Being Savage # 52 - RN&S - Ibn Rusta

[Anonymous]

Ibn Rustah (in Persian: احمد ابن رسته اصفهانی - Aḥmad ebn Roste Eṣfahānī) was a 10th century Persian explorer and geographer born in Rosta district, Isfahan, Persia [1] He wrote a geographical compendium. The information on his home town of Isfahan is especially valuable. Ibn Rustah states that, while for other lands he had to depend on second-hand reports, often acquired with great difficulty and with no means of checking their veracity, for Isfahan he could use his own experience and observations or statements from others known to be reliable

He travelled to Novgorod with the Rus', and compiled books relating his own travels, as well as second-hand knowledge of the Khazars, Magyars, Slavs, Bulgars, and other peoples.

Source of this info is questionable:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Rustah

[Anonymous]

http://www.archive.org/stream/descripti ... t_djvu.txt

A DESCRIPTIVE LIST
OF THE ARABIC MANUSCEIPTS

ACQUIRED BY THE TRUSTEES OF THE
BRITISH MUSEUM SINCE 1894
COMPILED BY
A. G. ELLIS, M.A.

XI. GEOGRAPHY AND COSMOGRAPHY.

Or. 4895. Al-A'lak al-nafisah, a geographical work by Ibn Dustah
(or Rustah). Transcribed from the Taylor MS. Add. 23,378. Fols.
154. A.D. 1844.

http://www.archive.org/stream/landsofth ... p_djvu.txt

Ibn Rustah has written a similar work to Ya'kubi, adding many
notices of towns ; but above all he has given us a most minute
account of* the great Khurasan road as far as Tus, near Mashhad,
with some of its branch roads, notably those going to Isfahan, and
to Herat; also the road from Baghdad south to Ktlfah, and to
Basrah, with the continuation eastward to Shiraz. On all these
trunk lines, not only are the distances and stages given, but an
exact description is added of the nature of the country passed
through ; whether the way be hilly, ascending or descending, or
whether the road lies in the plain ; and this description of Ibn
Rustah is naturally of first-rate importance for the exact identifica-
tion of the line traversed, and for fixing the position of many lost
sites.

http://www.archive.org/stream/relations ... t_djvu.txt

Some of these authors have bequeathed to us most
interesting sketches of manners and customs in ancient
Russia. One of the earliest of these writers is Ibn
Dustah (c. 912 A.D.) 2 , He tells us: 'The Russ
dwell on a marshy island, surrounded by a lake, three
days' journey (about 60 English miles) in circum-
ference, and covered with swamps and forests ; it is
extremely unhealthy, and so marshy that the earth
quivers when the foot is set to the ground. Thj
have a prince who is called Khakan-Rfts. They
attack tne siavs by ship, take them prisoner, and
afterwards carry them to the Kha zars and Bulgarians
and sell them as slaves. They have no cornfields,
but live on what they can plunder from the Slavs.

It appears to me that we here have a statement
from a second, perhaps even a third hand, the source
of which dates from the time before the foundation
of the Russian state, at which period the dwellings
and mode of living of the Russ may have been such
as he describes them. When the author says that
their prince was called Khakan-Rfls^ it seems to
suggest that he may have derived his statement,
directly or indirectly, from the Khazars, as Khakan
is a Turkish or Tatar title which was really applied
to their own princes by the Khazars themselves  

[Anonymous]