Sources on Suavic History

I am reducing the time on this website. Much already has been written. If there are other interesting things that come to view, I will try to write about them but it will not be a frequent affair – best guess is perhaps once a month.

So, in order to encourage the readers to look at various sources on Suavic history I include a little list of various Polish & other Suavic compendia on the subject.

Kails!

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The first book treating Suavic antiquity has to be Safarik’s “Slavic Antiquities”. Niederle then tried to improve upon that but did not really succeed in my view.

A pure listing of sources was put together by Marian Plezia in Najstarsze świadectwa o Słowianach and then in Greckie i łacińskie źródła do najstarszych dziejów Słowian.

Then we had Tadeusz Lewicki put together  list of Arab sources on Suavs. His Źródła arabskie do dziejów Słowiańszczyzny came out in four volumes (in Polish):

• volume I  (1956) on:
  • AL-AHTAL
  • AL-HUWĀRIZMĪ
  • IBN HURDĀDBEH
  • AL-GĀHIZ
  • KITĀB AL-MAHĀSIN WA ’L-ADDĀD
  • AL-FARGĀNĪ
  • IBN QUTAJBA
  • AL-BALĀDURĪ
  • AL-JA‘QŪBĪ
• volume II part I (1969) on:
  • IBN AL-FAQĪH, KITĀB AL-BULDĀN
  • IBN AS-SAGĪR, CHRONICLE OF TĀHERTU
  • IBN WAHŠIJA, KITĀB AL-FILĀHA AN-NABATĪJA
• volume II part II (1977) on:
  • IBN ROSTEH, KITĀB AL-A‘LĀQ AN-NAFĪSA
• volume III (1985) (with Anna Kmietowicz & Franciszek Kmietowicz) on:
  • IBN FADLĀN, KITĀB (from the Mashad manuscript)
• volume IV (1988) (with Maria Czapkiewicz & Franciszek Kmietowicz)
  • indices to prior volumes

Finally, you had Urszula Lewicka- Rajewska continue where Lewicki left off with Arabskie opisanie Słowian. Źródła do dziejów średniowiecznej (2004).

Importantly, Professor Lewicki also managed (with Franciszek Kupfer) to publish a compendium of Jewish sources in Źródła hebrajskie do dziejów Słowian i niektórych innych ludów środkowej i wschodniej Europy: wyja̜tki z pism religijnych i prawniczych XI-XIII w. 

During the same time Gerard Labuda collected some Scandinavian sources, focusing on Poland, in his Źródła, sagi i legendy do najdawniejszych dziejów Polski. This volume includes

• King Alfred’s Orosius including its Geography
• Wulfstan travels
• Ohthere’s travels
• Widsith (including Gothic references)
• Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks (Gothic references)
• Song of Roland & Its Suav mentions
• Sources for the Tale of Walgierz the Strong

A more thorough series on Suavic history came out (and continues to come out) courtesy of Slavica (which is a publication of the Suavistic Insitute of the Polish Academy of Sciences (Instytut Slawistyki Polskiej Akademii Nauk) under the title Testimonia najdawniejszych dziejów Słowian.

This series includes the following issues of Slavica;

The Greek Writers’ Series:

• volume I (introduction/bibliography?)
• volume II (Slavica issue 63) Pisarze z V–X wieku (“Writers of the V-X century”)
• volume III (Slavica issue 103) Pisarze z VII–X wieku (“Writers of the VII-X century”)
• volume IV (Slavica issue 106) Pisarze z VIII– XII wieku (“Writers of the VIII-XII century”)
• volume V (Slavica issue 127) Pisarze z X wieku (“Writers of the X century”)
• volume VI (Slavica issue 137) Pisarze wieku XI (“Writers of the XI century”)

The tables of contents for II, III & IV are here:

Volume V contains:

• Theophanes Continuatus
• Chronicles from the circle of Symeon the Logothete (Symeon the Metaphrast)
• Leo the Deacon

Volume VI contains:

• Michael Psellos or Psellus
• Kekaumenos’ Strategikon
• John Skylitzes
• Scylitzes Continuatus
• Nikephoros Bryennios the Younger
• Anna Komnene

The Latin Writers’ Series:

• Introductory list of materials (Slavica issue 123) Materiały do bibliografii do łacinskiej serii testimoniów najdawniejszych dziejów Słowian (“Materials for the Bibliography to the Latin series of the testimonies of the oldest histories of the Suavs”)
• Volume I (Slavica issue 139) Starożytność. Pisarze najdawniejsi (“Antiquity, the oldest writers”)

Both of these are available online.

For individual regions you can find lots of Suav mentions in (among many other sources):

• Monumenta Poloniae Historica (Pomniki dziejowe Polski)
• Regesta diplomatica nec non epistolaria Bohemiae et Moraviae
• Codex Diplomaticus Regni Croatiae, Slavoniae et Dalmatiae
• Monumenta Germaniae Historica
• Monumenta Boica (Bavaria)