12
settlement by the seashore comes from the combination of the words kıyı
(küi) and ev.
22
In the 10
th
century after the attack of the last Slavic group paying
tribute to the Khazars to the capital of the Khazar Khanate under the rule of
Prince Svyatoslav in the years 966-967; the Pechenegs acquired the control
of the steppes of the Black Sea. Under the pressure of the Uighurs the
Pechenegs had been moving towards Lake Aral and further to the west in
the 8
th
century.
23
There were also the Cumans or Polovetsy who were
expanding into these lands in the 11
th
century.
24
As a result, the rivalry of the Slavic tribes over the control of trade
routes and the migration flow from the north had put the Slavic tribes into
constant contact with the eastern peoples and cultures. This interaction had
also resulted in the mixing of Eastern people with the Slavic tribes. This
mixture and cultural interaction may help explain the similarities in both
sides in their traditional norms, beliefs and social structures.
25
At the
beginning of the 10
th
century upon the invitation of the ruler of Volga
Bulgarians, Ilteber Almus to Ibn Fazlan to teach Islam to the Bulgarians;
22
J. Brutzkus. "The Khazar Origin of Ancient Kiev." Slavonic and East European
Review 3, no. 1 (1944): 108-24.
23
Richard Pipes. Russia Under the Old Regime. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons,
1974 p.35.
24
A. Zeki Velidi Togan. Umumi Türk Tarihine Giriş. stanbul: Enderun, 1981, p. 159.
25
Galina M. Yemelianova. Russia and Islam. Palgrave Macmillan, 2002, p. 2.
13
Fazlan had provided information about Russian clothes and dressing.
However this information was not in line with that of Ibn Rusteh and Ibn
Havkal.
26
This may be due to the fact that the Russians might have even
changed their dressing culture within these societies. This text also provides
evidence that the Russians had adopted numerous cultural rituals through
cultural interactions. As Halperin argues, even animosities require the
knowledge of the military, political, social and economic particularities of the
enemy, which results in close interaction.
27
The Soviet Orientalist Smirnov
had also stated in his book on the Studies on the History of Islam in Russia:
The desire to learn about the enemies made the Russian rulers to gather
special information about Turks and Crimean Tatars, sending out envoys,
investigating the European sources on the history of Turks and Tatars, state
structures and religions.
28
Concerning this early period of Russian history, as the Russian literary
tradition had not been established until the 12
th
century, most of the
information on the Russians and other Turkic groups were recorded by Arab
travellers. The earliest written record in Russia, Primary Chronicle
29
, also
known as the Tale of Bygone Years or Laurent Chronicle goes back to the
26
Ibn Fazlan. "Ibn Fazlan Seyahatnamesi.", Ed. Ramazan Şeşen. stanbul: Bedir
Yayınevi, 1995, p. 69.
27
Charles J. Halperin. Russia and the Golden Horde: The Mongol Impact on
Medieval Russian History. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987, p.2.
28
N. A. Smirnov. Ocherki Istorii Izucheniya Islama v SSSR. Moskva: Izdatelstvo
Akademii Nauk SSSR, 1954, p.17.
29
Thomas Riha, Ed. Readings in Russian Civilization. 2nd ed., Vol. Russia Before
Peter the Great, 900-1700. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press,
1969, p. 7-9., and Serge A. Zenkovsky. Medieval Russia's Epics, Chronicles, and
Tales. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1974, p. 43-73.
14
12
th
century. It describes an account of Russian history between the years
852 and 1120 including the events mentioned above. Therefore this is the
very first source indicating Russian views on the societies that they had
come into contact with. It is mentioned in the chronicle that there were
missionary envoys coming to Vladimir, the son of Svytoslav. There were
Arab and Bulgarian missionaries coming from the upper Volga who were
promoting Islam, the Khazars from the lower Volga promoting Judaism, and
Byzantine missionaries promoting eastern Christianity. Vladimir gathers the
council of seniors and sets up an envoy team of ten people to be sent to the
lands of these religions in order to acquire further information. The first
envoy is sent to the Bulgarians. By this way initial information on the
Bulgarians and Islam is brought to Russian lands. According to this
information the Bulgarians worship in a shameful way in temples they call
mosque and there is no happiness among them but only sorrow and a
terrible smell.
30
All these commercial relations and cultural and social interactions
require the knowledge of languages or use translators. So, it might as well
be possible that there was also someone with the language skills in
Vladimir’s envoy or there was a translator found in the Bulgarian lands. Frye
argues that there may be some Russians serving this need, however states
that Eastern merchants in Kiev, Vladimir and other places might have also
30
Ibid., p. 9.