Ahmad ibn Rustah
Ahmad ibn Rustah recorded a blunt scene involving the Rus, the seafaring people he described in his geographical writings. A father, he wrote, walks up to his newborn son with a sword in hand, then throws it down and declares: 'I shall not leave you with any property: You have only what you can provide with this weapon.' That single scene appears inside a tenth-century Persian geographical book, written about lands far beyond where its author lived. Who was the man behind that unsentimental portrait, and how did a geographer come to write it? What else did he record about the peoples living along Islam's northern and western frontiers? His book ranges from river towns to a king who prayed with three different faiths in a single week. This account follows his book from the city he knew best outward to the edges of what he had heard and seen.
Ahmad ibn Rusta Isfahani, generally known as ibn Rustah, was born in Rosta, a district of Isfahan, in the Abbasid Caliphate. He wrote a wide-ranging geographical compendium in Arabic, known in the original as Kitāb al-A'lāq al-Nafīsa. For most of the lands he covered, he depended on secondhand reports, often difficult to obtain and impossible to check for accuracy.
In Isfahan, ibn Rustah could rely on firsthand observation instead, along with statements from people he judged trustworthy. That access produced a description of the city's twenty rostaqs, or districts, with details absent from other geographers' surviving accounts. He reported that Isfahan itself was perfectly circular, with a circumference of half a parasang. Its walls carried a hundred defensive towers, and four gates controlled entry into the city. That same authority, built on personal knowledge in one place, did not reach the peoples living far beyond the Caliphate's borders.
Ibn Rustah traveled to Novgorod together with the Rus, gaining firsthand experience of a region most Arabic-writing geographers never reached. From that journey and further inquiry, he compiled accounts covering the Khazars, the Magyars, various Slavic peoples, and the Bulgars. His book also reflects broad awareness of non-Islamic peoples across Europe and Inner Asia, including the British Isles and the Heptarchy of Anglo-Saxon England. That range makes him a valuable source for regions otherwise poorly documented in this period. It also makes him useful for the early history of the Turks and other steppe peoples. One of those peoples, the Rus, reappears in his book in far more detail than a passing mention.
Ibn Rustah described the Rus as living on an island that took three days to walk around, covered in thick undergrowth and forest. From there, he wrote, they used ships to raid the Slavs, capturing people to sell into slavery. He added that the Rus kept no fields of their own, surviving instead on what they took from Slavic territory.
He also wrote that the Rus wore clean clothes and adorned themselves with bracelets and gold. They treated their slaves well and dressed in exquisite clothing, reflecting the effort they put into trade. According to ibn Rustah, they had many towns and held a notably friendly attitude toward foreigners and strangers who sought refuge among them. That claim about cleanliness would sit oddly next to what other Arab writers said about the very same people.
Ibn Fadlan and other Arab authors described the Rus very differently, shaped by Islamic hygienic jurisprudence that judged the group's habits harshly. Their picture of Rus hygiene contrasted sharply with the flattering account attributed to ibn Rustah.
Professor Daniel Chwolson produced the first Russian translation of ibn Rustah's account, and it was there that the word 'clean' first appeared. Chwolson's edition also misspelled the author's name, rendering it as Ibn Dasta or Ibn Dastah. Later Russian editions of his translation added a footnote stating that the Arabic original actually says the opposite, meaning unclean or impure. One suggestion is that Chwolson changed the wording intentionally, out of concern that modern Russian readers might be offended. That motive, however, remains only a suggestion rather than a proven fact. That same book carried ibn Rustah's observations on peoples much farther from Isfahan, including a ruler in Croatia.
In the chronicle called Al-Djarmi, ibn Rustah described a ruler in ancient Croatia who was crowned and lived among the Slavs. This ruler, he wrote, bore the title 'ruler of rulers' and was also called the 'sacred king.' He held more power than the Zupan, described as his viceroy and deputy. Ibn Rustah named the ruler's capital as Drzvab, where a fair was held for three days out of every month. A different ruler, from the Caucasus, handled matters of religion in a stranger way, according to the same book.
Ibn Rustah wrote of a king in the Caucasus who prayed on Fridays with the Muslims, Saturdays with the Jews, and Sundays with the Christians. 'Since each religion claims that it is the only true one and that the others are invalid', the king explained, 'I have decided to hedge my bets.' Ibn Rustah did not stop his travels at the Caucasus. He also made his way into Arabia, where his book turned to describe a city he had visited firsthand.
Ibn Rustah was among the earliest Persian explorers to describe the city of Sanaa, in what is now Yemen. In his Book of Precious Records, ibn Rustah ranked Sanaa above every city in the highland, the Tihama, and the Hijaz. In his own words, none of those places was 'greater, more populous or more prosperous, of more noble origin or more delicious food than' Sanaa. He described Sanaa as a populous city with fine dwellings built one above another. Most of those dwellings, he added, were decorated with plaster, burned bricks, and dressed stone.
Ibn Rustah's book eventually reached readers well beyond the Abbasid world. In 1869, a Russian translation of his work was published in St. Petersburg. It came from the press of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, carrying his reports into a new language entirely.
Common questions
Who was Ahmad ibn Rustah?
Ahmad ibn Rustah, also known as ibn Rusta or ibn Roste, was a tenth-century Muslim Persian explorer and geographer. He was born in Rosta, a district of Isfahan, in the Abbasid Caliphate.
What book did Ahmad ibn Rustah write?
Ahmad ibn Rustah wrote a geographical compendium known in Arabic as Kitāb al-A'lāq al-Nafīsa, also called the Book of Precious Records. It covers Isfahan in detail alongside reports on peoples across Europe, Inner Asia, and Arabia.
What did Ahmad ibn Rustah write about the Rus?
Ahmad ibn Rustah described the Rus as living on an island reachable in three days on foot, raiding the Slavs by ship and selling captives into slavery. He also described them as wearing clean clothes and gold, treating their slaves well, and showing a friendly attitude toward foreigners.
Why does Ahmad ibn Rustah's account describe the Rus as clean?
The word 'clean' entered Ahmad ibn Rustah's account through Professor Daniel Chwolson's first Russian translation of the text. Later editions of that translation added a footnote noting that the original Arabic actually said the opposite, unclean or impure.
What did Ahmad ibn Rustah write about Croatia?
In the chronicle Al-Djarmi, Ahmad ibn Rustah described a crowned ruler in ancient Croatia known as the 'ruler of rulers' or 'sacred king.' This ruler was said to be more powerful than his deputy, the Zupan, and ruled from a capital called Drzvab.
Where did Ahmad ibn Rustah travel?
Ahmad ibn Rustah traveled to Novgorod with the Rus and later into Arabia, where he described the city of Sanaa. His writing also drew on secondhand knowledge of the Khazars, Magyars, Slavs, and Bulgars, and reflected awareness of the British Isles and the Heptarchy of Anglo-Saxon England.
All sources
3 references cited across the entry
- 1Bosworth (1997)Bosworth — 1997