Ibn Battuta on Muslims and Christians in the Crimean Peninsula

Author(s): Harry Norris

Source: Iran & the Caucasus, Vol. 8, No. 1 (2004), pp. 7-14
Published by: BRILL
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4030887
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IBN BATTUTA ON MUSLIMSAND CHRISTIANS

IN THE CRIMEANPENINSULA
HARRY NORRIS
School of Orientaland AfricanStudies,Universityof London

Unlike al-Mas'udi (who was born around 283 A.H./896 A.D. and
who died in Jumada 11, 345 A. H./September 956 A.D.)' and Abu
Hamid al-Gharnati (d. 565 A. H.! 169 A. D.),2 both of whom visited
the Caucasus region and who have left us detailed information about
Armenia, Georgia and Daghestan, Ibn Battuta, during the course of
his visit to the court of Uzbek Khan, in Saray, or on his way to Constantinople, never once set foot in the heart of the Caucasus range itself.3
Despite this, his account offers some intriguing information about
Caucasians and Iranians whom he met within adjacent regions of the
steppes of Dasht-i Qipchaq and also in the Crimean peninsula, near to
Kerch (Karsh), and also in Staryj Krym, which was the regional capital of the Golden Horde at that time. Furthermore, Ibn Battuta's particular interest in Sufism and its brotherhoods has meant that his account (ribla)4furnishes us with some very unusual observations upon
the relationship between those of mystical bent in the Abrahamic
faiths within the localities which he visited, honest observations which
suggest that an extensive dialogue and a diffusion of heterodox ideas
and practices were not uncommon in this entire region between the
' In regard to al-Mas'udi's
travels in Armenia, see Ahmad M. Shboul, 'al-Mas'udiandhis
World,a MuslimHumanist
andhisInterest
inNon-Muslims,
Ithaca Press,London, 1979: 4 and 12, and
notes 45 and 151, namely 'Muruj'?? 442-508.
2 Abu Hamid's descriptionof Daghestan is discussedin my "EarlyMedieval Folk Epic and
Romance among the Muslimpeoples of the Caucasusregionsof EasternEurope",Scripta
Mediterranea,vols XlX-XX, 1998-99:277-280.
3 Ibn Battuta,who was born in Tangier in 703 A.H./ 1304 A.D., wrote his work, TuhfatalNuzzarfi ghara'ibal-amsarwa-'aja'ibal-asfar,around the year, 756 A.H./ 1355 A.D. His account
was writtendown by IbnJuzayy, who may be responsiblefor confusionin respectto the chronology of the journeys and who may also have insertedpassageswhich are unauthentic.The visit of
Ibn Battutato the Crimeaappearsto be remarkablyaccuratein its details.
4 Ibn Battuta'sinterest in Sufism during the course of his travels are
discussedby Prof. Ian
Richard Netton in his A PopularDictionary
of Islam,Curzon Press, London, 1992, where further
referencesmay be found.
? Brill,Leiden, 2004

Iran and the Caucasus,8.1

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HARRY NORRIS

Black and Caspian seas. In order to find the source of these beliefs
both Armenians and Iranians feature prominently in the information,
which he has provided.
Ibn Battuta made one, if not two, journeys to the Crimean peninsula. It is there that his encounters with Caucasians are most likely to
have taken place, although he also makes a reference to them during
his visit to the southeastern districts of Asia Minor and to the northernmost flanks and foothills of the Caucasus range. He wrote:
"Thence I visited the fortress of Baghras5 at the entrance to the land of
Sis [Little Armenia], that is, the land of the Armenian infidels, and
many other castles and fortresses, several of which belong to a sect
called Isma'ilites or Fidawis6 and may be entered by none but members of the sect". He comments a little later about this entire area:
"The majority of the people of the coastal district belong to the sect of
the Nusayris who believe that 'Ali is a God".7 His encounter with the
person of 'Ali b. Abi Talib, in local beliefs, will appear later in my text.
Amongst the Sufi centres, which were visited by Ibn Battuta within
the Crimea, itself, or immediately to the north of it, were Sufi hostels
and retreats (zawiyas) where the Shaykhs who were in charge came
from Khurasan. In one of these retreats he met a jurist, or teacher,
(faqih)who was an Ossetian from the northern Caucasus. In Azaq, he
was afforded hospitality near a fortified retreat (rabita),which was associated with al-Khidr (the spiritual guide of Dhu'l-Qarnayn and, in
particular, an illuminator of Sufis) and with the Prophet Elias (Ilyas).
Both here, and in the Crimean peninsula, the Sufi communities
were multi-ethnic. Possibly some inmates were from the local Turkic
or Tatar peoples, and a number of them were certainly Khurasanis. In
India, Ibn Battuta had met a messenger from the king whom he describes as a Sufi Shaykh, named Rajab al-Burqa'i, who was born in
Qiram, the ancient capital of Islamic Crimea, Staryj Krym (Eski
Krim, or Solkhat). Elsewhere he encountered Byzantine Greeks who
had been converted to Islam and who had embraced Sufism, together
with Iraqis and Turks.

5 Pagrae fortress,which was called Gaston, or Gastin, by the Crusadersdefended the entry
point to the BaylanPasswhich is located betweenAlexandrettaand Antioch.
6 The "Fidawis",or "Fida'iyyin"
are betterknown as the "Assassins"in the West, see Farhad
Daftary, 7heIsma'ilis,theirHistogyandDoctrines,
Cambridge,1990: 18-19, 433-434.
7 H. A. R. Gibb, "Ibn Battuta,Travels in Asia and Africa, 1325-1354", 7he Broadway
Travellers,London, 1939: 62-63, and Ibn Battuta,in the HakluytSociety edition, vol 11, 1959: 469 and
f.n. 299.

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IBN BATTUTA ON MUSLIMS AND CHRISTIANS IN THE CRIMEAN PENINSULA

There are two places in the peninsula, specifically described by Ibn

Battuta, which were significant centres for Armenian communities
during the days of his visit. He also describes important towns such as
Feodosia (Theodosia, Kaffa), which likewise housed Armenian communities, though he makes no specific mention of them.
Claude Mutafian and Eric Van Lauwe, in discussing the medieval
Armenian settlement in the Crimea, have pointed out that the 13th
century was a key period when this settlement took place.8 The Golden
Horde was in the ascendant and the Cilician kingdom had a remarkable commercial expansion, with centres established, and churches
built, in Kaffa (Feodosia), Gamtchak and Sudak. By 1316 A.D., the
Armenians had established their presence at Solkhat, later to become
the first Turco-Tatar capital. They were present in the whole southeastern part of the Crimea and they were the neighbours of the Greek,
Cuman, Karaim and Genoese inhabitants. By 1375 A. D. some
twenty years after Ibn Battuta's visit to the Crimea-a further exodus
of Armenians from Cilicia brought more Armenians into the Crimea
and they were to become a majority in the entire region of Kaffa. The
monastery of the Holy Cross (Surb-Khach) was founded in 1338 A. D.,
the site of holy springs and retreats for ascetics, although the still standing Armenian monastery which is there to this day would seem to postdate Ibn Battuta's visit to Staryj Krym, the centre of which is situated
at a close distance from this holy site. Armenians were also present in
the region of Kerch. The map of the Crimea published in the Atlas in
Claude Mutafian and Eric Van Lauwe's book, sites an Armenian
church, near Yenikale on a promontory facing Tamans'ka Zatoka and
the Circassian foothills. Kerch itself is situated near the most easterly
point of the peninsula, where the Sea of Azov meets the Black Sea
(Kerchens Kyipiv).
Ibn Battuta describes an unusual experience upon landing in the
Crimea at this point:
"The wind was fair, so we put to sea, but when we were midway on
our course and out at sea it blew in the terrifying fashion, which it had
done so, previously. But then it was that the wind blew to help us and
we spied mountains on the shore and we set our course for a harbour
called Kerch. We wished to enter it, but people who were standing on
the heights above signalled to us, saying: 'Enter not'. We were in fear
of our lives and we dreaded the presence of hostile vessels there. So we

8 Claude Mutafianand Eric Van Lauwe, "AdasHistoriquede l'Armenie,Proche Orient et

Sud Caucasedu V I II siecle av.J. C. au XX I siecle", Collection
AtlasEditionAutrement,
Paris, 2001:
84-85.

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10

HARRY NORRIS

put to sea again and then returnedagain to the coastline.I said to the
owner of the boat: 'I wish to disembarkat this point'. He thereforeput
me ashore and I caught sight of a church. I made my way towardsit
and it was there that I met a monk. In one of the walls of the church I
saw an image of an Arab who was wearing a turban.He was girt with
a sword and he was brandishinga spear in his hand. A burninglamp
was in front of the image. I enquired of the monk: 'Whom does this
image depict?'.He said to me: 'This is the image of the Prophet 'Ali
(b. Abi Talib)'. I was astonished at what he had told me. We passed
the night in that church".9

Prof. Hamilton Gibb suggested that there was a confusion here between the persons of 'Ali and Elias. This identification is common in
the Near East, especially so in the Sufi poetry of members of certain
dervish orders, for example the Bektashiyya. However, Tim Mackintosh-Smith, in his recent book,'0 expresses grave doubts whether this is
a correct identification, here. He identifies the church with that of St
John the Baptist, in Kerch, which was built between the 8th and 10th
centuries, believing this to be the only church of note where such an
encounter could have taken place. However, Ibn Battuta's text suggests that the building which he visited was right outside the heart of
Kerch, itself. The latter town was known as St John's Port and the
traveller had deliberately asked the master of the boat in which he was
sailing to avoid a landing there. The image may have been an icon but
it could equally have been a carved figure in low relief. Mackintosh,
rightly, sees no evidence from the iconography to identify 'Ali with
Elias, rather to the contrary. He has suggested that St George was the
saint in question, pointing out that this identification of 'Ali with St
George was also known in Iran. The most famous representation of St
George from the Crimea, is the Byzantine, 12th century, "Mariupol
relief)', once associated with St George's monastery in Balaklava and
without any associations with Kerch, indeed it came from the opposite
corner of the peninsula. In my view there is a distinct likelihood that
the monk he met was an Armenian and that Ibn Battuta had taken refuge in an Armenian church outside Kerch. The Armenian churches in
the Crimea shared many common features with mosque decorations
and architecture. The Armenians were commonly found in large number in the Seljuk states and some were even converts to Islam. By contrast, the Greeks only shortly before Ibn Battuta's visit to the Crimea,
had suffered the sack of Sudak by the Golden Horde, at the hands of
9 See the Arabictext of Tuhfatal-Nuzzar,ed. by Ta1alHarb, Beirut, 1407/1987: 335 ff.
10 See Tim Mackintosh-Smith's
Travelswitha Tangerine,
a ourneyin theFootnotes
ofIbnBattuta,
London, Basingstokeand Oxford, 2001: 316-320.

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IBN BATTUTA ON MUSLIMS AND CHRISTIANS IN THE CRIMEAN PENINSULA

II

Tuluktumur, Ibn Battuta's host, and that in a document, dating from

the year 1322 A. D., 'crosses and icons were removed and were broken
in pieces'. The Greeks had received harsh treatment. Kaffa has produced examples of carvings of St George, which show remarkable similarities to the description, which was left to us in Ibn Battuta's account." On balance the likelihood must be that Ibn Battuta had met
an Armenian monk in the Crimea who was familiar with the iconography of 'Ali in the 'World of Islam' which he had encountered, whether
this in proximity to the Nusayris or the Muslim Seljuqs, the Golden
Horde, or Mamluk communities in the Crimea, or in Cilicia, or even
from within the southern Caucasus.
The case for Armenian dialogue with the Muslims of Staryj Krym,
and, in particular, with Sufi elements in Tuluktumur's court, is further
supported by a second passage from Ibn Battuta's 'rihla'.'2 This was
about an opportunity for inter-faith dialogue which Ibn Battuta rejected and which he seemed to have regretted later. Solkhat (Staryj
Krym) was the first capital of the Golden Horde in the Crimea. Its
governor, Tuluktumur, was to act as the host of the traveller during
much of his stay in the Crimea and within the steppes to its north. His
court contained a number of scholars who are mentioned by name.
The town had been in contact with the Mamluks in Egypt for a long
period and, by repute, it had been the birthplace of Sultan al-Malik alZahir Baybars al-Bunduqdari (1260-77 A.D.), ruins of whose mosque
" Examplesof carved icons may
be found in Y. A. Aibanina, 7heArtof StoneCarving
in Caffa,
14th-18thCenturies
(Dekorativnayakamennayarez'ba Kaffy XlV-XVI11 vv.), Simferopol, "Sonat", 2001. See, in particular,her Fig 6, "Reliefwith image of St George (accordingto L.A. Maggioroti)4-1 1. FMLLA 1229. This carvingclosely correspendsto the image describedin Ibn Battuta'saccount.
Prof. GarnikAsatrianhas kindlydrawnmy notice to the fact that amongstheterodoxShi'ites
(e. g. Zaza people, Alavis, etc.), the ProphetElijahis commonly identifiedwith St George and St
Sergius.Folk traditionsof Armenianswho are neighboursof the above peoples, includingKurds
and the Yezidis, also furnishexamplesof this phenomenon. He adds that both Kurdishand Yezidi traditions assimilate Khizr, or Khidir with Ilyas (cf. the name of this compound character,
Khidirilias,or Khirdilias)and, likewise amongst the Kurds, Khidir and St Sergius (Xidir-nabi).
This offers an exact parallelwith the ArmenianSurb Sargis(Sergius)in folk traditionswhere the
saintis depictedas ridinga horse and armedwith a spear.A similarrepresentationof SurbGevorg
is likewisefound. Khizir,amongstthe Zaza is shown ridingin the same manner.
I am also gratefulto Prof. Asatrianfor bringingto my notice the followingreferences:A. A.
Papazian, "Al-Khidri Iliya: Mifologiceskieistoki analogii",Palestinskij
Sbornik,
28 (1986): 89-98;
Munzir Comerd, "DersimIranci'ndaHizir", Ware,N12 (1998): 113-124. He has also added two
furtherreferences.
The archeologicalevidence from the Crimea, togetherwith the observationsof Prof. Garnik
Asatrian and others, providing extremely strong evidence from the sources in the Caucasus,
would appear to make improbable a 'Byzantine Greek' hypothesis which was offered by Tim
Mackintosh-Smithin his book.
12 Talal Harb'sedition of Ibn Battuta'sArabictext, opcit.:337.

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12

HARRY NORRIS

exist there to this day. Uzbek Khan had also built a mosque in the
town. Restored parts of this latter mosque and a madrasa still stand,
and its gate bears the date of 713 A. H.! 1314 A. D.

An armed saint mounted on a horse as depicted on a medieval "Khachkar"

located in the garden outside Ejmiatsin Cathedral

As was the case elsewhere, Ibn Battuta makes a frequent mention

of Sufi hospices and hostels, retreats, zawiyas and ribats. As was the
case in those zawiyas to the north of the Crimea, their inmates were of
a mixed ethnic background. Ibn Battuta writes: "In Qlram (Staryj
Krym) I met its chief Qadi, Shams al-Din al-Sa'ili, who was the Qadi
of the Hanafite school of law (madhhab).I also met the Qadi of the Shafi'ite school, who bore the name of Khidr. I met the jurist (faqih)and
teacher,5 'Ala'l-Din al-Assi (the Ossetian) and the Shafi'ite preacher,
Abu Bakr. He regularly preached the Friday sermon in the mosque.
This had been built by al-Malik al-Nasir-may God have mercy upon
him. I also met the wise and pious Shaykh Muzaffar al-Din, who was
one of the Byzantine Greeks who had converted to Islam, and also the
pious and ardently devout, Muzhir al-Din, who was amongst the eminent jurists
"

See H. A. R. Gibb's Hakluyt edition, op cit.: 469 ff, and Tim Mackintosh-Smith,op. cit.:
315-316.

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IBN BATTUTA ON MUSLIMS AND CHRISTIANS IN THE CRIMEAN PENINSULA

13

Another religious official who had acted as an escort to bring Ibn

Battuta to Staryj Krym was Tuluktumur's imam, Sa'd al-Din, who
housed him in the zaw'va of Shaykh Zadah al-Khurasani: "This Shaykh
offered us his hospitality, he gave us a hearty welcome and he showed
us favours. He is highly venerated amongst them. I saw the people offering him their respects, including the Qadi, the preacher of the
mosque (khatib), the jurist (faqih) and others besides these officials.
Shaykh Zadah told me that outside this town a Christian monk resides
in a monastery. He is extreme in the devotions, which he offers to God.
He fasts severely and sometimes does so up to forty days. He then
breaks his fast by eating one sole bean. He reveals matters, which are
hidden from man's knowledge, and matters, which are unforeseen. He
asked me to accompany him in order to see this monk but I declined
his request. But then, afterwards, I regretted that I had declined to do
so in order to discover the true nature of his affair".
Tim Mackintosh-Smith has identified the haunt of this (Armenian)
monk as the building which stood in the present location of the monastery of the Holy Cross (Surb-Khach), at no great distance from
Staryj Krym. He has also drawn attention to the fast itself and to the
consumption of a bean, or beans, at its close, and he has found it as
being characteristic of the practise of the Armenian church, also, he
points out the markedly Islamic character of the architecture of the existing monastery, which was built in 1338 A.D., shortly after Ibn Battuta's visit.
One can be certain that the Qipchaqs and other Muslims in the
Crimea, at that time, had both scholars and Sufis who were the neighbours of Karaims and of Oriental Christians. Ibn Battuta specifically
mentions 'Qipchaq Christians' amongst them. This coexistence survived centuries of turmoil and it was noticeable, at a later date, when
Karaims, Armenians and Muslims of the Golden Horde, dwelt side by
side in the fortress of Chufut Kale near to the later Crimean Tatar
capital of Bakhshiserai. Ibn Battuta's observations reveal some heterodox features of this human contact and dialogue between those faiths
all of which were practised, or were tolerated in the Crimea. This toleration echoes that co-existence, which was described as an acceptable
habit within the Golden Horde capital of Saray. The names of those
men of faith whom he met also indicate the presence of Iranians, especially from Khurasan, and of Caucasians from the Northern and the
Southern Caucasus. The Crimean peninsula had been a melting pot
of cultures for many centuries. Under the Golden Horde this feature
of its life both widened in its geographical parameters and deepened

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14

HARRY NORRIS

through its tapping of disparate spiritual sources. Their origins are to

be sought in the East, especially in the lands between the Caucasus,
the mouth of the Volga and Central Asia.14

14 Aspects of the culturalinfluenceswhich arrivedin

the Crimean and Volga regions from
Egypt are explained in "The Islamic Culture of the Middle Volga Region, Roots and Perspectives",an article contributedby Guzel Valeeva-Sulaymanova,Tatarstan
PastandPresent,
prepared
for publicationby M. Z. Zakiev,J.A. Allan and S. Akiner,a publicationof the Centre of Near and
Middle EasternStudies,the School of Orientaland AfricanStudies,Universityof London, 1992:
17-23.

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