Moscow: IV RAS - " Kraft+". 2002. 356 p.

The fate of the Slavs in the world of Islam is an important topic, extremely interesting, but, unfortunately, clearly insufficiently studied, especially in Russian historiography. There are many reasons for this: the contradictory information of sources about the appearance of Slavs in the territories that later became part of the world of Islam; the difficulty of identifying certain groups of Slavs involved in the migration flows that accompanied the birth and first centuries of the Arab Caliphate; the controversy of belonging to the Slavs of certain ethnic communities perceived by Muslim peoples as Slavs.

The term sakaliba itself, in addition to the main meaning - "Slavs", according to many historians, could also refer to natives of the northern countries who were enslaved by the Muslims of Al-Andalus and the Maghreb, in general to all Europeans, and even, according to Zaki Walili Togan, to light - skinned Turks and Finns of the Volga region. There was also a point of view that the word "sakaliba" has a narrower meaning - "slave-eunuch". This question, like many others, continues to be the focus of historians ' attention.

An event for Russian, I think, and for world historiography was the appearance of the book by D. E. Mishin, who studied both here and abroad the problems of Slavism in the Early Middle Ages.-

(c) 2003

page 183

the medieval world of Islam. The author's painstaking and time-consuming work on this topic is also evidenced by his speeches at various international forums (at the International Congress of Orientalists in Budapest in 1997, at the conferences of medievalists in Leeds in 1996-1997), as well as his published works1 .

The reviewed work of D. E. Mishin is a solid, fundamental study, which stands out in Russian Oriental medieval studies in terms of the volume of material studied, the factual content provided and the coverage of the chronological period under consideration, the number of sources and literature used, the quality of scientific analysis performed and conclusions drawn. Moreover, this topic in all its diversity and breadth is raised by the author in our historiography almost for the first time.

Although the information of Arab, Persian, Byzantine, Jewish, and Western European medieval historians and chroniclers concerning the Slavs and their role in the world of Islam has been carefully studied for two centuries, which is covered in sufficient detail in the monograph (pp. 27-100), we still did not have a work similar to the study of D. E. Mishin. The huge bibliography (pp. 313-339) includes 644 titles, including 323 sources in Russian, Arabic, Latin, Persian, English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Polish and Serbian-Croatian, as well as in Bulgarian, Romanian, Macedonian, Ukrainian, Hungarian and Czech (in a total of 17 languages). However, this list, as far as can be judged from the introduction and the first part of the work (p. 7-100), does not reflect all the literature studied by the author.D. E. Mishin does not always mention the nationality of an author, because sometimes it is really difficult to do so.

The book is written thoroughly, in detail, in the traditions of "old" medieval studies and academic Oriental studies of the times of Barthold, Gordlevsky, Krachkovsky, and Krymsky. However, this is not a return to the past at all, but an attempt, and a successful one, to return what was valuable in the works of our luminaries, namely, a slow and serious consideration of the problem under study, relying on fluency in many languages and combining a historical approach with the methods of such scientific disciplines as linguistics, epigraphy, textual studies, and cultural studies. This methodology of research allowed the author to analyze the problem of sakalib in the world of Islam quite deeply and solve not one, but a number of major scientific problems: to give an exhaustive definition of the concept of sakalib in the world of Islam and in the relevant literature, to study the number, time of appearance, duration of existence and further fate of the Slavs in the Middle East, ways to deliver Sakalib slaves to the countries of Islam, to study in detail their situation in such different parts of the Muslim world as the country of Al-Andalus (Iberian Peninsula), the Maghreb and the Arab East.

The structure of the monograph is built in accordance with the need to solve the tasks listed above. In the introduction (pp. 7-26), the author dwells on the meaning of the term sakaliba and the controversies surrounding it. The first part ("The name of Sakaliba in medieval Islamic literature", pp. 27-100) consists of three chapters, which consistently analyze the testimonies of medieval Muslim authors about Sakaliba, and all these authors (witnesses, eyewitnesses, etc.) are divided into those who directly visited the Slavic lands in the east and in the center of Europe, those who directly visited the Slavic lands in the east and in the center of Europe. who, without seeing these lands, used the original sources and those whom D. E. Mishin calls "late compilers", referring to them such famous Muslim historians as Yakut (1179-1229), al-Qazwini (1203-1283), Abu'l-Fida (1273-1331), Rashid ad-Din (1247-1318) and al-Hajari (1569-1640).

A relatively small second part ("Slavic Settlers in the Middle East", pp. 101-136) It is dedicated to Slavic settlers mainly in Asia Minor and other Byzantine possessions-from Syria to the Balkans, where they began to settle even before the Arab conquests. The author rightly considers this issue within the framework of the typical Byzantine policy of migration of large masses of people-vandals, Goths, Armenians and others, including Slavs, although it is stipulated that the term sakaliba in different sources may mean not only Slavs. Considering the difficult situation of the Slavs in the Arab-Byzantine borderlands, he comes to the conclusion that, despite gradual assimilation and Islamization, they retained their ethno-cultural identity here for quite a long time, especially in the VII-IX centuries.

The third and final part of the study, which is most significant in terms of volume, factual content and its conceptual understanding, is not quite accurately titled "Sakaliba Servants" (p. 137-

page 184

307). It consists of five chapters: "Delivery of Sakaliba slaves to Islamic countries", "In Muslim Spain", "In North Africa", "In Mashriq", "Culture and spiritual world of Sakaliba servants". Although the range of problems is generally correctly outlined and the headings mostly correspond to the content, the author can still be accused of being too straightforward and peremptory. In particular, we are talking not only about Sakaliba servants, but also about high-ranking officials and warriors from the Sakaliba environment. The fact that in most cases they began their careers as servants did not necessarily mean that they would always be servants. Social mobility in the world of Islam was quite pronounced then (and even after). In addition, a Slav warrior captured with weapons in his hands (like a Byzantine, Frank, Catalan, Castilian, German) became a prisoner, but not necessarily a servant or slave. Very often Muslim rulers, and not only them (it is enough to recall the Lithuanian Prince Vytautas the Great and his guard of captured Karaites), it was from prisoners of war that they formed their personal guards or a kind of" special forces", especially loyal to them due to their isolation from local residents. Those who, once captured, became slaves, then, as the greatest expert on the history of Al-Andalus E. Levy-Provencal notes, " were often released and it was from their midst that the maula (freedmen) were promoted. - R. L. ), many of whom have made huge fortunes " ² .

The fundamental nature of the presentation, the detailed descriptions, notes and comments to the abundant and extensive citations from sources given in the book, the solidity of the documentary and historiographic base, and finally, just a great variety of little-known or completely unknown information given by the author, sometimes complicate the perception of the text somewhat. But in general, the monograph is easy to read, because it is written vividly, logically, in good language and is quite interesting in content even for non-specialists. Nevertheless, I would like to focus on some controversial places of D. E. Mishin's work.

The author uses the terms "Muslim Spain" and "Andalusia" to refer to the Arab possessions on the Iberian Peninsula (pp. 5, 8, 10 et seq.). Although this has analogies in Western literature, I do not think this option is entirely successful. First, the Arab possessions included the territory of present-day Portugal, called by the Arabs "Gharb al-Andalus", and by Europeans a little later" Algabria " (hence the Algarve region in the south of present-day Portugal). Secondly, since Andalusia refers to the south of modern Spain, the use of this name, as well as the epithet "Andalusian", causes confusion. It would be much more accurate to say about the Arab possessions on the peninsula "the country of Al-Andalus" or simply "Al-Andalus", which will not give grounds for any discrepancies. As for the epithet, then, following the example of Orientalists of the past, it is necessary to write "Arab - Andalusian", or, following the Spaniards who distinguish between andaluz ("South Spanish") and andalusi ("from Al-Andalus"), "Andalusian".

Regarding the interpretation of the title of the ruler of Sakalib at Khordadbeh: the word K.nas can be interpreted not only as a corruption of the Arabic scribes K.naz (p. 50), but also as a hakan. It is known that Russian princes were called khakan-rus ("Russian khagans") in the 9th century to emphasize their equality with the rulers of Khazaria. In the same way, I would like to clarify that the "stronghold" of the Arabs of Al - Andalus in the Fraxyneteum (Arab. Farahshnit) in 890-973 (p. 150) was actually a vast (according to the Arab geographer Abu Ishaq al-Istahri, "two days 'journey") mountainous region east of Marseille and was called by the Arabs the Emirate of Jibal al-Kilal ("Mountain peaks"). This emirate was also described in detail by Ibn Haukal, Yakut and other authors. "The Muslims made this corner habitable," Ibn Haukal wrote. From here, the Arabs raided as far as Grenoble, which they held for about 20 years in the mid-tenth century, as well as the peaks of the Alps in Switzerland and the coast of Liguria in Italy. It was they who captured in 972 the abbot of Cluny Abbey, Maillol, for whose ransom the monks collected huge sums ³ .

It is hardly necessary to refer Egypt to North Africa (p. 242 et seq.). As a matter of fact, the author does not literally state this anywhere, but he talks about Egypt in the chapter on North Africa. But in the world of Arabic studies, North Africa is the Maghreb, and Egypt is part of Mashriq or a special (together with Sudan) region of the Nile Valley. Moreover, the text goes on to speak mainly about the Fatimid affairs in the Maghreb. I think it would be worth mentioning the entire third chapter: "In North Africa and Egypt."

page 185

D. E. Mishin repeatedly emphasizes that in Al-Andalus, the sakaliba are " almost exclusively eunuchs "(p.167, 227, etc.) and confirms this with the testimonies of various sources, some of which simply equate the concepts of sakaliba and"eunuchs". It seems that this opinion was formed by the author due to his primary attention to the routes of transportation of sakalib slaves from Eastern Europe to Al-Andalus and the Maghreb through Germany, France and Venice. The slave traders who brought "live goods" along these routes usually castrated their Sakaliba slaves to protect themselves as much as possible from the threat of their rebellion or escape. However, D. E. Mishin admits a clear underestimation of another way-through the Arab in the IX-XI centuries. Sicily. Faced with the fact that one of the Saqalib, the grandee Hajib Abd al-Malik al-Muzaffar Taraf, had a nisbah (nickname) as-Siqilli ("the Sicilian"), he believes that this "presents the researcher with a difficult task" to choose between the writing of Siqilli and Saqlabi, which are very similar in Arabic graphics. In the end, the author recognizes Tarafa as a Sicilian, "until new sources are discovered" (p. 206).

But why not assume that not only slaves but also mercenaries were brought from Sicily to Al-Andalus? It is known that in the cities of Muslim Sicily in the IX-XI centuries. there were entire quarters of Sacaliba with its markets and mosques. They were inhabited mainly by former soldiers of the Byzantine army who were captured and converted to Islam. Already in the IX century. Harat al-sakaliba ("Sakaliba Quarter") in Palermo was, according to Ibn Haukal, "the most populous and largest" in the capital of Arab Sicily "meeting place for foreign sailors and merchants" ^.4 The Sicilian Sacaliba were mostly good military professionals, not slaves or eunuchs. The caliphs of Cordoba called them "Sicilian fellows" and preferred them to form their guard. The author should pay attention to the information of such famous experts of Al-Andalus as E. Levy-Provencal and P. Guichard. The first reports that in the Caliph's palace at Cordova, among the fityans (court dignitaries) from among the sakalib were "both eunuchs and non-eunuchs", that there were "more than a thousand eunuchs" and separately "a corps of mercenaries". It might well have included Sicilian volunteers, especially since the centers of jihad (ribats) appeared in Sicily "much earlier" than in Al-Andalus, and the mujahideen (ahl ar-ribat)grouped around them they sought to fight the "infidels" everywhere, including by joining forces with the Andalusians and Ifriqians (inhabitants of the eastern Maghreb) ^.5 In turn, P. Guichard reports about such prominent leaders of Saqalib as Mu-jahid al-Amri, who had a son Ali Iqbal al-Dawl, and Afli, who "was executed along with his sons" ⁶. By the way, the absence in the bibliography of the reviewed book of works by P. Guichard, well known to D. E. Mishin, is surprising.

All the comments made have only one purpose-to draw the author's attention to those aspects of his work that raise doubts or need to be finalized. Moreover, this is an extremely serious and original study, which may be the beginning of a deep study of the cultural and ethnic pluralism of the world of Islam and its historical links with other civilizations in the first centuries of its existence. I note that in his monograph D. E. Mishin, in addition to the topic of the Muslim Slavs, also raises a number of problems of the history of medieval Europe, the Middle East, Egypt and North Africa. Moreover, he considers them (in particular, the problems of the slave trade, culture, spiritual life of both the Slavs and the world of Islam), as a rule, in a new way, based on a thorough and very critical analysis of sources and literature, with a clear tendency to overthrow the established habitual points of view both here and abroad.

notes

^{Mishin D. E.} 1 Praviteli slavyan v opisanii al - Masudi [Rulers of the Slavs in the description of al-Masudi]. Why does Ibn Fadlan call the Volga Bulgarians Slavs? // Арабский Восток. М., 1997. С. 100-109; Mishin D. Ibrahim Ibn Ya'qub al-Turtushi's Account of the Slavs from the Middle of the Tenth Century // Annual of Medieval Studies of CEU 1994-1995. Budapest. 1996. P. 184-199; Nouvelles donnees sur l'etablissement des Slaves en Asie Mineure en haut Moyen Age // Byzantinoslavica. LVIII, 1997. 2. P. 225-232; Information on the Vlachs in Medieval Islamic Literature (Arabic and Persian) // Annual of Medieval Studies at CEU. 1996-1997. Budapest, 1998. P. 246-254.

^{Levi-Provenfal E.} 2 L'Espagne musulmane aux X- me siecle. Institutions et vie sociale. P., 1932-1996. P. 131.

page 186

^{Dufourcq Ch-E.} 3 La vie quotidienne dans l'Europe Medievale sous domination arabe. P., 1978. P. 11, 16-17, 27; Senac Ph. Provence et piraterie sarrasine. P., 1982. P. 17- 24.

^{Ahmad A.} 4 La Sicile islamique. P., 1990. P. 45.

^{Levi-Provencal E.} 5 Op. cit. P. 31, 53, 138, 153.

^{Guichard P.} 6 Les Musulmans de Valence et la Reconquete (XI-XIII siecles). Damas. T. 1. 1990. P. 54; T. 2. 1991. P. 294.

Permanent link to this publication: