Slawiya

Slawiya, as-Slawiya (Arabic: صلاوية Ṣ(a)lāwiya[1]) was one of the three parts of the Rus'[1][2] with the center in Holmgard (identified with the land of Ilmen Slavs) described in a lost book by Abu Zayd al-Balkhi (dating from c. 920) and mentioned in works by some of his followers (Ibn Hawqal, Al-Istakhri, Hudud ul-'alam).[3] The two other centers were Arthaniya (Arabic: ارثانية ’Arṯāniya) (not properly explained) & Kuyaba (Arabic: كويابة Kūyāba; usually identified with Kiev).[1][2][3]

Slawiya is described as the most remote groups of the Rus', together with Kuyaba and Arthania they are involved in extensive international trade relations, in particular with the Muslim East. In Ibn Hawqal describing it is called primary in relation to the other two groups.

Modern historiography tends to identify as-Slawiya with the Novgorodian lands.[4]

  1. ^ a b c M. Th. Houtsma, ed. (1993). E. J. Brill's first encyclopaedia of Islam: 1913-1936. Leiden: Brill. p. 1181. ISBN 90-04-09792-9.
  2. ^ a b Duczko, Wladyslaw (2004). Viking Rus: studies on the presence of Scandinavians in Eastern Europe. Leiden: Brill. p. 0. ISBN 90-04-13874-9.
  3. ^ a b Oriental Sources on Old East Slavs, by An. Novoseltsev
  4. ^ Piotr Pranke; Milos Žečević (2020). Medieval Trade in Central Europe, Scandinavia, and the Balkans (10th-12th Centuries): A Comparative Study. BRILL. p. 88. ISBN 978-9-004431-64-5.