Arthania ( ar, ارثانية ''’Arṯāniya'', russian: Арcания, uk, Артанія, be, Артанія) was one of the three states of the

Rus Rus or RUS may refer to: People and places * Rus (surname), a Romanian-language surname * East Slavic historical territories and peoples (). See Names of Rus', Russia and Ruthenia ** Rus' people, the people of Rus' ** Rus' territories *** Kievan ...

Saqaliba Saqaliba ( ar, صقالبة, ṣaqāliba, singular ar, صقلبي, ṣaqlabī) is a term used in medieval Arabic sources to refer to Slavs and other peoples of Central, Southern, and Eastern Europe, or in a broad sense to European slaves. The t ...

(

early East Slavs The early Slavs were a diverse group of tribal societies who lived during the Migration Period and the Early Middle Ages (approximately the 5th to the 10th centuries AD) in Central and Eastern Europe and established the foundations for the Slav ...

) with the center in Artha described in a lost book by

Abu Zayd al-Balkhi Abu Zayd Ahmed ibn Sahl Balkhi ( fa, ابو زید احمد بن سهل بلخی) was a Persian Muslim polymath: a geographer, mathematician, physician, psychologist and scientist. Born in 850 CE in Shamistiyan, in the province of Balkh, Greate ...

(dating from ca. 920) and mentioned in works by some of his followers (

Ibn Hawqal Muḥammad Abū’l-Qāsim Ibn Ḥawqal (), also known as Abū al-Qāsim b. ʻAlī Ibn Ḥawqal al-Naṣībī, born in Nisibis, Upper Mesopotamia; was a 10th-century Arab Muslim writer, geographer, and chronicler who travelled during the ye ...

Al-Istakhri Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Muhammad al-Farisi al-Istakhri () (also ''Estakhri'', fa, استخری, i.e. from the Iranian city of Istakhr, b. - d. 346 AH/AD 957) was a 10th-century travel-author and geographer who wrote valuable accounts in Arab ...

, Hudud ul-'alam).Oriental Sources on Old East Slavs, by An. Novoseltsev
/ref> The two other centers were Slawiya ( ar, صلاوية ''Ṣ(a)lāwiya''; tentatively identified with the land of

Ilmen Slavs The Novgorod Slavs, Ilmen Slavs (russian: Ильменские слове́не, ''Il'menskiye slovene''), or Slovenes (not to be confused with the Slovenian Slovenes) were the northernmost tribe of the Early Slavs, and inhabited the shores of L ...

, see

Rus Khaganate The Rusʹ Khaganate ( be, Рускі каганат, ''Ruski kahanat'', russian: Русский каганат, ''Russkiy kaganat'', uk, Руський каганат, ''Ruśkyj kahanat''), is the name applied by some modern historians to a ...

) and Kuyaba ( ar, كويابة ''Kūyāba''; usually identified with

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

claims that nobody has ever visited Artha because the locals kill every foreigner attempting to penetrate their land. They are involved in trade with Kuyaba, selling sable furs, lead, and a modicum of slaves. Modern historians have been unable to pinpoint the location of Arthania. A linguistic line of argument leads some historians to such far-away places as

Cape Arkona Cape Arkona () is a 45-metre (150-foot) high cape on the island of Rügen in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It forms the tip of the Wittow peninsula, just a few kilometres north of the Jasmund National Park. The protected landscape of Cape Arko ...

on the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

, the land of the Erzya (an ethnic group of the

Mordva The Mordvins (also Unified Mordvin people, Mordvinians, Mordovians; russian: мордва, Mordva, Mordvins (no equivalents in Moksha and Erzya)) is an obsolete but official term used in the Russian Federation to refer both to Erzyas and Moks ...

nation; see ''

Gelons and Mordvins Vladimir Nikolayevich Semenkovich (russian: Владимир Николаевич Семенкович, 1861 – 1932) was a Russian ethnologist and archaeologist, best known for his work in historical geography of Upper Don and Oka '' Gelonians ...

'') and the Plisnesk hillfort in the Upper

Western Bug uk, Західний Буг be, Захо́дні Буг , name_etymology = , image = Wyszkow_Bug.jpg , image_size = 250 , image_caption = Bug River in the vicinity of Wyszków, Poland , map = Vi ...

.Древнерусское государство и его международное значение. М., 1965. Стр. 417-418.

George Vernadsky George Vernadsky (Russian: Гео́ргий Влади́мирович Верна́дский; August 20, 1887 – June 12, 1973) was a Russian Empire-born American historian and an author of numerous books on Russian history. European years ...

located Arsa on the

Taman Peninsula The Taman Peninsula (russian: Тама́нский полуо́стров, ''Tamanskiy poluostrov'') is a peninsula in the present-day Krasnodar Krai of Russia, which borders the Sea of Azov to the North, the Strait of Kerch to the West and the ...

(see

Tmutarakan Tmutarakan ( rus, Тмутарака́нь, p=tmʊtərɐˈkanʲ, ; uk, Тмуторокань, Tmutorokan) was a medieval Kievan Rus' principality and trading town that controlled the Cimmerian Bosporus, the passage from the Black Sea to the Sea ...

), while

Vladimir Minorsky Vladimir Fyodorovich Minorsky (russian: Владимир Фёдорович Минорский; – March 25, 1966) was a Russian Orientalist best known for his contributions to the study of Persian, Lurish and Kurdish history, geography, ...

connected "Arsa" with

Ryazan Ryazan ( rus, Рязань, p=rʲɪˈzanʲ, a=ru-Ryazan.ogg) is the largest city and administrative center of Ryazan Oblast, Russia. The city is located on the banks of the Oka River in Central Russia, southeast of Moscow. As of the 2010 Census ...

. No archaeological confirmation of these linguistic speculations has ever been produced. Modern Russian historiography tends to identify Arthania with the land of the

Merya Merya may refer to: * Merya people * Merya language, an extinct language * Merya (Tanzanian ward) See also * Meryan (disambiguation) * Merja (disambiguation), pronounced "Merya" * Meria (disambiguation) * Marya The Marya are a tribe in western Er ...

serving the

Volga trade route In the Middle Ages, the Volga trade route connected Northern Europe and Northwestern Russia with the Caspian Sea and the Sasanian Empire, via the Volga River. The Rus used this route to trade with Muslim countries on the southern shores of the Ca ...

.Отечественная история: история России с древнейших времен до 1917 года. Том 1. Стр. 157. Большая Российская энциклопедия, 1994.
Anatoli Novoseltsev. Образование Древнерусского государства и первый его правитель. // Вопросы истории. 1991. № 2-3. С. 9.
Мачинский А.А. О времени и обстоятельствах первого появления славян на северо-западе Восточной Европы по данным письменных источников. // Северная Русь и ее соседи в эпоху раннего средневековья. Л., 1982. С. 22. Archaeological evidence points to

Sarskoe Gorodishche Sarskoye Gorodishche or Sarsky fort (russian: Сарское городище, literally "Citadel on the Sara") was a medieval fortified settlement in present-day Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia. It was situated on the bank of the Sara River (Russia), S ...

and

Timerevo Timerevo (russian: Тимерёво, ) is an archaeological site near the village of Bolshoe Timeryovo, seven kilometers southwest of Yaroslavl, Russia, which yielded the largest deposits of early medieval Arabic coins in Northern Europe. Descrip ...

as its main centers. The native name of either town remains unknown; either may have been called Arsa in a native dialect.

References

{{reflist, 30em History of the Rus' people Former countries in Europe Medieval Russia