Information about Dagestan in the Arabic Geographical Work Kitab al-a’lak an-nafisa of Ibn Rusta

Abstract

The article provides information on the history of Dagestan in the 10th century on the basis of translation, commentary and comparative analysis of excerpts from the Arabic geographical work Kitab al-a’lak an-nafisa (Book of Precious Gems) by Abu ‘Ali Aḥmad ibn ‘Umar ibn Rusta who lived and wrote in Isfahan at the turn of the IX–X centuries about the history of the peoples of the Caucasus. As for information on Dagestan, Ibn Rusta’s work contains more information than Ibn Khordadbekh’s and Ibn Faqih’s works. In his work, Ibn Rusta adopts the ancient Greek theory of the division of the inhabited parts of the Earth into seven climates, for example, he places the region in question in the sixth and seventh climates. Ibn Rusta’s data on the geography and ethnography of northeastern Europe, as well as the political formations in the Caucasus, are unique and significantly supplement the author’s predecessors. The parts dedicated to Sarir, which gained its regional hegemony in the X century, are of particular importance. The author of the current article compares several reports on Dagestan from Ibn Rusta’s work with Ibn Khordadbekh’s Kitab al-masalik wa-l-mamalik and Ibn Faqih’s Kitab al-Buldan in order to determine whether the origin of the material is the same for these authors. As a result, only one passage was found that overlapped with the work of Ibn Khordadbekh. Also, it is noted that N. A. Karaulov’s translation contains interpretative flaws and some fragments from Ibn Rusta’s work are missing. The scientific significance of this article is determined by the fact that its materials can be used in further source studies in writing the medieval history of the Caucasus.

Keywords:

Ibn Rusta, medieval history of Dagestan, Kitab al-a’lak an-nafisa, Arabic geography, Muslim historiography, source study, Caucasus