Nomads, Northmen and Slavs. Eastern Europe in the ninth century
Imre Boba
SLAVO-ORIENTALIA
MONOGRAPHIENREIHE ÜBER DIE WECHSELBEZIEHUNGEN ZWISCHEN DER SLAVISCHEN UND ORIENTALISCHEN WELT
unter Mitwirkung von
TADEUSZ LEWICKI (KRAKOW)
KARL HEINRICH MENGES (NEW YORK)
FELIX TAUER (PRAHA.)
herausgegeben von
OMELJAN PRITSAK (CAMBRIDGE, MASS.)
BAND II
1967
MOUTON, THE HAGUE
OTTO HARRASSOWITZ, WIESBADEN
Nomads, Northmen and Slavs. Eastern Europe in the ninth century
by Imre Boba
Mouton, The Hague
Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden
© Copyright 1967 in The Netherlands.
Mouton & Co. N.V. Publishers, The Hague.
No part of this hook may be translated or reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from
the publishers
LIBRARY CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER: 67-30546
Printed in The Netherlands by Mouton & Co., Printers, The Hague.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Editor’s Preface 5
Acknowledgements
Introduction 11
I. The role of the Dnieper river in the early history of Eastern Europe 18
A. “Put’ iz Variag v Greki” 19
B. Theories based on the Annales Bertiniani 23
C. The testimony of Muslim sources 27
D. Byzantine sources and the Rusian Primary Chronicle 31
E. The role of the Nomads 35
II. Pax Chazarica 39
A. Nomadic state formations in Europe (sixth to ninth century) 40
B. The Avars and the Slavs 43
C. Origins of Kiev 47
III. The Khazars and the eastern Slavs 56
A. The chronology of the tributary affiliation of the Slavs 56
B. The testimony of Muslim sources 59
C. The forms and extent of the affiliation 63
IV. End of the Pax chazarica 69
A. The fortress of Sarkel on the Don 70
B. The Proto-Hungarians in the Pontic steppes 74
V. The Onogurs in the ninth century 77
A. The evidence of Byzantine and western sources 78
B. The evidence of Muslim sources 81
VI. The Majghari in Eastern Europe 87
A. Theories of the origin of the Magyars (i.e., Hungarians) 87
B. A new approach to the controversy; a theory of a Meshcher - Majghari continuity 92
C. Meshchers and the Rus center of 'Artha' 98
10
VII. The invitation of the Ruses 102
A. The terms ‘Varangian’ and ‘Rus’ 102
B. The historicity of the ‘Invitation’ 108
C. The chronology of the ‘Invitation’ 109
VIII. Eastern Europe after 850 113
A. The geopolitical situation 113
B. Askold and Dir in Kiev 118
C. The Ruses: Varangians and Autochthons 122
D. The Ruses of Oleg and the Slavs 125
IX. Nomads, Northmen and the Slavs 130
Index of Geographic, Ethnic and Personal names; Sources and Authorities 133