Ryazan land and Artania/Arsania of Arabian sources

Loginov D.

The work is devoted to one of the most intriguing mysteries of early Russian history which is the story of the «three centers of Russia»: Kuyava, Slavia, Arsania which is repeatedly found in the Eastern sources. The author considers the possibility of identifying Arsania with Ryazan or Ryazan land as a whole. On the one hand, some of the arguments previously advanced in favour of such an identification cannot now be considered convincing. On the other hand, there are arguments that still speak in favor of this hypothesis. Chief among those is the special role of the Ryazan land in the trade by the Great Volga route since the late eight till the tenth century AD. The last argument till now forces to consider the comparison of the corresponding East data with the Ryazan region as one of the priority versions of localization of Arsania.

Keywords:Arsania, Ryazan land, early middle ages, Eastern sources on the history of Ancient Russia, Finno-Ugric, Eastern Slavs