Afanasy Nikitin's journey across three seas. Read online "Walking across Three Seas by Afanasy Nikitin." Sources and notes

“Walking across Three Seas” is a literary monument of the past, written in the genre of “Travel”, or as they used to call it, “Walking”. This literary and ethnographic monument is considered one of the main sources for the study of that era. In 1957, a film of the same name, “Walking across Three Seas,” was made based on “Walking...”. In the film he was played by Oleg Strizhenov. This source, together with such works as “The Man from the Moon” by Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay, Henri Sanchez Peñol “In the Heady Silence”, and “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” is invaluable for obtaining some information in terms of studying a particular culture.

This story dates back to 1474-1475. It is known that the official Vasily Mymrin found this manuscript in 1475. Or rather, there is no exact information about how he ended up with it. In 1818, “Walking across Three Seas” was opened by one of the famous Russian historians, Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin, and he published it in the same year. Around the same time, Musin-Pushkin published the famous work “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.

Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin discovered “Walking...” in the Trinity List. As historians write, Afanasy set off from his native Tver, down the Volga. He was driven by one desire - to see unprecedented lands. The “Walking...” of Russian merchants to India and even China has been known since the 9th century, but it is not known whether this is true or not. Then Mikhail Borisovich Tverskoy (1461-1485) ruled in Tver and, having asked his permission, the merchant Afanasy set off. Afanasy Nikitin reached the shores of India, and actually reached it, long before the famous journey of Vasco da Gama. It is known that Afanasy Nikitin was born into a peasant family, and that his father was Nikita. Nikitin reached Nizhny Novgorod, later they went to Derbent, but not without adventures - they were taken prisoner by the kaytaki, but Afanasy managed to reach Derbent, and he even wrote to the Moscow ambassador and Hassan bek to take care of the prisoners. The journey continued. Here's how the story says it:

“And we came to Derbent, and Vasily arrived there safely, and we were robbed. And I beat Vasily Papin and the Shirvanshah’s ambassador Hasan-bek, with whom we came, with my brow, so that they could take care of the people whom the kaytaks captured near Tarki. And Hasan-bek went to the mountain to ask Bulat-bek. And Bulat-bek sent a walker to the Shirvanshah to convey: “Sir! The Russian ship crashed near Tarki, and the kaytaki, when they arrived, took the people prisoner and plundered their goods.”

Next, the merchant Afanasy went to Derbent, from there to Baku, and from there to Chapakur. He lived in Chapakura for six months, and in Sari he lived for a month. Then he went to Amola and lived there for about a month, after that to Damavand, and from Damavand to Rey, where serious strife began. As Nikitin himself writes, “Seventy cities were destroyed.” But when everything calmed down, they went from Rey to Kashan, from Kashan to Nain, from Nain to Iezd. They reached Tarom, and then through Lar and Bender to Ormuzd. And the merchant Afanasy saw “The Indian Sea, in Persian the Darya of Gundustan.”

Here is how Nikitin writes about the customs of the Hindus: “I spent the winter in Junnar, lived here for two months. Every day and night - for four whole months - there is water and mud everywhere. These days they plow and sow wheat, rice, peas, and everything edible. They make wine from large nuts, they call it Gundustan goats, and they call them mash from tatna. Here they feed the horses peas, and cook khichri with sugar and butter, and feed the horses with them, and in the morning they give them hornets. There are no horses in the Indian land; bulls and buffaloes are born in their land - they ride on them, carry goods and carry other things, do everything.”

Or - such an ethnographic note.

“In winter, ordinary people wear a veil on their hips, another on their shoulders, and a third on their head; and the princes and boyars then put on ports, a shirt, a caftan, and a veil on their shoulders, gird themselves with another veil, and wrap a third veil around their heads. (Oh God, great God, true Lord, magnanimous God, merciful God!).”

The fact that the Russians could sail to India was suspected in India, but they were not very pleased, and, as Nikitin himself writes, they were often deceived.

By the way, another interesting observation. There is a belief that in some places in India monkeys are revered. Like gods. I found something about this from Afanasy Nikitin:

“And the monkeys live in the forest. They have a monkey prince who goes about with his army. If someone offends monkeys, they complain to their prince, and he sends his army against the offender, and when they come to the city, they destroy houses and kill people. And the army of monkeys, they say, is very large, and they have their own language. Many cubs are born to them, and if one of them is born as neither the mother nor the father, they are abandoned on the roads. Some Gundustanis select them and teach them all sorts of crafts; and if they sell, then at night, so that they cannot find their way back, and they teach others (to amuse people).” He learned about this in the city of Alaedin, where there was a market, a fair and a prince whom people relatively loved. Athanasius, judging by the text, knew some influential people in India. Traveled to many cities. And, according to his custom, he celebrated Orthodox holidays there.

Nikitin has a lot of interesting notes about how members of the royal families lived, that the sultan in such and such a city is young - “20 years old”, and that the boyars rule everything.

That he goes out with his mother and wife for a walk. By the way, I was returning through Feodosia and Smolensk. But, unfortunately, he did not make it home - he died on the way to Smolensk, somewhere near Smolensk.

By the 19th century, a special direction had developed in historiography - oriental studies, which was studied, in particular, by Nicholas Roerich. He lived for many years in Tibet, from where he brought his worldview, Tibetan culture, as well as information about this country. It was something new for the Russians back then. Now you can travel to Tibet and India only for those who have the means to do so.

The source itself, “Walking across Three Seas” by Nikitin, is invaluable for ethnographers, and those who wish can learn something new there for themselves.

Sources:

Afanasy Nikitin. Sailing across three seas.

Books by Nicholas Roerich, his paintings

Literature:

N. Gusev works on India

Yazykov D. I. Afanasy Nikitin

Likhachev D. S. Sailing across three seas by Afanasy Nikitin

Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay, Man from the Moon

Text: Olga Sysueva

Translation by L. S. Semenov

Per year 6983 (1475)<...>. In the same year, I received the notes of Afanasy, a merchant of Tver; he was in India for four years, and writes that he set off on the journey with Vasily Papin. I asked when Vasily Papin was sent with gyrfalcons as an ambassador from the Grand Duke, and they told me that a year before the Kazan campaign he returned from the Horde, and died near Kazan, shot with an arrow, when Prince Yuri went to Kazan. I couldn’t find in the records in what year Afanasy left or in what year he returned from India and died, but they say that he died before reaching Smolensk. And he wrote the notes in his own hand, and those notebooks with his notes were brought by merchants to Moscow to Vasily Mamyrev, the clerk of the Grand Duke.

For the prayer of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, your sinful servant Afanasy Nikitin’s son.

I wrote here about my sinful journey across three seas: the first sea - Derbent, Darya Khvalisskaya, the second sea - Indian, Darya Gundustan, the third sea - Black, Darya Istanbul.

Over three seas. Travel of Afanasy Nikitin. Cartoon for children

I went from the golden-domed Savior with his mercy, from my sovereign Grand Duke Mikhail Borisovich Tverskoy, from Bishop Gennady Tverskoy and from Boris Zakharyich.

I swam down the Volga. And he came to the Kalyazin monastery to the Holy Life-Giving Trinity and the holy martyrs Boris and Gleb. And he received a blessing from Abbot Macarius and the holy brethren. From Kalyazin I sailed to Uglich, and from Uglich they let me go without any obstacles. And, sailing from Uglich, he came to Kostroma and came to Prince Alexander with another letter from the Grand Duke. And they let me go without any obstacles. And he arrived in Plyos without any obstacles.

And I came to Nizhny Novgorod to Mikhail Kiselev, the governor, and to the exile Ivan Saraev, and they let me go without any obstacles. Vasily Papin, however, had already passed through the city, and I waited in Nizhny Novgorod for two weeks for Hasan Bey, the ambassador of the Shirvanshah of the Tatar. And he rode with gyrfalcons from Grand Duke Ivan, and he had ninety gyrfalcons. I swam with them down the Volga. They passed Kazan without obstacles, did not see anyone, and Orda, and Uslan, and Sarai, and Berekezan sailed and entered Buzan. And then three infidel Tatars met us and gave us false news: “Sultan Kasim is lying in wait for the merchants on Buzan, and with him are three thousand Tatars.” The Shirvanshah's ambassador, Hasan-bek, gave them a single-row caftan and a piece of linen to guide us past Astrakhan. And they, the unfaithful Tatars, took one line at a time, and sent the news to the Tsar in Astrakhan. And I and my comrades left my ship and moved to the embassy ship.

We sail past Astrakhan, and the moon is shining, and the king saw us, and the Tatars shouted to us: “Kachma - don’t run!” But we haven’t heard anything about this and are running under our own sail. For our sins, the king sent all his people after us. They overtook us on Bohun and started shooting at us. They shot a man, and we shot two Tatars. But our smaller ship got stuck near the Ez, and they immediately took it and plundered it, and all my luggage was on that ship.

We reached the sea on a large ship, but it became aground at the mouth of the Volga, and then they overtook us and ordered the ship to be pulled up the river to the point. And our large ship was robbed here and four Russian men were taken prisoner, and we were released with our bare heads across the sea, and were not allowed back up the river, so that no news was given.

And we went, crying, on two ships to Derbent: in one ship, Ambassador Khasan-bek, and the Teziki, and ten of us Russians; and in the other ship there were six Muscovites, six Tver residents, cows, and our food. And a storm arose on the sea, and the smaller ship was broken on the shore. And here stands the town of Tarki, and people went ashore, and the kaytaki came and took everyone prisoner.

And we came to Derbent, and Vasily arrived there safely, and we were robbed. And I beat Vasily Papin and the Shirvanshah’s ambassador Hasan-bek, with whom we came, with my brow, so that they could take care of the people whom the kaytaks captured near Tarki. And Hasan-bek went to the mountain to ask Bulat-bek. And Bulat-bek sent a walker to the Shirvanshah to convey: “Sir! The Russian ship crashed near Tarki, and the kaytaki, when they arrived, took the people prisoner and plundered their goods.”

And the Shirvanshah immediately sent an envoy to his brother-in-law, the Kaitak prince Khalil-bek: “My ship crashed near Tarki, and your people, coming, captured the people from it, and plundered their goods; and you, for my sake, people came to me and collect their goods, because those people were sent to me. And what do you need from me, send it to me, and I, my brother, will not contradict you in anything. And those people came to me, and you, for my sake, let them come to me without obstacles.” And Khalil-bek released all the people to Derbent immediately without obstacles, and from Derbent they were sent to the Shirvanshah at his headquarters - koytul.

We went to the Shirvanshah’s headquarters and beat him with our foreheads so that he would favor us rather than reach Rus'. And he didn’t give us anything: they say there are a lot of us. And we parted, crying in all directions: someone who had something left in Rus' went to Rus', and whoever had to, went wherever he could. And others remained in Shemakha, while others went to Baku to work.

Map of the travel route of Afanasy Nikitin

And I went to Derbent, and from Derbent to Baku, where the fire burns unquenchable; and from Baku he went overseas to Chapakur.

And I lived in Chapakur for six months, and I lived in Sari for a month, in Mazandaran land. And from there he went to Amol and lived here for a month. And from there he went to Damavand, and from Damavand to Ray. Here they killed Shah Hussein, one of the children of Ali, the grandchildren of Muhammad, and the curse of Muhammad fell on the killers - seventy cities were destroyed.

From Rey I went to Kashan and lived here for a month, and from Kashan to Nain, and from Nain to Iezd and lived here for a month. And from Yazd he went to Sirjan, and from Sirjan to Tarom, livestock here is fed with dates, batman dates are sold for four altyns. And from Tarom he went to Lar, and from Lar to Bender - then the Hormuz pier. And here is the Indian Sea, in Persian Daria of Gundustan; It's a four mile walk from here to Hormuz-grad.

And Hormuz is on an island, and the sea comes on it twice every day. I spent my first Easter here, and came to Hormuz four weeks before Easter. And that’s why I didn’t name all the cities, because there are many more big cities. The heat of the sun in Hormuz is great, it will burn a person. I was in Hormuz for a month, and from Hormuz after Easter on the day of Radunitsa I went in a tawa with horses across the Indian Sea.

And we walked by sea to Muscat for ten days, and from Muscat to Dega for four days, and from Dega to Gujarat, and from Gujarat to Cambay. This is where paint and varnish are born. From Cambay they sailed to Chaul, and from Chaul they left in the seventh week after Easter, and they walked by sea for six weeks in a tawa to Chaul. And here is the Indian country, and people walk naked, and their heads are not covered, and their breasts are bare, and their hair is braided in one braid, everyone walks with bellies, 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 are amazed at the white man. The prince there 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 walk with a veil over their shoulder and another veil on their hips. And the servants of the 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, everyone is naked, and barefoot, and strong, and they do not 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.

From Chaul they went overland, walked to Pali for eight days, to the Indian mountains. And from Pali they walked ten days to Umri, an Indian city. And from Umri there are seven days' journey to Junnar.

The Indian khan rules here - Asad Khan of Junnar, and he serves Melik-at-Tujar. Melik-at-Tujar gave him troops, they say, seventy thousand. And Melik-at-Tujar has two hundred thousand troops under his command, and he has been fighting the Kafars for twenty years: and they have defeated him more than once, and he has defeated them many times. Assad 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 Khorasan land, some from the Arab land, some from the Turkmen land, others from the Chagotai land, and they are all brought by sea in tavs - Indian ships.

And I, a sinner, brought the stallion to Indian land, and with him I reached Junnar, with God’s help, healthy, and he cost me a hundred rubles. Their winter began on Trinity Day. I spent the winter in Junnar and lived here for two months. Every day and night - for four whole months - there was water and mud everywhere. These days they plow and sow wheat, rice, peas, and everything edible. They make wine from large nuts, they call it Gundustan goats, and they call them mash from tatna. Here they feed the horses peas, and cook khichri with sugar and butter, and feed the horses with them, and in the morning they give them hornets. There are no horses in the Indian land; bulls and buffaloes are born in their land - they ride on them, carry goods and carry other things, do everything.

Junnar-grad stands on a stone rock, is not fortified by anything, and is protected by God. And the path to that mountain day, one person at a time: the road is narrow, it is impossible for two to pass.

In Indian land, merchants are settled in farmsteads. The housewives cook for the guests, and the housewives make the bed, and sleep with the guests. (If you have a close connection with her, give two inhabitants, if you do not have a close connection, give one inhabitant. There are many wives here according to the rule of temporary marriage, and then a close connection is for nothing); but they love white people.

In winter, their common people wear a veil on their hips, another on their shoulders, and a third on their head; and the princes and boyars then put on ports, a shirt, a caftan, and a veil on their shoulders, gird themselves with another veil, and wrap a third veil around their heads. (Oh God, great God, true God, generous God, merciful God!)

And in that Junnar, the khan took the stallion from me when he found out that I was not a Besermen, but a Rusyn. And he said: “I will return the stallion, and I will give a thousand gold coins in addition, just convert to our faith - to Muhammaddini. If you don’t convert to our faith, to Muhammaddini, I will take the stallion and a thousand gold coins from your head.” And he set a deadline - four days, on Spasov Day, on the Assumption Fast. Yes, the Lord God took pity on his honest holiday, did not leave me, a sinner, with his mercy, did not allow me to perish in Junnar among the infidels. On the eve of Spasov's day, the treasurer Mohammed, a Khorasanian, arrived, and I beat him with my brow so that he would work for me. And he went to the city to Asad Khan and asked for me, so that they would not convert me to their faith, and he took my stallion back from the khan. This is the Lord's miracle on Savior Day. And so, Russian Christian brothers, if anyone wants to go to the Indian land, leave your faith in Rus', and, calling Muhammad, go to the Gundustan land.

The Besermen dogs lied to me, they said that there is a lot of our goods, but there is nothing for our land: all the goods are white for the Besermen land, pepper and paint, then they are cheap. Those who transport oxen overseas do not pay duties. But they won’t let us transport goods without duty. But there are a lot of duties, and there are a lot of robbers on the sea. The Kafars are robbers; they are not Christians and are not irreligious: they pray to stone fools and know neither Christ nor Muhammad.

And from Junnar they left for Assumption and went to Bidar, their main city. It took a month to reach Bidar, five days from Bidar to Kulongiri, and five days from Kulongiri to Gulbarga. Between these large cities there are many other cities; every day three cities passed by, and other days four cities: as many cities as there are cities. From Chaul to Junnar there are twenty kovas, and from Junnar to Bidar forty kovas, from Bidar to Kulongiri there are nine kovas, and from Bidar to Gulbarga there are nine kovas.

In Bidar, horses, damask, silk and all other goods and black slaves are sold at the auction, but there are no other goods here. The goods are all Gundustan, and only vegetables are edible, but there are no goods for the Russian land. And here the people are all black, all villains, and the women are all walking, and sorcerers, and thieves, and deception, and poison, they kill the gentlemen with poison.

In the Indian land, all Khorasans reign, and all Khorasan boyars. And the Gundustanis are all on foot and walk in front of the Khorasans, who are on horses; and the rest are all on foot, walking quickly, all naked and barefoot, with a shield in one hand, a sword in the other, and others with large straight bows and arrows. More and more battles are fought on elephants. In front are foot soldiers, behind them are Khorasans in armor on horses, themselves in armor and horses. They tie large forged swords to the heads and tusks of the elephants, each weighing a centar, and they dress the elephants in damask armor, and turrets are made on the elephants, and in those turrets there are twelve people in armor, all with guns and arrows.

There is one place here - Aland, where Sheikh Alaeddin (a saint, lies and a fair). Once a year, the whole Indian country comes to trade at that fair; they trade here for ten days; from Bidar there are twelve kovs. They bring horses here - up to twenty thousand horses - to sell and bring all sorts of goods. In the land of Gundustan, this fair is the best, every product is sold and bought on the days of memory of Sheikh Alaeddin, and in our opinion, on the Intercession of the Holy Virgin. And there is also a bird called gukuk in that Åland, it flies at night and shouts: “kuk-kuk”; and on whose house she sits, the person will die, and whoever wants to kill her, she lets fire out of her mouth at him. Mamons walk at night and grab chickens, and they live on hills or among rocks. And monkeys live in the forest. They have a monkey prince who goes about with his army. If someone offends monkeys, they complain to their prince, and he sends his army against the offender, and when they come to the city, they destroy houses and kill people. And the army of monkeys, they say, is very large, and they have their own language. Many cubs are born to them, and if one of them is born as neither the mother nor the father, they are abandoned on the roads. Some Gundustanis select them and teach them all sorts of crafts; and if they sell, then at night, so that they cannot find their way back, and they teach others (to amuse people).

Their spring began with the Intercession of the Holy Mother of God. And they celebrate the memory of Sheikh Alaeddin and the beginning of spring two weeks after the Intercession; The holiday lasts eight days. And their spring lasts three months, and summer three months, and winter three months, and autumn three months.

Bidar is the capital city of Gundustan of Besermen. The city is big and there are a lot of people in it. The Sultan is young, twenty years old - the boyars rule, and the Khorasans reign and all the Khorasans fight.

A Khorasan boyar, Melik-at-Tujar, lives here, so he has two hundred thousand of his army, and Melik Khan has one hundred thousand, and Farat Khan has twenty thousand, and many khans have ten thousand troops. And with the Sultan comes three hundred thousand of his troops.

The land is populous, and the rural people are very poor, but the boyars have great power and are very rich. The boyars are carried on silver stretchers, in front of the horses they are led 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.

And when the Sultan goes for a walk with his mother and his wife, he is followed by ten thousand horsemen and fifty thousand foot soldiers, and two hundred elephants are brought out, all in gilded armor, and in front of him there are a hundred trumpeters, a hundred dancers, and three hundred dancers. riding horses in golden harness, and a hundred monkeys, and a hundred concubines, they are called gauryks.

There are seven gates leading to the Sultan’s palace, and at the gates sit one hundred guards and one hundred Kaffar scribes. Some write down who goes into the palace, others - who leaves. But strangers 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 is very beautifully carved and painted in gold. Yes, in the Sultan’s palace the vessels are different.

At night, the city of Bidar is guarded by a thousand guards under the command of a kuttaval, on horses and in armor, and each holding a torch.

I sold my stallion in Bidar. I spent sixty-eight feet on him and fed him for a year. In Bidar, snakes crawl along the streets, two fathoms long. I returned to Bidar from Kulongiri on the Filippov fast, and sold my stallion for Christmas.

And I lived here in Bidar until Lent and met many Hindus. I revealed my faith to them, said that I am not a Besermen, but a Christian (of the Jesus faith), and my name is Athanasius, and my Besermen name is Khoja Yusuf Khorasani. And the Hindus did not hide anything from me, neither about their food, nor about trade, nor about prayers, nor about other things, and they did not hide their wives in the house. I asked them about faith, and they told me: we believe in Adam, and the buts, they say, are Adam and his whole race. And all the faiths in India are eighty and four faiths, and everyone believes in Buta. But people of different faiths do not drink with each other, do not eat, and do not marry. Some of them eat lamb, chickens, fish, and eggs, but no one eats beef.

I stayed in Bidar for four months and agreed with the Hindus to go to Parvat, where they have a butkhana - that is their Jerusalem, the same as Mecca for the Besermen. I walked with the Indians until Butkhana for a month. And at that butkhana there is a fair that lasts five days. The buthana is large, half the size of Tver, made of stone, and the deeds of the buthana are carved in the stone. Twelve crowns are carved around the butkhana - how the but performed miracles, how he appeared in different images: the first - in the form of a man, the second - a man, but with an elephant trunk, the third a man, and the face of a monkey, the fourth - half man, half fierce beast, all appeared with tail. And it is carved on a stone, and the tail, about a fathom long, is thrown over it.

The whole Indian country comes to that butkhana for the Butha festival. Yes, old and young, women and girls shave at the butkhana. And they shave off all their hair, shave both their beards and their heads. And they go to the butkhana. From each head they take two sheshkens for buta, and from the horses - four feet. And all the people (twenty thousand lakhs, and sometimes one hundred thousand lakhs) come to the butkhana.

In the buthan, the buthan is carved out of black stone, huge, and his tail is thrown over it, and his right hand is raised high and extended, like Justinian, the king of Constantinople, and in his left hand there is a spear in the buthan. He is wearing nothing, only his thighs are wrapped in a bandage, and his face is like a monkey. And some butovs are completely naked, they don’t have anything on (their shame is not covered), and the butov’s wives are cut out naked, with shame and with children. And in front of the butte is a huge bull, carved from black stone and all gilded. And they kiss his hoof and sprinkle flowers on him. And flowers are sprinkled on the buta.

Hindus do not eat any meat, neither beef, nor lamb, nor chicken, nor fish, nor pork, although they have a lot of pigs. They eat twice during the day, but at night they don’t eat, and they don’t drink wine or have enough to eat. And they don’t drink or eat with besermen. And their food is bad. And they don’t drink or eat with each other, not even with their wife. And they eat rice, and khichri with butter, and they eat various herbs, and they boil them with butter and with milk, and they eat everything with their right hand, but they do not take anything with their left. They don't know a knife or a spoon. And on the way, to cook porridge, everyone carries a bowler hat. And they turn away from the besermen: none of them would look into the pot or at the food. And if the Besermen looks, they don’t eat that food. That’s why they eat covered with a scarf so that no one can see.

And they pray to the east, like the Russians. Both hands will be raised high and placed on the crown of the head, and they will lie prostrate on the ground, all stretched out on the ground - then they will bow. And when they eat, they sit down and wash their hands, feet, and rinse their mouths. Their buthans have no doors, face east, and the buthans face east. And whoever dies among them is burned and the ashes are thrown into the river. And when the child is born, the husband accepts it, and the father gives the name to the son, and the mother to the daughter. They have no good morals and 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. They go to Parvat, to their buta, during Lent. Here is their Jerusalem; What is Mecca for the Besermen, and Jerusalem for the Russians, is Parvat for the Hindus. And they all come naked, only a bandage on their hips, and the women are all naked, only a veil on their hips, and the others are all in veils, and there are a lot of pearls on their necks, and yahonts, and gold bracelets and rings on their hands. (By God!) And inside, to the butkhana, they ride on bulls, each bull’s horns are bound with copper, and there are three hundred bells on its neck and its hooves are shod with copper. And they call bulls achche.

Hindus call the bull father and the cow mother. They bake bread and cook food on their ashes, and with that ashes they make marks on the face, on the forehead and all over the body. On Sunday and Monday they eat once a day. In India (there are a lot of walking women, and therefore they are cheap: if you have a close connection with her, give two residents; if you want to waste your money, give six residents. That’s how it is in these places. And slave-concubines are cheap: 4 pounds - good, 6 pounds - good and black, black-very black amchyuk small, good).

I arrived from Parvat to Bidar in fifteen days of pre-Beserman Ulu Bayram. And I don’t know when Easter, the feast of the resurrection of Christ, is; I’m guessing by signs - Easter comes nine or ten days earlier than Besermen Bayram. But I have nothing with me, not a single book; I took the books with me to Rus', but when I was robbed, the books disappeared, and I did not observe the rites of the Christian faith. I don’t observe Christian holidays - neither Easter nor Christmas - and I don’t fast on Wednesdays and Fridays. And living among non-believers (I pray to God, may he protect me: “Lord God, true God, you are a god, a great God, a merciful God, a merciful God, the most merciful and most merciful, Lord God”). God is one, the king of glory, the creator of heaven and earth.”

And I’m going to Rus' (with the thought: my faith is lost, I fasted with the Besermen fast). The month of March passed, I began fasting with the Besermen on Sunday, fasted for a month, did not eat any meat, did not eat anything modest, did not take any food from the Besermen, but ate bread and water twice a day (I did not lie with a woman). And I prayed to Christ Almighty, who created heaven and earth, and did not call on another god by name. (Lord God, merciful God, merciful God, Lord God, great God), God the King of Glory (God the creator, God the most merciful - it’s all you, O Lord).

From Hormuz by sea it is ten days to go to Qalhat, and from Qalhat to Deg six days, and from Deg to Muscat six days, and from Muscat to Gujarat ten days, from Gujarat to Cambay four days, and from Cambay to Chaul twelve days, and from Chaul six days to Dabhol. Dabhol is the last Besermen pier in Hindustan. And from Dabhol to Kozhikode there are twenty-five days' journey, and from Kozhikode to Ceylon fifteen days, and from Ceylon to Shabbat a month's journey, and from Shabbos to Pegu twenty days' journey, and from Pegu to South China a month's journey - by sea all that way. And from South China to North China it takes six months to travel by land, and four days to travel by sea. (May God give me a roof over my head.)

Hormuz is a big pier, people come here from all over the world, all sorts of goods are available here; whatever is born in the whole world, everything is in Hormuz. The duty is large: they take a tenth of every product.

Cambay is the harbor of the entire Indian Sea. Here they make alachi, motleys, and kindyaks for sale, and they make blue paint here, and varnish, and carnelian, and salt will be born here. Dabhol is also a very large pier; horses are brought here from Egypt, from Arabia, from Khorasan, from Turkestan, from Ben der Hormuz; From here it takes a month to travel by land to Bidar and to Gul-barga.

And Kozhikode is the haven of the entire Indian Sea. God forbid any ship to pass by it: whoever lets it pass will not pass safely further along the sea. And pepper, and ginger, and nutmeg flowers, and nutmeg, and calanfur - cinnamon, and cloves, spicy roots, and adriak, and a lot of all kinds of roots will be born there. And everything is cheap here. (And male and female slaves are numerous, good and black.)

And Ceylon is a large pier on the Indian Sea, and there on a high mountain lies the forefather Adam. And near the mountain they mine precious stones: rubies, fatis, agates, binchai, crystal, and sumbadu. Elephants are born there, and they are priced according to their height, and cloves are sold by weight. And the Shabat pier on the Indian Sea is quite large. Khorasans are paid there a salary of tenka per day, both large and small. And when a Khorasanian marries, the prince of Shabat gives him a thousand teneks for sacrifice and a salary of fifty teneks every month. On Shabbat, silk, sandalwood, and pearls will be born - and everything is cheap.

And Pegu is also a considerable pier. Indian dervishes live there, and precious stones are born there: manik, yes yakhont, and kirpuk, and the dervishes sell those stones. The Chinese pier is very large. They make porcelain there and sell it by weight, cheaply. And their wives sleep with their husbands during the day, and at night they go to visiting strangers and sleep with them, and they give the strangers money for their maintenance, and bring with them sweet foods and sweet wine, and feed and water the merchants so that they will be loved, and they love merchants, white people, because the people of their country are very black. If a wife conceives a child from a merchant, the husband gives the merchant money for maintenance. If a white child is born, then the merchant is paid three hundred teneks, and a black child is born, then the merchant is not paid anything, and whatever he drank and ate was (for free, according to their custom). Shabbat is three months' journey from Bidar; and from Dabhol to Shabbat it takes two months to go by sea, and to South China from Bidar it takes four months to go by sea, they make porcelain there, and everything is cheap.

It takes two months to get to Ceylon by sea, and a month to go to Kozhikode.

On Shabbat, silk will be born, and inchi - ray pearls, and sandalwood; Elephants are priced according to their height. Ammons, rubies, fatis, crystal, and agates will be born in Ceylon. In Kozhikode pepper, nutmeg, cloves, fufal fruit, and nutmeg flowers will be born. Paint and varnish will be born in Gujarat, and carnelian will be born in Cambay. In Raichur, diamonds will be born (from the old mine and the new mine). Diamonds are sold for five rubles per kidney, and very good ones for ten rubles. A bud of a diamond from a new mine (five kenyas each, a black diamond - four to six kenyas, and a white diamond - one tenka). Diamonds are born in a mountain of stone, and they pay for the cubit of that mountain of stone: a new mine - two thousand pounds of gold, and an old mine - ten thousand pounds. And Melik Khan owns that land and serves the Sultan. And from Bidar there are thirty kovs.

And what the Jews say that the inhabitants of Shabbat are their faith is not true: they are not Jews, not non-Jews, not Christians, they have a different faith, Indian, and neither with Jews nor with Jews do they drink, do not eat, and do not eat any meat. Everything is cheap on Shabbat. Silk and sugar will be born there, and everything is very cheap. They have mamons and monkeys walking through the forest, and they attack people on the roads, so because of the mamons and monkeys they don’t dare drive on the roads at night.

From Shabbat it is ten months to travel by land, and four months by sea.<нрзб.>They cut the navels of domestic deer - musk will be born in them, and wild deer drop their navels across the field and forest, but they lose their smell, and the musk is not fresh.

On the first day of the month of May, I celebrated Easter in Hindustan, in Besermen Bidar, and the Besermen celebrated Bayram in the middle of the month; and I began fasting on the first day of the month of April. O faithful Russian Christians! He who sails across many lands gets into many troubles and loses his Christian faith. I, God’s servant Athanasius, have suffered according to the Christian faith. Four Great Lents have already passed and four Easters have passed, and I, a sinner, don’t know when Easter or Lent is, I don’t observe the Nativity of Christ, I don’t observe other holidays, I don’t observe Wednesdays or Fridays: I have no books. When I was robbed, they took my books. And because of many troubles, I went to India, because I had nothing to go to Rus' with, I had no goods left. I celebrated the first Easter in Cain, and the second Easter in Chapakur in the land of Mazandaran, the third Easter in Hormuz, the fourth Easter in India, among the Besermen, in Bidar, and here I grieved a lot because of the Christian faith.

Bessermen Melik strongly forced me to accept the Bessermen faith. I told him: “Sir! You pray (you pray and I also pray. You pray five times, I pray three times. I am a foreigner, and you are from here).” He tells me: “It is truly clear that you are not a Germanic, but you also do not observe Christian customs.” And I thought deeply and said to myself: “Woe to me, wretched one, I have lost my way from the true path and I no longer know which path I will take. Lord, Almighty God, creator of heaven and earth! Do not turn your face away from your servant, for I am in sorrow. God! Look upon me and have mercy on me, for I am your creation; Lord, do not let me turn away from the true path, guide me, Lord, on the right path, for in need I was not virtuous before you, my Lord God, I lived all my days in evil. My Lord (protector god, you, God, merciful Lord, merciful Lord, merciful and merciful. Praise be to God). Four Easters have already passed since I was in the land of Besermen, and I have not left Christianity. God knows what will happen next. Lord my God, I trusted in you, save me, Lord my God.”

In Bidar the Great, in Besermen India, on the Great Night on the Great Day, I watched how the Pleiades and Orion entered at dawn, and the Big Dipper stood with its head to the east. On Besermen Bayram, the Sultan made a ceremonial departure: with him twenty great viziers and three hundred elephants, dressed in damask armor, with turrets, and the turrets were bound. In the turrets there were six people in armor with cannons and arquebuses, and on large elephants there were 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 attached to the neck. And between his ears sits a man in armor with a large iron hook - he uses it to guide the elephant. 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. The Sultan wears a caftan all trimmed with yakhonts, and a cone hat with a huge diamond, and a golden saadak with yakhonts, and three sabers on it, all in gold, and a golden saddle, and a golden harness, all in gold. The infidel is running in front of him, skipping, leading the tower, and behind him there are many foot soldiers. Behind him is an angry elephant, dressed all in damask, driving people away, with a large iron chain in his trunk, using it to drive away horses and people so that they don’t come close to the Sultan. And the Sultan’s brother sits on a golden stretcher, above him is a velvet canopy, and a golden crown with yachts, and twenty people carry him.

And the makhdum sits on a golden stretcher, and above him there is a silk canopy with a golden crown, and he is carried by four horses in golden harness. Yes, there are a great many people around him, and singers walk in front of him and there are many dancers; and all with naked swords and sabers, with shields, javelins 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 their hips, their shame is covered.

In Bidar, the full moon lasts for three days. There is no sweet vegetable in Bidar. There is no great heat in Hindustan. It is very hot in Hormuz and Bahrain, where pearls are born, in Jeddah, in Baku, in Egypt, in Arabia, and in Lara. But it’s hot in the land of Khorasan, but not like that. It is very hot in Chagotai. It’s hot in Shiraz, Yazd, and Kashan, but there is wind there. And in Gilan it is very stuffy and steamy, and in Shamakhi it is steamy; It’s hot in Baghdad, and it’s hot in Khums and Damascus, but it’s not so hot in Aleppo.

In the Sivas district and in the Georgian land, everything is in abundance. And the Turkish land is abundant in everything. And the Moldavian land is abundant, and everything edible there is cheap. And the Podolsk land is abundant in everything. And Rus' (God save it! God save it! God save it! There is no country like it in this world, although the emirs of the Russian land are unjust. May the Russian land be established and may there be justice in it! God, God, God, God !). Oh my God! I trusted in you, save me, Lord! I don’t know the way - where should I go from Hindustan: to go to Hormuz - there is no way from Hormuz to Khorasan, and there is no way to Chaghotai, there is no way to Baghdad, there is no way to Bahrain, there is no way to Yazd, there is no way to Arabia . Everywhere the strife knocked out princes. Mirza Jehan Shah was killed by Uzun Hasan-bek, and Sultan Abu Said was poisoned, Uzun Hasan-bek Shiraz subjugated, but that land did not recognize him, and Muhammad Yadigar does not go to him: he is afraid. There is no other way. To go to Mecca means to accept the Besermen faith. That is why, for the sake of faith, Christians do not go to Mecca: there they convert to the Besermen faith. But to live in Hindustan means to spend a lot of money, because here everything is expensive: I’m one person, and food costs two and a half altyns a day, although I haven’t had a drink of wine or been full. Melik-at-Tujar took two Indian cities that were plundered on the Indian Sea. He captured seven princes and took their treasury: a load of yachts, a load of diamonds, rubies, and a hundred loads of expensive goods, and his army took countless other goods. He stood near the city for two years, and with him there were two hundred thousand army, one hundred elephants, and three hundred camels. Melik-at-Tujar returned to Bidar with his army on Kurban Bayram, or in our opinion - on Peter’s Day. And the Sultan sent ten viziers to meet him ten kovs, and in a kov - ten miles, and with each vizier he sent ten thousand of his army and ten elephants in armor,

At Melik-at-Tujar, five hundred people sit down to a meal every day. Three viziers sit down with him for a meal, and with each vizier there are fifty people, and another hundred of his neighbor boyars. In the stable of Melik-at-Tujar they keep two thousand horses and a thousand horses saddled day and night in readiness, and a hundred elephants in the stable. And every night his palace is guarded by a hundred men in armor, and twenty trumpeters, and ten men with drums, and ten large tambourines - beaten by two men each. Nizam-al-mulk, Melik Khan and Fathullah Khan took three large cities. And with them there were a hundred thousand men and fifty elephants. And they captured countless yachts, and many other precious stones. And all those stones, yachts, and diamonds were bought on behalf of Melik-at-Tujar, and he forbade the craftsmen to sell them to the merchants who came to Bidar for the Dormition.

The Sultan goes for a walk on Thursday and Tuesday, and three viziers go with him. The Sultan's brother leaves on Monday with his mother and sister. And two thousand wives ride out on horses and on gilded stretchers, and in front of them are one hundred riding horses in golden armor. Yes, there are many foot soldiers, two viziers and ten viziers, and fifty elephants in cloth blankets. And on the elephants sit four naked people, only a bandage on their hips. And the women on foot are naked, they carry water after them to drink and wash, but one does not drink water from the other.

Melik-at-Tujar with his army set out from the city of Bidar against the Hindus on the day of remembrance of Sheikh Alaeddin, and in our words - on the Intercession of the Holy Virgin, and his army came with fifty thousand, and the Sultan sent his army fifty thousand, and they went with them three viziers and with them another thirty thousand warriors. And a hundred elephants in armor and with turrets went with them, and on each elephant there were four men with arquebuses. Melik-at-Tujar went to conquer Vijayanagar, the great Indian principality. And the prince of Vijayanagara has three hundred elephants and a hundred thousand troops, and his horses are fifty thousand.

The Sultan set out from the city of Bidar in the eighth month after Easter. Twenty-six viziers left with him - twenty Besermen viziers and six Indian viziers. The army of one hundred thousand horsemen, two hundred thousand foot soldiers, three hundred elephants in armor and with turrets, and one hundred fierce beasts on double chains marched out with the Sultan of his court. And with the Sultan’s brother, a hundred thousand horsemen, a hundred thousand foot soldiers, and a hundred elephants in armor came out to his court.

And with Mal-khan came twenty thousand cavalry, sixty thousand foot, and twenty armored elephants. And with Beder Khan and his brother came thirty thousand cavalry, one hundred thousand foot, and twenty-five elephants, in armor and with turrets. And with Sul Khan came ten thousand horsemen, twenty thousand foot soldiers, and ten elephants with turrets. And with Vezir Khan came fifteen thousand horsemen, thirty thousand foot soldiers, and fifteen armored elephants. And with Kutuval Khan, fifteen thousand horsemen, forty thousand foot soldiers, and ten elephants came out to his court. And with each vizier came ten thousand, and with some even fifteen thousand horsemen, and twenty thousand foot soldiers.

With the prince of Vijayanagar came his army of forty thousand cavalry, and one hundred thousand foot soldiers and forty elephants, dressed in armor, and on them four people with arquebuses.

And twenty-six viziers came out with the Sultan, and with each vizier ten thousand cavalry and twenty thousand foot soldiers, and with another vizier fifteen thousand horse men and thirty thousand foot men. And there were four great Indian viziers, and with them came an army of forty thousand cavalry and one hundred thousand foot. And the Sultan was angry with the Hindus because few people came out with them, and he added twenty thousand more foot soldiers, two thousand horsemen, and twenty elephants. Such is the power of the Indian Sultan, Besermensky. (Muhammad's faith is good.) And the growth of days is bad, but God knows the right faith. And the right faith is to know one God and to call upon his name in every clean place.

On the fifth Easter I decided to go to Rus'. He left Bidar a month before the Besermen Ulu Bayram (according to the faith of Muhammad, the messenger of God). And when Easter, the resurrection of Christ, I don’t know, I fasted with the Besermen during their fast, broke my fast with them, and celebrated Easter in Gulbarga, ten miles from Bidar.

The Sultan came to Gulbarga with Melik-at-Tujar and his army on the fifteenth day after Ulu Bayram. The war was unsuccessful for them - they took one Indian city, but many people died and they spent a lot of treasury.

But the Indian Grand Duke is powerful and has a large army. His fortress is on a mountain, and his capital city Vijayanagar is very large. The city has three moats, and a river flows through it. On one side of the city there is a dense jungle, and on the other side the valley is suitable - an amazing place, suitable for everything. That side is not passable - the path goes through the city; The city cannot be taken from any direction: there is a huge mountain there and an evil, thorny thicket. The army stood under the city for a month, and people died of thirst, and a lot of people died of hunger and thirst. We looked at the water, but didn’t go near it.

Khoja Melik-at-Tujar took another Indian city, took it by force, fought with the city day and night, for twenty days the army neither drank nor ate, stood under the city with guns. And his army killed five thousand of the best warriors. And he took the city - they slaughtered twenty thousand males and females, and twenty thousand - both adults and children - were taken captive. They sold prisoners for ten tenki per head, some for five, and children for two tenki. They didn’t take the treasury at all. And he did not take the capital city.

From Gulbarga I went to Kallur. Carnelian is born in Kallur, and here it is processed, and from here it is transported all over the world. Three hundred diamond workers live in Kallur (they decorate their weapons). I stayed here for five months and went from there to Koilkonda. The market there is very big. And from there he went to Gulbarga, and from Gulbarga to Aland. And from Aland he went to Amendriye, and from Amendriye - to Naryas, and from Naryas - to Suri, and from Suri he went to Dabhol - the pier of the Indian Sea.

The large city of Dabhol - people come here from both the Indian and Ethiopian coasts. Here I, accursed Athanasius, slave of the Most High God, creator of heaven and earth, thought about the Christian faith, and about Christ’s baptism, about the fasts established by the holy fathers, about the apostolic commandments, and I set my mind on going to Rus'. He went up to the tawa and agreed on the ship's payment - two gold dal from his head to Hormuz-grad. I sailed on a ship from Dabhol-grad to the Besermen post, three months before Easter.

I sailed in the sea for a whole month, not seeing anything. And the next month I saw the Ethiopian mountains, and all the people cried out: “Ollo pervodiger, ollo konkar, bizim bashi mudna nasin bolmyshti,” and in Russian it means: “God, Lord, God, God Most High, the king of heaven, here he judged us you will die!

We were in that land of Ethiopia for five days. By the grace of God, no evil happened. They distributed a lot of rice, pepper, and bread to the Ethiopians. And they didn’t rob the ship.

And from there they walked twelve days to Muscat. I celebrated the sixth Easter in Muscat. It took nine days to get to Hormuz, but we spent twenty days in Hormuz. And from Hormuz he went to Lar, and was in Lar for three days. From Lar to Shiraz it took twelve days, and in Shiraz it was seven days. From Shiraz I went to Eberka, I walked for fifteen days, and it was ten days to Eberka. It took nine days from Eberku to Yazd, and eight days in Yazd. And from Yazd he went to Isfahan, walked for five days, and was in Isfahan for six days. And from Isfahan he went to Kashan, and was in Kashan for five days. And from Kashan he went to Qom, and from Qom to Save. And from Save he went to Soltaniya, and from Soltaniya he went to Tabriz, and from Tabriz he went to the headquarters of Uzun Hasan-bek. He was at headquarters for ten days, because there was no way anywhere. Uzun Hasan-bek sent forty thousand troops to his court against the Turkish Sultan. They took Sivas. And they took Tokat and burned it, and they took Amasia, and plundered many villages, and went to war against the Karaman ruler.

And from Uzun Hasan Bey’s headquarters I went to Erzincan, and from Erzincan I went to Trabzon.

He came to Trabzon for the Intercession of the Holy Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary and was in Trabzon for five days. I came to the ship and agreed on payment - to give gold from my head to Kafa, and for grub I borrowed gold - to give it to Kafa.

And in that Trabzon the subashi and pasha did me a lot of harm. Everyone ordered me to bring my property to their fortress, to the mountain, and they searched everything. And what little good there was, they robbed it all. And they were looking for letters, because I was coming from the headquarters of Uzup Hasan-bey.

By the grace of God I reached the third sea - the Black Sea, which in Persian is Darya of Istanbul. We sailed by sea for ten days with a fair wind and reached Bona, and then a strong north wind met us and drove the ship back to Trabzon. Because of a strong headwind, we stood in Platan for fifteen days. We went out to sea from Platana twice, but the wind blew against us and did not allow us to cross the sea. (True God, patron God!) Besides him, I don’t know any other god.

We crossed the sea and brought us to Balaklava, and from there we went to Gurzuf, and we stood there for five days. By the grace of God I came to Kafa nine days before the Philippian fast. (God is the creator!)

By the grace of God I crossed three seas. (God knows the rest, God the patron knows.) Amen! (In the name of the merciful, merciful Lord. The Lord is great, the good God, the good Lord. Jesus the spirit of God, peace be with you. God is great. There is no god but the Lord. The Lord is the Provider. Praise be to the Lord, thanks be to the all-conquering God. In the name of the merciful, merciful God. He is a god besides whom there is no god, who knows everything secret and obvious. He is merciful, merciful. There is no god besides the Lord, He is the king, the holiness, the preserver, the judge of good and evil, the omnipotent, the healing, the exalting. , creator, creator, imager, he is the absolver of sins, the punisher, the resolver of all difficulties, the nourisher, the victorious, the omniscient, the punishing, the corrective, the preserving, the elevating, the forgiving, the overthrowing, the all-hearing, all-seeing, right, just, good.)

The era of the turn of the XV-XVI centuries is the time of the great geographical discoveries of Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama. The same interest in discovering yet unexplored countries was characteristic of Russia.

Particularly interesting at the end of the 15th century was the search for a trade route to India, the center of medieval trade. In Western Europe and Rus' there were many legends about India and its riches. Dozens of enterprising people tried to find a way there.

The Tver merchant Afanasy Nikitin in 1466-1472 took the shortest route overland to India and left detailed notes - “Walking across the three seas.”

Walking belongs to the genre of travel, travel notes, which were very popular in Ancient Rus'. In the earliest work of this genre, “The Walking of Abbot Daniel,” it is mentioned that one must write about what he saw and heard himself: “not cunningly, but simply.” Walking usually consists of individual short stories-essays, written in simple, laconic, sometimes vivid figurative language, united by the image of the main character of a Christian traveler.

The notes of Afanasy Nikitin are not distinguished by an elegant literary style, as researchers note. He writes completely simply, and this simplicity is the special charm of his work.

The history of Afanasy Nikitin’s journey is as follows: in 1466, with the Russian ambassador, he left Moscow for Shemakha. They went down the Volga to Astrakhan, where one of the traveler's ships was captured by robbers, and the other was wrecked by a storm off the coast of the Caspian Sea. Despite the loss of ships and goods, Nikitin and his comrades continued their journey. They reached Derbent by land, then went to Persia and by sea to India. Afanasy Nikitin stayed in India for three years and through Turkish lands, along the Black Sea, returned to Russia in 1472, but died before reaching Smolensk. His notes were delivered to Moscow and included in the chronicle.

“Walking” is a historical document, the living word of a man of the 15th century. He revealed an extraordinary personality, a patriot of his homeland, paving the way to unknown countries “for the benefit of the Russian land.”

In India, the traveler takes a closer look at the morals and customs of a foreign country. He notices: people there walk naked, without covering their heads or chests, their hair is braided in one braid, their prince wears a veil on his head and hips.

Afanasy Nikitin traveled all over India. He also visited the sacred city of Parvat and described local religious customs. During a visit to the capital, the city of Bedera, he drew attention to the development of trade. Nikitin's interest was aroused by the magnificent ceremony of the Sultan's departure with twelve grand viziers on three hundred elephants for a walk. Each elephant carried six men in armor with cannons and arquebuses, and the “great” elephant carried twelve men. In addition to the elephants, a thousand horses without riders, a hundred camels, three hundred trumpeters, three hundred dancers, and three hundred slaves rode out. The Sultan rode on a horse, decorated with gold, in a golden saddle.

The traveler also described in detail and accurately other trips of the Sultan and his brothers.

A Russian person is interested in the way of life and customs of a foreign country, the characteristics of food, ways of eating it (they eat with their right hand, but do not know a spoon or a knife), social inequality, and religious strife. The merchant is attracted by the grand annual bazaar. “The whole Indian country comes to this bazaar to trade,” “and trade for ten days.”

He also notes the peculiarities of the climate of India: “They have had winter since Trinity Day, and there is water and mud everywhere, and then they plow and sow wheat, millet, peas and everything edible. Spring comes from the Intercession of the Day, when the first winters begin in Rus'.” 1 .

The description of India is strictly realistic, but he also cites local legends. Peering at a foreign land, Afanasy Nikitin sacredly keeps in his heart the image of the Russian land. His homeland is dear to him: “May the Russian land be protected by God!.. There is no country like it in this world... May the Russian land become comfortable and may there be justice in it!”

Afanasy Nikitin's notes stand out among European geographical works of the 15th-16th centuries with their versatile powers of observation.

QUESTIONS AND TASKS

1. Provide historical information about A. Nikitin’s journey.
2. Re-read "Walking". How is it built?
3. Show that this is a genre of travel notes and essays.
4. Why are the notes a precious historical document of the 15th century?
5. What is the purpose of Nikitin’s trip and how does his work differ from the travels and walks of the 12th-13th centuries (with religious purposes and sermons)?
6. What did the traveler see in India that amazed him (customs, clothing, trade, life and morals of the people, climate)? Give examples.
7. How was the personality of the Russian merchant and his patriotic feelings reflected in “Walking”?
8. Autobiographical material in “Walking” (detailed description of experiences and factual accuracy of the story). Give examples.

  NIKITIN Afanasy(? -1472) - Tver merchant, traveler.

In the 60-70s. XV century made a long trip to the countries of the East at his own peril and risk. Having descended from Tver along the Volga, Nikitin crossed the Caspian Sea and arrived in Persia, where he spent about a year. He sailed across the Arabian Sea to India and lived there for about three years. On the way back, he crossed the Arabian Sea, reached the eastern coast of Africa, sailed along the Arabian Sea to Hormuz, drove through Tabriz and Trebizond, and by the Black Sea arrived in the Crimean city of Kafa (now Feodosia).

Nikitin spoke about his journey in his notes “Walking across Three Seas.” Notes allow you to clarify the travel time. Most likely, it was committed in 1466-1472. (some researchers suggest a different dating: 1471-1474) Of particular interest in “Walking” is the description of the morals, customs, and religious beliefs of the peoples of India. One of the first Russian people to become acquainted with a completely different type of life and culture, the Tver merchant, and during his long journey, retained love and affection for his native land, concern for the strife and strife that was happening on it: “ Let God protect the Russian land!.. There is no country like it in this world, although the princes of the Russian land are not brothers to each other. Let the Russian land be settled, although there is little truth in it!» Researchers consider “Walking Beyond Three Seas” as one of the first works in ancient Russian literature that testify to the emergence of artistic and documentary prose.

More detailed information about Afanasy Nikitin and "Walking beyond the Three Seas"

“Walking across Three Seas” by Afanasy Nikitin has come down to us in seven copies of the 16th-17th centuries, one of them contains only an introduction and a few last words. Textual observations indicate that three editions can be roughly distinguished in the lists: Chronicle, Trinity, Undol. The chronicle edition is the most extensive, is distinguished by greater vernacular language, deviations from orthodox Christian ideas, and contains more religious free-thinking. So, for example, in the Chronicle edition Christ is considered the creator of earth and heaven, which clearly contradicts the Christian ideas about God the Father and God the Son, therefore the word “Christ” in other editions is replaced by the word “God”. In the Troitsk edition, in many cases, common vocabulary is corrected: instead of “ veil on guzna" (on the back) it is written " veil on hips", pagan calendar name " Radunitsa"replaced by Christian - " Fomina week", instead of " Ospozhin day» - « Dormition of the Virgin Mary" and etc.

The original text was subjected to even greater processing in Undolskaya's edition, where large cuts were made, especially places containing ideas of religious free-thinking that contradict orthodox Orthodoxy were removed.

Consequently, the Chronicle edition is closest to those “ hand notebooks"Afanasy Nikitin, which were delivered by merchants to the clerk of the embassy order Vasily Mamyrev in Moscow in 1472, although two sheets were lost in it and some minor details were omitted in the second part (they are easily restored on the basis of the Trinity edition), but there are such details, which are missing in other editions. Therefore, for this publication, we take as a basis the Chronicle edition according to the Etter list (the name is given by the name of the owner of the list), published by the USSR Academy of Sciences in the series “Literary Monuments” (M.-L., 1958), with the restoration of lost pages according to the Trinity list, here in facsimile reproduced, with some corrections made according to the Archive list of the Chronicle edition. Both additions and particular corrections in the text itself are placed in angle brackets and indicated in footnotes.

For centuries, people have strived to discover new lands. The Vikings reached North America, the Jesuits penetrated China and Japan, which were closed to foreigners, sea pirates were carried away by storms and currents, sometimes irrevocably, into uncharted areas of the Pacific Ocean...

But there was one wonderful country to which every enterprising European was irresistibly drawn. Its carpets and silks, saffron and pepper, emeralds, pearls, diamonds, gold, elephants and tigers, inaccessible mountains and forest thickets, milk rivers and jelly banks have equally deprived both romantic and selfish hearts of peace for many centuries.

This country is India. They searched for it, dreamed about it, the best of the navigators paved the way to it. Columbus discovered his “India” (which turned out to be America) in 1492, Vasco da Gama reached real India in 1498. But he was a little late - a quarter of a century -: India was already “discovered”.

And the impetus for this was a combination of initially unhappy personal circumstances of the not very rich, but energetic and inquisitive Russian merchant Afanasy Nikitin. In 1466, he collected (on credit!) goods and set off from Moscow to the Caucasus. But when he went down the Volga to Astrakhan, one of his ships was captured by robbers, and the other was wrecked by a storm off the Caspian coast. Nikitin continued his journey. He did not dare to return home: for the loss of goods he was threatened with a debt trap. He reached Derbent by land, moved to Persia and entered India by sea. Afanasy stayed there for three years and returned to Russia through Africa (Somalia), Turkish lands (Trebizond) and the Black Sea, but died before reaching Smolensk. His notes (“notebooks”) were delivered by merchants to Moscow and included in the chronicle.

This is how the famous “Walking across Three Seas” was born - a monument not only literary, historical and geographical, but a monument to human courage, curiosity, enterprise and perseverance. More than 500 years have passed, but even today this manuscript opens the doors to unknown worlds for us - ancient exotic India and the mysterious Russian soul.

The Appendices to the book contain interesting stories about travels made in different years (before and after Nikitin) to the same regions of India and neighboring countries: “Journey to the Eastern Countries of Guillaume de Rubruk”, “Walking of the Merchant Fedot Kotov to Persia”, “Travel to Tana” by Josaphat Barbaro and “Journey to Persia” by Ambrogio Contarini. Thanks to this composition, this volume of the “Great Travels” series, beloved by domestic readers, is distinguished by its amazing factual richness and abundance of material.

The electronic publication includes all the texts of the paper book and the main illustrative material. But for true connoisseurs of exclusive publications, we offer a gift classic book. Numerous ancient images of the described places give a clear idea of ​​how our travelers saw them. The richly illustrated publication is intended for everyone who is interested in the history of geographical discoveries and loves authentic stories about real adventures. This edition, like all books in the Great Journeys series, is printed on beautiful offset paper and elegantly designed. Editions of the series will adorn any, even the most sophisticated library, and will be a wonderful gift for both young readers and discerning bibliophiles.

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