CALENDAR SYSTEMS ON "A JOURNEY BEYOND THE THREE SEAS"

Abstract

The article discusses the calendar systems used by Afanasy Nikitin in his work "A Journey beyond the Three Seas". At the beginning of his journey, Athanasy rarely resorts to calendar dates, but as he moves away from the Russian land, he begins to report on Christian holidays, linking them with the events of his journey. In the fourth year of his journey, Athanasy loses his calendar entries and cannot determine the month and even the day of the week according to the Christian calendar. He begins to recall the correspondence of Christian and Muslim holidays, which is reflected in his narrative. Memories of the proximity of Easter to Eid al-Fitr and St. Peter's Day to Eid al-Adha allow him to determine the time of the Christian Easter rather approximately. This information from Athanasy allowed us to accurately calculate the year when he began his journey (1467), and when he completed it (the end of 1472), and it was not considered earlier than 1468-1474. Athanasy, as can be seen from his notes, clearly feels a certain uncertainty in his calculations, which leads him to celebrate Easter together with Muslims, who celebrate Eid al-Adha at this point of the year. Until Trebizond, which he entered on October 1, 1472, Afanasy Nikitin could not accurately determine the time of Christian holidays. Despite this, he continues to correlate certain Christian and Muslim holidays. Athanasy Nikitin's use of two calendar systems is, of course, due to the loss of his records, which forced him to switch to a relative chronology of his journey, based on the possibilities available to him. Good memory and observation allowed Afanasy Nikitin to get out of a difficult situation and continue celebrating Easter in a situation where its exact date could not be calculated. As a result, for three years (from the beginning of 1470 to the end of 1472), Afanasy Nikitin could not accurately find out the exact dates of Christian holidays.