In the Translation the author describes the identities of people called Rusiyyah. The Rus are considered as an ‘elite merchant-pirates’. They go from place to place on ships, and settle on the river banks by building wooden houses in which they live in tens, twenties or more. Each one of the merchants owns a couch on which he sits, and is accompanied by a beautiful slave girl. Their culture or customs are rather interesting and disturbing at the same time. For instance, one man will have an intercourse with his slave girl while the rest of the men look, or they will all do this in front of each other. The Rus are also very dirty. They do not wash themselves, or if they do they all use the same water bath in which they spit, blow their nose, etc.
Every time they go out to sell something, they do a ritual in front of sacred statues; that are important to them; to ask for a good fortune in selling their merchandise. They pray and name all the merchandise that they have brought for the Lord. Then they depart, however, they keep coming back to the Lord until they have a good sale. Their identities, their customs seem to be influenced by some sort of belief. They do things, like sacrifices. In which when a merchant dies his slave, usually the slave girl, has do join him. She is given alcohol and is then killed by the Angel of Death. The merchant’s body and the body of the slave girl are being put on a ship along with some sort of offerings, let out on the sea and burned. It is done so because then they enter the paradise sooner, by being carried by the wind.
The Rusiyyah all believe and follow the same ‘code’. They travel in groups and do the things that any one of their ethnicity would do. They live like pirates, without wives or families; their fellow travelers are their family. They are being described as barbarians, without good manners or an idea of what to do when they get old. Where will they live and what else can they do to support themselves?
