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

 

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