THE FORMATION OF GEOGRAPHICAL REPRESENTATIONS OF THE LOWER VOLGA REGION IN THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES IN KHAZARIA, KIEVAN RUS, BYZANTIUM AND THE ARAB WORLD
The Lower Volga is a region of active sociogenesis in the early Middle Ages. It was located between the centers of civilization of that time. Due to trade, military and diplomatic contacts among the Lower Volga region and surrounding countries, peoples had ideas about that region. In the Khazars kingdom, Kievan Rus and Byzantium they were ordinary. The analysis of sources proves it: letters of tsar Joseph, Russian chronicles, Byzantines chroniclers. Military campaigns and commercial ties played a great role in the formation of the world geographical image.In comparison to ancient views, the number of geographical facts became the basis for a new geographical pattern of the Lower Volga region. Only in the Arab world they had a scientific basis and with system elements of general geographic representations that characterize science in the early Middle Ages. The Arab sources describe the Lover Volga in details. Arab geographical ideas initiated interest for the Lower Volga region in the Western Europe. There were prerequisites for formation of the general Arab-West European image of the world in the classical period of Middle Ages.