Authors

Andriy Danylenko¹;  ¹ Pace University, Modern Languages Department, United States

Discussion

The paper deals with the vagaries of religious and linguistic contestations in Old Rus’ as reflected in the Primary Chronicle and Arabic-Islamic records. The narrative of the Primary Chronicle includes several scenarios of the Rusian conversion story, based on the competition of different faiths, including the Muslim Bulghārs from the Volga who tried to convert Volodimer to Islam. The Islamization of Kyiv is also described by some Muslim authors. The Persian historians al-Marwazī (d. 1124/25), Muḥammad ‘Awfī (d. 1242), followed by the Persophone author Šukrullāh Širvānī in 1458 and Meḥmed Kātib (d. 1599), mention however that Volodimer sent his envoys to Khwārazm, ruled by the independent dynasty, the Khwārazm-shāhs. Linguistically, there were two options faced by Old Rus’ after the Islamization in the 10th century. Had Volodimer accepted Islam while in Novgorod, he would probably have implanted its Turkic version as happened with the Volga Bulghārs (Pritsak). While in Kyiv, however, Volodimer would probably become Persophone