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292 ANDRZEJ POPPEAsoghik notes that "Basil got six thousand foot-soldiers from the king ofRus', when he gave his sister in marriage to the latter and at the time thatthis nation came to believe in Christ." 12 The timing and causality of theevents are skillfully linked. The political action is prominent, but the militaryaid and matrimonial alliance are set against a "Christian background."Here the conversion of Rus' is depicted more autonomously as a primaryoccurrence, without the bald frankness of Antioch's version of events.An Arabic view of the circumstances behind the conversion of Rus' wasalso written at the court of Baghdad. Abu Shuja', vizier of the Abbasidcaliphs, who wrote after 1072, used the now lost Baghdad chronicle of Hilalas SabT (for 970-1056) to describe the years 979-999. Byzantine affairsare related carefully, because regular military and diplomatic contactsrequired that attention be paid to Byzantium's internal situation. Theconversion of Rus' was seen from that perspective. In this account Byzantiumis said to have begun the action by asking the Rus' ruler for militaryhelp. Then the Rus' prince demanded from the emperor his sister's hand inmarriage, but she refused to marry a non-Christian. 13 Significant is theemphasis on Anna's role because the condition of marriage she imposedwon Volodimer for Christianity. Here, too, the baptism precedes the marriage.This order of events is unclear in the record of Yahya. But also inBaghdad there arose the conviction that Rus' military strength was crucialin the defeat of Bardas Phokas.We know next to nothing about the West European response to the baptismof Rus'. Bruno of Querfurt, in his letter to the German king Henry IIwritten in 1008 after a visit to Kiev, evidently considered Rus' to be a fullyChristian country. The Christian ruler of the Rus' supported Bruno's missionto convert the Pecenegs. 14 The missionary bishop, zealous to spread12Asoghik, bk. 3, §43, French trans, by E. Dulaurier and F. Macler, Hisloire universelle parEtienne Asoiik de Taron, pt. 2, Publications de l'Ecole des Langues Orientales Vivantes, ser. 1,vol. 18 (Paris 1917 — ), pp. 161-65. An Armenian text was published twice (Paris, 1859, St.Petersburg, 1885); Russian trans. N. Emin (Moscow, 1864), pp. 198-201; German trans, by H.Gelzer and A. Burckhardt (Leipzig, 1907), pp. 209-212. See Poppe, "Background," pp. 202f.13The Eclipse of the 'Abassid Caliphate, vol. 6: Continuation of the Experiences of theNations by Abu Shuja' Rudhrawari. . ., trans. D. S. Margoliouth (Oxford, 1921), pp. 118f.;Arabic text, The Eclipse, vol. 3, pp. 116f. Russian trans, by T. Kezma with Ukrainian introductionby A. Kryms'kyj, "Opovidannja arabs'koho istoryka XI viku Abu-SodziRudravers'koho pro te jak oxrestilasja Rus'," in Jubilejnyj zbirnyk na posanu D. I. Bahalija(Kiev, 1927), pp. 383-87, trans, pp. 388-95. Cf. Poppe, "Background," pp. 206f.14For Bruno's letter, see J. Karwasiriska, ed., Monumenta Poloniae Historica, n.s., vol. 4, no.3 (Warsaw, 1973), pp. 97- 106, especially 98- 100; on Bruno's stay in Rus', see M. Hellmann,"Vladimir der Heilige in der zeitgenossischen abendlandischen Uberlieferung," Jahrbiicherfur Geschichte Osteuropas 1 (1959): 397-412 (also on Thietmar); A. Poppe, "Vladimir as aChristian," forthcoming. For how Bruno understood the act of conversion, see D. H. Kahl,