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Home , Ibn Battuta

IBN BATTUTA ON AND CHRISTIANS IN THE CRIMEAN PENINSULA

HARRY NORRIS

School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

Unlike al-Mas‘udi (who was born around 283 A.H./896 A.D. and who died in Jumada 11, 345 A.H./September 956 A.D.)1 and Abu Hamid al-Gharnati (d. 565 A.H./169 A.D.),2 both of whom visited the Caucasus region and who have left us detailed information about Armenia, Georgia and Daghestan, Ibn Battuta, during the course of his visit to the court of Uzbek Khan, in Saray, or on his way to Con- stantinople, never once set foot in the heart of the Caucasus range it- self.3 Despite this, his account offers some intriguing information about Caucasians and Iranians whom he met within adjacent regions of the steppes of Dasht-i Qipchaq and also in the Crimean peninsula, near to Kerch (Karsh), and also in Staryj Krym, which was the regional capi- tal of the at that time. Furthermore, Ibn Battuta’s par- ticular interest in Sufism and its brotherhoods has meant that his ac- count ()4 furnishes us with some very unusual observations upon the relationship between those of mystical bent in the Abrahamic faiths within the localities which he visited, honest observations which suggest that an extensive dialogue and a diffusion of heterodox ideas and practices were not uncommon in this entire region between the

1In regard to al-Mas‘udi’s travels in Armenia, see Ahmad M. Shboul, ‘al-Mas‘udi and his World, a Muslim Humanist and his Interest in Non-Muslims, Ithaca Press, London, 1979: 4 and 12, and notes 45 and 151, namely ‘Muruj’ §§ 442-508. 2Abu Hamid’s description of Daghestan is discussed in my “Early Medieval Folk Epic and Romance among the Muslim peoples of the Caucasus regions of Eastern Europe”, Scripta Mediter- ranea, vols X1X-XX, 1998-99: 277-280. 3Ibn Battuta, who was born in in 703 A.H./1304 A.D., wrote his work, Tuhfat al- Nuzzar fi ghara‘ib al-amsar wa-‘aja‘ib al-asfar, around the year, 756 A.H./1355 A.D. His account was written down by , who may be responsible for confusion in respect to the chronol- ogy of the journeys and who may also have inserted passages which are unauthentic. The visit of Ibn Battuta to the appears to be remarkably accurate in its details. 4Ibn Battuta’s interest in Sufism during the course of his travels are discussed by Prof. Ian Richard Netton in his A Popular Dictionary of , Curzon Press, London, 1992, where further references may be found.

 Brill, Leiden, 2004 and the Caucasus, 8.1 8 HARRY NORRIS Black and Caspian seas. In order to find the source of these beliefs both Armenians and Iranians feature prominently in the information, which he has provided. Ibn Battuta made one, if not two, journeys to the Crimean penin- sula. It is there that his encounters with Caucasians are most likely to have taken place, although he also makes a reference to them during his visit to the southeastern districts of Asia Minor and to the north- ernmost flanks and foothills of the Caucasus range. He wrote: “Thence I visited the fortress of Baghras5 at the entrance to the land of Sis [Little Armenia], that is, the land of the Armenian infidels, and many other castles and fortresses, several of which belong to a sect called Isma‘ilites or Fidawis6 and may be entered by none but mem- bers of the sect”. He comments a little later about this entire area: “The majority of the people of the coastal district belong to the sect of the Nusayris who believe that ‘ is a God”.7 His encounter with the person of ‘Ali b. Abi Talib, in local beliefs, will appear later in my text. Amongst the Sufi centres, which were visited by Ibn Battuta within the Crimea, itself, or immediately to the north of it, were Sufi hostels and retreats (zawiyas) where the Shaykhs who were in charge came from Khurasan. In one of these retreats he met a jurist, or teacher, (faqih) who was an Ossetian from the northern Caucasus. In Azaq, he was afforded hospitality near a fortified retreat (rabita), which was asso- ciated with al-Khidr (the spiritual guide of Dhu’l-Qarnayn and, in particular, an illuminator of Sufis) and with the Prophet Elias (Ilyas). Both here, and in the Crimean peninsula, the Sufi communities were multi-ethnic. Possibly some inmates were from the local Turkic or Tatar peoples, and a number of them were certainly Khurasanis. In India, Ibn Battuta had met a messenger from the king whom he de- scribes as a Sufi Shaykh, named Rajab al-Burqa‘i, who was born in Qiram, the ancient capital of Islamic Crimea, Staryj Krym (Eski Krim, or Solkhat). Elsewhere he encountered who had been converted to Islam and who had embraced Sufism, together with Iraqis and Turks.

5Pagrae fortress, which was called Gaston, or Gastin, by the Crusaders defended the entry point to the Baylan Pass which is located between Alexandretta and Antioch. 6The “Fidawis”, or “Fida’iyyin” are better known as the “Assassins” in the West, see Farhad Daftary, The Isma‘ilis, their History and Doctrines, Cambridge, 1990: 18-19, 433-434. 7H. A. R. Gibb, “Ibn Battuta, Travels in Asia and Africa, 1325-1354”, The Broadway Travel- lers, London, 1939: 62-63, and Ibn Battuta, in the edition, vol 11, 1959: 469 and f. n. 299.