50°27′N30°31′E / 50.450°N 30.517°E /50.450; 30.517Kuyaba (Arabic:كويابةKūyāba[1]) was one of the three centers of theRus[1][2] orSaqaliba (early East Slavs) described in a lost book byAbu Zayd al-Balkhi (dating from ca. 920) and mentioned in works by some of his followers (Ibn Hawqal,Al-Istakhri,Hudud ul-'alam).The two other centers wereSlawiya (Arabic:صلاويةṢ(a)lāwiya)[1][2] (tentatively identified with the land ofIlmen Slavs, seeRus' Khaganate) andArthaniya (Arabic:ارثانية’Arṯāniya) (not properly explained).[1][2]
Soviet historians such asBoris Grekov andBoris Rybakov hypothesized that "Kuyaba" was a mispronunciation of "Kiev". They theorized that Kuyaba had been a union of Slavic tribes in the middle course of theDnieper River centered on Kiev (now inUkraine).[3]
