Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The very first record of the ethnonym is provided by the well-known account of the Annales Bertiniani
(p.20) which under the year839 describes the arrival
to the imperial Pfalzin Ingelheim of a delegation sent by
the Byzantine emperor Theophilos (829842) to Louis
the Pious (814840). The envoys included people called
Rhos, whose king was identified as chacanus. An Investigation ordered by the suspicious Frankish emperor disclosed that those people belonged to the Swedes who
wanted to return home. This same form of the name was
later confirmed by other Greek sources e.g. in the Patriarch Photius report on the Rhos attack on Constantinople in 860, and in the De administrando imperio by
Constantine Porphyrogenetus written in the mid-10th
century.
In contemporary Arabic sources the people in question were called Rs/Rsiyyah. A challenging suggestion
228
***
For over two hundred years historians and linguists
have been struggling to find the ethnic explanation of
this name. The discussion has been dominated by the
simplistic interpretation of the Primary Chronicle. The
original Normanist theory formulated by the 18th century German historians (Gottlieb Siegfried Bayer, Gerhard Friedrich Mller and August Ludvig von Schlzer)
met with a vigorous opposition from the contemporary
Russian historians who quickly responded with the anti-Normanist theory which stated that the founders of
the Rus state were of Slavic origin. This line of reasoning
has become the foundation of the Russian historiography (e.g. Bazylov, 1975, s.23ff) while most of the western scholars acknowledge the Scandinavian or, more
precisely Swedish origin of those people (e.g. Sawyer,
1989, p.29). The power of this deeply rooted tradition
is visible even in the texts by authors who tried to avoid
the ethnic discussion and suggested to concentrate on
the speed of the Slavicisation of the Scandinavian Rs
(Logan, 1991, p.203).
There is also a compromise position whose promoters suggest that for the early Arab and Byzantine
writers ar-Rs/Rhos designated a trading-political
organization, irrespective of the real ethnicity of its
members (Golden, 1995, p.621). Those early observers would have called by this name all East-European
warriors-merchants and ignored their ethnic affiliation (e.g. Dolukhanov, 1996, p.190). The mixed-ethnicity interpretation has been recently supported by
JamesE.Montgomery (2000, p.4f and footnotes 32, 35,
65) who identified in the Ibn Fadlans report Scandinavian, Khazar and Slavic elements.
Most of the discussants supported their concepts
by references to various Arabic texts selected from a
broad choice of sources. There is a clear need to discuss more thoroughly all these records which have been
usually treated separately. Most of them consist of texts
which are in large part the result of the growing interest in the world surrounding the Caliphate. Numerous
229
III. , ,
and the inhumation practised by the Rs (Lewicki i in.,
1977). Surprisingly, he had much information on the
latters habits but did not identify them as any of the
known peoples (Ibn Rosteh, chapter XII Lewicki i in.,
1977, p. 3941) which does not allow us to propose any
certain identification either.
One should expect more insight into East-European
ethnic distinctions from Ahmad ibn Fadlanibn al-Abbas
ibn Rashid ibn Hammad, who reported his personal visit to the Volga Bulgars in 921922. His diplomatic mission was well prepared and included also interpreters
speaking various languages. Despite this his real knowledge of the northern people was rather limited and
biased and his description of the ar-Rsiyyah consists
of a mixture of various mirabilia and information concerning Scandinavians, Slavs and Khazars (Montgomery, 2000: 4f and footnotes 32, 35, 65).
Similar uncertainty may be found in Abu al-Hasan
Ali ibn al-Husayn ibn Ali al-Masudies Murug ad-dahab wa maadin al-gawahir (The Meadows of Gold and
Mines of Gems) written in 947. This eminent historian
and geographer spent much of his life traveling across
vast areas from India to Egypt. He was convinced that
the Rs consisted of many nations (Dunlop, 1954,
s.21). He admired their competence in sailing merchant
vessels and warships. These pagans were independent
traders who were not subject to any superior power.
Much less credible is his description of Western Europe which he did not visit but relied only on secondary
information or drawn on his knowledge of the East. The
good fame of this Arabic Herodotus misled some supporters of the Normanist theory becausehe reported
that the Rs attacked Andalusia in 912/913 (Lewicki,
1956, s.251). In fact he might have been drawing on
the information provided by the Egyptian geographer
Ahmad ibn Abu Yaqub ibn Jafar ibn Wahb Ibn Wadih
al-Yaqubi (died in 897) who wrote Kitab al.-buldan
(The Book of Countries), where he claimed that ar-Rs
plundered Sevilla in 844.
Some experts interpret these accounts as misunderstandings because Arabs in Maghreb and in Spain
would not have called the Scandinavians Rs which was
a name used specifically in the east (Danylenko 2006,
p.22). This transfer of the eastern reality to Andalusia
is also made clear when we read Liutprand of Cremona
who visited Constantinople in 968. He heard there that
Spain had been attacked by the Rus whom we also call
Northmen (Rusios quos alio nos nomine Nordmannos
appellamus or by Rusios nos vero a positione loci nominamus Nordmannos Antapodosis V, 15 and I, 11).
Anyway, all these accounts refer to the extreme
western part of the Muslim world where, apparently,
the ethnic knowledge of the sea-born attackers was
rather chaotic. This suspicion is further confirmed by
the completely unreliable information by Abl-Qsim
Muhammad ibn Ali an-Nasibiibn Hawqals Srat al-Ard
(The Face of the Earth) of 977 where he claimed that
Very interesting is the consistently repeated information on the internal three-partitive division of the
early Rus. Anonymous author of the early- 10th century Hudud al-alam (p.159) mentioned three centers of
Rs. Also Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Muhammad al-Farisi
al-Karhial Istakhri in his version of The Book of Roads
and Kingdoms written in the second quarter of the 10th
century claimed that Rs consist of three tribes. This
was repeated by ibn Hawqal, who finished his version
of the Book in 988. This finds confirmation also in the
Russian tradition recorded in the 12th century in the Primary Chronicle, where under the year 882 the Rus are
described as consisting of three groups Varangians,
Slovenes and others4.
These repeated claims of a three-partite ethnicity of
the Rs allow us to question the suspicion that this was
just one of the clichs repeated by authors who knew
nothing about the subject (Duczko, 2004, p.123). For,
in fact, they may reflect some general vague knowledge.
Especially that the linguistic analyses also suggest triple
Slavic-Finish-Scandinavian roots (, ,
, 1986, .203) or indicate contacts of Scandinavians, Veps and Slavs (Stang, 1996, p.299).
The internal differentiation of the Rus culture is
obvious also for archaeologists, who see that for the
10th century Novgorod the material culture was influenced by Slavs, Baltic Finns, and Scandinavians. Such
an interpretation refers also to the finds from Staraya
Ladoga (Roslund, 2007, p.183 and 186). A mixed Finnish-Scandinavian tradition was also identified in late
10th century grave mounds excavated near Ladoga lake
(Logan, 1991, p.205). Central settlements excavated in
north-eastern Russia (e.g. Sarskoe Gorodie near Rostov) show Finish populations penetrated by Scandinavians. Slavic elements appeared there only in the end of
the 10th century.
While in the north the Balto-Finnish contribution
is archaeologically visible, further south Scandinavians
were confronted with Slavs. Excavators of the great settlement center in Gnezdovo (halfway between Novgorod
and Kiev) reconstructed a mixed Slavic-Scandinavian society. Contents of the grave-mounds there (the cemetery
consists of over 5000kurgans) suggest the presence of
Scandinavians who accepted different elements from
various East European cultures including the steppe
traditions (Duczko, 2004, p.188).
4
In the opening chapter the Rus are described as distinct
not only from Slavs but also from Swedes and Normans and
even from Varangians. Only under year 852 we find information that Rus got its name after those Varangians who settled
east of the Baltic Sea.
230
5
On the origin of this name see Uspenskij, 2011, p. 111,
footnote 6.
231
III. , ,
From this time on, the ethno-national, but also political, name Rus became inseparably connected with the
Orthodox Church and its earlier Scandinavian connotation was turned into a semi-legendary dynastic tradition
located in the ancient pre-Christian past.
***
This short review indicates that despite the secondary character of their information (Sawyer, 1989, p. 27),
basically, the Arabic authors had a correct overall view
of the complex ethno-geographic situation in Eastern
Europe. When combined with the Byzantine sources and
with the Primary Chronicle their accounts allow us to
see an originally slow process of cultural integration
based on the blending of various traditions.
Originally, the term Rhos/Rs was not an ethnonym
but a collective designation of a profession. The Rsiyyah were sailing warriors-merchants who explored the
East-European trade routes. They consisted of Scandinavians but also Finns and Slavs. The multi-ethnic meaning of the term deepened when the Rurikid dynasty subjugated Kiev and began to build their state in the area
Original sources
Annales Bertiniani. Ed. G.Weitz. MGH, Ss. Hannover, 1883.
Hudud al-alam. The regions of the world. A Persian geography 372 A.H.982 A.D. Ed. V.F. Minorski. E.J.W. Gibb
memorial series, N.S., 11. London, 1937.
Ibn Fadlan. Kitb il Malik al-Saqliba. Polish translation and commentaries by A.Kmietowicz, F.Kmietowicz i
T.Lewicki // rda arabskie do dziejw Sowiaszczyzny.
Vol. 3. Wrocaw, 1985.
Ibn Khurdadhbih. Kitab al-masalik wal mamalik. Polish translation of relevant fragments and commentaries by
T.Lewicki // rda arabskie do dziejw Sowiaszczyzny.
Vol. 1. Wrocaw, 1956. P. 43160.
Ibn Rosteh. Kitab al-Alaq an_Nafisa. Translated and edited by T. Lewicki // rda arabskie do dziejw Sowiaszczyzny. Vol.2. Wrocaw, 1977.
Ibrahim ibn Yaqub. T.Kowalski. Ibrahima ibn Jakuba
relacja z podry do krajw sowiaskich w przekazie al.Bekriego. Monumenta Poloniae Historica. Series nova. T.1.
Krakw, 1946.
Liutprand. Antapodosis. Ed. J.Becker. MGH, SS rer.
Germ., 41.
Primary Chronicle. Ed. by A.Bielowski. MPH I. Lww,
1864. S.521862; Polish translation by Franciszek Sielicki.
Wrocaw, 1999.
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