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NIKITIN, ATHANASIUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V19, Page 690 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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NIKITIN, See also:ATHANASIUS , of See also:Tver (fl. 1468-1474), See also:Russian See also:merchant, traveller and writer, the earliest known Russian visitor to See also:India. He started in 1468 on his " wanderings beyond the Three Seas " (See also:Caspian, Euxine and See also:Indian Ocean), and descended the See also:Volga, passing by See also:Uglich, See also:Kostroma, Nizhniy See also:Novgorod, Kazan, Sarai and See also:Astrakhan. Near the latter he was attacked and robbed by See also:Tatars; but he succeeded in reaching See also:Derbent, where he joined Vasili See also:Papin, the See also:envoy of See also:Ivan III. of See also:Moscow to the shah of See also:Shirvan; from Nizhniy Novgorod he had travelled with See also:Hasan See also:Bey, the Shirvan shah's See also:ambassador, returning to his See also:master with a See also:present of falcons from Ivan. At Derbent Nikitin vainly endeavoured to get means of returning to See also:Russia; failing in this, he went on to See also:Batu, where he notices the " eternal fires," and thence over the Caspian to See also:Bokhara. Here he stayed six months, after which he made his way southward, with several prolonged stoppages, to the See also:Persian Gulf, through See also:Mazandaran See also:province and the towns of Amul, Demavend, See also:Ray (near Tehran),' See also:Kashan, Nain, See also:Yezd, Sirjan, Tarun, See also:Lar and Bandar, opposite New (or insular) See also:Hormuz. From Hormuz he sailed by See also:Muscat to See also:Gujarat, See also:Cambay and Chaul in western India. Landing at Chaul, he seems to have travelled to Umrut in See also:Aurangabad province, See also:south-See also:east of See also:Surat, and thence to Beder, the See also:modern See also:Ahmedabad. Here, and in adjacent regions, Nikitin spent nearly four years; from the little he tells us, he appears to have made his living by See also:horse-dealing. From Beder he visited the See also:Hindu See also:sanctuary (" their See also:Jerusalem ") of Perwattum. He returned to Russia byway of See also:Calicut, Dabul, Muscat, Hormuz, Lar, See also:Shiraz, Yezd, See also:Isfahan, Kashan, Sultanieh, See also:Tabriz, See also:Trebizond and See also:Kaffa (See also:Theodosia) in the See also:Crimea. He has See also:left us descriptions of western Indian See also:manners, customs, See also:religion, See also:court-ceremonies, festivals, warfare and See also:trade, of some value; but the See also:text is corrupt, and the narrative at its best is confused and meagre.

His remarks on the trade of Hormuz, Cambay, Calicut, Dabul, See also:

Ceylon, See also:Pegu and See also:China; on royal progresses and other functions, both ecclesiastical and See also:civil, at Beder; and on the wonders of the See also:great See also:fair at Perwattum—as well as his comparisons of things Russian and Indian—deserve See also:special See also:notice. Two See also:MSS. are known: (I) in the library of the See also:cathedral of St See also:Sophia in Novgorod; (2) in the library of the TroItsa Monastery (Troitsko-Sergievskaya Lavra) near Moscow. See also the edition by Pavel Mikhailovich Stroev in Sofiiskii Vremennik (A.D. 862-1534), pt. ii. pp. 145-164 (Moscow, 182o-1821) ; and the See also:English version in India in the 15th See also:Century, pp. lxxiv.-lxxx.; 1-32 (separately paged, Nikitin's being the third narrative in the See also:volume, translated and edited by See also:Count Wielhorski; See also:London, See also:Hakluyt Society, 1857). (C. R.

End of Article: NIKITIN, ATHANASIUS

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