Territory of the modern Belarus on alIdrisis map (1154)
Ales Biely
This is an investigation into the description of the territory of the modern Republic of Belarus by the famous medieval Arabian geographer alIdrisi in his work Kitab nuzhat almustak fi htirak alafak (Amusement for him who desires to travel around the world or the Book of Roger) and on the sectional map of the world known as Charta Rogeriana. The author made an attempt to reconstruct geographical objects described by alIdrisi and to assign their names given in rather distorted transcription, to the modern toponyms of Belarus and the adjacent countries.
Unlike in many other countries, there is no own tradition of alIdrisi studies in Belarus, though one of the best Arabists of the XX century, I. Krackouski, Belarusian by nationality, studied alIdrisis heritage actively, without paying special attention to Belarusian territory. The latter is mainly displayed by alIdrisi on the 65th sheet of his sectional map (5th section of VII climate, according to the traditional classification). Some foreign authors, notably J. Lelewel, K. Miller, O. J.Tallgren (Tuulio), T. Lewicki and B. Rybakov, dedicated parts of their works to attribution of some of alIdrisis toponyms to the certain places on the territory of todays Belarus.
These attributions are analyzed by author in detail. In particular, he accepts Rybakovs point of view whereby Muniska is identified with modern Minsk, Sinuboli with Smolensk, and DnabrusBeltes river system as DnieperBiarezina. However, he disagrees with Rybakovs identification of Barmunia as modern Ukrainian town of Bilhorod. Neither he accepts opinions of Lewicki, Alexandrowicz and Beilis who read the same Arabic inscription as Turubia and attributed it to the ancient Belarusian town of Turau. In authors opinion, Barmunia seems to be more correct Latin transliteration of alIdrisi, but it refers rather to Brest. Instead of Rybakovs attribution of Beltes outfall as the vicinity of the modern town of Recyca, the author suggests more appropriate, in his opinion, towns of Horval or Stresyn. He also suggests to attribute Markata river to the Nioman with its tributaries, and Markata mountains he perceives as a contamination of the real Belarusian Ridge and the mythical Riphaeus Mountains of the ancient geographers. AlIdrisis Termi lake is almost unanimously recognized by the researchers as the Prypiac Marshes.