1. Afanasy Nikitin was a Russian merchant from Tver and one of the first Europeans to travel to and document his visit to India.
20 Facts About Afanasy Nikitin
1. 2.
Afanasy Nikitin described his trip in a narrative known as A Journey Beyond the Three Seas.
3.
Afanasy Nikitin, son of Nikita, was a merchant in Tver.
4.
In 1466 or 1468, Nikitin left his hometown of Tver on a commercial trip, planning to trade in the lands around the Caspian Sea and go as far as Shirvan.
5.
Afanasy Nikitin travelled down the Volga, stopping at the Makaryev Monastery, then passing through Uglich, Kostroma, and Plyos to get to Nizhny Novgorod.
6.
Afanasy Nikitin went to the Shirvanshah's camp in Shamakhi to plead for help.
7.
Afanasy Nikitin's captured companions were rescued by the Shirvanshah, who refused to give him and his companions means to return home.
8.
At that point, Afanasy Nikitin writes, his party dispersed: "Whoever had something left in Rus' returned to Rus'; whoever had debts in Rus' went wherever they could".
9.
Afanasy Nikitin then crossed the Caspian Sea into Persia, where he followed a known trade route and made prolonged stops in market towns.
10.
Afanasy Nikitin passed through Chapakur, Sari, Amol, Kashan, and Yazd before reaching Hormuz in the Persian Gulf.
11.
Afanasy Nikitin observed the markets, lifestyles and courts of the Bahmani Sultanate and the Vijayanagara Empire.
12.
Afanasy Nikitin visited the Hindu sanctuary of Parvattum, which he called "the Jerusalem of the Hindus".
13.
Afanasy Nikitin spent almost three years in India, before deciding to return to Russia after concluding that further travel would not make him any great profit and that he could not afford to remain in India.
14.
On his way back, Afanasy Nikitin visited Muscat, the Arabian sultanate of Somalia, and Trabzon.
15.
On his way to Tver, Afanasy Nikitin died not far from Smolensk in the spring of 1475.
16.
Afanasy Nikitin describes the appearances of Indians, their clothing and food, interrelations, and so on.
17.
Afanasy Nikitin wrote that at Bindar in the third year of his journey he "shed many tears for the Christian faith".
18.
Afanasy Nikitin's chronology was accepted in the Literaturnye Pamiatniki series by the Russian Academy of Sciences.
19.
Afanasy Nikitin was featured on a coin commemorating the 525th anniversary of his journey.
20.
On 17 April 2022, the Kozhikode Corporation paid tribute to Afanasy Nikitin, commemorating the 550th anniversary of his visit to Kozhikode.