The “Land of Darkness” or the “Earthly Kingdom”: middle easterners’ impression of Rus’ and Moscovia in Early Modern time

Geography lessons at secondary school and the universal access to mass media provide for most our contemporaries a relatively clear understanding of where other countries and continents are located. It is more problematic to obtain insights as to what is going on in these countries, but even in this...

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Main Author: Taras Kobishchanov
Format: Article
Language:Russian
Published: St. Tikhon's Orthodox University 2019-12-01
Series:Вестник Православного Свято-Тихоновского гуманитарного университета: Сериа III. Филология
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Online Access:http://periodical.pstgu.ru/ru/pdf/article/7060
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author Taras Kobishchanov
author_facet Taras Kobishchanov
author_sort Taras Kobishchanov
collection DOAJ
description Geography lessons at secondary school and the universal access to mass media provide for most our contemporaries a relatively clear understanding of where other countries and continents are located. It is more problematic to obtain insights as to what is going on in these countries, but even in this case the idea about the way of life in the “different” world is more or less close to reality, despite all ideological myths, political complications and personal fantasies. This was not always the fact. During the most part of the history of mankind, political and geographical boundaries did not unite peoples in such “imaginary communities” as nations. Up to recent times, in the Arabic world and in the most part of Europe as well, the triad of “politics — identity — geography” has not made up a consistent pattern and was secondary with regard to other social parameters, such as place of birth and upbringing, ancestral and tribal affiliation, faith, belonging to a certain religious community, the allegiance to a particular governor. But geography was very important. Even in the absence of state policies and modern technologies of spatial representation, the maintaining of national identity and imagination helped people build and rank the space of the world. These imaginary spaces were very diverse and were inhabited — even if one takes into account the present-day habit to demonise or (more rarely) to idealise others — by rather bizarre communities and individuals. This article aims to describe how the remote northern lands were perceived in the Middle East at the beginning of modern time.
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institution Kabale University
issn 1991-6485
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publishDate 2019-12-01
publisher St. Tikhon's Orthodox University
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series Вестник Православного Свято-Тихоновского гуманитарного университета: Сериа III. Филология
spelling doaj-art-a5f1d2e6521b47eea0035fb2fe58b9062025-08-20T03:38:48ZrusSt. Tikhon's Orthodox UniversityВестник Православного Свято-Тихоновского гуманитарного университета: Сериа III. Филология1991-64852409-48972019-12-0161615366http://dx.doi.org/10.15382/sturIII201961.53-663The “Land of Darkness” or the “Earthly Kingdom”: middle easterners’ impression of Rus’ and Moscovia in Early Modern timeTaras Kobishchanov0Institute of Asian and African Studies, Moscow State University; 11 Mokhovaia Str., Moscow, 101999, Russian FederationGeography lessons at secondary school and the universal access to mass media provide for most our contemporaries a relatively clear understanding of where other countries and continents are located. It is more problematic to obtain insights as to what is going on in these countries, but even in this case the idea about the way of life in the “different” world is more or less close to reality, despite all ideological myths, political complications and personal fantasies. This was not always the fact. During the most part of the history of mankind, political and geographical boundaries did not unite peoples in such “imaginary communities” as nations. Up to recent times, in the Arabic world and in the most part of Europe as well, the triad of “politics — identity — geography” has not made up a consistent pattern and was secondary with regard to other social parameters, such as place of birth and upbringing, ancestral and tribal affiliation, faith, belonging to a certain religious community, the allegiance to a particular governor. But geography was very important. Even in the absence of state policies and modern technologies of spatial representation, the maintaining of national identity and imagination helped people build and rank the space of the world. These imaginary spaces were very diverse and were inhabited — even if one takes into account the present-day habit to demonise or (more rarely) to idealise others — by rather bizarre communities and individuals. This article aims to describe how the remote northern lands were perceived in the Middle East at the beginning of modern time.http://periodical.pstgu.ru/ru/pdf/article/7060middle east impression of russia arab travellers russian-arab contacts mediaeval geography geography in modern timeближний восток восприятие россии арабские путешественники российско-арабские контакты средневековая география география нового времени
spellingShingle Taras Kobishchanov
The “Land of Darkness” or the “Earthly Kingdom”: middle easterners’ impression of Rus’ and Moscovia in Early Modern time
Вестник Православного Свято-Тихоновского гуманитарного университета: Сериа III. Филология
middle east
impression of russia
arab travellers
russian-arab contacts
mediaeval geography
geography in modern time
ближний восток
восприятие россии
арабские путешественники
российско-арабские контакты
средневековая география
география нового времени
title The “Land of Darkness” or the “Earthly Kingdom”: middle easterners’ impression of Rus’ and Moscovia in Early Modern time
title_full The “Land of Darkness” or the “Earthly Kingdom”: middle easterners’ impression of Rus’ and Moscovia in Early Modern time
title_fullStr The “Land of Darkness” or the “Earthly Kingdom”: middle easterners’ impression of Rus’ and Moscovia in Early Modern time
title_full_unstemmed The “Land of Darkness” or the “Earthly Kingdom”: middle easterners’ impression of Rus’ and Moscovia in Early Modern time
title_short The “Land of Darkness” or the “Earthly Kingdom”: middle easterners’ impression of Rus’ and Moscovia in Early Modern time
title_sort land of darkness or the earthly kingdom middle easterners impression of rus and moscovia in early modern time
topic middle east
impression of russia
arab travellers
russian-arab contacts
mediaeval geography
geography in modern time
ближний восток
восприятие россии
арабские путешественники
российско-арабские контакты
средневековая география
география нового времени
url http://periodical.pstgu.ru/ru/pdf/article/7060
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