Ibn Rustah

Ibn Rustah ابنرسته was a Explorateur and Persan Géographe born at the 10th century in the district of Rosta, with Ispahan, Perse.

Ibn Rustah is the author of a geographical compilation. Information on its birthplace of Ispahan is particularly invaluable. He declares that whereas for other countries he had to trust with brought back accounts often acquired with great difficulty and without the possibility of checking their veracity, he had recourse, with regard to Ispahan, either with his own experience, or with the observations or the reports/ratios of others famous for their reliability. One thus has a description of the twenty districts ( rostaqs ) of Ispahan containing details absent from works of other geographers. Concerning the city itself, we learn that it was of perfectly circular form, with a circumference from half of a Farsang, with walls defended per hundred turns and four doors.

Its information on the nonIslamic people of Europe and interior Asia make of him a useful source (for the Moslems) of these obscure areas (it was even with the current of the existence of British Isles and the Anglo-Saxon heptarchie in England) and for the prehistory of the Turks and other people of the steppe.

It went to Novgorod with the Rus' (RTL F روس) and compiled works relative to its own voyages, as well as the information brought back on the Khazars, the Magyars, the Bulgars and other people.

It left a description of Novgorod, the city of the Rus' at the tenth century: “the Rus' live on a covered island of undergrowth and thick forests whose turn requires three days of walk… ; They plunder the Slavic ones that they reach using ships; they take them along to far like slaves and… sell them; They do not have any field, living only of what they obtain… grounds of the Slavic ones; When a son is born to them, the father moves towards the newborn, the sword with the hand and, throwing it to ground, he says to him: “I will not bequeath myself any good: you will not have what you can get with this weapon.” ”

Its impression on the Rus' is very favorable: “ They wear clean clothing and the men relative of gold bracelets. They treat well their slaves who also wear sumptuous clothing, because they devote all their efforts to the trade. They have many cities. They adopt an attitude of friendliest towards the foreigners and the foreigners seeking refuge. ”

It also makes the account of funeral to Birka.

In the chronicle Al-Djarmi , he said antique Croatia: “Their chief is crowned… ; He remains among the Slavic ones… ; He carries the title of “chiefs of the chiefs” and is called “the crowned king”. He is more powerful than the “zupan” (viceroy), which is its assistant… ; Its capital is called Drzvab where each month a three day old fair is held. ”

He said about a certain king of the the Caucasus: “It requested Friday with the Moslems, saturdays with the Jews and Sunday with the Christians. “Since each religion proclaims being the only true one and that the others are inadmissible”, explained the king, “I decided to put all the chances on my side.” ”

Having travelled also much to Arabia, it was one of the first Arab explorers to describe the town of Sanaa: “It is the city of Yemen where one does not find in the mountain, in Tihama or it in Hijaz a larger city, populeuse or more prosperous, of nobler origin or a food more delicious than it… ; Sanaa is a populeuse city with beautiful residences, some above the others, but the majority of them are decorated with plaster, burned bricks, and drawn up stones. ”

References

Ibn Rustah, Encyclopedia Iranica, New York 2003.
Ibn Rustah, Kitāb Al-A' lāk year-Nafīsa , ED. Mr. J. De Goeje, Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum, Leiden, E.J. Brill, 1892.

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