[a] and [b] The Spanish Jew Ibrahim ibn Yaqub al-Turtushi travelled across northern
Europe c. 965 – 6. From the quotations of his work in later authors we learn that Ireland
was the main residence of the Majus (incontrovertibly the North Sea Scandinavians and
not a generic term for Normans and the maritime peoples of north-west Europe, as some
have argued); that the Saqaliba were descended from Madhay ibn Yafith (see Said ibn
al-Bitriq and al-Masudi above); that the Rus and the Saqaliba travelled to Prague
(Fraghah) from Krakow (Krakawa) with their wares; that the territory of Mshqh (?),
king of the North, bordered on the Rus in the east and the Brws (Prussians) on the coast
of the Encircling Sea (i.e. the Okeanos), whom the Rus reach by ships from the west;
that west of the Rus (read al-Rus and not al-Brws) lies the ‘Isle of Women’ (see
al-Khwarazmi, above: this rare connection between the Islands of the North and the Rus
is reminiscent of al-Masudi’s location of Thwliya in Lake Myts, next to the Sea of
the Rus); that the Saqaliba trade by land and sea with the Rus and Constantinople; and
that the Saqaliba had intermarried with various tribes of the north, including the
Petchenegs, the Khazar and the Rus, to the point that Saqlab had become their common
language.
Bibliography: (partial) Arabic text: Relatio Ibrahim ibn Yakub de Itinere Slavico
quae traditur apud al-Bekri (Monumenta Poloniae Historica, New Series, 1 ),
Krakow, 1946 ; (partial) English trans. by D. Mishin, ‘Ibrahim Ibn-Yaqub
At-Turtushi’s Account of the Slavs from the Middle of the Tenth Century’, in
M.B.L. Davis and M. Sebok (eds), Annual of Medieval Studies at the CEU 1994 – 1995 ,
Budapest: CEU, 1996 : 184 – 99 ; P. Charvát and J. Prosecky (eds), Ibrahim ibn
Yaqub at-Turtushi. Christianity, Islam and Judaism meet in East-Central Europe,
c. 800 – 1300 a.d.: Proceedings of the International Colloquy, 25 – 29 April 1994 , Prague:
Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 1996.[b] The Hudud al-Alam, an anonymous geography written in Persian in 982 and
dedicated to an emir of the Farighunid dynasty in northern Afghanistan, is clearly
indebted to the tradition of the ‘Atlas of Islam’ for much of its arrangement and
information, especially al-Istakhri. As far as the Rus are concerned, it does not (contrary
to conventional wisdom) share a common source with Ibn Rusta (i.e. al-Jayhani). Its
author describes the Rus, after the account of the Saqlab and before that of the ‘Inner’
(Volga) Bulghar, as bordered to the east by the Petchenegs, to the west by the Saqaliba
and to the south by the river Rwtha (?). To the north lie the frozen wastes. The Rus are
bellicose and ungovernable; their king is the Khaqan of the Rus; their lands are fertile
and prosperous; they pay tithes annually to the Sultan; they revere their doctors
(i.e. shamans); they are served by Saqlab slaves; they wear distinctive dress (pantaloons
and a woollen cap); they have distinctive burial customs; and there are three principal
settlements: Kuyaba, Slaba and Urtab.
Bibliography: V. Minorsky, Hudud al-Alam, C.E. Bosworth (ed.), Cambridge: Gibb
Memorial Trust, 1982.[a] and [b] The information on the Rus which Ibn Hawqal provides and which has no
equivalent in al-Istakhri is significant. He notes that Volga Bulgharia had been sacked
by the Rus in 969 and adds cryptically that ‘they immediately advanced on Byzantium
–– J.E. Montgomery––