrain and quicksand", they reached the upper Niger, at 11 ° N. sh., and delivered to Morocco the first news about the country Mallal (Mali) and about the Malinka people (literal translation - "people of Mali"), who lived in the interfluve of Niger and Senegal; raspberries were engaged in cattle breeding and hunting, cultivated cassava, cotton and durru (a plant from the genus sorghum). Almost simultaneously, Arab gold traders first reported on "Jazirat at-Tiber" - "The island or peninsula of gold ore." Most likely they meant the gold-bearing area at 10 ° W. between pp. Bafing (Upper Senegal) and Bakoy. In a number of large centers in the Niger Valley, the Arabs founded several Muslim settlements, which played a significant role in the cultural development of the country.
The merchants, of course, got acquainted in general terms with the course of the Niger from 8 ° W. d. to 0 ° for 1200 km within its great northern arc. They reported on Ras-al-Ma ("Head of Water"), a lacustrine and swampy area of Masin: between 5 and 3 ° W. etc., flowing through a wide, highly swampy valley, Niger forms the so-called inner delta - a series of small lakes and several branches, which turn into one huge lake during the rainy season. This delta was called Turtle Lakes at the beginning of the 9th century. described by al-Khwarizmi. According to the merchants, Niger comes from the south-west "... from the country of the blacks, and after passing through the desert to the city of Gaogao [Gao] ... returns to the south [southeast] to the country of the blacks." The Arabs had no idea about the further course of the river. Al-Idrisi believed that she "... is lost in the quicksand of the desert." This misconception lasted until 1830.
The Arabs came to Sudan not only by the way described above, but also by other routes. One started from shopping center on Oued Ziz (Southern Morocco) and ran strictly to the south near 4 ° W. etc., through sandy deserts Erg Igidi, Erg Shesh (the hottest region of the Sahara) and a number of settlements, ending in Timbuktu, in the Niger. The other, from Tripoli southwest to Niger, was the ancient, Achaean route. Describing it, al-Bakri gave the first characteristic of the Adrar-Ifor plateau, among the mountains and gorges of which there was a large trading city of Tadmekka, at 19 ° N. sh., now not existing. The third trade road ran from the Mediterranean coast at about 13 ° E. through the Fezzan region and the Kavar group of oases, at 19 ° N. sh., to the area of Lake Chad. Another caravan route ran from Khartoum on the Nile through Kordofan and the Darfur plateau, crossed numerous wadis and reached the Lake Chad region.
Arab merchants who penetrated here reported the state of Kanem, located north and northeast of Lake Chad. No later than 971 visited here al-Hasan Ibn Amr- sea captain sailing from Siraf (port on Persian Gulf) along the east coast of Africa. It is not clear how he reached Central Africa, probably from the shores of the Indian Ocean. Although many Arab geographers described Kanem from the words of merchants, they are stubbornly silent about Lake Chad. Perhaps the only exception was the sailor and the traveler. Ibn Fatima who visited the lake, probably in the XII century. Then Chad took up significantly large area than now. This can be judged by the following instruction of Ibn Fatima: "[From] the northern side of the lake ... the Nile flows out ..." -east along the dry river bed. El-Ghazal (Nile basin). Ibn Fatima noted a number of tribes inhabiting the lakeside areas, including "on the western side ... the Ankazar, and on the eastern side [the people] the kura, after which the lake [is] named." Navigation in Chad was carried out on boats and rafts of reed, which grows in abundance on the 6epegs. The fleet of the sovereign Kanem dominated the lake.
With repeated crossings of the Sahara, the Arabs are well acquainted with the dry savannah stretching along southern borders desert from about 10 ° N. sh., and named it the Sahel, that is, "coast", or rather, "desert coast".
Along the eastern coast of Africa, the Arabs advanced significantly further than their predecessors, the Greeks and Romans, who reached 10 ° 30 "S latitude. Relying on several pre-Islamic Arab settlements between 2 ° N lat. and 9 ° S lat., the Arabs in the middle of VIII They seized the island of Kanbalu (Zanzibar), where they established a trading post.They became quite familiar with the shores of the mainland from Cape Kafun (Guardafui) to 8 ° S. The northernmost (from Guardafui to the Juba River) was the land of the Berbers, on the coast of which they marked one cape - Khafun and had a number of trading posts. washed by the sea of the same name, with a large number of mountains and deserted savannas, rich in wild animals. Arab hunters were especially attracted to elephants. In addition to ivory, the country gave skins of leopards, gold and slaves. Arab merchants reported that Zinjis (Bantu-speaking tribes) eat bananas, etc. urrah, coconuts; they make jewelry out of iron.
From about. Zanzibar Arabs launched an offensive to the south, which lasted for about three centuries. Navigation was hampered by numerous sandy islands and coral reefs that accompanied the coast - the reports of sailors about them are summarized on the map of al-Idrisi of the 12th century. On a flat, low-lying, swampy coastal areas beyond 9 ° S. NS. - the country of Sofala - the Arabs founded a number of new trading points, including Milbanunu (Mozambique), at 15 ° S. sh., Shinde, at 18 ° S. sh., near the mouth big river(Zambezi); up it, the Arabs climbed 600 km, probably to the Kebrabas rapids, 100 km long, and marked the river. Shire is a large left tributary of the Zambezi. The southernmost point - Daguta (Maputo at 26 ° S lat.) - was located on the shore of a large bay. It was the last village in the country of Sofala, the land of gold and iron, inhabited by Zinjs - cattle breeders and farmers. Around 1130, Sofala came under the control of Kilwa, which by 1314 had become the leading force on the entire east coast.
The land of Vak-Vak adjoins the country of Sofala from the south, the inhabitants of which “... are black, their appearance is disgusting, their appearance is ugly. They are naked and are not covered by anything. They feed on fish, shells and turtles. They do not export any goods from them, and they have neither ships, nor mounts, nor pack animals ”(al-Idrisi). This is the first ethnographic characterization of the oldest indigenous population of South Africa - the Bushmen, roving hunters, plant gatherers and artists.
The Arabs also penetrated further south. According to information received from the navigator Ibn Fatima (about the XII century), a geographer and traveler of the middle of the XIII century. Ibn Said reports that the mountains of An-Nadam, 20 days long (about 800 km), begin to the south of Daguta - the first mention of the Drakensberg Mountains, the eastern slope of which drops off with steep steps to the Indian Ocean. Acquaintance of the Arabs with the shores of Southeast Africa by the XIII century. was limited, as shown by the Soviet historian M.A.Tolmacheva, 33 ° S. NS. (now the port of East London). Thus, they discovered, albeit for the second time, about 3,500 km of coastline with two small unnamed bays, as well as the mouths of the Zambezi and Limpopo. But even at the beginning of the XI century. Arab sailors already knew about the possibility of bypassing Africa from the south: “... the sea [Indian Ocean] connects with the Western Sea-Ocean [Atlantic] ... [and] there is no obstacle to its reaching ... from the southern side ... although [Arabs] ... and did not see it with their own eyes ... ”(al-Biruni). And only four centuries later (about 1420) an unknown Arab sailor circled South Africa, following from the Indian Ocean to the Sea of Darkness, i.e. the Atlantic Ocean. Information about this voyage is included in the legend to the map of the Venetian cartographer of the monk Fra Mauro, compiled in the years 1457-1459. It is not clear from the message how far to the north the Arab ship moved, and yet, as R. Hennig notes, “... not only the southern cape of Africa, but also its coastline approximately up to the latitude of the Orange River are broadly depicted [on this map) ... strikingly true. " After 70 days, the ship returned to the South African promontory called Diab (“Looking at two waters, that is, the ocean”?).
In the middle of the VIII century. the Arabs discovered at least two of the six volcanic Comoros, a little later stumbled upon the uninhabited Seychelles (Ar-Ramm), and not later than the 9th century. southeast of Comoros found some land - north- West Coast O. Madagascar. With its inhabitants, they struck up trade relations and began a slow advance along the coast to the north and south. By the beginning of the XI century. the Arabs already had a number of strongholds on both banks, and probably by the middle of the XII and. found that the land they discovered was an island and named it al-Kumr, for the first time this name of Madagascar is found in al-Idrisi. By the middle of the XIII century. Arab sailors already knew that all space south of the mountains al-Nadama at the longitude of al-Qumr is "filled with the sea." And by the end of the 15th century. they had a relatively good idea of both shores of the northern half of the island. By this time, they, obviously, more than once crossed the strait separating Madagascar from the mainland, without further ado, they called it the Al-Kumr Strait (Mozambique Strait) and noted a strong current near the African coast.
traveling merchant Moroccan Abu Abdallah Ibn Battuta, a Berber by birth, was one of the greatest travelers. He began his wanderings in 1325 from Tangier, visited Egypt, Western Arabia, Yemen, Syria and Iran, reached Mozambique by sea, and visited the Bahrain Islands on the way back. Then Ibn Battuta reached the Crimea, was in the lower reaches of the Volga and in its middle reaches, crossed the Caspian lowland and the Ustyurt plateau and proceeded to Central Asia. From there through the ridge. He went to the Hindu Kush in the Indus Valley and lived for several years in Delhi. In 1342 he passed through the Indian subcontinent to the south, visited the Maldives, Sri Lanka and arrived in China by sea. Ibn Battuta returned to Tangier in 1349, again visiting Sri Lanka, Arabia, Syria and Egypt. In the years 1352-1353. he went on his last journey and crossed Western and Central Sahara; for 25 years, he passed by land and by sea about 130 thousand km. In retirement, Ibn Battuta dictated the book, as commentators note, "relying entirely on his memory." Ibn Battuta's Travels has been translated into a number of European languages. Saturated with a huge geographical, historical and ethnographic material, it is of great interest to this day for studying the medieval history of the countries he visited, including the vast areas of your homeland. Where Ibn Battuta says that he personally saw, that is, in most of his work, his messages are usually quite reliable. But the information he collected about individual countries, despite the elements of fiction, deservedly attracted the attention of historians, for example, about the Land of Darkness - Northern Europe and Asia.
According to Arab sources, merchants from Arabia reached the Philippines in the 1st century. n. NS. But only in 1380 Islam penetrated there: a Muslim missionary-scientist (mukdum, that is, "the one who serves") arrived on one of the islands of arch. Sulu, between 4 and 6 ° N. NS. His business continued Abu Bakr al-Hashimi... He married the daughter of the Raja Fr. Holo, and after the death of his father-in-law became the ruler. From about. Holo Arab missionaries moved to Fr. Mindanao, and soon the Arabs already controlled the entire island, except for a small northeastern corner. Gradually moving further north, they got acquainted with the islands of Bohol, Cebu, Leyte, Negros, Panay, Samar, Mindoro and numerous small islands in the inland seas. However, then the process of Islamization and exploration of the Philippines stalled. Although the Arabs entered Luzon, they could not advance beyond 15 ° N. NS. - to the central plain of the island.
family navigator, whose father and grandfather were muallim, Muallim is a captain who knows astronomy and is familiar with sailing conditions along the coast, literally a teacher, a mentor.Ahmed Ibn Majid Shihabaddin from Oman, as a boy, he walked with his father in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. In the second half of the 15th century, when he began to swim independently, the power of the Mamluks in Egypt, the Timurids in Persia, the Sultans of Delhi in India, and the Indonesian rulers noticeably weakened. And then came the era of Arab domination in the Indian Ocean, a long period of "peak" of Arab maritime trade. Arab sailors familiarized themselves well with the southern half of the Red Sea up to the latitude of Jeddah, 21 ° 30 "N, and the Gulf of Aden, the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and the seas of Southeast Asia up to the meridian of Timor Island, 124 ° E.
Summarizing the many years of experience of his predecessors, including his grandfather and father, using the information of his contemporaries, sailors and mainly his own observations, Ibn Majid in 1462 created "Hawiyat al-Ikhtisar ..." ("Collection of results on the main principles of knowledge about the seas "), And in 1489-1490. finished twice (1475 and 1478) the revised poem "Kitab al-favaid ..." ("Book of benefits on the foundations and rules of marine science"). These navigational works contain information that allows you to get some idea of the nature of the shores of the Indian Ocean, its marginal seas and the largest islands. Ibn Majid also gave some information about a number of points in the South China Sea (basin The Pacific). This information, however, cannot be described as a description - the distances between the points he mentions fluctuate greatly, and their characteristics are stingy.
The Red Sea is described from Jeddah to the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, that is, half the length. Ibn Majid does not give the features of its shores, so the general shape of this water area, in comparison with other parts of the Indian Ocean, looks much rougher. Based on the materials of Ibn Majid and Suleiman al-Mahri (more on this in the chapter "Suleiman and the Inventory of the Indian Ocean Shores"), D. Tibbetts has already compiled maps of the Indian Ocean and gave detailed comments to them in his work (on English language) "Arab navigation in the Indian Ocean before the arrival of the Portuguese" (London, 1971). He notes numerous banks, reefs, islets on the Arabian coast and Farasan Island; on the African coast mentions the Habt Mountains (northern part of the Ethiopian Highlands with the Hambet summit, 2780 m), the Suakin and Dahlak Islands and small islets at 14 ° N. NS. Ibn Majid knows the African shores of the Gulf of Aden much worse, noting only their latitudinal direction, and at the end of the Horn of Africa - Cape Guardafui. To the east of the cape, he places four islands, including about. Socotra by lengthening it twice. On the east coast of Africa, he mentioned only a number of cities, about. Zanzibar, estuary pp. Zambezi, Sofala, at 20 ° S. sh., as well as islets at the mouth of the river. Sabi and the southernmost point, at 24 ° S. sh., - several coastal villages. He reports that Madagascar is about 20 ° long in latitude (actually 14 °) and that the Strait of Mozambique has banks and islands, including Grande Comoros and Moheli from the Comoros group.
Ibn Majid describes the southern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, his native places, starting from the southernmost cape of Arabia, at 12 ° 40 "N and 44 ° E, further to the east Cape Imran, the port of Aden and immediately far to the northwest is Cape Fartak, 52 ° 20 "E. etc., which played a large role in navigation; further marked the islands of Kuria-Muria, the entrance cape of the Gulf of Saukira, about. Masira and the high rocky cape El Hadd, the most important point for Arab sailors on the western shores of the Indian Ocean, at 22 ° 30 "N; on the Oman coast, the port of Muscat and the Musandam Peninsula are mentioned.
The only Arab navigator, Ibn Majid, compiled a description of the Persian Gulf. On the Arabian side, he noted the low-lying coast of Al-Khas, the Bahrain Islands with numerous "subordinate" islets and pearl banks, the Qatar Peninsula, and in the Strait of Hormuz - about. Qeshm. The Asian coast of the Gulf of Oman and the inhospitable shores of the Arabian Sea are described by him very sparingly. He points only to their almost latitudinal direction.
India proper for the Arabs began at the western tip of the Kathiyavar Peninsula, 69 ° E. From this point, Ibn Majid proceeds to the inventory of its western coast up to Cape Kumari, describing in detail the Gulf of Cambay, Konkan and the Malabar coast with estuaries of numerous short rivers and the only deep bay at 10 ° S. NS. - Lake Vembanad. Shores "under the wind" - East Coast India - described in detail up to 18 ° N. NS. A narrow peninsula at 9 ° 40 "N and its continuation Adamov Most, the entrance cape of the Polk Strait and the entire Coromandel coast with the Kaveri, Krishna river deltas and Lake Pulikat, at 14 ° N lat., As well as the Godavari The coast beyond 18 ° N. Ibn Majid knows much less, which should be explained by the fact that the Arabs visited the northern part of the Bay of Bengal less often, mostly Bengali or Burmese sailors "worked" there.
Laccadives, located on the Socotra Sea Route - South india, are well known to the Arabs, but Ibn Majid did not leave a description of them. Ceylon (Sri Lanka), according to his information, is almost a round island, which can be circumnavigated in about 10 days. He knows the entire coast of this pearl of the Indian Ocean, with the exception of part of the eastern coast. Four days' journey south (more correctly - west-south-west) from Sri Lanka, he places the Maldives and calls them "islands of gold" or "islands of betel nuts." Seeds ("nuts") of betel, or arec, palm are part of betel - a chewing mixture that excites the nervous system. Noting the southernmost of the group - Adhava (Gan Island), he hints that further to the south, the Arabs also know other islands (architect Chagos). The Andaman Islands, according to Ibn Majid, consist of two large islands - Big and Small, separated by a strait (Duncan), and several small ones. In fact, the single "Bolshoi" is divided by narrow straits into three parts: North, Middle and South Andaman. Of the Nicobar Islands, he is familiar with only one - at 8 ° N. NS. The shores of Burma are known to Ibn Majid from about 16 ° N. NS. and further south. It quite accurately represents the shape of the Moutama Bay, notes the estuary of the river. Salween and al-Taqwa Islands (Erh. Myi). It correctly shows an almost meridian direction. coastline the peninsula of Malacca (the Arabs called its western coast Siam), marks the isthmus of Kra and about. Singapore.
The western and northern shores of the Barney Sea (South China), already belonging to the Pacific Ocean basin, are poorly known to Ibn Majid: this is why the shape of the Malacca Peninsula and the Gulf of Thailand is distorted. He is relatively well acquainted with the northern and part west coast O. Sumatra, marking the rest of the coast with a number of names. About Java, separated from Sumatra by the Sunda Strait (Sunda), he has less clear ideas. To the east of Java, he knows about. Lombok, as well as Sumbawa and Sumbu, mistaking them for a single island. He is also familiar with Fr. Makassar (Sulawesi), considering him large island... All islands to the east of about. Sumba Ibn Majid unites under the name Timor and distinguishes between northern and southern groups. He gives "... such a detailed description of the southern group that it seems almost unbelievable" (D. Tibbetts). but modern names the eight islands he described could not be identified. When meeting with V. da Gama, "Good helmsman, Guzerat Moor", Ibn Majid showed the admiral "a map of the entire Indian coast ... very detailed", - says the Portuguese historian J. da Barros.
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Arab travelers on the Great Silk Road (IX-X centuries)
Dzhumanaliev T.D., Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor of KGNU.
The rise of Islam and the subsequent Arab conquests in the West and East led to the formation of the Arab Caliphate. However, the conquests continued in the northeast in the first quarter of the 8th century, where Maverannahr and a number of other adjacent areas were annexed. With the growth and strengthening of the Caliphate in the VIII-IX centuries. a number of state tasks arose, especially in the financial and tax system. Of course, the Arabs could borrow the economic and financial system of the conquered peoples, in principle they took it as a basis, but the changed conditions also required newly verified accurate information about the distribution of provinces, settlements, about the products of agriculture and industry, about the amount of taxes in kind and money.
In addition, a centralized control system required good communication lines and accurate information about them with a list of routes, post stations, indicating distances and conditions of movement.
The interests of the state, being a world power of its time, did not allow it to limit itself to knowing only its territory; it was necessary to have an accurate idea of others, primarily about the neighbors and the alleged enemy. Both war and peace contributed to this: information was delivered by both the embassies and the captives returning to their homeland.
Travel from the first centuries of the Caliphate became very lively. As you know, one of the requirements of Islam was the pilgrimage to Mecca, obligatory once in a lifetime for a Muslim in the presence of a certain wealth and free communication routes. Therefore, the existence of the latter had a religious side, as well as trade in land routes, not only united the most remote areas of the Caliphate, but went far beyond it, involving the center of Africa, and northeastern Europe, and southeast Asia into the orbit of its influence. In short, both religion and trade expanded the scope of travel; the educational system, which considered travel in search of science to be the completion of the circle of learning and was considered obligatory, also contributed to this.
Until the IX century. the Arabs did not have an independent geographical work, but in the ninth century, acquaintance with the geographical works of Ptolemy begins as the Almagest and Geography in translations of Syrian authors and other works of the ancient Greeks. Simultaneously, by subjecting them to processing, the formulation of the scientific and descriptive geography of the Arabs is completed. The main significance of Arabic geographical literature was based on new facts, information communicated by it, without going into theory. The Arabs, in their geographical descriptions, covered all of Europe with the exception of the far north, the southern half of Asia, North Africa, and the coast of East Africa. Arabs gave Full description all countries from Spain to Turkestan and the mouth of the Indus with a detailed listing of settlements, with a description of cultural spaces and deserts, indicating the distribution of cultivated plants, the location of minerals. They were interested not only in physical and geographical or climatic conditions, but also in everyday life, industry, culture, language, and religious teachings. Their information was not limited to the areas of the caliphate and significantly went beyond the borders of the world known to the Greeks. The latter did not know well the countries east of the Caspian Sea, had almost no idea about east coast Asia north of Indochina. The Arabs, on the other hand, report information about the path by land to the upper reaches of the Irtysh and Yenisei, about sea shore Asia all the way to Korea.
Thus, the above-mentioned objective and subjective factors gave impetus to the emergence of the Arab geographical literature itself, which left a deep mark and, subsequently, influenced the European geographical science.
As noted above, the Arabs in geographical descriptions were not limited to the boundaries of the Caliphate, they continued their travels to the northeast and southeast, where they were historical areas, like Maverannahr, Semirechye and East Turkestan and entered the trade routes that had existed for several centuries before the arrival of the Arabs.
Arab travelers in their geographical descriptions gave a detailed picture of cities and settlements, their inhabitants, localities and a number of other valuable information that were located on the Great Silk Road, and thus they made a significant contribution to the study of the history and culture of the peoples of Central Asia in the Middle Ages. Thanks to the reports of Arab travelers, we know about the existence of medieval cities and settlements, the names of tribes and localities, the routes of trade routes, to a certain extent give some information about the economic and religious life of the inhabitants of this region.
For Arab geographers IX-X centuries. it is typical to give a description only to Muslim countries, since there is no need to describe the country of the atheists. At that time, the Talas valley and the western part of the present Osh valley up to the city of Uzgen were included in the area of Islam. In Central Asia, the caravan trade experienced a kind of trade boom, since the main branches of the Silk Road passed through the territory of this region.
Information from Arab authors of the 9th-10th centuries allow, with greater or less accuracy, to reconstruct for the period under consideration a segment of the Great Silk Road with all its branches, passing through Central Asia. The main route of this segment began in Baghdad - the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate - the largest center of culture and trade of the entire Muslim East, connected with numerous countries of the world.
Naturally, trade relations with other states depended on the intensity of interstate relations, as well as on stability in the regions located on the trade route.
During this period, Central Asia experienced a kind of trade boom associated with the development of cities, crafts and trade, the subject of trade was a wide variety of goods brought from different countries, which were in great demand in Central Asian markets, in particular fabrics, jewelry and metal products, etc. .d. Fergana horses, leather, furs, glass products, jewelry, carpets, agricultural crops, etc., which were also in great demand in the markets of other countries, should be considered among the goods exported from Central Asia.
There is no doubt that the Arab travelers went only along the most convenient, well-known caravan routes, where they could get (or buy) everything they needed for their further journey. This indicates that the exploration routes coincide with the pre-existing trade routes.
Among the Arab travelers, Ibn Hardadbeh, Qudama ibn Jafar, Ibn al-Fakiha, al-Mukaddasi, al-Istakhri should be distinguished, who gave their geographical descriptions of the northern branch of the Great Silk Road. In turn, the northern branch consisted of two main branches: South and North. Judging by the descriptions of Arab travelers, they managed to pass both branches, in addition, to characterize these routes. According to their description, Arab travelers moved from Baghdad through northern Mesopotamia, ended up in Iran, and then along the Persian section went to the northeast, to the Khorasan region, where the Central Asian section proper began. The city of Merv (now Mary, Turkmenistan) served as a gateway to Central Asia; the latter had an important political and commercial significance in the 9th-10th centuries. From Merv, travelers went to Amul (now Chazhou, Turkmenistan) further to Bukhara, from there to Samarkand. The Arabs indicated the distance between these cities, and they occupy from 36 to 39 Farsakhs (1 Farsakh - 6-7 km.). Moreover, ibn-Hardadbeh, Qudama ibn Jafar and ibn al-Fakih give different distances between these cities, and this difference ranges from 3 to 5 farsakhs. When establishing their modern equivalent, it is necessary to take into account the difference between road and cartographic distances, the difference between ancient and modern distances. The fact is that travelers strove to straighten and strengthen the paths, if geographic relief allowed to do this, and opened new paths or their sections and a number of other points. This can be seen in the further description of the routes of the Arab travelers.
Further, travelers moved from Samarkand to Zamin (Uzbekistan), here the trade route was divided into branches, this is the so-called Fergana (southern) and Shash (Turkic). According to V.V. For Barthold, this path was divided in Sabat. From Zamin the road went to the town of Akhsiket (now the ruins of Iski-akhsa, Uzbekistan). According to O.K. Karaev, that between these cities there were (more) four branches from the southern road: two villages of Sabat, the third in the city of Khodjent, and the fourth in the city of Akhsiket. These roads connected the Muslim regions with the regions of Central Asia. Further, the path followed from the city of Akhsiket through Cuba to Osh, and then to Uzgen. This route was convenient for caravan trade and passed through the steppe. From Uzgen, the path lay through high mountain passes along Qudama ibn Jafar al-Akaba, where the author notes that the road is very steep and difficult to pass, with ups and downs, and from there you can get to the city of Atbash. OK. Karayev explains that the Arabic word Al-Akaba means a mountain pass, a mountain road, a steep climb. According to Mahmud Kashgar, this mountain pass is called Kachuk Art and it was located between Uzgen and Kashgar. According to A.N. Bernshtam, this mountain pass, which Qudama ibn Jafar mentions, was not in the Arpa region, but in the valley of the Ala-Buka river.
From Aqaba the road led through the Kara-Koyun valley to the medieval city of Atbash (now the ruins of Koshoi-Korgon). According to the archeology data of the city of Atbash in the VIII-XII centuries. was the headquarters of the Turkic kagans.
OK. Karaev, referring to the reports of Qudam ibn Jafar, connects the Atbash-Upper Barskan road, and it passed through the Kochkor and Issyk-Kul valleys. V.V. Barthold, this path is not indicated.
Obviously, the South Road played a secondary role, since this path is less illuminated by Arab geographers, with the exception of Qudam ibn Jafar.
As for the Turkic or Shash road, the Northern branch of the Great Silk Road, as the Arab travelers called it, it began at the city of Zamin, from there the path lay to the Türk River (modern Chirchik) and further to the Shash city (Tashkent city). According to the Arab writers p. The Turk was seen as the border between the Muslim regions and the country of the Turks or infidels. From Shash the road led to Isfijab (Chimkent), from there to Taraz. All the distances between cities and villages indicated by Arab travelers almost coincide with modern ones, and therefore we have no reason not to trust the authors.
From the city of Taraz, the northern route passed through the villages of Uch-Bulak and Kulan (st.Lugovaya), this site is mentioned by Ibn Hardadbeh and al-Mukaddasi, that in Kulan there was cathedral mosque and strengthening.
Northern road from the village. Kulan to the village. Aspara (village Chaldovar), passed through the territory of modern Kyrgyzstan through numerous villages of the Chui valley in the city of Nevaket (Kemin). On this site, according to Arab geographers, there were numerous cities and villages of Merke, Aspara, Nusket, Kharanjuvan, Saryg, Dzhul, Kirmirab and Nevaket (Orlovka village), now all of the above cities and villages are in ruins.
The northern road from the town of Nevaket led through the town of Suyab (now the village of Shabdan) to Upper Barskan, the latter was on the southeastern shore of Issyk-Kul, then the route lay through the San - Tash pass in the Karkara region to East Turkestan.
According to O. Karaev, northern and southern trade roads are connected in the Upper Barskan region.
In the Talas and Chu valleys, the northern road was divided into five branches, passing directly through the territory of modern Kyrgyzstan.
The first (Chatkal) branch of the northern route began at the city of Taraz and went through the Kara-Bura pass and the Chatkal valley to Fergana. Muslim geographers of the 10th century report about the Chatkal valley. Ibn Hawkal, al-Muhaddasi and author of the anonymous essay of Khudud al-alam and her city of Ardalanket.
Second branch north road It also began near the city of Taraz and passed through the territory of Kyrgyzstan and led to Upper Barskan through the valleys of Talas and Suusamyr.
The third (Ilya) branch began in the Harran region (Ak-Su village). According to A.N. Bernshtam, this path passed through the Taikechu ford on the r. Chu, Kurdai pass, in the region of Alma-Ata.
The fourth branch of the northern road is connected with the city of Dzhul (ruins of Chala-Kazak). V.V. Bartold wrote on the basis of written sources from the 9th-10th centuries that this route passed from Dzhul through Taraz and connected with the road from Akhsiket.
The last, fifth branch began in the town of Nevaket and went along the Boom gorge to the shores of Issyk-Kul, where it connected with the southern road. Although A. Bernshtam denies the existence of this trade line, referring to the fact that the Boom Gorge is devoid of any traces of the former inhabited places.
Thus, the emergence and then the flourishing of Arab geographical science were associated with a number of factors, primarily with the formation of the Arab Caliphate and the spread of Islam, as well as the assimilation of Greek geographical science by the Arabs, and its creative achievements. In addition, the Arabs simultaneously associated all achievements in the field of science with the needs and interests of the state and the financial and economic system.
So, the Arab geographers ibn-Hardadbeh, Qudama ibn-Jafar, al-Istakhri, etc., gave in their writings geographical description northern branch of the Great Silk Road, which noted the existence of cities and settlements in the IX-X centuries. on the territory of Kyrgyzstan. It can be said, judging by the reports of Arab geographers, that the northern branch of the trade route occupied a special place, like all other branches of the Great Silk Road. Moreover, the travelers indicated the routes of roads and localities, the distances between them, without which it would have been impossible to restore the paths of movements of the caravan trade. There is no doubt that the sedentary and nomadic population took an active part in international trade, this is emphasized by the Arab geographers. In addition, thanks to the reports of these travelers, we know that on the territory of Kyrgyzstan, at that time, urban civilization, craft and trade were rapidly developing, and took a significant place in their economic life.
Bibliography
