Nikitin Athanasius (? - 1474/75) Russian traveler, merchant from Tver. Traveled to Persia, India (1466-1474). On the way back I visited the African coast (Somalia), Muscat, Turkey. Travel notes "Journey beyond three seas" is a valuable literary and historical monument. Featured

Afanasy Nikitin Afanasy Nikitin, a merchant from Tver, in 1466 equipped two ships with goods borrowed, and went down the Volga, joining the ambassadors of the Shirvan Shah (a country in the Western Caspian), who were returning from Moscow Grand Duke Ivan III. At the mouth Volga

For what "three seas" did the Tver merchant Afanasy Nikitin make his "walking"? In 1466-1472, the Tver merchant Afanasy Nikitin made a trip to Persia and India, which he reflected in his work “Journey Beyond the Three Seas”. In this first book in medieval Europe,

Discovery of "India", which turned out to be America "It was midnight on October 11, 1492. Just another two hours - and an event will happen that is destined to change the entire course of world history. On the ships, no one was fully aware of this, but literally everyone, from the admiral to the

Afanasy Nikitin (? - 1474/75) Russian traveler, Tver merchant. Traveled to Persia, India (1466-1474). On the way back I visited the African coast (Somalia), Muscat, Turkey. Travel notes "Journey beyond three seas" is a valuable literary and historical monument. Featured

The beginning of the activity of Afanasy Nikitin

Very little is known about the outstanding representative of the Russian people, Afanasy Nikitin. There is no reliable information about his birth (date and place), about his childhood and adolescence. But the glory of the great traveler and explorer deservedly belongs to this brave man.

According to some reports, Afanasy Nikitin was born in the family of a peasant, Nikita. This means that "Nikitin" is the patronymic of Athanasius, and not the surname. The date of birth is also unknown. Some scientists date it, approximately, $1430-1440$ years.

Remark 1

It is known that he left peasant labor and joined the merchant class. At first, he was employed in trade caravans, as they would say now, "handyman." But gradually he gained authority among merchants and began to lead merchant caravans himself.

Beginning of the Indian campaign

In the summer of $1446$, Tver merchants set off on a long voyage "to overseas countries" on several boats. The merchants appointed Afanasy Nikitin as the head of the caravan. By that time, he already had a reputation as a seasoned man who had traveled and seen a lot. Along the Volga, which already played the role of an international trade route in those days, the ships were supposed to go down to the Khvalyn Sea. So in those years they called the Caspian Sea.

Nikitin's travel notes on the way to Nizhny Novgorod are brief. This indicates that the path was no longer new. In Nizhny Novgorod, the merchants joined the Shirvan embassy of Hasanbek, who was returning from Moscow.

In the Volga delta, the caravan was attacked by the Astrakhan Tatars and was plundered. Four Russian merchants were captured. The surviving ships entered the Caspian Sea. But in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe current Makhachkala, the ships were broken during a storm and looted by local residents.

Afanasy Nikitin, having collected goods on credit, could not return home. Therefore, he went to Baku, which was then a major commercial and industrial center. From Baku, in $1468, Nikitin sailed to the Persian fortress of Mazanderan, where he stayed for more than eight months. He describes Elbrus, the nature of Transcaucasia, cities and the life of local residents.

Afanasy Nikitin in India

In the spring of $1469$ he arrives in Hormuz. More than $40 thousand inhabitants lived in Hormuz at that time. Having bought horses in Hormuz, Nikitin crossed to India. He arrived in the Indian city of Chaul $23 April $1471$. Horses in Chaul could not be sold profitably. And Nikitin goes deep into the country. The merchant spent two months in Junnar. Then he moved even further for $400$ versts to Bidart, Allande. During the journey, Afanasy Nikitin tries to learn as much as possible from the life of a foreign people (customs, legends, beliefs, architectural features). For a long time Nikitin lived in the families of ordinary Indians. He was nicknamed "hoze Isuf Khorosani".

In $1472, Athanasius Nikitin visits the sacred city of Parvat, where he describes the religious holidays of the Indian Brahmins. In $1473$ he visits the Raichur diamond region. After that, Nkitin decides to return "to Russia".

Remark 2

Afanasy Nikitin spent about three years in India. He witnessed wars between Indian states, gives a description of Indian cities and trade routes, features of local laws.

The way home

Having bought precious stones, Nikitin in $1473$ goes to the sea in Dabul (Dabhol). From this port it is ferried to Hormuz. Along the way, he describes the "Ethiopian Mountains" (the high shores of the Somali peninsula).

Nikitin chose the route home through Persia and Trebizond to the Black Sea and on to Kafa and through Podolia and Smolensk. He spent the winter of $1474-1475 in the Cafe, putting his notes and observations in order.

In the spring of $1475$, Nikitin moved north along the Dnieper. But he never made it to Smolensk. Afanasy Nikitin died on the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. His notes were delivered by merchants to the Moscow clerk of the Grand Duke Vasily Mamyrev.

The meaning of Athanasius Nikitin's journey

Over the next two centuries, the notes of Afanasy Nikitin, known as "The Journey Beyond the Three Seas", were repeatedly rewritten. Six lists have come down to us. This was the first description in Russian literature not of a pilgrimage, but of a commercial trip, full of observations about the political structure, economy and culture of other countries. Nikitin himself called his journey sinful, and this is the first description of anti-pilgrimage in Russian literature. Nikitin's scientific feat can hardly be overestimated. Before him, there were no Russian people in India. From an economic point of view, the trip was not profitable. There was no product suitable for Russia. And the goods that would have made a profit were subject to a large duty.

Remark 3

But the main result was that Afanasy Nikitin, thirty years before colonization by the Portuguese, was the first European to give a true description of medieval India. In modern times, Nikitin's notes were discovered by N. M. Karamzin as part of the Trinity collection. Karamzin published excerpts in $1818 in notes to the History of the Russian State.

Afanasy Nikitin - traveler and pioneer from Tver Afanasy Nikitin - Russian traveler, merchant and writer, was born in 1442 (the date is not documented) and died in 1474 or 1475 near Smolensk. Born in the family of a peasant Nikita, so Nikitin is, strictly speaking, not the traveler's surname, but his patronymic: at that time, most peasants did not have surnames.

In 1468 he undertook an expedition to the countries of the East and visited Persia, India and Africa. He described his journey in the book "Journey Beyond the Three Seas".

Afanasy Nikitin - Biography. Afanasy Nikitin, whose biography is only partially known to historians, was born in the city of Tver. There is no reliable information about his childhood and youth. It is known that at a fairly young age he became a merchant and visited Byzantium, the Crimea, Lithuania and other countries on trade matters. His commercial ventures were quite successful: he safely returned to his homeland with overseas goods.

He received a charter from the Grand Duke of Tver, Mikhail Borisovich, which allowed him to develop extensive trade in the region of present-day Astrakhan. This fact allows some historians to consider the Tver merchant as a secret diplomat and scout of the Grand Duke, but there is no documentary evidence for this assumption.

Afanasy Nikitin began his journey in the spring of 1468, sailing past the Russian cities of Klyazma, Uglich and Kostroma. According to the plan, having reached Nizhny Novgorod, the pioneer caravan had to join another caravan led by Vasily Papin, the Moscow ambassador, for security reasons. But the caravans missed each other - Papin had already gone south when Athanasius arrived in Nizhny Novgorod.

Then he waited for the arrival of the Tatar ambassador Khasanbek from Moscow and, with him and other merchants, went to Astrakhan 2 weeks later than planned. Afanasy Nikitin considered it dangerous to sail in a single caravan - at that time Tatar gangs were in charge along the banks of the Volga. Caravans of ships successfully passed Kazan and several other Tatar settlements.

But just before arriving in Astrakhan, the caravan was robbed by local robbers - they were Astrakhan Tatars led by Khan Kasim, who was not even embarrassed by the presence of his compatriot Hasanbek. The robbers took away all the goods from the merchants, bought, by the way, on credit. The trading expedition was thwarted, two of the four ships Afanasy Nikitin lost. Then things didn't go well either. The two remaining ships were caught in a storm in the Caspian Sea and washed ashore. Returning to their homeland without money and goods threatened the merchants with a debt hole and shame.

Then the merchant decided to improve his business, intending to engage in intermediary trade. Thus began the famous journey of Afanasy Nikitin, described by him in his literary work "Journey Beyond the Three Seas".

Information about the trip of Athanasius Nikitin.

Persia and India. Through Baku, Nikitin went to Persia, to an area called Mazanderan, then crossed the mountains and moved further south. He traveled without haste, staying for a long time in the villages and being engaged not only in trade, but also studying local languages. In the spring of 1469, he arrived in Hormuz, a large port city at the crossroads of trade routes from Egypt, Asia Minor (Turkey), China and India.

Goods from Hormuz were already known in Russia, Hormuz pearls were especially famous. Having learned that horses that were not bred there were being exported from Hormuz to the cities of India, Afanasy Nikitin decided on a risky business venture. He smoked an Arabian stallion and, hoping to resell it well in India, boarded a ship bound for the Indian city of Chaul.

The swim took 6 weeks. India made the strongest impression on the merchant. Not forgetting about the trading business, for which he, in fact, arrived here, the traveler became interested in ethnographic research, recording in detail what he saw in his diaries. India appears in his notes as a wonderful country, where everything is not the same as in Russia, "and people go all black and naked." Athanasius was struck by the fact that almost all the inhabitants of India, even the poor, wear gold jewelry. By the way, Nikitin himself also struck the Indians - the locals had rarely seen white people here before.

However, it was not possible to profitably sell the stallion in Chaul, and he went inland. He visited a small town in the upper reaches of the Sina River, and then went to Junnar.

In his travel notes, Afanasy Nikitin did not miss everyday details, and also described local customs and sights. This was hardly the first true description of the life of the country, not only for Russia, but even for the whole of Europe. The traveler left notes about what kind of food is cooked here, what is fed to pets, how they dress and what goods are traded. Even the process of making local intoxicating drinks and the custom of Indian housewives to sleep with guests in the same bed are described.

Junnar had to linger in the fortress no longer of his own free will. The "Dzhunnar Khan" took away his stallion when he found out that the merchant was not an infidel, but an alien from distant Russia, and set a condition for the infidel: either he converts to the Islamic faith, or not only does he not get a horse, but will be sold into slavery. Khan gave him 4 days to think. The Russian traveler was saved by chance - he met an old acquaintance Mohammed, who vouched for the stranger to the khan.

During the 2 months spent by the Tver merchant in Junnar, Nikitin studied the agricultural activities of local residents. He saw that in India they plow and sow wheat, rice and peas during the rainy season. He also describes the local winemaking, which uses coconuts as a raw material.

After Junnar, he visited the city of Alland, where there was a large fair. The merchant intended to sell his Arabian horse here, but again it did not work out. At the fair, even without his stallion, there were plenty of good horses for sale.

Only in 1471 did Afanasy Nikitin manage to sell his horse, and even then without much profit for himself, or even at a loss. This happened in the city of Bidar, where the traveler arrived, waiting for the rainy season in other settlements. He stayed in Bidar for a long time, making friends with the locals.

The Russian traveler told them about his faith and his land, the Indians also told him a lot about their customs, prayers, and family life. Many entries in Nikitin's diaries deal with the religion of the Indians.

In 1472, he arrived in the city of Parvat, a sacred place on the banks of the Krishna River, where believers from all over India went to the annual festivals dedicated to the god Shiva. Athanasius Nikitin notes in his diaries that this place has the same meaning for Indian Brahmins as Jerusalem does for Christians.

The Tver merchant traveled around India for another year and a half, studying local customs and trying to conduct trade business. However, the traveler's commercial undertakings failed: he never found a product suitable for export from India to Russia.

Africa, Iran, Turkey and Crimea. On his way back from India, Afanasy Nikitin decided to visit the east coast of Africa. According to diary entries, in the Ethiopian lands he barely managed to avoid robbery, paying off the robbers with rice and bread.

Then he returned to the city of Hormuz and moved through Iran, where hostilities were taking place, to the north. He passed the cities of Shiraz, Kashan, Erzinjan and arrived in Trabzon (Trebizond), a Turkish city on the southern coast of the Black Sea. It seemed that the return was close, but then luck turned away from the traveler again: he was taken under arrest by the Turkish authorities as an Iranian spy and deprived of all the remaining property.

According to the traveler himself, which has come down to us in the form of notes, all that remained with him at that time was the diary itself, and the desire to return to his homeland.

He had to borrow money on parole for the road to Feodosia, where he intended to meet fellow merchants and pay off debts with their help. He was able to get to Feodosia (Kafu) only in the autumn of 1474. Nikitin spent the winter in this city, completing his notes on his journey, and in the spring he set off along the Dnieper back to Russia, to his native city of Tver.

However, he was not destined to return there - he died in the city of Smolensk under unknown circumstances. Most likely, years of wandering and hardships endured by the traveler undermined his health. Afanasy Nikitin's companions, Moscow merchants, brought his manuscripts to Moscow and handed them over to deacon Mamyrev, adviser to Tsar Ivan III. The entries were later included in the chronicles of 1480.

In the 19th century, these notes were discovered by the Russian historian Karamzin, who published them in 1817 under the author's title. The three seas mentioned in the title of the work are the Caspian Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Black Sea.

Discoveries of Athanasius Nikitin. A merchant from Tver ended up in India long before the arrival of representatives of European states. The sea route to this country was opened by the Portuguese merchant Vasco da Gama several decades later than the Russian trade guest Afanasy Nikitin arrived there. What did he discover in distant lands and why are his records of such value for posterity?

Although the commercial goal that prompted the pioneer to such a dangerous journey was not achieved, the result of the wanderings of this observant, talented and energetic person was the first real description of an unknown distant country. Prior to that, in Ancient Russia, the fabulous country of India was known only from legends and literary sources of that time.

A man of the 15th century saw the legendary country with his own eyes and was able to tell his compatriots about it with talent. In his notes, the traveler writes about the state system of India, the religions of the local population (in particular, about "belief in buty" - this is how Afanasy Nikitin heard and wrote down the name of Buddha, sacred to most Indians of that time).

He described the trade of India, the armament of the army of this country, spoke about exotic animals (monkeys, snakes, elephants), local customs and Indian ideas about morality. He also wrote down some Indian legends.

The Russian traveler also described cities and areas that he himself did not visit, but which he heard about from the Indians. So, he mentions Calcutta, the island of Ceylon and Indochina, places that at that time were still completely unknown to Russian people. The information carefully collected by the pioneer allows us today to judge the military and geopolitical aspirations of the Indian rulers of that time, the state of their armies (up to the number of war elephants and the number of chariots).

His "Journey Beyond the Three Seas" was the first text of its kind in Russian literary literature. The fact that he did not describe only holy places, as pilgrims did before him, gives the composition a unique sound. It is not the objects of the Christian faith that fall into the field of his attentive vision, but people with a different religion and a different way of life. His notes are devoid of any officiality and internal censorship, and this is especially valuable. The story of Afanasy Nikitin and his discoveries - video Afanasy Nikitin's travel map

Afanasy Nikitin's journey began in Tver, from there the route ran along the Volga River through Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan to Astrakhan. Then the pioneer visited Derbent, Baku, Sari, after which he moved overland through Persia. Having reached the city of Ormuz, he boarded the ship again and arrived on it at the Indian port of Chaul.

In India, he visited many cities on foot, among them Bidar, Junnar and Parvat. Further along the Indian Ocean, he sailed to Africa, where he spent several days, and then, again, returned to Hormuz by water. Then, on foot through Iran, he came to Trebizond, from there he reached the Crimea (Feodosia).

Afanasy Nikitin - Russian writer, Tver merchant and traveler who traveled to India and Persia in 1468-1471. Returning home, he visited Somalia, drove to Turkey and Muscat. The notes “Journey beyond 3 seas” made by him along the way are a valuable historical literary monument.

It is believed that he was distinguished by religious tolerance, devotion to his native land and faith, unprecedented for the Middle Ages. Tver was the birthplace of Afanasy Nikitin. The exact date of his birth has not been established. It is known that he was the son of the peasant Nikita (hence the patronymic of Athanasius). He died in the spring in 1475.

Tver legacy of Afanasy Nikitin

In the 16-17th centuries. Afanasy Nikitin's notes "Journey beyond three seas" (Black, Caspian and Arabian) corresponded several times. This journey was not originally included in the plans of Athanasius, but he became the first European to give a sensible and important description of medieval India.

The work of Afanasy Nikitin is a monument to the living Russian language of the 15th century. In 1957, a 3,500 m peak and a huge underwater mountain range in the Indian Ocean were named after him. In 1955, a monument was erected to Afanasy Nikitin in Tver.