“The cloth of these lands and localities is famous, especially that of their capital, which is called Kyawh. Famous and noted cities of the Rus are Crsk and Hrqh.” A 10th-century traveler Ahmad ibn Fadlan is most famous for his account of his travels as a member of an embassy from Baghdad to the land of the Volga Bulgars. The main manuscript of Fadlan’s account dating to the 13th century was discovered in 1923. But a 16th-century Persian geographer Amīn Rāzī in his works quoted several additional passages from, what the scholars think, was even an earlier manuscript of Fadlan. Kyawh and its fame are mentioned in those passages by Amīn Rāzī.
The full text and commentary of Ibn Fadlan’s account of the Rus are available at Archive.org: Smyser, H.M. “Ibn Fadlan’s Account of the Rus with Some Commentary and Some Allusions to Beowulf.”
In 1877, Prof. Samokvasov in one of the Royal Barrows near Kyv (Kanev region) discovered a shirt and a piece of cloth. Although he believed that the barrow belonged to the “Cimmerian” period, the state of the cloth may imply the burial belonged to a later period. But what strikes the eye is the similarity of the shirt ornamentation from the Scythian (Rus?) period with the ornamentation of the traditional Ukrainian shirt.
Piece of cloth from Rossava Royal Barrow near Kanev, Kyiv oblast NEXT PART >
