Nikitin Athanasius (? -1472) the first Russian traveler in India, a merchant. In 1466, with trading purposes, he set off from Tver along the Volga to Derbent, crossed the Caspian and reached India through Persia. On the way back (after 3 years) he returned through Persia and the Black Sea. Notes made during the trip, known as the Journey of the Three Seas, contain information about the population, economy, religion, customs, and partly about the nature of India. There is no biographical information about the remarkable son of the Russian people, Athanasius Nikitin, but his travel notes Journey beyond the three seas (the exact name of the diary) is not only a valuable and interesting geographical document, but also a wonderful literary monument. The author tells the story of his wanderings along the Caucasian coast of the Caspian Sea, Persia, India, Turkey, Crimea and southern Russia. In the summer of 1466, merchants from Tver set off on two ships for overseas trade on a long voyage: they traveled down the Volga beyond the Derbenskoye Sea, or Khvalynskoye, as the Caspian Sea was called in the old days. Afanasy Nikitin, a seasoned man who had walked the earth in his time, was chosen as the head of the caravan. He took handwritten books with him and from the very first days began to keep a diary. The caravan sailed past Kalyazin, Uglich, Kostroma, Plyos. The short lines of the diary say that the path along the Volga was familiar to Nikitin. Long stop in Nizhny Novgorod. It was not safe to sail along the Volga at that time: the Tatars attacked. In Nizhny Novgorod, Russian merchants joined the caravan of the Shirvan embassy, ​​headed by Hasanbek, returning from Moscow to their homeland. The caravan, fearing an attack, sailed cautiously and cautiously. Safely passed Kazan and other Tatar cities, but in the Volga delta they were attacked by a detachment of the Astrakhan Khan Kasim. Merchants, brave warriors at that time, took up arms. The Tatars shot a man at our place, and we shot two of them, Nikitin reports. Unfortunately, one boat got stuck in a fishing lane and the other ran aground. The Tatars plundered these ships and captured four Russians. The surviving two ships entered the Caspian Sea. A smaller ship, on which there was a Muscovite and Tver, was wrecked during a storm and thrown aground near Tarkha (Makhachkala). The inhabitants of the kaitaki coast plundered the goods, and captured the people. Afanasy Nikitin with ten Russian merchants, being on the embassy ship, safely reached Derbent. First of all, through Vasily Papin and Khasanbek, he began to fuss about the release of prisoners. His troubles were crowned with success: a year later the merchants were released.

But the kaitaks did not return the goods: ... whoever has something in Russia, and he went to Russia, and who must, and he went where his eyes took him. Nikitin was among those merchants who borrowed goods for overseas trade, and therefore returning to his homeland threatened him not only with shame, but also with a debt hole. Athanasius went to Baku, where eternal fires were burning at the outlets of oil gases, which were considered sacred in the east. The city was widely known for its petroleum oils. These oils were used in medicine, were used for lighting, were the subject of extensive trade in the east. From Baku, where the fire is inextinguishable, in September 1468, Nikitin sailed to the Caspian Persian region of Mazanderan. He stayed there for more than eight months, and then, having crossed the Elburz mountains, he moved south. Athanasius traveled slowly, sometimes for a month he lived in some village, engaged in trade. He went through many cities. And then if the cities did not write everything, there are many great cities. In the spring of 1469, he reached the refuge of Gurmyzsky, as he calls Hormuz a large and busy port, where trade routes from Asia Minor, Egypt, India and China intersected. Goods from Hormuz also reached Russia, Gurmyzh grains (pearls) were especially famous. Nikitin, describing the city, located on a small waterless island at the entrance from the Arabian Sea to the Persian Gulf, tells about the sea tides; he writes that the sun is so hot here that it can burn a person. In this large trading city, there were up to 40 thousand inhabitants; about him then in the East they said: If the earth is a ring, then Hormuz is a pearl in it. Nikitin stayed here for a month. Having learned that horses were being exported from here to India, which were not born there and were very expensive, the tverik bought a good horse from Gurmyz ... he went beyond the Indian Sea ... After more than two years in Persia on April 23, 1471, Nikitin boarded a ship and six weeks arrived by ship in the Indian city of Chaul. India amazed him. Not even the earth itself, so unlike his native places, but dark-skinned, naked, barefoot people. Only those who are richer and more knowledgeable have a piece of cloth on their heads and hips, but everyone, even the poor, has either gold earrings or bracelets on their arms and legs, and around the neck the decoration is also made of gold. Nikitin was perplexed: if there is gold, why don't they buy at least some clothes to cover their nakedness? But in Chaul he failed to profitably sell his horse, and in June he went through the Western Ghats inland, 200 miles from the sea, to the east, to a small town in the upper Sina (Krishna basin), and from there to the northwest, to Junnar fortress, standing on a high mountain, east of Bombay.

A narrow path led to the fortress. However, wanderers, especially strangers, are not allowed to enter the city gates, and they had to live in the courtyards, however, for free. At the same time, Nikitin lost his stallion. Asad Khan, the governor of Junnar, was seduced by an excellent horse and ordered to take it by force. In addition, having learned that the stallion belonged to a non-Christian, Asad Khan summoned the Rusin to his palace and promised to return the stallion and weigh a thousand gold coins in addition if the stranger agreed to convert to the Mohammedan faith. But no, you won’t see a stallion like that, and he’ll sell himself into slavery. Khan gave him four days to think. But Nikitin was saved by chance. Just in those days, his old acquaintance Mohammed met him and begged Afanasy to beat his forehead in front of the khan, so that they would not put him in someone else's faith, and so, apparently, he asked what kind of soul he touched. Khan showed that he could be merciful. And he did not force him to convert to his faith, and even returned the stallion. He spent two months in Junnar. Now Nikitin looked at India with different eyes. I came here hoping to take the goods to Russia, and then sell it profitably, but there is nothing on our land. After waiting for the roads to dry up after the rainy season, in September, he led the stallion even further, over 400 miles, to Bidar, the capital of the Besermen (Muslim) state of Bahmani, which then owned almost the entire Deccan to the Krishna River in the south, a large, crowded city. Then he went further to Alland, where a large fair was opening and where he hoped to profitably sell the stallion. Only in vain did he count on this: twenty thousand horses gathered at the fair, and Nikitin did not succeed in selling his stallion. But here inquisitiveness again awakened in him, the desire to learn and remember all that is possible from the life of a foreign people, all sorts of legends and customs. Nikitin marvels at the numerous holidays, on which pilgrims visibly and invisibly flock. Nikitin also has a lengthy record of the legend of the forest king of monkeys, the prince of monkeys, who, in the event of a complaint from monkeys against people, sends his army to punish the offenders. Where did this entry come from? In India, monkeys were revered as sacred animals, they brought fruits, boiled rice and other food; even temples were built in honor of monkeys in India. A cycle of myths about the monkey king has been preserved, processed in the heroic epic Ramayana, where the monkey king Sugriv and his commander Hanuman are allies and helpers of the hero of the epic, prince Rama. Nikitin got to know some Indian families very closely. He told them that he was not a Muslim, but a Christian, and that his name was Ofonasios (Athanasius), and not Hoze Isuf Khorosani, as he was called here.

Without hiding anything from the Russian friend, the inhabitants told him about their life and way of life. The traveler learned that they have different religious beliefs, of all existing faiths 80 and 4 faiths. And again Nikitin in Bidar. During the four months that he spent here, Athanasius got to know the life of the city better. Nikitin now sees what had eluded him before, admires what he did not notice before, the winding corridors of the Sultan's palace, so that it would be easier to defend himself; an amazingly painted dome over the main gate; a stone covered with an ornate, embossed pattern: And its courtyard is crowded with people, everything is cut out and on gold, and the last stone is carved and described in gold wonderfully ... Not everyone can get here: a hundred watchmen and a hundred scribes are sitting at the gate, asking everyone who is going, for what business he came. Day and night, a thousand horsemen in armor, with lamps in their hands, guard the palace ... And on Thursdays and Tuesdays, the Sultan leaves for fun with a magnificent retinue of two thousand horsemen, accompanied by fifty elephants, a Russian merchant marvels, standing in the crowd and looking at all this ... But even more amazing is his festive departure of the Sultan. Nikitin writes in detail about everything, not forgetting and not omitting the slightest detail: ... Three hundred elephants dressed in damask in armor and from the town, and the towns are chained, and in the towns 6 people in armor and with cannons, and with squeakers; and on the great elephant there are 12 people, on each elephant there are two great prophets, and great swords are tied to the teeth according to the centar, and great iron weights are tied to the snout, and a man sits in armor between his ears, and the hook in his hands is an iron great, yes to rule him ... Here, in Bidar, in December 1471, he finally sold the stallion. Nikitin describes the magnificent departures of the local sultan, his courtyard, surrounded by walls with seven gates. He sees terrible poverty all around, which other European travelers did not pay attention to: the rural people are very poor, and the boyars are rich and luxurious; they carry them on a silver stretcher ... Nikitin also notes the discord between Hindus and Muslims (they don’t eat or drink with besermen), and differences in the life and food of individual castes; In 1472, Athanasius went from Bidar to the sacred city of Parvat, on the right bank of Krishna, where the pilgrims went to the festival of the night dedicated to the god Shiva (Siva). The traveler correctly notes that this city is as sacred for the Indian Brahmins as Mecca is for the Muslims, and Jerusalem is for the Orthodox. Up to 100 thousand people gathered for this big holiday. The Tver merchant is observant. So, describing food, mainly vegetable (cattle meat, according to religious beliefs, no one ate, many also did not eat pork and lamb), Nikitin notes the good custom of the people to wash their feet, hands and rinse their mouths before eating.

They eat twice a day, and only one on Sunday and Monday, he notes. The traveler was struck by the cremation of the dead. And whoever they have to die, burn those and pour ashes into the water, Nikitin reports. He also describes other customs, the father gives the name to the newborn son, and the mother gives the daughter, when meeting and parting, people bow to each other, stretching their hands to the ground. From Parvat, Afanasy Nikitin returned to Bidar again. From that moment on, mournful lines appear in the traveler's diary: he recalls the books captured by the Tatars, and grieves that he confuses the calendar, and, therefore, cannot exactly observe Christian holidays. He left Bidar in April 1473, lived for five months in one of the cities of the Raichur diamond region and decided to return to Russia. Nikitin was disappointed with the results of the trip: The infidel dogs deceived me: they talked about a lot of goods, but it turned out that there was nothing for our land ... Pepper and paint were cheap. Some carry goods by sea, while others do not pay duties on them. But they won't let us carry it without duty. And the duty is large, and there are many robbers at sea. Athanasius spent about three years in India, witnessed the wars between the two largest powers of the subcontinent at that time, and his notes clarify and supplement the Indian chronicles characterizing the events of 1471-1474. In Hozheniya ... he also gives brief, but mostly reliable information about some havens where he himself did not get: about the capital of the South Indian powerful state of Vijayanagar and its main port Kolekot (Kozhikode), about Sri Lanka as a country rich in precious stones, incense and elephants; about the considerable pier of Western Indochina, Pegu (the mouth of the Irrawaddy), where Indian dervishes live, Buddhist monks selling precious stones, about porcelain products of Chin and Machin (China). Exhausted in India, Nikitin at the end of 1473 (or 1471) set off on his return journey, which he described very briefly. He makes his way to the seashore. By land, through the Muslim countries, the path was closed. Gentiles were converted there by force to their religion, and for Nikitin it was easier to lose his life than to accept infidelity. From Bidar he got to Kallur, stayed there for five months, bought precious stones and moved to the sea in Dabul (Dabhol). It's been almost a year on this road. Dabul was at that time a large, wealthy city located on the western coast of India. Here Nikitin soon found a ship going to Hormuz, paid two gold pieces and again ended up in the Indian Sea.

And I sailed ... on the sea for a month and did not see anything, only the next month I saw the Ethiopian mountains ... and there were five days in that Ethiopian land. By the grace of God, evil did not happen, we distributed a lot of rice, pepper, bread to the Ethiopians, and they did not rob the court. The Ethiopian mountains refer to the northern high coast of the Somali peninsula. Athanasius did not dream of seeing Africa... The ship reached Muscat, passing about 2000 kilometers against the wind and current, and spending much more time on this way than noted in the text of the Journey... After nine days of navigation, the ship landed safely in Hormuz. Soon Nikitin moved north to the Caspian Sea, the already familiar route. From Tabriz, he turned west, to the Horde camp of Uzun-Hasan, who just at that time was waging war against Mohammed II, the ruler of the Ottoman kingdom. Nikitin stayed in the Horde for ten days, but there was no way anywhere, battles were in full swing, and by the beginning of 1474 he had moved to Trebizond, a city on the southern coast of the Black Sea. But in Trebizond, he was suspected of the scout Uzun-Hasan, they took all the rubbish to their place in the city on the mountain and searched everything ... apparently, they were looking for secret letters. They didn’t find any letters, but they stole everything that was good, only what was left was what he kept with him ... For two gold pieces, he agreed to cross the Black Sea. A strong storm drove the ship back five days later, and the travelers had to wait more than two weeks in Platana, not far from Trebizond. For gold, they undertook to transport him to the Genoese Kafa (Feodosia), but because of the strong and evil wind, the ship reached it only on November 5th. In the Cafe, he hears Russian speech and speaks his native language himself. Further, Nikitin did not keep records. Here he spent the winter of 1474/75 and probably put his observations in order. Three seas left behind Afanasy Nikitin; and only a wild field now separated him from Russia. However, he did not dare to go directly, but went along the well-worn path of the Moscow guests trading with the Crimean city of Surozh, through the lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. For him, this road was safer: Tver, unlike Moscow, was friends with Lithuania, and the Tverites had nothing to fear here. In the spring of 1475, together with several merchants, Athanasius moved north, most likely along the Dnieper. From a brief introduction to his Journey ..., included in the Lviv Chronicle under 1475, it is clear that he, before reaching Smolensk, died [at the end of 1474 and beginning of 1475], and wrote the scripture with his own hand, and his handwritten notebooks were brought by guests [merchants] to Moscow…

The notebooks, written by Nikitin's hand, came to Moscow, to the clerk of the Grand Duke Vasily Mamyrev. He immediately realized how valuable they are, because before Nikitin, Russian people were not in India. In the 16th-17th centuries, Khozhenie ... was repeatedly copied: at least six lists have come down to us. But before the 17th century, we are not aware of any new attempts in Russia to establish direct trade with India. And it is unlikely that those Russians who read the Journey ... could be prompted to travel to India by the words of the truthful Nikitin that there are no goods for the Russian land. His journey from an economic point of view proved to be a disadvantageous undertaking. But Nikitin was the first European who gave a completely truthful description of medieval India, which he described simply, realistically, efficiently, without embellishment. By his feat, he convincingly proves that in the second half of the 15th century, 30 years before the Portuguese discovery of India, even a lonely and poor, but energetic person could travel to this country from Europe at his own peril and risk. Nikitin had no support from the secular sovereign, like the Portuguese Covilhã who traveled shortly after him. He did not have a powerful ecclesiastical authority behind him, as behind his predecessors, the monks of Montecorvino and Odorico from Pordenone. He did not renounce his faith, like the Venetian Conti. The only Orthodox Christian among Muslims and Hindus, Nikitin could not hope for the help and hospitality of his co-religionists, like Arab merchants and travelers. Afanasy Nikitin was completely alone, very homesick and longing to return home. And God save the Russian land... There is no country like it in this world, although the fugitives [princely governors] of the Russian land are unjust. May the Russian land be well-organized, for there is little justice in it.

Nikitin Athanasius (died 1475) - Tver merchant, traveler, the first European to visit India (a quarter of a century before Vasco da Gama opened the way to this country), the author of the Journey across the three seas.

The year of birth of A. Nikitin is unknown. Information about what forced this merchant to undertake a risky and long journey to the East in the late 1460s, towards three seas: the Caspian, Arabian and Black, is extremely scarce. He described it in his notes, entitled Journey beyond the three seas.

And I went to Derbent, and from Derbent to Baku ... The Busurman dogs lied to me, they told me that there was a lot of all our goods, but it turned out that there was nothing on our land, all the goods were white on the Busurman land, pepper and paints - this cheap, but the duties are high and there are many robbers on the sea.

Nikitin Athanasius

The exact start date of the trip is also not known. In the 19th century I.I. Sreznevsky dated it 1466-1472, modern Russian historians (V.B. Perkhavko, L.S. Semenov) believe the exact date is 1468-1474. According to their data, a caravan of several ships, uniting Russian merchants, set off from Tver along the Volga in the summer of 1468. The experienced merchant Nikitin had previously visited distant countries more than once - Byzantium, Moldavia, Lithuania, Crimea - and returned safely home with overseas goods. This journey also began smoothly: Athanasius received a letter from the Grand Duke of Tverskoy Mikhail Borisovich, intending to launch a wide trade in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bmodern Astrakhan (this message gave some historians reason to see the Tver merchant as a secret diplomat, an infiltrator of the Tver prince, but there is no documentary evidence of this).

In Nizhny Novgorod, for security reasons, Nikitin was supposed to join the Russian embassy of Vasily Papin, but he had already gone south, and the trade caravan did not find him. Having waited for the Tatar ambassador Shirvan Khasan-bek to return from Moscow, Nikitin set off with him and other merchants two weeks later than planned. Near Astrakhan itself, a caravan of embassy and merchant ships was robbed by local robbers - the Astrakhan Tatars, not counting that “ours” and, moreover, an ambassador were sailing on one of the ships. They took away from the merchants all the goods purchased on credit: returning to Russia without goods and without money threatened with a debt hole. Comrades Athanasius and he himself, in his words, “weeping, but they dispersed in some places: whoever has something in Russia, and he went to Russia; and who should, and he went where his eyes carried.

The desire to improve things with the help of intermediary trade drove Nikitin further south. Through Derbent and Baku, he got to Persia, crossed it from Chapakur on the southern coast of the Caspian Sea to Hormuz on the Persian Gulf and sailed across the Indian Ocean to India by 1471. There he spent three whole years, visiting Bidar, Junkar, Chaul, Dabhol and other cities. He did not make any money, but was enriched by indelible impressions.

On the way back in 1474, Nikitin happened to visit the coast of East Africa, in the "Ethiopian land", reach Trebizond, then end up in Arabia. Through Iran and Turkey, he reached the Black Sea. Arriving in Kafa (Feodosia, Crimea) in November, Nikitin did not dare to go further to his native Tver, deciding to wait for the spring merchant caravan. His health was undermined by the long journey.

Perhaps in India he acquired some chronic disease. In Kaffa, Afanasy Nikitin, apparently, met and became close friends with wealthy Moscow "guests" (merchants) Stepan Vasiliev and Grigory Zhuk. When their united caravan set off (most likely in March 1475), it was warm in the Crimea, but as they moved north, the weather became colder. The undermined health of A. Nikitin made itself felt and he died unexpectedly. The place of his burial is conventionally considered to be Smolensk.

Wanting to tell others what he had seen himself, A. Nikitin kept travel notes, which he gave a literary form and gave the title Journey beyond the Three Seas. Judging by them, he carefully studied the life, life and occupations of the peoples of Persia and India, drew attention to the state system, government, religion (he described the worship of the Buddha in the sacred city of Parvat), spoke about diamond mines, trade, weapons, mentioned exotic animals - snakes and monkeys, the mysterious bird “gukuk”, supposedly foreshadowing death, etc. His notes testify to the breadth of the author’s outlook, friendly attitude towards foreign peoples and the customs of those countries where he visited. A businesslike, energetic merchant and traveler not only looked for goods needed by the Russian land, but carefully observed and accurately described life and customs.

I met many Indians and declared to them my faith that I was not a Busurman, but a Christian, and they did not hide from me either about their food, or about trade, or about prayers, and they did not hide their wives from me; I asked everyone about their faith, and they say: we believe in Adam, and Booth is Adam and his whole family. There are 84 faiths in India, and everyone believes in Bout, and faith with faith does not drink, does not eat, does not marry. India occupied a special place in his notes: “And here there is an Indian country, and people all go naked, but their heads are not covered, and their breasts are bare, and their hair is braided in one braid, and everyone walks around with their belly, and children are born every year, and they have many children. And the men and women are all naked, and all are black. Wherever I go, sometimes there are many people behind me, but they marvel at the white man ...

Afanasy Nikitin (born in 1433 - died around 1474, near Smolensk) - Russian traveler, Tver merchant, writer.

life path

It is believed that Athanasius comes from a peasant family. Note that "Nikitin" is a patronymic, not a surname.

From 1468 to 1474 Afanasy Nikitin traveled in India, Persia and Turkey. Thanks to these wanderings, the famous travel records appeared, known as "Journey beyond the three seas." These notes became the first description of a commercial trip in Russian literature. In this work, you can find many interesting observations about the economy, political structure and culture of the eastern countries. In addition, Nikitin describes the beauties of nature, the splendor of palaces, the manners and appearance of the locals.

Nikitin set off on a journey from Tver. He was carrying Russian goods, hoping to profitably sell them on the shores of the Caspian Sea. But already at the mouth of the Volga, he was robbed by the Astrakhan Tatars. Despite this, he decided to continue his wanderings. In addition, the goods were borrowed. The Tver merchant went to overseas lands to earn enough money to repay his debts. First he went to Baku, then moved to the south, where he traded and studied languages. Around 1469, Nikitin reached Hormuz, a major port located at the crossroads of trade routes from Asia Minor, India, Egypt, and China. He then traveled around India for several years.

Many Muslim prayers and Arabic-Persian vocabulary can be found in the Journey, so some scholars have put forward the opinion that Athanasius converted to Islam in India. But the traveler himself in his notes always denied this. Note that as a merchant Athanasius was not successful. Nikitin returned to his homeland through Persia and Trebizond. He also visited Kafa (Feodosia). But Nikitin never made it home, dying near Smolensk.

In 1475 Nikitin's manuscript ended up with Vasily Momyrev, a Moscow clerk. Subsequently, its text was included in the Chronicle of 1489 and duplicated in the Lvov and Sofia chronicles. In addition, Nikitin's notes were preserved in the Trinity collection of the 15th century. Later, in the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, Nikitin's notes were discovered by N. Karamzin. It was he who published their excerpts in 1818 in the notes to the 6th volume of the History of the Russian State. And in 1821, the full text of Nikitin's notes was published by P. Stroev in the edition of the Sofia Chronicle.

Memory of the great Russian traveler

In 2008, a monument to A. Nikitin was erected in Feodosia. In addition, in this city there is a street and lane named after him.

In Tver there is an embankment of Athanasius Nikitin. In 1955, a monument to Nikitin was erected here (sculptors A. Zavalov and S. Orlov).

The name of Afanasy Nikitin is the name of the top of the mountain range, which is located in the waters of the Indian Ocean (not far from the equator).

The name of Afanasy Nikitin is given to the ship, the Russian Railways branded passenger train and the Airbus A320 VP-BQU (Russian Airlines).

The Aquarium group wrote the song "Afanasy Nikitin Boogie".

Since 1994, Afanasy beer has been produced in Tver. Its label depicts a merchant.

In 1958, the film "Journey Beyond Three Seas" was released, the role of Nikitin was played by O. Strizhenov.

Afanasy Nikitin

The Tver merchant Afanasy Nikitin also reached India. He left behind the famous "Journey beyond the three seas" - the Caspian, Indian and Black. However, there is no other biographical information about him. By the way, even his surname is unknown, since Nikitin is not a surname, but a patronymic. Another thing is also curious - the Tver merchant had the right to bear a patronymic, while in the Vladimir and then in the Moscow principalities only boyars and nobles had such a right. The absence of biographical information about Afanasy Nikitin in the chronicles and other ancient Russian documents for some researchers is the basis for believing that the Journey was falsified at the end of the 18th century. Indeed, in a mysterious way, the Russian traveler ended up in India a few years before Vasco da Gama, which should have testified to the priority of Russia in the discovery of India. This version is also supported by certain inaccuracies in the description of the countries through which the merchant Athanasius passed. Athanasius is silent about many things, for example, about what actually prompted him to embark on an expedition to distant lands. This version is also supported by the fact that Athanasius managed to keep his travel diary during his many years of travel, although during the trip he had to endure shipwrecks, be attacked by robbers and undergo other troubles that did not contribute to the safety of the birch bark scroll. Moreover, a foreigner writing something in incomprehensible signs was to be mistaken for a spy, the list was destroyed, and the scribe himself was executed.

However, historians agree that the text of the life is genuine, since it is known not in a single copy, such as, for example, "The Tale of Igor's Campaign", but in several, and excerpts from the original "Journey" are contained in several chronicles dating from the 15th century, in particular, in the Lviv Chronicle, the authenticity of which is not questioned, which means that the text of the Journey itself is reliable. Another thing is that not the manuscript of the Tver merchant has survived to our time, but its copies made by subsequent scribes who could distort the text: involuntary misspellings, replacement of incomprehensible words with similar ones - all this made the text less authentic.

Another hypothesis suggests that Afanasy Nikitin visited only Hormuz, a large Arab port on the border of the Persian Gulf, and all the evidence about India was drawn by him from the stories of sailors who actually visited there. Indeed, some descriptions of India seem fantastic, and events (battles, changes of rulers) and dates do not synchronize well with each other. Speaks in favor of this version and the fact that the "Journey" included an episode of sailing to the shores of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. These shores were well known to the sailors of Hormuz, but they lie far from the route from India to the Persian Gulf. But along with such fantastic sketches, many descriptions of India are so accurate that they could only be made by an eyewitness.

Monument to Afanasy Nikitin in Tver

Nothing is reliably known about the occupation of Afanasy Nikitin. Historians and encyclopedic reference books unanimously call him a "merchant", and some researchers, striving for historical accuracy, say otherwise: "presumably a merchant." What is behind this?

On the territory of Russia and in distant southern countries, Athanasius was treated not as a simple merchant, but as an ambassador. It is possible that Athanasius had secret diplomatic missions to the rulers of the Lower Volga and the Caspian Sea basin. The death of Athanasius is also mysterious. Returning to Russia, he, a subject of the Grand Prince of Tver, mysteriously dies near Smolensk, which was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the diary falls into the hands of the subjects of the Prince of Moscow, who transport it to Muscovy. Moreover, the deacons-managers of the Moscow prince immediately understand that they have a document of exceptional importance in front of them. Based on this, it can be argued that the agents of the Moscow prince tracked down Athanasius on the territory of another state and took away from him an important document, which for some reason they needed.

The time at which Afanasy Nikitin went to India was difficult and tragic in the history of Russia. It was especially difficult for the native Athanasius of Tver. In 1462, Ivan III Vasilyevich ascended the throne of Tver's eastern neighbor - the Grand Duchy of Moscow. He, like his descendant and full namesake Ivan IV Vasilyevich, also bore the nickname Terrible. The Moscow princes sought to subjugate all the neighboring Russian states. At that time in Russia there were three independent principalities: Moscow, Tver and Ryazan - and three independent republics: Novgorod, Pskov and Vyatka. It was Ivan III Vasilyevich who, during his reign, subjugated these principalities and cities to his power, passing through independent principalities and republics with fire and sword, drowning the freedom of Novgorodians and Tverites, Vyatichi and Pskovians in blood. However, this will be a little later, and now, in 1466, Prince Mikhail Borisovich of Tver, trying to preserve the independence of his state, sends an inconspicuous merchant Athanasius to distant lands in the hope that he will be able to put together some kind of coalition.

Historians disagree on the dating of the beginning of Nikitin's journey. Some call 1458, others - 1466. Perhaps there is some kind of mystery here. Perhaps Athanasius made two trips - one in 1458 to Kazan and Astrakhan, and the second, which began in 1466, led him to India. However, we do not have reliable information about this first journey, so we will assume that the “walking” began in 1466.

So, in 1466, Afanasy Nikitin set off from his native Tver to the Shirvan land (modern Dagestan and Azerbaijan). He, (we emphasize - in appearance a simple merchant), travel letters from the Grand Duke of Tver Mikhail Borisovich and from the Archbishop of Tver Gennady. Athanasius is not going alone, other merchants are going with him - in total they have two ships. It is interesting that Afanasy nowhere mentions the names of Russian comrades, and this is rather strange. Either Athanasius did not want to give out the names of those who went along with him on an important mission, or, on the contrary, the clerk-scribe of the Grand Duke of Moscow decided not to include the merchants of Tverich in the list. They move along the Volga, past the Klyazma Monastery, pass Uglich and reach Kostroma, which was in the possession of Moscow Prince Ivan III. In principle, relations between Moscow and Tver are tense, but the war has not been officially declared, and the Moscow governor lets Athanasius go further with a safe-conduct.

On the way, Afanasy Nikitin wanted to join Vasily Papin, the ambassador of the Grand Duke of Moscow in Shirvan, but he had already passed down the river. Why the Moscow merchant did not wait for Tver, remains a mystery. And what kind of goods was Athanasius carrying to Shirvan? He doesn't mention it anywhere. Historians suggest that it could be furs. In Nizhny Novgorod, Athanasius had to stay for two weeks in order to wait for the ambassador of the Shirvanshah named Hasan-bek, who was carrying 90 gyrfalcons, birds of prey - a gift from the Moscow prince with him to Shirvan. However, such a number of hunting birds is either greatly exaggerated, or was a figure of speech understandable only to the initiates. Some historians suggest that the word “gyrfalcons” in the “Journey” was replaced by the word warriors, that is, the ambassador walked with a detachment of Moscow mercenaries, who, according to the agreement between the Moscow principality and the Horde, Muscovy was supposed to put up to help the Horde states. The Shirvan ambassador boards the larger of the two ships and they go down the river.

The further path of the heroes is very mysterious. In the travel diary, Athanasius notes that they successfully passed Kazan, Horde, Uslan, Sarai. The description of this part is cursory and gives the impression that sailing along the Volga was a common thing for Russian merchants. Despite the fact that they are walking in the retinue of Ambassador Shirvan, they choose a roundabout way - along Akhtuba, trying to bypass Astrakhan. Somewhere at the very confluence of the Volga into the Caspian Sea, during one of the stops, the Tatars attack the ships. A situation that, to put it mildly, does not fit into any framework.

After all, we are talking about an attack on the ambassador of another state. However, this attack, if only it took place, testifies against the presence of 90 vigilantes (“gyrfalcons”) in the ambassador’s retinue. What kind of mysterious Tatars attacked the embassy, ​​Athanasius or the later scribe is silent about this, but later, on the way to Shirvan, the Russians and Athanasius's companions had to face trouble again. Near the city of Tarkhi (near the present Makhachkala), the ships were caught in a storm, and when the smaller of the ships was either washed ashore, or it landed on its own, all the merchants were captured. Athanasius at that time was on the embassy ship.

In Derbent, Athanasius asks Vasily Panin and Hasan-bek to help those captured near Tarkha. The prisoners were indeed released, but the goods were not returned to them, because according to the law, all the property of a ship that crashed into the sea thrown ashore belongs to the owner of the coast. Such relations between Athanasius and the ambassadors of the Prince of Moscow and the Shirvanshah further convince us that Nikitin was far from being a simple merchant.

Some of the merchants, according to Nikitin, tried to return to Russia, others remained in Shirvan. In the text of the Journey, Athanasius tries to explain his further wanderings by the fact that he borrowed goods in Russia and now that the goods were gone, he could be made a serf for debts. However, this is not the whole truth or not true at all. In the future, Nikitin will try twice to return to Russia, but for some unknown reason he will not be allowed to go further than Astrakhan twice. Therefore, in the end, Athanasius returns to Russia not along the Volga, but along the Dnieper. But if he took goods on credit, then the debt would remain such a few years later, when he decided to return a few years later.

For some time, Athanasius remained in Shirvan, first in Derbent, and then in Baku, "where the fire burns unquenchable." What he was doing all this time is unknown. One gets the impression that he was either expecting some important news from Tver, or, on the contrary, was hiding from enemies. A reason unknown to us drove Athanasius further, across the sea - to Chenokur. He lives here for half a year, but he is forced to leave here too, he lives in Sari for a month, another month in Amal - and again the road, a short rest and again on the road. Here is how he himself tells about this part of his journey: “And I lived in Chanakur for six months, and I lived in Sari for a month, in the Mazandaran land. And from there he went to Amol and lived there for a month. And from there he went to Damavend, and from Damavend to Ray. Here they killed Shah Hussein, from the children of Ali, the grandchildren of Muhammad, and the curse of Muhammad fell on the murderers - seventy cities were destroyed. From Ray I went to Kashan and lived there for a month, and from Kashan to Nain, and from Nain to Yazd and lived there for a month. And from Yazd he went to Sirjan, and from Sirjan to Tar om, livestock here are fed with dates, batman sells dates for four altyns. And from Tarom I went to Lara, and from Lara - to Bender, then the Hormuz pier. And then the Indian Sea, in Persian Daria Gundustanskaya; to Ormuz-city from here it is four miles to go.

It seems that he travels around Iran, moving from one city to another, as if hiding from someone. And he does not list all the cities in his notes, there are “many more big cities,” he writes, which he visited, but he does not even give their names. It is interesting that in "Journey" he talks about the ancient city of Ray, in which Hussein, the grandson of Muhammad, was once killed. Shortly thereafter, the city was captured and destroyed by the conquerors, and by the time of Athanasius, only ruins remained of it. It is difficult to say whether Nikitin was hiding in the ruins of Ray from unknown opponents or was looking for something to sell there, but this city is mentioned in his notes specifically. The legend of the destroyed city is in tune with his sad thoughts about his homeland - a war is brewing there between the two great principalities, at the same time the troops of the Grand Duke of Moscow are smashing Vyatka and Novgorod. And the history of the city of Rhea is intertwined with modernity.

But here he is, in his wanderings, reaches the Strait of Hormuz, which separates the Persian Gulf from the "Indian Sea". Here, for the first time among the Ruthenians (as he calls himself), he sees the ebb and flow. Interestingly, it is here that he meets Christians and celebrates Easter with them. This is a very important fact for historians, because from long descriptions of wanderings one can make an unambiguous conclusion that he wandered around Iran for more than a year, but since he did not have the opportunity to perform Easter rites and did not even have the opportunity to calculate the onset of Easter, he did not celebrated this holiday. It is possible that it was at this time that Athanasius Nikitin began to think about the legitimacy of other faiths. It was in Hormuz, in his own words, that Athanasius began to keep his diary. But the descriptions of his previous travels are quite detailed, so the idea arises that in Hormuz (or somewhat earlier) he lost his previous records and now here, on the coast of the Persian Gulf, before sailing to India, he restored his memories.

Soon Athanasius sails to India on an Indian ship (tava). It is difficult to say whether India was the immediate goal of his journey, or whether he got there by chance, in search of wealth. In his own words, he learned that horses are not bred in India, so they are very expensive there, and he decided to go to India with a stallion, which he hoped to sell there. On the tava, Nikitin reached the North Indian port of Cambay, “where paint and varnish are born” (the main export products, except for spices and fabrics), and then went to Chaul, located on the Hindustan peninsula.

India struck the traveler. This land was so unlike his native places, lush greenery and fertile soils yielded crops unprecedented in his homeland. People in India - dark-skinned, naked, barefoot - were also different. They lived a different life, served other gods. “Those who were richer and more knowledgeable wore a piece of cloth on their heads and hips, but everyone, even the poor, had gold - earrings, bracelets on their arms and legs, and jewelry also made of gold around the neck.” Nikitin was perplexed: "If they have gold, why don't they buy at least some clothes to cover their nakedness?" And here is another observation about the mores of India, which struck the traveler: “And then the Indian country, and people walk around naked, but their heads are not covered, and their breasts are bare, and their hair is braided in one braid, everyone walks around with their belly, and children are born every year, and they have many children. Both men and women are all naked and all black. Wherever I go, there are many people behind me - they marvel at the white man. The local prince has a veil on his head, and another on his hips, and the boyars there have a veil over his shoulder, and another on his hips, and the princesses go around - a veil is thrown over their shoulders, another veil is on their hips. And the servants of princes and boyars have one veil wrapped around their hips, and a shield, and a sword in their hands, some with darts, others with daggers, and others with sabers, and others with bows and arrows; Yes, they are all naked, yes barefoot, but strong, but they don’t shave their hair. And women walk around - their heads are not covered, and their breasts are bare, and boys and girls walk naked until they are seven years old, their shame is not covered. Or here is another sketch of a traveler about Indian customs: “... merchants are settled in farmsteads. The hostesses cook for the guests, and the hostesses make the bed, and sleep with the guests. If you have a close relationship with her, give two coins, if you do not have a close relationship, give one. There are many temporary wives here, and then a close connection for nothing; they love white people<…>Many cubs will be born to them, and if one of them is born to either mother or father, they are abandoned on the roads. Other Gundustans pick them up and teach them all sorts of crafts; and if they sell it, then at night, so that they cannot find their way back, while others are taught to amuse people.<.>there are many women walking around, and therefore they are cheap: if you have a close relationship with her, give two residents (coins); If you want to waste your money, give me six residents. That's the way it is in these places. And slave concubines are cheap: 4 pounds - good, 6 pounds - good and black, black-black amchuk small, good.

And he is also surprised at various Indian curiosities, for example, war elephants: “The battle is being fought more and more on elephants, themselves in armor and horses. Elephants have large forged swords tied to their heads and tusks.<…>Yes, they dress elephants in damask armor, yes, turrets are made on elephants, and in those turrets there are twelve people in armor, and all with cannons, but with arrows. And Athanasius probably thought: “Oh, yes, such elephants to my Grand Duke, he would be invincible!” But to bring even one elephant to Russia is impossible. And far, and the path is dangerous. About 700 years before Nikitin, the Arab ruler Harun ar-Rashid presented an elephant to the King of the Franks, Charlemagne, and with great difficulty, he was brought from Palestine to Aachen. But that was a gift from one great ruler to another.

The manners of the Indian kingdoms surprise Athanasius. Here is how he describes Asad Khan, who ruled in Junnar: “Asad Khan rides in public. And he has a lot of elephants, and he has a lot of good horses, and he has a lot of warriors, Khorasans. And horses are brought from the land of Khorasan, others from the Arab land, others from the Turkmen land, others from the Chagatai land, and they are all brought by sea in tavs - Indian ships<.>Boyars are carried on silver stretchers, horses are led in front in golden harness, up to twenty horses are led, and behind them are three hundred horsemen, and five hundred foot soldiers, and ten trumpeters, and ten people with drums, and ten dudars. Isn't it a funny detail - the khan and the boyars have a lot of elephants and horses, and they ride on people!

However, Athanasius clearly admires the splendor of the Indian khans and describes the khan's departure in all its glory: “And when the sultan goes for a walk with his mother and wife, ten thousand horsemen follow him and fifty thousand foot soldiers, and two hundred elephants are led out and all in gilded armor , and in front of him - a hundred trumpeters, a hundred dancers, three hundred riding horses in a golden harness, a hundred monkeys, a hundred concubines, they are called gauryks. Seven gates lead to the Sultan's palace, and one hundred guards and one hundred Kafar scribes sit in the gate. Some write down who goes to the palace, others who goes out. Foreigners are not allowed into the palace. And the Sultan's palace is very beautiful, there are carvings and gold on the walls, the last stone - and that one is very beautifully painted in carvings and gold. Yes, in the palace of the Sultan, the vessels are different.

In another city, the departure of the Sultan is even more beautiful: “With him, twenty great viziers left and three hundred elephants, dressed in damask armor, with turrets, and the turrets were chained. In the turrets there are six people in armor with cannons and squeakers, and on large elephants there are twelve people. And on each elephant there are two large banners, and large swords weighing a centar are tied to the tusks, and huge iron weights are around the neck. And between the ears sits a man in armor with a large iron hook - he directs the elephant with it. Yes, a thousand riding horses in golden harness, and a hundred camels with drums, and three hundred trumpeters, and three hundred dancers, and three hundred concubines. On the sultan, the caftan is all covered with yakhonts, and a hat with a huge diamond, and a golden saadak with yakhonts, and three sabers on it are all in gold, and a golden saddle, and a golden harness, all in gold. In front of him, a kafir runs skipping, leads with a guard, and behind him there are many footmen. Behind comes an evil elephant, all dressed up in damask, drives people away, a large iron chain in his trunk, drives away horses and people with it, so that they do not come close to the Sultan. And the brother of the Sultan sits on a golden stretcher, above him is a velvet canopy, and a dome is golden with yakhonts, and twenty people carry him. And the makhdum sits on a golden stretcher, and the canopy over it is silk with a golden dome, and four horses in a golden harness are carrying him. Yes, there are a great many people around him, and there are many singers and dancers in front of him; and all with drawn swords and sabers, with shields, darts and spears, with large straight bows. And the horses are all in armor, with saadaks. And the rest of the people are all naked, only a bandage on the hips, the shame is covered.

Much surprises the traveler: “They began their winter on Trinity Day (May-June.)

Every day and night - for four whole months - everywhere there is water and mud. These days they plow with them and sow wheat, and rice, and peas, and everything edible. Their wine is made from large nuts, the Gundustan goats are called, and the mash is made from tatna. Horses are fed here with peas, and khichri is boiled with sugar and butter, they are fed to horses, and in the morning they give sheshni. Horses are not found in the Indian land, bulls and buffaloes are born in their land - they ride and carry goods and other things, they do everything.<.>Dzhunnar-grad stands on a stone rock, not fortified by anything, protected by God. And the paths to that mountain go by one person at a time: the road is narrow, two cannot pass.<…>Their spring began with the Intercession of the Holy Mother of God (October)<…>At night, the city of Bidar is guarded by a thousand guards under the command of a kuttawala, on horseback and in armor, and each has a torch in their hands.<.>In Bidar, snakes crawl along the streets, two fathoms long.

Some of Afanasy's sketches are amusing and rather reminiscent of Arabian tales, however, this is not surprising, much of what Nikitin could not see with his own eyes, he took from the stories of Arab merchants: “And there is also a gukuk bird in that Aland, flies at night, shouts: "cook-cook"; and on whose house she sits, a person will die there, and whoever wants to kill her, she fires fire from her mouth at that one. Mamons go at night and grab chickens, and they live on the hills or among the rocks. And those monkeys live in the forest. They have a monkey prince, he walks with his army. If someone offends the monkeys, they complain to their prince, and he sends his army to the offender, and when they come to the city, they destroy houses and kill people. And the monkey army, they say, is very large, and they have their own language<.>They cut the navels of domestic deer - musk will be born in them, and wild deer drop their navels across the field and through the forest, but they lose their smell, and even that musk is not fresh.

In general, food traditions are what the traveler first notices, and this is how Nikitin describes the food of the Indians: “Some of them eat lamb, yes chickens, yes fish, yes eggs, but no one eats beef<… >Hindus do not eat any meat, neither beef, nor mutton, nor chicken, nor fish, nor pork, although they have a lot of pigs. They eat twice during the day, but they don’t eat at night, and they don’t drink wine or satiety.<.>And their food is bad. And they don’t drink with each other, they don’t eat, even with their wife. And they eat rice, but khichri with butter, and various herbs, but they cook them with butter and milk, and they eat everything with their right hand, but they do not take anything with their left. Knife and spoon do not know. And on the way, to cook porridge, everyone wears a bowler hat. And they turn away from the besermen: one of them would not look into the bowler hat or at the food. And if a besermenin looks, they don’t eat that food. Therefore, they eat, covering themselves with a scarf, so that no one can see. Below, Nikitin explains why Hindus do not eat cows and bulls: “Indians call a bull a father, and a cow a mother. They bake bread and cook dishes on their dung, and make marks on the face, on the forehead and all over the body with that ashes.

Each time, faced with a different way of life, a different faith and system of values, Athanasius was convinced that one can live in different ways and that each faith is correct in its own way. He is interested in questions of the faith of other peoples, which, in general, for the Orthodox is almost a sin, because the truth, from the point of view of Orthodoxy, is contained only in the Gospels and the teachings of the Church Fathers, and all other religions are from Satan. But Athanasius, together with the Hindus, visits the main Buddhist center of that time - the city of Parvat, which he calls like this: "That is their Jerusalem, the same as Mecca for the besermen." However, the Buddhist monks failed to interest Nikitin in their faith, and such a variety of faiths surprises and frightens Athanasius: “And people of different faiths do not drink, do not eat, do not marry with each other.” But the sight of Parvat struck the imagination of Athanasius: “In Parvat<…>all the naked people come together, only a bandage on their hips, and the women are all naked, only a veil on their hips, while others are all in veils, and there are a lot of pearls on their necks, yes yachts, and gold bracelets and rings on their hands. And inside, to the butkhana, they ride on bulls, the horns of each bull are bound with copper, and on the neck there are three hundred bells and hooves are shod with copper. And they call the bulls acce.”

“I asked them about faith,” writes Afanasy Nikitin, which in itself is surprising for a Christian who, according to dogmatics, should not learn “demonic beliefs,” but should preach the word of Jesus himself. This is how Nikitin saw the Indian religion: “... and they told me: we believe in Adam, and the butes (buddhas), they say, are Adam and his whole family.<.>I walked with the Indians to Butkhana for a month. And that butkhana has a fair that lasts five days. Great butkhana, half of Tver, made of stone, but the deeds of buta are carved in stone. Twelve crowns are carved around the butkhana - how the butt performed miracles, how it appeared in different images: the first - in the form of a man, the second - a man, but with an elephant trunk, the third man, and the face of a monkey, the fourth - half a man, half a fierce beast, was all with a tail. And it is carved on a stone, and a tail from a sazhen is thrown over it. The whole country of India comes to that buthana for the festival of buta. Yes, old and young, women and girls, shave at the buthana. And they shave off all their hair, and shave their beards and heads. And they go to the booth. From each head they take two sheshkenis for buta, and from horses - four feet. And only twenty thousand lakhs of people come to the butkhana, and sometimes a hundred thousand lakhs. In the butkhan, the boot is carved from a black stone, huge, and its tail is thrown over it, and he raised his right hand high and stretched it out like Justinian, the king of Constantinople, and in the left hand of the boot there is a spear. He is not wearing anything, only his thighs are wrapped in a bandage, and the face of a monkey. And some butovs are completely naked, their shame is not covered, and the wives of butovs are cut out naked, with shame and with children. And in front of the boot - a huge bull, carved from black stone and all gilded. And they kiss him on the hoof, and sprinkle flowers on him. And flowers are poured on the buta.<.. >And they pray to the east, like Russians. Both hands will be raised high and placed on the crown of the head, but they will lie prostrate on the ground, all will stretch out on the ground - then their bows. And there they sit down - they wash their hands, but their legs, and rinse their mouths. Their buthans are without doors, facing east, and butts face east. And whoever dies among them, those are burned and the ashes are poured into the river. And when the child is born, the husband takes over, and the father gives the name to the son, and the mother gives the daughter. They have no kindness, and they do not know shame. And when someone comes or leaves, he bows like a monk, touches the ground with both hands, and everything is silent.”

Map "Journey beyond the Three Seas" by Afanasy Nikitin

Athanasius' trading and historical observations are very accurate and reliable, he not only records what he saw with his own eyes, but also what merchants told about other ports from Egypt to the Far East, he indicates where “silk will be born”, where “diamonds will be born”. ”, indicates to future travelers what dangers can await them in these parts, describes the wars in the countries through which he passed. Did he believe that soon Russian merchants would be able to travel with trade caravans to India? It is difficult to say, but the information provided by Nikitin could really help the merchants who could come to India after him. Athanasius is interested in Indian goods and comes to the conclusion that they would not be in demand in Russia. “They told [me] that there are many [in India] goods for us, but [it turned out] there is nothing for our land: all the goods are white for the Besermen land, pepper and paint,” Nikitin mourned in his Journey. In Bidar, he writes in his diary: “Horses, damask (fabric), silk and any other goods, as well as black slaves, are sold at the market, but there is no other goods here. The goods are all from Gundustan, and only vegetables are edible, and there is no goods for the Russian land.

Isn't it a mysterious fragment? The merchant carefully writes down what is sold in different cities, makes many useful notes for subsequent merchants, and suddenly cuts off the shoulder: “Yes, there are no goods here useful for Russia!” Maybe in this way he is trying to scare off competitors? It is quite possible that the “Journey” was intended specifically for Tver merchants, and the rest of the Tver people had to say: look, Afanasy Nikitin himself, the pioneer of that land, wrote that in India there is no good product for Russia. Speaking of goods. It was from India that pearls and ivory, gold and silver went to Russia. So the merchant Athanasius is disingenuous. However, another explanation is also possible: this sly passage is the product of processing the text by the clerks of the Grand Duke of Moscow, saying that you, merchants, go to India, it’s better to stay in Russia. The centralization of state power, which began under Ivan III Vasilyevich and continued under his grandson Ivan IV, was accompanied by the closeness of external borders, so that no one would run away from the will of the tsar.

In Junnar, a mysterious incident happens to Athanasius. The local khan takes away the stallion from Athanasius, having learned that the merchant is not a Muslim, and promises to return the horse and give him a thousand gold coins in addition if Athanasius converts to Islam. And he set a deadline: four days. According to the "Walking", it was on Spasov's day, on the Assumption post. But on the eve of Spasov Day, a certain acquaintance of Athanasius, the Khorasan treasurer Mukhamed, arrived, who interceded for the Russian merchant before the khan, and the demand for a change of faith was removed from Nikitin, and the stallion was returned. “The Lord’s miracle happened on Spasov’s day,” Athanasius writes in The Journey. - The Lord God took pity<. >did not leave me, a sinner, with his mercy. However, modern historians question this episode, because immediately after this "miracle" Athanasius writes the following about India: "And so, Russian Christian brothers, if anyone wants to go to the Indian land - leave your faith in Russia and call on Muhammad, go to the Gundustan land" .

A thoughtful reading of the text of the Journey suggests that Afanasy Nikitin nevertheless converted to Islam during the years of his stay in Muslim countries, either this time or later in Bidar, when the local nobleman Malik Hasan Bakhri, who bore the title of nizam al-mulk, revealed Nikitin's faith, suggested that he change it to Islam. The modern Russian historian Zurab Gadzhiev published an article on the pages of the Internet magazine "Islamic Civilization" in which he convincingly proves that even after numerous corrections by Orthodox scribes in the text of the Journey, there is still a lot of evidence of Nikitin's conversion to Islam.

Indeed, Athanasius on the pages of the Journey is shown as a deeply religious person, the text begins with the glorification of Jesus and the blessings for the journey received by him from his spiritual mentors. In the future, his wary attitude towards Islam gradually disappears, as we have already mentioned, he even cites in his travel diary a Sunni legend about the punishment of the city of Rey for the murder of Imam Hussein.

In his travels in Islamic countries, Athanasius pretends to be a Muslim merchant Yusuf Khorasani, but secretly adheres to Christian rites. But observance of the rites creates great difficulties, since the Muslim calendar does not correspond to the Christian one, and his own books and calendars were lost at the very beginning of the journey. Feeling the need to communicate with God, Athanasius began to fast in Ramadan along with the Muslims - “according to the faith of Muhammad, the messenger of God, and when Easter is the Resurrection of Christ, I don’t know, I fasted with the besermen during their fast, and broke the fast with them.” In addition, in the text of his book, instead of the usual Orthodox prayers, the words appear: “Ollo akber, Ollo kerim, ollo ragim!” or “Ollo bad, ollo akber, ollo you, ollo kerimello”, in which appeals to Allah in Arabic and Persian are easily guessed. It is precisely such Islamic prayers recorded in Cyrillic letters that have been preserved in the Chronicle and Trinity editions. The scribes who compiled Sukhanov's edition preserved the text of the prayers, changing the word "Ollo" to "God" or "God."

In Bidar, India, Nikitin reflects on the fate of the Russian land. After listing the advantages of the lands he visited - Crimea, Georgia, Turkey, Moldova and Podolia - he prays for the Russian land, but at the same time adds: “There is no country like it in this world, although the emirs of the Russian land are unfair. Let the Russian land be settled and let there be justice in it! Here is a curious moment: Athanasius calls the rulers of Russia emirs. It seems that during the journey he really gradually turned into an Arab merchant.

In the same place, in Bidar, Athanasius witnesses the performance of the Muslim army led by Mahmud Gavan for jihad against the Hindu Vijayanagar prince. Stunned by the sight of a 300,000-strong army that went to war for the faith, the traveler writes: “Such is the strength of the Sultan of Besermen!”, And then he adds in Persian: “Mamet deni iaria.” What do these words mean? The translation is as follows: "And Muhammedov's faith is good." These words were preserved in the text of the Journey, due to the fact that the Christian scribe did not know their translation. They demonstrate Nikitin's changed attitude towards Islam. This is confirmed by the following phrases in Persian: “God knows the right faith. And the right faith is to know the One God, to call on His name, in every clean place in purity. The fact is that these phrases express the Islamic “creed”, indicating the fundamental concepts of Islam: the One God is Allah, the invocation of His name is dhikr, “in every clean place in purity” is the condition of taharat (ritual cleansing) for prayer . Further in the text, Afanasy Nikitin already directly calls Muhammad the Messenger of God (“Mamet deni rosolial”).

And finally, the text of the Journey ends with lengthy Islamic prayers. If we assume that the last lines of the travel diary were written by Athanasius before his death, then it turns out that in the last hours of his life he prays to Allah as a true Muslim. The final prayer in Afanasy Nikitin's "Journey" consists of three parts: a general glorification of God, distorted by the writing of the glorification of Allah according to 22-23 verses of the 59th sura of the Koran, and an unmistakable in order and fairly accurate in writing a list of epithets of Allah, starting from the 4th to the 31st his "name". Here it is (according to the Trinity edition): “Ollo pervodigyr! By the grace of God, he passed through three seas. Digyr badly dono, ollo pervodigir dono. Amine! Smilna rahmam ragim. Ollo akber, akshi bad, illel-lo akshi hodo. Dog - Ruhollo, Alixol. Ollo akber. La ilaguila ill Ollo. Ollo is a pioneer. Ahamdu lillo, shukur badly afatad. Bismilnagi rahmam rragim. Huvo mugu llazi, la ilyaga illya guia alimul gyaibi wa shagadati. Hua rahmanu ragum, khuvo can climb. La ilyaga illa gua. Almelik, al-kudosu, asaloma, almumin, almugamina, alazaz, alchebar, almutaanbiru, alkhaliku, albariyau, almusaviru, alcafaru, alqajar, alvahad, alrazacu, alfaiagu, alalimu, alkabiru, alba-sutu, alhafifu, almafiyu, alrawiyu zil, alsemy, alvasir, alakama, aladyul, alyatufu!” (In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Merciful! Allah is great, good God. Jesus is a spirit from Allah, peace be upon him. Allah is great. There is no god but Allah. He is God, besides whom there is no God, knowing everything hidden and obvious. He is Gracious, Merciful. He has no equal. There is no God but Him. He is the Ruler, Holiness, Peace, Guardian, Appreciating good and evil, Almighty, Healing, Exalting , creator, creator, illustrator,

He is the Resolver from sins, the Punisher, the Resolver of all difficulties, Nourishing, Victorious, Omniscient, Punishing, Correcting, Preserving, Elevating, Forgiving, Overthrowing, All-Hearing, All-Seeing, Right, Just, Good.)

As we can see, Athanasius Nikitin calls Jesus "a messenger and a spirit from Allah", which contradicts the Christian understanding of Jesus as one of the hypostases of the Trinity. This almost completely corresponds to the dogma of Islam: “After all, the Messiah, the Dog, the son of Maryam, is only the messenger of Allah and his word., And his spirit” (Koran [Translated by I. Yu. Krachkovsky]. - M., 1903. - 4:169 (171), cf. ibid. 2:81 (87); 5:109 (110)). Obviously, before his death, Afanasy Nikitin, as in other cases, repeats the Muslim prayer known to him. It is possible that the inability of the Russian Orthodox Church to stop the fratricidal war between the Russian states and the fact that the church blessed the warriors for such fratricide prompted him to take such a step.

But let us return to the wanderings of Athanasius. After spending several years in India, he decides to return to Russia. The real reasons for this are not entirely clear. In The Journey, he claims that this happened after a conversation with an Islamic official who suggested that Athanasius change his faith and justified this by the fact that Athanasius did not observe Christian rites away from his homeland. But how much this corresponded to reality is unknown. The fact is that the return of Athanasius to Russia is also surrounded by mysteries, and the text of the Journey itself, no doubt, was subjected to numerous revisions.

Unlike the trip to India, the return trip was short and fast. In the port of Dabhol, he boards a ship going through Ethiopia, Muscat and Hormuz, and gets to Persia. In Persia, he stops in the cities of Lar, Shiraz, Yazd, Isfahan, Qom, Tabriz. Then he comes to Erzincan in Turkey, from there to Trabzon. So, having crossed two seas,

Caspian and "Indian", he gets to the third - Black. In Trabzon, a Turkish official takes Nikitin for a spy and takes away his goods.

In Kaffa then it was restless. A few years ago, the Crimean horde became an official vassal of Turkey, but they treated the trading cities on the coast favorably, because rich goods came through them. Formally owned by the Genoese, the city was inhabited by merchants from different countries - Moldavians, Georgians, Greeks, Jews, Zikhs, Arabs, Russians, Bulgarians, Armenians. Only Christians in the city were more than 70 thousand people. Here Athanasius learns the latest news: Novgorod fell and was annexed to the Grand Duchy of Moscow, the invaders drowned in blood and plundered the city. This was preceded by a big battle in which the Russians fought and died. Only now the Novgorodians died for their freedom, and their opponents - for the glory of their princes. And here's what Athanasius learned: the Tverites, led by Grand Duke Mikhail Borisovich, fought on the side of the Moscow Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich. Mikhail Borisovich hoped in this way to earn the favor of the Moscow prince and extend the time of his reign, to delay the forthcoming campaign of the Muscovites against Tver.

It is on arrival in Kaffa in 1472 that the text of the Journey breaks off. Athanasius Nikitin's son, Tveritin, disappears from history. It is only known that in the winter of 1474/1475 he dies or dies under mysterious circumstances near Smolensk, literally a hundred kilometers from his native city. It is believed that all this time he traveled to his native Tver. Two plus years. Even walking is very slow. Therefore, there is reason to believe that the two years of the traveler's life that "dropped out of history" passed as intensely as the previous ones.

Where could Athanasius be? Perhaps he went with an embassy from the Grand Duke of Tver to the Grand Duke of Lithuania with a request to take his side in the fight against Ivan III Vasilyevich. In this case, two facts become clear - the sudden death of a traveler near Smolensk, which at that time was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the fact that excerpts from the Journey ended up in the Lviv Chronicle. Perhaps, on the way back to his native Tver, agents of Ivan III tracked him down, killed him and took away both the notes and the alliance agreement or some other important document. Incredible? On the contrary, the likelihood of such a development of events is very high, while assassinations and blackmail were an integral part of diplomacy. It is rare that a ruler of the Middle Ages was not said to have been killed or poisoned by his own close associates. So why doubt the murder of some merchant or diplomat? Another version can be put forward: Nikitin was sent to Constantinople to the patriarch with an assignment from the Archbishop of Tver Gennady, who did not want to submit to his equal in church rank, the Archbishop of Moscow. This version is supported, for example, by the fact that Nikitin knew Arabic, Persian and, possibly, Turkish well. Yes, and Athanasius died on the Dnieper, which for centuries served as a route from Constantinople to Russia and Scandinavia.

Very soon, in 1482, the Grand Duchy of Moscow, which had grown stronger after the defeat of the Horde, decided to put an end to the Grand Duchy of Tver. For a mysterious reason, the wife of the Grand Duke of Tverskoy Mikhail Borisovich Sofya Olelkovna dies in Tver. Almost simultaneously, the brother of the wife of the Prince of Tver, Mikhail Olelkovich, was drawn into a conspiracy against the Polish King Casimir. The accomplice of the former Novgorod prince Mikhail Olelkovich in this case is the princes Olshansky and Velsky. The conspirators planned to kill the king during Velsky's wedding, but the plot was uncovered, and Mikhail Olelkovich and Prince Olshansky were executed. Prince Velsky, who left his young wife immediately after the wedding, managed to escape to Moscow, where he was received as a dear guest, and Ivan III Vasilyevich gave him the town of Demon "and Moreva with many volosts" as his fatherland. That is how the Grand Duke of Moscow appreciated the merits of Velsky. For a simply runaway prince, this is too “fat a piece”, Ivan Vasilyevich gave such excuses only for especially outstanding services. It seems that it was Velsky, being an agent of the Grand Duke of Moscow, who pitted the Rurikids against each other, he also prevented Mikhail Olelkovich from taking the throne in Kyiv, which means gathering a powerful force around the Grand Duke of Tver. It is possible that it was he who brought the killers to the merchant and diplomat Athanasius Nikitin, who was returning to Tver from Lithuania.

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ANDREY NIKITIN. Templars - TO LUBYANKA! Many have heard of the medieval Catholic spiritual and knightly order of the Templars (“templars”, from the French temple - temple). The order was founded at the beginning of the 12th century, shortly after the first crusade. Original seat of the order

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In the XV century. Novgorod, Tver, Moscow and other Russian cities carried on a lively trade with distant eastern neighbors. Russian merchants traveled to Tsargrad, they were met in Samarkand, they visited the Crimea, Asia Minor, and the countries along the coasts of the Caspian and Black Seas. To the south they brought goods that were rich in the Russian land - linen, leather, furs, and they brought silks, paints, pepper, cloves, Persian soap and sugar, Indian pearls and precious stones.
Merchants in those days were brave, brave people, skillful warriors: on the way they met many dangers.
In the summer of 1466, merchants from Tver set out on a long voyage for overseas trade. They sailed down the Volga to the Khvalypsky Sea, as the Caspian Sea was then called.

Tver city. In the second half of the XV century. the city of Tver was the capital of an independent principality. It was surrounded by a wooden wall plastered with clay. There were many large houses and churches in the city.
(From an engraving of the 17th century. From the book of Olearius "Description of a Journey to Russia and Persia".)

The merchants chose Afanasy Nikitin as the head of the caravan - an enterprising man who had been on long trips and was literate. From the very first days he began to keep a diary.
At that time, the Volga in the lower reaches was still occupied by the Tatar horde. And, fearing an attack by the Tatars, for safety, the Tver merchants joined the caravan of the ambassador in Nizhny Novgorod, who traveled to Moscow to Prince Ivan III from the ruler of Shemakha, a small state located on the southwestern coast of the Caspian Sea. Together with the caravan of the ambassador, Moscow merchants and tesiks (merchants from Central Asia) sailed along the Volga, who came to trade in Russian cities.
At the end of the river journey, when the ships were near Astrakhan, they were attacked by a detachment of the Tatar Khan Kasim.
During the battle, one ship of the caravan got stuck in a fishing pit 1 and the other ran aground. The Tatars plundered both ships and captured four Russians. Afanasy Nikitin was on the ship of the Shemakhan ambassador. This ship and another one from the caravan managed to get away from the attackers, but all the goods of Afanasy Nikitin remained on the ship, captured by the Tatars.
Merchants continued to sail across the Caspian Sea. A smaller ship, on which six Muscovites and six Tverians were sailing, was thrown onto a spit off the Dagestan coast during a storm. The kaitaks who lived there plundered the goods, and took the people into captivity.
Afanasy Nikitin with ten Russian merchants safely reached Derbent. There he began to fuss in order to rescue his comrades from captivity. Only a year later he managed to secure their release. Some of the liberated merchants returned to Russia, and Nikitin went to Baku, and then further, to Persia (Iran). For overseas trade, back in Tver, he borrowed goods and was afraid to return to his homeland as a debtor, where he would be put on trial.
After spending six months in the seaside town of Chapakure and several months in Sari and Amoli, Afanasy Nikitin moved to the city of Rey, one of the most ancient Persian cities. From Ray, along the ancient caravan route, Afanasy Nikitin went to the southeast of Persia. In the spring of 1469, he reached the trading city of Hormuz, located on a small barren and waterless island in the Persian Gulf. Trade routes from Asia Minor, Egypt, India and China crossed in this port of Persia.


City of Hormuz in the 15th century. was the largest port in Asia. It is located on a small island in the Persian Gulf.
(Old engraving.)

“Gurmyz 2 ... is a great refuge, people from all over the world are in it and there are all sorts of goods in it, whatever is born in the whole world, then in Gurmyz there is everything ...” Nikitin wrote in his diary.
Nikitin, getting acquainted with trade, stayed in Hormuz for a month. He learned that horses were exported from here to India, which are highly valued there. Having bought a good horse, Nikitin sailed with him on a ship to India.
This voyage continued for a month and a half. Afanasy Nikitin landed in the Indian port of Chaul, a harbor on the Malabar coast, south of Bombay.

In India, Afanasy Nikitin saw and learned a lot because the Indians treated him with confidence. (Engraving by A. D. Goncharov.)

The Russian traveler was surprised at many things when he looked around the city: "... and here there is an Indian country, and people are all walking naked, but their heads are not covered, and their breasts are bare, and their hair is braided in one braid ... And they have many children, and husbands and the wives are all black," Nikitin wrote in his diary.
And the Russian himself aroused everyone's attention. In his notes, one can read the following lines: "... I go where, sometimes there are a lot of people behind me, they marvel at the white man ..."
From Chaul, Afanasy Nikitin went into the depths of India. Although he had a horse, he took care of it and walked. He wanted to sell the horse for as high a price as possible.
In the city of Juneyre, which, according to Nikitin's description, stood on a high mountain and represented an impregnable fortress, trouble happened to him. Juneyr Khan took away the horse and promised to return it only if Nikitin accepted the Muslim faith.
At that time, for a Russian person to accept someone else's faith meant to renounce Rodna. Nikitin refused to submit to the khan and almost paid for it with his life. He was saved by the intercession of a familiar Persian, a Khoja 3 Muhammad from Khoros. Managed to rescue the horse. Telling in detail about this incident in his diary, Nikitin did not forget to make a note about the climate in Juneir, where it rains for four months; he made notes about agriculture, goods and the faith of the inhabitants.
As soon as the roads dried up after a long period of rain, Nikitin set off on a further journey through India.
He sold the horse at a profit in the city of Bidar.
Nikitin lived in this city for four months. A Russian person, respecting and appreciating the customs of the country, got to know many Indian families very closely. He told them frankly that he was not a Muslim and not Jose Isuf Khorosani, as they call him here, but a Christian, and his name was "Othonasius" (Athanasius). Treating him with confidence, the Indians acquainted the Russian friend with their life and customs.
In the traveler's diary, several pages are devoted to Bidar. Along with a story about the life of ordinary people, Nikitin described the magnificent trips of the Sultan for a walk, who was accompanied by 10 thousand horsemen and 50 thousand foot soldiers. This procession was attended by hundreds of trumpeters and drummers, 200 elephants dressed in golden armor, 300 horses harnessed to gilded carriages.
In the Sultan's palace, Nikitin tells further, there are seven gates, and at each gate there are 100 watchmen and 100 scribes. Everyone who enters and who leaves is recorded, and foreigners are not allowed into the palace at all.

Winner meeting.
(Indian miniature of the 17th century)

Observing different aspects of the life of the Indian people, Nikitin emphasized the social inequality of people in his diary.
From Bidar, Nikitin went with his Indian friends to the sacred city of Parvat for the "night of the god Shiva" festival.
The Russian traveler very accurately and interestingly described this holiday, which gathered up to 100 thousand people.
Speaking about the food of the people, Nikitin notes that the Indians do not eat meat, and explains that this is done according to religious beliefs: "... Indians call an ox a father, and a cow a mother."
While in a foreign land, Nikitin noticed that many things there were unlike his homeland: it was warm "from the cover of the day," and cool here "from Whitsunday" 4 . Observing the starry sky, Nikitin noted that the stars in India are arranged differently.
More and more often, Afanasy Nikitin was transferred by a dream to Russia, which was more beautiful for him than all countries. “There is no land like it in this world, although the boyars of the Russian land are not kind.
Nikitin left Bidar and went to the coast of the Indian Ocean, to the port of Dabul.

Travel map of Athanasius Nikitin.

After a three-year stay in India, Afanasy Nikitin left Dabul for his homeland. He swam again to the familiar Hormuz.
The stormy sea battered a small ship for more than a month and brought it to the shores of Africa. Coastal residents wanted to plunder the ship, but the merchants managed to pay off with gifts.
Then the ship headed for the coast of Arabia, to the port of Muscat, and from there to Hormuz. Having joined the caravan of merchants, Afanasy Nikitin reached the Turkish city of Trebizond, on the Black Sea coast.
Ahead was the last - the third sea. After a successful voyage, the ship entered the Balaklava Bay, and then headed for the large commercial port of Kafu - that was the name of the city of Feodosia in the old days.
Russian merchants often visited here. Nikitin met with fellow countrymen and went with them to his native places.
But the brave traveler did not have to return home. Nikitin died near Smolensk in 1472.
Nikitin's companions delivered his notes to Moscow and handed them over to the chief clerk of Ivan III, Vasily Mamyrev.
"Journey beyond three seas" was highly appreciated by contemporaries. Yes, it could not be otherwise.

Excerpt from Afanasy Nikitin's Journey Beyond the Three Seas. In translation, this means: "I wrote my sinful journey beyond three seas: the first Derbent Sea is the Khvalyn Sea, the second Indian Sea is the Hindustan Sea, the third Black Sea is the Istanbul Sea."

India, which Russian people knew from legends and epics as a country where the sky converges with the earth, where there are many fabulous riches, fantastic animals and birds, giants and dwarfs, was first traversed by a Russian traveler and truthfully described by him.
The diary contained a variety of information about the caravan and sea routes of Persia and India, about cities, economy, trade, customs, beliefs and mores of the peoples inhabiting these countries.
The notes of Afanasy Nikitin were the best description of India for their time.
...Centuries have passed. The diary of Afanasia Nikitin was lost. Only in the 19th century, the well-known historian and writer Karamzin, in the manuscripts of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, found Nikitin's diary "Journey Beyond the Three Seas" copied into the annals (Trinity List). Subsequently, six more different lists were discovered, but the original has not yet been found.
On the banks of the Russian river Volga, in the city of Tver, in 1955 a monument to Afanasy Nikitin was opened. It reminds us of the first Russian explorer to India and of the unbreakable friendship of our people with the great Indian people. This is evidenced by the words carved on the pedestal of the monument:
"To the brave
Russian traveler "
Afanasy Nikitin
in memory of the fact that he visited India in 1469-1472 with a friendly purpose.

_____________
1 Yaz (ez) - a fence, a wattle fence, arranged by fishermen on rivers for catching fish.
2 So Nikitin called Hormuz.
3 Khoja in Persian means "master".
4 "covering day" - in the fall, and "wedding day" - in the spring.