Kuyaba

For a region in Poland, see Kuyavia, Poland

Kuyaba (Arabic: كويابة‎ Kūyāba[1]) was one of the three centers of the Rus[1][2] or Saqaliba (early East Slavs) described in a lost book by Abu Zayd al-Balkhi (dating from ca. 920) and mentioned in works by some of his followers (Ibn Hawqal, Al-Istakhri, Hudud ul-'alam). The two other centers were Slawiya (Arabic: صلاوية‎ Ṣ(a)lāwiya)[1][2] (tentatively identified with the land of Ilmen Slavs, see Rus' Khaganate) and Arthaniya (Arabic: ارثانية‎ ’Arṯāniya)(not properly explained).[1][2]

Soviet historians such as Boris Grekov and Boris Rybakov hypothesized that "Kuyaba" was a mispronunciation of "Kiev". They brought forth a theory that Kuyaba had been a union of Slavic tribes in the middle course of the Dnieper River centered on Kiev.[3] Kuyaba, Slaviya, and Artaniya later merged to form the state of Kievan Rus'. This explanation has been adopted by modern Ukrainian historiography.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d M. Th. Houtsma, ed (1993). E. J. Brill's first encyclopaedia of Islam: 1913-1936. Leiden: Brill. p. 1182. ISBN 9004097929. http://books.google.com/books?id=fWNpIGNFz0IC&pg=PA1182. 
  2. ^ a b c Duczko, Wladyslaw (2004). Viking Rus: studies on the presence of Scandinavians in Eastern Europe. Leiden: Brill. p. 123. ISBN 9004138749. http://books.google.com/books?id=hEawXSP4AVwC&pg=PA123. 
  3. ^ Magocsi, Paul Robert (2010). A History of Ukraine: The Land and Its Peoples. University of Toronto Press. pp. 57. ISBN 9781442610217. http://books.google.com/books?id=BNUtdVrw6lIC&pg=PA57.