Surely you would be curious to know what Afanasy Nikitin discovered. After reading this article, you will find out where this man visited. Years of life of Afanasy Nikitin - 1442-1474 (75). He was born in Tver, in the family of Nikita, a peasant, so Nikitin is a patronymic, not a surname of a traveler. Most peasants at that time did not have surnames.
His biography is only partially known to historians. There is no reliable information about his youth and childhood, only that he became a merchant at a fairly young age and visited the Crimea, Byzantium, Lithuania and other states on trade matters. Afanasy's commercial enterprises were quite successful: he returned safely to his homeland with overseas goods.
Below is the one located in Tver.
In 1468, Athanasius undertook an expedition during which he visited the countries of the East, Africa, India and Persia. described in a book called “Walking across Three Seas” by Afanasy Nikitin.
Hormuz
Nikitin went to Persia through Baku, after which, after crossing the mountains, he went further south. He made his journey without haste, stopping for a long time in villages and studying local languages, as well as engaging in trade. Athanasius arrived in the spring of 1449 in Hormuz, a large city located at the intersection of various trade routes: from India, China, Asia Minor and Egypt.
Products from Hormuz were already known in Russia. Hormuz pearls were especially famous. Afanasy Nikitin, having learned that horses were being exported to this city, decided to make a risky undertaking. He bought an Arabian stallion and boarded a ship in the hope of reselling it profitably in India. Afanasy went to the city of Chaul. Thus continued the Russian discovery of India. Afanasy Nikitin got here by sea.
First impressions of India
The voyage took six weeks. India made the strongest impression on the merchant. The traveler, not forgetting about trade, also became interested in ethnographic research. He wrote down in detail what he saw in his diaries. In his notes, India appears as a wonderful country, in which everything is completely different from in Rus'. Afanasy wrote that all the people here walk around naked and black. He was amazed that even poor residents wore gold jewelry. Nikitin himself, by the way, also amazed the Indians. Local residents had rarely seen white people before. Nikitin failed to sell his stallion profitably in Chaul. He headed inland, visiting a small city located in the upper reaches of the Sina, and then Junnar.
What did Afanasy Nikitin write about?
Afanasy Nikitin in his travel notes noted everyday details, described sights and local customs. This was almost the first description of the life of India not only for Rus', but also for Europe. Afanasy wrote about what food the locals eat, what they feed their livestock, what goods they trade, and how they dress. He even described the process of making intoxicating drinks, as well as the custom of housewives in India to sleep in the same bed with guests.
The story that happened in the Junnar fortress
The traveler did not stay in the Junnar fortress of his own free will. The local khan took the stallion from Afanasy when he learned that he was an alien from Rus', and not an infidel, and set a condition for the infidel: either he converts to Islam, or not only will he not return his horse, but will also be sold into slavery by the khan. Four days were given for reflection. Only chance saved the Russian traveler. He met Muhammad, an old acquaintance, who vouched for the stranger before the khan.
Nikitin studied the agricultural activities of the population during the two months he spent in Junnar. He noticed that in India they sow and plow wheat, peas and rice during the rainy season. He also describes local winemaking. Coconuts are used as raw material in it.
How Afanasy sold his horse
Athanasius visited the city of Alland after Junnar. There was a big fair here. The merchant wanted to sell, but this again failed. Even without him there were many good horses at the fair.
Afanasy Nikitin managed to sell it only in 1471, and even then without profit, or even at a loss. This happened in the city of Bidar, where the traveler arrived after waiting out the rainy season in other settlements. He stayed here for a long time and became friends with the local population. Afanasy told the residents about his faith and land. The Hindus also told a lot about their family life, prayers, and customs. Many of Nikitin’s recordings are devoted to issues of religion of local residents.
Parvat in Nikitin's notes
The next thing that Afanasy Nikitin discovered was the sacred city of Parvat. He arrived here on the banks of Krishna in 1472. Believers from all over India came from this city to the annual festivities that were dedicated. Nikitin notes in his diaries that this place is as important for Indian Brahmins as Jerusalem is for Christians.
The further journey of Afanasy Nikitin
The merchant traveled around India for another year and a half, trying to trade and studying local customs. But commercial enterprises (the reason why Afanasy Nikitin went across three seas) failed. He never found any goods suitable for export to Rus' from India.
Afanasy Nikitin visited Africa (east coast) on his way back. In the Ethiopian lands, according to diary entries, he miraculously managed to avoid robbery. The traveler paid off the robbers with bread and rice.
Way back
Afanasy Nikitin's journey continued with him returning to Hormuz and going north through Iran, where military operations were taking place at that time. Afanasy passed Kashan, Shiraz, Erzinjan and ended up in Trabzon, a Turkish city located on the southern coast of the Black Sea. The return seemed close, but Nikitin’s luck turned away again. The Turkish authorities took him into custody because they mistook him for an Iranian spy. So Afanasy Nikitin, a Russian merchant and traveler, was deprived of all his property. All he has left is his diary.
Afanasy borrowed money for the journey on parole. He wanted to get to Feodosia, where he planned to meet Russian merchants and pay off debts with their help. He was able to reach Kafa (Feodosia) only in 1474, in the fall. Nikitin spent the winter here, completing his travel notes. In the spring, he decided to go back to Russia along the Dnieper, to Tver. This was the end of Afanasy Nikitin's trip to India.
Death of Afanasy Nikitin
But the traveler was not destined to return: he died in Smolensk under unclear circumstances. Probably, years of hardships and wanderings undermined Afanasy’s health. His companions, Moscow merchants, brought his manuscripts to Moscow and handed them over to Mamyrev, clerk, adviser to Ivan III. The records were later included in the chronicle of 1480.
They were discovered in the 19th century by Karamzin and published under the author's title in 1817. The three seas mentioned in the title of this work are the Caspian, Black and Indian Oceans.
What did Afanasy Nikitin discover?
Long before the arrival of Europeans in India, a Russian merchant found himself in this country. The sea route here was discovered by Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese merchant, several decades later.
Although the commercial goal was not achieved, the journey resulted in the first description of India. In Ancient Rus', before that, it was known only from legends and some literary sources. A man of the 15th century was able to see this country with his own eyes and talentedly tell his compatriots about it. He wrote about the political system, religions, trade, exotic animals (elephants, snakes, monkeys), local customs, and also recorded some legends.
Nikitin also described areas and cities that he had not visited himself, but which the Indians told him about. He mentions, in particular, the island of Ceylon, Calcutta, and Indochina, which were unknown to the Russians at that time. Therefore, what Afanasy Nikitin discovered was of great value. Carefully collected information today allows us to judge the geopolitical and military aspirations of the rulers of India at that time, about their army.
“Walking across Three Seas” by Afanasy Nikitin is the first text of this kind in the history of Russian literature. The unique sound of the work is given by the fact that the traveler did not describe exclusively holy places, like pilgrims before him. It is not the various objects of the Christian religion that come into his field of vision, but people with other beliefs and ways of life. The notes are devoid of internal censorship and officiality, which makes them especially valuable.
NIKITIN, AFANASIY(died 1475) - Tver merchant, traveler, the first European to visit India (a quarter of a century before Vasco da Gama opened the route to this country), author Walking across three seas.
The year of birth of A. Nikitin is unknown. Information about what forced this merchant to undertake a risky and long journey to the East, towards three seas: the Caspian, Arabian and Black, in the late 1460s is also extremely scarce. He described it in his notes entitled Walking across three seas.
The exact start date of the journey is also unknown. In the 19th century I.I. Sreznevsky dated it 1466–1472, modern Russian historians (V.B. Perkhavko, L.S. Semenov) believe the exact date is 1468–1474. According to their data, a caravan of several ships, uniting Russian traders, set off from Tver along the Volga in the summer of 1468. The experienced merchant Nikitin had previously visited distant countries more than once - Byzantium, Moldova, Lithuania, Crimea - and returned home safely with overseas goods. This journey also began smoothly: Afanasy received a letter from the Grand Duke of Tver, Mikhail Borisovich, intending to expand wide trade in the area of modern Astrakhan (this message gave some historians reason to see the Tver merchant as a secret diplomat, a spy for the Tver prince, but there is no documentary evidence of this).
In Nizhny Novgorod, Nikitin was supposed to join the Russian embassy of Vasily Papin for safety reasons, but he had already gone south and the trade caravan did not find him. Having waited for the Tatar ambassador Shirvan Hasan-bek to return from Moscow, Nikitin set off with him and other merchants two weeks later than planned. Near Astrakhan itself, a caravan of embassy and merchant ships was robbed by local robbers - the Astrakhan Tatars, without taking into account that one of the ships was sailing “one of their own” and, moreover, the ambassador. They took away from the merchants all the goods purchased on credit: returning to Rus' without goods and without money threatened a debt hole. Afanasy’s comrades and himself, in his words, “buried and dispersed: whoever had anything in Rus' went to Rus'; and whoever should, but he went where his eyes took him.”
The desire to improve matters through intermediary trade drove Nikitin further south. Through Derbent and Baku he entered Persia, crossed it from Chapakur on the southern coast of the Caspian Sea to Hormuz on the shores of the Persian Gulf and sailed across the Indian Ocean to India by 1471. There he spent three whole years, visiting Bidar, Junkar, Chaul, Dabhol and other cities. He didn’t make any money, but he was enriched with indelible impressions.
On the way back in 1474, Nikitin had a chance to visit the coast of East Africa, the “land of Ethiopia,” reach Trebizond, then end up in Arabia. Through Iran and Turkey he reached the Black Sea. Arriving in Kafa (Feodosia, Crimea) in November, Nikitin did not dare to go further to his native Tver, deciding to wait for the spring merchant caravan. His health was undermined by the long journey. Perhaps he acquired some kind of chronic disease in India. In Kaffa, Afanasy Nikitin apparently met and became close friends with wealthy Moscow “guests” (merchants) Stepan Vasiliev and Grigory Zhuk. When their joint caravan set off (most likely in March 1475), it was warm in Crimea, but as they moved north the weather became colder. A. Nikitin’s poor health made itself felt and he died unexpectedly. Smolensk is conventionally considered the place of his burial.
Wanting to tell others what he saw himself, A. Nikitin kept travel notes, which he gave a literary form and gave a title Walking across three seas. Judging by them, he carefully studied the life, way of life and occupations of the peoples of Persia and India, drew attention to the political system, governance, religion (described the worship of Buddha in the sacred city of Parvata), spoke about diamond mines, trade, weapons, mentioned exotic animals - snakes and monkeys, the mysterious bird “gukuk”, which supposedly foreshadowed death, etc. His notes testify to the breadth of the author’s horizons, his friendly attitude towards foreign peoples and the customs of the countries where he visited. The businesslike, energetic merchant and traveler not only looked for goods needed by the Russian land, but carefully observed and accurately described life and customs.
He also vividly and interestingly described the nature of exotic India. However, as a merchant, Nikitin was disappointed with the results of the trip: “I was deceived by the infidel dogs: they talked about a lot of goods, but it turned out that there was nothing for our land... Pepper and paint were cheap. Some transport goods by sea, others do not pay duties for them, but they will not allow us to transport [anything] without duty. But the duty is high, and there are many robbers at sea.” Missing his native land and feeling uncomfortable in foreign lands, A. Nikitin sincerely called for admiration for the “Russian land”: “May God save the Russian land! There is no country like it in this world. And although the nobles of the Russian land are not fair, may the Russian land be settled and may there be [enough] justice in it!” Unlike a number of European travelers of that time (Nicola de Conti and others), who adopted Mohammedanism in the East, Nikitin was faithful to Christianity to the end (“he did not leave his faith in Rus'”), and gave all moral assessments of morals and customs based on categories Orthodox morality, while remaining religiously tolerant.
Walking A. Nikitin testifies to the author’s well-readness, his command of business Russian speech and at the same time very receptive to foreign languages. He cited in his notes many local - Persian, Arabic and Turkic - words and expressions, and gave them a Russian interpretation.
Walking, delivered by someone in 1478 to Moscow to the clerk of the Grand Duke Vasily Mamyrev after the death of their author, were soon included in the chronicle of 1488, which in turn was included in the Second Sofia and Lviv Chronicles. Walking translated into many languages of the world. In 1955, a monument to its author was erected in Tver on the banks of the Volga, at the place from where he set off “across the three seas.” The monument was installed on a round platform in the shape of a rook, the bow of which is decorated with a horse's head
In 2003, the monument was opened in Western India. The seven-meter stele, faced with black granite, on the four sides of which inscriptions in Russian, Hindi, Marathi and English are engraved in gold, was designed by the young Indian architect Sudip Matra and built with local donations with financial participation from the administrations of the Tver region and the city of Tver.
Lev Pushkarev, Natalya Pushkareva
Afanasy Nikitin is a Russian writer, Tver merchant and traveler who traveled to India and Persia in 1468-1471. Returning home, he visited Somalia, stopped in Turkey and Muscat. The notes he made along the way “Walking across 3 seas” are a valuable historical monument of literature.
It is believed that he was distinguished by religious tolerance, devotion to his native land and faith, unprecedented for the Middle Ages. Afanasy Nikitin's homeland was Tver. The exact date of his birth has not been established. It is known that he was the son of the peasant Nikita (where the patronymic Afanasy comes from). Died in the spring of 1475.
Tver heritage of Afanasy Nikitin
In the 16th-17th centuries. Afanasy Nikitin's notes “Walking across the three seas” (Black, Caspian and Arabian) were rewritten several times. This journey was not originally part of Athanasius's plans, but he became the first European to give an intelligent 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.
Afanasy Nikitin (birth unknown, death possible 1475) – navigator, merchant, merchant. The first European to visit India. He discovered India 25 years before other Portuguese navigators. Traveled in 1468-1474. on Persia, India and the Turkish state. In his travel notes “Walking across Three Seas,” he describes in detail the life and political structure of the eastern countries.
The mysterious personality of the merchant
There are many mysterious personalities in Russian history. And perhaps the most mysterious of them is the personality of the Tver merchant Afanasy Nikitin. And was he a merchant? And who, if not a merchant? The fact that he was a traveler and a writer is clear: he made his “Walk across the Three Seas” and also described it, so much so that to this day, more than 500 years later, it is interesting to read. But what this merchant traded is unknown. Why did he travel on one ship and carry goods on another? And why did he take books with him - a whole chest? There are still questions...
Notes of a traveler
The notes of Afanasy Nikitin were acquired in 1475 by Vasily Mamyrev, clerk of the Grand Duke of Moscow, from certain merchants who came to Moscow. “I found the writing of Ofonas Tveritin, a merchant who was in Yndei for 4 years, and went, they say, with Vasily Papin” - this is how the meticulous official inscribed the acquired “notebooks” of the traveler, specifying that the above-mentioned ambassador then went to Shirvan Shah (that is, to the ruler of Azerbaijan) with a party of gyrfalcons (famous birds of prey of the Russian North), which were intended as a gift to the eastern ruler, and later took part in the Kazan campaign, where he was killed by a Tatar arrow. Already such a preface speaks of the close interest of the highest Kremlin official in this document (deacon is a position corresponding to the status of a minister).
Travel of Afanasy Nikitin
And the document is actually quite interesting. This is what follows from it. When in 1466 the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III sent his ambassador Vasily Papin to the court of the Shah of the country of Shirvan, the merchant from Tver Afanasy Nikitin, who was going on a trade trip to the East, decided to join this embassy. He prepared thoroughly: he obtained travel letters from the Grand Duke of Moscow and from the Prince of Tver, letters of safe conduct from Bishop Gennady and governor Boris Zakharyevich, and stocked up with letters of recommendation to the Nizhny Novgorod governor and customs authorities.
In Nizhny Novgorod, Afanasy learned that Ambassador Papin had already passed past the city to the lower reaches of the Volga. Then the traveler decided to wait for the Shirvan ambassador Hasan-bek, who was returning to the court of his sovereign with 90 gyrfalcons - a gift from Ivan III. Nikitin placed his goods and belongings on a small ship, and he and his traveling library settled on a large ship with other merchants. Together with Hasan Bey’s retinue, the krechetniks and Afanasy Nikitin, more than 20 Russians – Muscovites and Tver residents – traveled to the kingdom of Shirvan. What Afanasy wanted to trade, he does not specify anywhere.
Travel of Afanasy Nikitin to India
In the lower reaches of the Volga, the caravan of the Shirvan ambassador ran aground. There he was attacked by the dashing people of the Astrakhan Khan Kasim. The travelers were robbed, one of the Russians was killed and a small ship was taken from them, on which were all the goods and property of Athanasius. At the mouth of the Volga, the Tatars captured another ship. When the sailors were moving along the western coast of the Caspian Sea towards Derbent, a storm came - and another ship was wrecked near the Dagestan fortress of Tarki. Kaytaki, the local population, plundered the cargo, and the Muscovites and Tver residents were taken with them to the full...
The only surviving ship continued its voyage. When they finally arrived in Derbent, Nikitin, having found Vasily Papin, asked him and the Shirvan ambassador to help in the liberation of the Russians driven away by the Kaytaks. They listened to him and sent the walker to the headquarters of the sovereign Shirvan, and he sent the ambassador to the leader of the Kaytaks. Soon Nikitin met his liberated fellow countrymen in Derbent.
Shirvanshah Farrukh-Yassar received precious Russian gyrfalcons, but spared several gold coins to help the naked and hungry people return back to Rus'. Nikitin’s comrades were saddened, “and they dispersed in all directions.” Those who had no debts for goods taken from Rus' wandered home, others went to work in Baku, and some remained in Shemakha. Where did Afanasy Nikitin go, robbed, without goods, money and books? “And I went to Derbent, and from Derbent to Baku, and from Baku I went overseas...” Why did I go, why, with what means? This is not mentioned...
1468 - he ended up in Persia. Where and how he spent the whole year - again, not a word. The traveler has very few impressions of Persia, where he lived for another year: “from Rey I went to Kashan and there was a month. And from Kashan to Nayin, then to Yazd and lived here for a month...” After leaving Yazd, the Tver merchant reached the city of Lara, inhabited by seafaring merchants, whose rulers depended on the sovereign of the powerful White Sheep Turkmen state. “From Sirjan to Tarum, where they feed the cattle with dates...”
“And here there is the Gurmyz refuge and here there is the Indian Sea,” the traveler wrote in the spring of 1469 in his notebook. Here, in Hormuz on the shores of the Persian Gulf, the robbed Afanasy suddenly turned out to be the owner of a thoroughbred stallion, which he was going to sell profitably in India. Soon Nikitin and his horse were already on a sailing ship without an upper deck, transporting live cargo across the sea. Six weeks later, the ship dropped anchor in Chaul Harbor on the Malabar Coast, western India. Transportation cost 100 rubles.
India occupies a significant place in Nikitin's diaries. “And here there is Indian country, and people walk around all naked, and their heads are not covered, and their breasts are bare, and their hair is braided in one braid, and everyone walks with their bellies, and children are born every year, and they have many children. And the men and women are all naked, and all are black. Wherever I go, there are many people behind me, but they marvel at the white man...” the wanderer wrote down in surprise.
Nikitin travel map
Afanasy Nikitin rode on his horse for about a month to the city of Junnar (Junir), apparently making frequent stops along the way. He indicated in his diary the distances between cities and large villages. Junir, which was probably part of the Muslim state, was ruled by the governor Asad Khan, who, as Athanasius wrote, having many elephants and horses, nevertheless “rode on people.”
The merchant continued his journey. Arriving in the city of Bidar, the capital of the Muslim state of Deccan, where they traded slaves, horses, and golden fabrics. “There are no goods for the Russian land,” the navigator wrote with disappointment. As it turns out, India is not as rich as Europeans thought it was. While examining Bidar, he described the war elephants of the Deccan Sultan, his cavalry and infantry, trumpeters and dancers, horses in golden harnesses and tame monkeys. He was struck by the luxurious life of the Indian “boyars” and the poverty of rural workers. When meeting Indians, the traveler did not hide the fact that he was Russian.
In what language could Nikitin communicate with the local population? He spoke Persian and Tatar languages excellently. Apparently, the local dialects came easily to him. The Indians themselves volunteered to take Nikitin to the temples of Sriparvata, where he was amazed by the huge images of the god Shiva and the sacred bull Nandi. Conversations with those praying at the idols of Sriparvata gave Athanasius the opportunity to describe in detail the life and rituals of the worshipers of the god Shiva.
At this time, a guidebook appeared in Nikitin’s diary indicating the distances to Calicut, Ceylon, the kingdom of Pegu (Burma) and China. Nikitin recorded what goods were exported through the Indian ports of Kambay, Dabul, and Calicut. Gems, fabrics, salt, spices, crystal and rubies of Ceylon, and yachts of Burma were listed.
Monument to Afanasy Nikitin (in Tver and Feodosia)
Way back
...1472, spring - the merchant firmly decided, at all costs, to return to Rus'. He spent 5 months in the city of Kulur, where famous diamond mines were located and hundreds of jewelry craftsmen worked. He also visited Golconda, which at that time was already famous throughout the world for its treasures, the former capital of the Deccan, Gulbarga, and went to the seashore in Dabul. The captain of an undecked sailing ship, setting off for Hormuz, took two gold pieces from the traveler. A month later, Afanasy Nikitin came ashore. This was Ethiopia. Here the wanderer stayed for about a week, he spent another three weeks on the island of Hormuz, and then went to Shiraz, Ispagan, Sultaniya and Tabriz.
In Tabriz, Afanasy visited the headquarters of Uzun-Hasan, the sovereign of the White Barn Turkmen state, who then ruled over almost all of Iran, Mesopotamia, Armenia and part of Azerbaijan. What could connect the powerful eastern ruler with the Tver traveler, what Uzun-Hasan talked to him about, the diaries are silent. He spent 10 days visiting the Turkmen king. He went to Rus' in a new way, through the Black Sea.
New tests awaited Afanasy Nikitin from the Turks. They shook up all his belongings and took them to the fortress, to the governor and commandant of Trebizond. Rummaging through the navigator's belongings, the Turks were looking for some kind of letters, perhaps mistaking the Tver merchant for the Moscow ambassador to the court of Uzun-Hasan. It is unknown, by the way, where, when and how the above-mentioned letters, which he received in Moscow and Tver before being sent to Shirvan, could have disappeared.
Where did he die?
The wanderer set off across the third sea to the city of Cafe (now Feodosia), a colony of Genoese merchants, where he landed in November 1472. However, the end of Afanasy Nikitin’s travels is not very clear. “They say that before he reached Smolensk, he died,” says the preface to “Walking across Three Seas,” acquired by clerk Mamyrev.
It is also unclear what the curious merchant did while staying in India for 4 years. And why, in the end, are some lines and pages of the diary not written in Russian, although in Russian letters? There was even a version put forward that these were some kind of encrypted texts. But translations from Persian and Tatar languages showed that Athanasius’s reflections on God, on fasting and prayers were written in these languages...
One thing is certain: whoever Afanasy Nikitin was - a merchant, intelligence officer, preacher, ambassador or just a very inquisitive wanderer - he was a talented writer and, without a doubt, a charming person. Otherwise, how could he cross the three seas?
In the spring of 1468, Afanasy Nikitin, a middle-income merchant from Tver, equipped two ships and headed along the Volga to the Caspian Sea to trade with his fellow countrymen. Expensive goods were brought for sale, including “soft junk” - furs that were valued in the markets of the Lower Volga and the North Caucasus.
2 Nizhny Novgorod
Having passed by water past Klyazma, Uglich and Kostroma, Afanasy Nikitin reached Nizhny Novgorod. There, for safety reasons, his caravan had to join another caravan led by Vasily Papin, the Moscow ambassador. But the caravans missed each other - Papin had already gone south when Afanasy arrived in Nizhny Novgorod.
Nikitin had to wait for the Tatar ambassador Khasanbek to arrive from Moscow and go with him and other merchants to Astrakhan 2 weeks later than planned.
3 Astrakhan
The ships safely passed Kazan and several other Tatar settlements. But just before arriving in Astrakhan, the caravan was robbed by local robbers - these were Astrakhan Tatars led by Khan Kasim, who was not embarrassed even by the presence of his compatriot Khasanbek. The robbers took away all the goods bought on credit from the merchants. The trade expedition was disrupted, Afanasy Nikitin lost two of the four ships.
The two remaining ships headed to Derbent, got caught in a storm in the Caspian Sea, and were thrown ashore. Returning to their homeland without money or goods threatened the merchants with debt and shame.
Then Afanasy decided to improve his affairs by engaging in intermediary trade. Thus began the famous journey of Afanasy Nikitin, which he described in travel notes entitled “Walking across Three Seas.”
4 Persia
Nikitin went through Baku to Persia, to an area called Mazanderan, then crossed the mountains and moved further south. He traveled without haste, stopping for a long time in villages and engaging not only in trade, but also studying local languages. In the spring of 1469, “four weeks before Easter,” he arrived in Hormuz, a large port city at the intersection 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 Indian cities, Afanasy Nikitin bought an Arabian stallion and hoped to resell it well in India. In April 1469, he boarded a ship bound for the Indian city of Chaul.
5 Arrival in India
The voyage took 6 weeks. India made a strong impression on the merchant. Not forgetting about the trade affairs 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 like in Rus', “and people walk around all black and naked.” It was not possible to sell the stallion profitably in Chaul, and he went inland.
6 Junnar
Athanasius visited a small town in the upper reaches of the Sina River, and then went to Junnar. I had to stay in the Junnar fortress against my own will. The “Junnar Khan” took the stallion from Nikitin when he learned that the merchant was not an infidel, but an alien from distant Rus', and set a condition for the infidel: either he converts to the Islamic faith, or not only will he not receive the horse, but will also be sold into slavery. Khan gave him 4 days to think. It was on Spasov Day, on the Assumption Fast. “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.”
During the 2 months spent in Junnar, Nikitin studied the agricultural activities of the local residents. He saw that in India they plow and sow wheat, rice and peas during the rainy season. He also describes local winemaking, which uses coconuts as a raw material.
7 Bidar
After Junnar, Athanasius visited the city of Alland, where a large fair was taking place. The merchant intended to sell his Arabian horse here, but again it didn’t work out. Only in 1471 Afanasy Nikitin managed to sell the horse, and even then without much benefit for himself. This happened in the city of Bidar, where the traveler stopped while waiting out the rainy season. “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,” this is how Afanasy described this city.
The merchant spent 4 months in Bidar. “And I lived here in Bidar until Lent and met many Hindus. I revealed my faith to them, said that I was not a Besermen, but a Christian of the Jesus faith, and my name was Athanasius, and my Besermen name was 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.” Many entries in Nikitin's diaries concern issues of Indian religion.
8 Parvat
In January 1472, Afanasy Nikitin arrived in the city of Parvat, a sacred place on the banks of the Krishna River, where believers from all over India came for the annual festivals dedicated to the god Shiva. Afanasy Nikitin notes in his diaries that this place has the same meaning for Indian Brahmins as Jerusalem for Christians.
Nikitin spent almost six months in one of the cities in the “diamond” province of Raichur, where he decided to return to his homeland. During all the time that Afanasy traveled around India, he never found a product suitable for sale in Rus'. These travels did not give him any special commercial benefit.
9 Way back
On his way back from India, Afanasy Nikitin decided to visit the east coast of Africa. According to entries in his diaries, in the Ethiopian lands he barely managed to avoid robbery, paying off the robbers with rice and bread. He then returned to the city of Hormuz and moved north through war-torn Iran. He passed the cities of Shiraz, Kashan, Erzincan and arrived in Trabzon, a Turkish city on the southern shore of the Black Sea. There he was taken into custody by the Turkish authorities as an Iranian spy and stripped of all his remaining property.
10 Cafe
Afanasy had to borrow money on his word of honor for the journey to the Crimea, where he intended to meet compatriot merchants and with their help pay off his debts. He was able to reach Kafa (Feodosia) only in the fall of 1474. Nikitin spent the winter in this city, completing notes on his journey, and in the spring he set off along the Dnieper back to Russia.
