Kuyaba ( ''Kūyāba'') was one of the three centers of the Rus or Saqaliba (

early East Slavs The early Slavs were speakers of Indo-European languages, Indo-European dialects who lived during the Migration Period and the Early Middle Ages (approximately from the 5th to the 10th centuries AD) in Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Ea ...

) described in a lost book by

Abu Zayd al-Balkhi Abu Zayd Ahmed ibn Sahl Balkhi () was a Persian Muslim polymath: a geographer, mathematician, physician, psychologist and scientist. Born in 850 CE in Shamistiyan, in the province of Balkh, Greater Khorasan, he was a disciple of al-Kindi. He a ...

(dating from ca. 920) and mentioned in works by some of his followers (

Ibn Hawqal Muḥammad Abū’l-Qāsim Ibn Ḥawqal (), also known as Abū al-Qāsim b. ʻAlī Ibn Ḥawqal al-Naṣībī, born in Nisibis, Al-Jazira (caliphal province), Upper Mesopotamia; was a 10th-century Arab Muslim writer, geographer, and chronic ...

, Al-Istakhri, Hudud ul-'alam). The two other centers were Slawiya ( ''Ṣ(a)lāwiya'') (tentatively identified with the land of

Ilmen Slavs The Novgorod Slavs, Ilmen Slavs (, ''Il'menskiye slovene''), or Slovenes (not to be confused with the South Slavic Slovenes) were the northernmost tribe of the Early Slavs, and inhabited the shores of Lake Ilmen, and the river basins of the ...

, see Rus' Khaganate) and Arthaniya ( ''’Arṯāniya'') (not properly explained). Soviet historians such as

Boris Grekov Boris Dmitrievich Grekov (; – 9 September 1953) was a Russian Empire, Russian and Soviet Union, Soviet historian noted for his comprehensive studies of Kievan Rus and the Golden Horde. He was a member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences (19 ...

and

Boris Rybakov Boris Aleksandrovich Rybakov (; 3 June 1908, Moscow – 27 December 2001, Moscow) was a Soviet and Russian archeologist and historian. He was one of the main proponents of anti-Normanist vision of Russian history. He is the father of Indologis ...

hypothesized that "Kuyaba" was a mispronunciation of "

Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

". They theorized that Kuyaba had been a union of Slavic tribes in the middle course of the Dnieper River centered on Kiev (now in

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

). Kuyaba, Slawiya, and Artaniya later merged to form the state of

Kievan Rus' Kievan Rus', also known as Kyivan Rus,. * was the first East Slavs, East Slavic state and later an amalgam of principalities in Eastern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical At ...

, believed to include modern Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. This explanation has been adopted by modern Ukrainian historiography.

References

Kievan Rus' {{Ukraine-hist-stub

See also

References