Afanassi Nikitin
Afanassi Nikitin ( Russian Афана́сий Ники́тин , English Afanasy Nikitin ; † late 1472 near Smolensk ) was a medieval Russian traveler and merchant from Tver and one of the first Europeans to undertake a documented trip to India . He described his stay in a short story known as The Journey Behind the Three Seas (Russian Хождение за три моря ). In 1955 a bronze monument was erected in his hometown on the banks of the Volga in his honor . He is also the namesake for the Nikitin Glacier in Antarctica.
Life
In 1466 Nikitin left Tver for a trade trip to India. On a ship he traveled down the Volga to the Caspian Sea . He was robbed by Tatars along the way, and many of his men were killed. He sailed on to Derbent in what is now Dagestan , then to Baku and later to Persia , where he lived for a year. In the spring of 1469 Nikitin reached Ormus by land and crossed the Arabian Sea by ship . He went ashore in the later sultanate of Golkonda and spent another three years there.
On his trip he quarreled with the unbelievers, and commercially, his trip was unsuccessful.
On the way back Nikitin visited the African continent ( Somalia ) as well as Muscat and Trebizond . In 1472, after crossing the Black Sea, he reached the Crimean Tatar port city of Kefe , today's Feodosia in the Crimea . Nikitin died on the way to Tver near Smolensk in the autumn of the same year.
During the three-year stay in India, Nikitin observed the population, the social system of the country as well as its government, economy, religion, traditions and nature. Nikitin left a great deal of material that still serves as a valuable source on India in the 15th century.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Walter Laqueur : Putinism: Where is Russia drifting? , Verlag Ullstein, 2015 ISBN 9783843711005 ; introduction
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Nikitin, Afanassi |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Ники́тин, Афана́сий (Russian) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Russian merchant and explorer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 14th century or 15th century |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1472 |
| Place of death | near Smolensk |