Ahmad ibn Fadlan

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Ahmad ibn Fadlan
Born
Islamic jurisprudence

Aḥmad ibn Faḍlān ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn Rāshid ibn Ḥammād, (

Volga Bulgars, known as his risāla ("account" or "journal").[b]

His account is most notable for providing a detailed description of the

Volga Vikings, including eyewitness accounts of life as part of a trade caravan and witnessing a ship burial.[4] He also notably described the lifestyle of the Oghuz Turks while the Khazaria, Cumans, and Pechnegs were still around.[5]

Ibn Fadlan's detailed writings have been cited by numerous historians. They have also inspired entertainment works, including Michael Crichton's novel Eaters of the Dead and its film adaptation The 13th Warrior.[6]

Biography

Ibn Fadhlan manuscript page (in Arabic)[7]

Background

Ahmad ibn Fadlan was described as an

Encyclopedia of Islam and Richard N. Frye add that nothing can be said with certainty about his origin, his ethnicity, his education, or even the dates of his birth and death.[8][2]

Primary source documents and historical texts show that Ahmad Ibn Fadlan was a

theologian
in service of the Abbasid Caliphate, little is known about Ahmad Ibn Fadlan prior to 921 and his self-reported travels.

The embassy

Ahmad ibn Fadlan's route from Baghdad to Bukhara
Ahmad ibn Fadlan's theorized route from Bukhara to Bulghar

Ibn Fadlan was sent from

iltäbär (vassal-king under the Khazars) of the Volga Bulgaria, Almış
.

On 21 June 921 (11 safar AH 309), a diplomatic party led by Susan al-Rassi, a eunuch in the caliph's court, left Baghdad.[10] Primarily, the purpose of their mission was to explain Islamic law to the recently converted Bulgar peoples living on the eastern bank of the Volga River in what is now Russia. Additionally, the embassy was sent in response to a request by the king of the Volga Bulgars to help them against their enemies, the Khazars.[11] Ibn Fadlan served as the group's religious advisor and lead counselor for Islamic religious doctrine and law.[12]

Ahmad Ibn Fadlan and the diplomatic party utilized established caravan routes toward

Ural River and the Bashkirs in what is now central Russia, but the largest portion of his account is dedicated to the Rus, i.e. the Varangians (Vikings)[citation needed] on the Volga trade route. All told, the delegation covered some 4000 kilometers (2500 mi).[10]

Ibn Fadlan's envoy reached the Volga Bulgar capital on 12 May 922 (12 muharram AH 310). When they arrived, Ibn Fadlan read aloud a letter from the caliph to the Bulgar Khan and presented him with gifts from the caliphate. At the meeting with the Bulgar ruler, Ibn Fadlan delivered the caliph's letter, but was criticized for not bringing with him the promised money from the caliph to build a fortress as defense against enemies of the Bulgars.[13]

Ethnographic writing

Manuscript tradition

For a long time, only an incomplete version of the account was known, transmitted as quotations in the geographical dictionary of

Khwārizm, Rūs),[14] published in 1823 by Christian Martin Frähn.[15]

Only in 1923 was a manuscript discovered by

Persian geographer Amīn Rāzī called Haft Iqlīm ("Seven Climes
").

Neither source seems to record Ibn Fadlān's complete report. Yāqūt offers excerpts and several times claims that Ibn Fadlān also recounted his return to Bagdad, but does not quote such material. Meanwhile, the text in Razawi Library MS 5229 breaks off part way through describing the Khazars.[16]

Account of the Volga Bulgars

One noteworthy aspect of the Volga Bulgars that Ibn Fadlan focused on was their religion and the institution of Islam in these territories. The Bulgar king had invited religious instruction as a gesture of homage to the Abbasids in exchange for financial and military support, and Ibn Fadlan's mission as a faqih was one of proselytization as well as diplomacy.[17]

For example, Ibn Fadlan details in his encounter that the Volga Bulgar Khan commits an error in his prayer exhortations by repeating the prayer twice. One scholar calls it an "illuminating episode" in the text where Ibn Fadlan expresses his great anger and disgust over the fact that the Khan and the Volga Bulgars in general are practicing some form of imperfect and doctrinally unsound Islam. In general, Ibn Fadlan recognized and judged the peoples of central Eurasia he encountered by the possession and practice of Islam, along with their efforts put forth to utilize, implement, and foster Islamic faith and social practice in their respective society. Consequently, many of the peoples and societies to Ibn Fadlan were "like asses gone astray. They have no religious bonds with God, nor do they have recourse to reason".[18]

I have seen the Rus as they came on their merchant journeys and encamped by the Itil. I have never seen more perfect physical specimens, tall as date palms, blond and ruddy; they wear neither tunics nor kaftans, but the men wear a garment which covers one side of the body and leaves a hand free. Each man has an axe, a sword, and a knife, and keeps each by him at all times. Each woman wears on either breast a box of iron, silver, copper, or gold; the value of the box indicates the wealth of the husband. Each box has a ring from which depends a knife. The women wear neck-rings of gold and silver. Their most prized ornaments are green glass beads. They string them as necklaces for their women.

Ibn Fadlan, on the Rus merchants at Itil, 922.

Account of the Rus'

A substantial portion of Ibn Fadlan's account is dedicated to the description of a people he called the

Volga Vikings; the traders were likely of Scandinavian origin while their crews also included Finns, Slavs, and others.[20] The Rūs appear as traders who set up shop on the river banks nearby the Bolğar camp. They are described as having bodies tall as (date) palm trees, with blond hair and ruddy skin. Each is tattooed from "the tips of his toes to his neck" with dark blue or dark green "designs" and all men are armed with an axe, sword, and long knife.[21]

Ibn Fadlan describes the Rus as perfect physical specimens and the hygiene of the Rūsiyyah as disgusting and shameless, especially regarding to sex (which they perform openly even in groups), and considers them vulgar and unsophisticated. In that, his account contrasts with that of the Persian traveler

the funeral of one of their chieftains (a ship burial involving human sacrifice).[23] Some scholars believe that it took place in the modern Balymer complex.[24]

They are the filthiest of all Allah’s creatures: they do not purify themselves after excreting or urinating or wash themselves when in a state of

ritual impurity after coitus and do not even wash their hands after food.

— Ibn Fadlan, [25]

Editions and translations

(In chronological order)

Appearances in popular culture

Ahmad Ibn Fadlān is a major character in Michael Crichton's 1976 novel Eaters of the Dead, which draws heavily on Ibn Fadlān's writings in its opening passages. In the 1999 film adaptation of the novel, The 13th Warrior, Ibn Fadlān is played by Antonio Banderas.[26]

Ibn Fadlān's journey is also the subject of the 2007 Syrian TV series Saqf al-Alam.

Samirah "Sam" al-Abbas, a main character from Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, as well as her betrothed, Amir Fadlan, are said to be descendants of Ahmad ibn Fadlan.

In the 2003 anime Planetes, the body of an astronaut named Ibn Fadlan was buried in a metal coffin by being sent to the depths of space. However, although he says that he belongs to space, he somehow returned to his world environment and was perceived as space debris. Like Ibn Fadlan as a real-life voyager, the retired astronaut says something important.[vague]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Very little is known about Ibn Fadlan other than what can be inferred from his risāla. He is usually assumed to have been ethnically Arab, although there is no positive evidence to this effect.[1][2][3]
  2. ^ The full title is Risālat Ibn Faḍlān, mab‘ūth al-khalīfah al-‘Abbāsī al-Muqtadir ilá bilād Ṣiqālīyah, ‘an riḥlatihi ... fī al-qarn al-‘āshir al-Mīlādī (رسـالـة ابن فـضـلان، مـبـعـوث الـخـلـيـفـة الـعـبـاسـي الـمـقـتـدر إلـى بـلاد الـصـقـالـيـة، عـن رحـلـتـه ... في الـقـرن الـعـاشـر الـمـيـلادي) or ma šahidat fi baladi-t-turk wa al-ẖazar wa ar-rus wa aṣ-ṣaqalibat wa al-bašġird wa ġirham ("Account of the lands of the Turks, the Khazars, the Rus, the Saqaliba [i.e. Slavs] and the Bashkirs")

References

  1. ^ Knight 2001, pp. 32–34.
  2. ^ a b c Frye 2005, p. 8.
  3. ^ a b Lunde & Stone 2011, p. xiii.
  4. ^ Perry 2009: "...left a unique geo-historical and ethnographic record of the northern fringes of 10th-century Eurasia." See also Gabriel 1999, pp. 36–42.
  5. .
  6. ^ "Saudi Aramco World : Among the Norse Tribes: The Remarkable Account of Ibn Fadlan". archive.aramcoworld.com. Retrieved 2020-09-11.
  7. ^ Kovalevskii, A. P., Kniga Akhmeda Ibn-Fadlana o ego Puteschestvii na Volgu 921-922 gg (Kharkov, 1956), p. 345.
  8. ^ Zadeh 2017.
  9. ^ Gabriel 1999, p. 36-42.
  10. ^ a b Knight 2001, p. 81-82.
  11. ^ a b Hermes 2012, pp. 80–84.
  12. ^ Knight 2001, p. 32-34.
  13. ^ Frye 2005[page needed], Hermes 2012, pp. 80–98
  14. ^ Lunde & Stone 2011, p. xxxiv-xxxv.
  15. ^ Ibn Faḍlān & Frähn 1823.
  16. ^ Lunde & Stone 2011, p. xxxv-xxxvi.
  17. ^ Hermes 2012: "...what was ultimately sought by Almish had more to do with politics and money than with spirituality and religion. As a growing number of scholars have observed, there seemed to be a political agreement between the Bulghar king and the Abbasid caliph. With this arrangement, the former would receive financial and military help in exchange for paying religious-political homage to the Abbasids."
  18. ^ Perry 2009, p. 159–60.
  19. ^ Montgomery 2000.
  20. ^ Wilson, Joseph Daniel (Spring 2014). "Black banner and white nights: The world of Ibn Fadlan". JMU Scholarly Commons.
  21. ^ Lunde & Stone 2011, p. 45-46.
  22. ^ "See footnote 35". www.vostlit.info. Retrieved 2020-04-13.
  23. ^ Lunde & Stone 2011, p. 45-54.
  24. ^ (in Russian) Сибирский курьер. Тайны древнего кургана
  25. ^ Jakobsen, Hanne (2013-07-17). "Old Arabic texts describe dirty Vikings". www.sciencenorway.no. Retrieved 2023-11-29.
  26. ^ Lunde & Stone 2011, p. xxxi and xxxiii (quoting xxxiii n. 16).

Sources

External links