Dating of Afanasy Nikitin’s Journey Beyond the Three Seas: A Fresh Approach

Abstract

The article proposes a new dating of Afanasy Nikitin’s journey. An analysis of the information from A Jorney Beyond the Three Seas showed that Afanasy Nikitin distinguished between the holidays of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha and correlated them with various Christian holidays—Easter and St. Peter’s Day respectively. Before his fourth Easter, Afanasy Nikitin was no more able to correlate Christian and Muslim holidays. Afanasy’s suggested that Eid al-Fitr was celebrated 9–10 days from Easter, but in 1469, Easter fell on April 2, and Eid al-Fitr on April 14. In 1468, Easter fell on April 17, Eid al-Adha on April 24. In 1468, Eid al-Adha fell on June 21, and in 1469, on July 1. Afanasy also suggests that Eid al-Adha was celebrated on the same day as St. Peter’s day, June 29. This information allows putting forward the hypothesis that the traveler tried to determine the day of Easter in 1470, remembering the past two years of his journey, when he could still correlate Christian and Muslim holidays. In conclusion, Afanasy Nikitin’s journey began in 1467, and he returned from the trip and died near Smolensk in winter of 1472/73.

DOI: 10.31168/2305-6754.2023.2.12