- Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travellers in the Far North

by Ibn Fadlan

Other authorsPaul Lunde (Translator), Paul Lunde (Introduction), Caroline Stone (Translator), Caroline Stone (Introduction)

Paperback, 2012

Status

Available

Call number

914.74042

Genres

Religion & Spirituality

Collection

Wishlist

Publication

Penguin Classics (2012), Paperback, 256 pages

Description

"In 922 AD, an Arab envoy from Baghdad named Ibn Fadlan encountered a party of Viking traders on the upper reaches of the Volga River. In his subsequent report on his mission he gave a meticulous and astonishingly objective description of Viking customs, dress, table manners, religion and sexual practices, as well as the only eyewitness account ever written of a Viking ship cremation. Between the ninth and fourteenth centuries, Arab travellers such as Ibn Fadlan journeyed widely and frequently into the far north, crossing territories that now include Russia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Their fascinating accounts describe how the numerous tribes and peoples they encountered traded furs, paid tribute and waged wars. This accessible new translation offers an illuminating insight into the world of the Arab geographers, and the medieval lands of the far north."--Publisher's website.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member le.vert.galant

Ibn Fadlan's manuscript gives an unusually vivid account of a journey from Baghdad to present-day Kazan on the Volga River in 922. The other narratives collected in this book are much flatter but still interesting. The mix of facts and speculation are interesting and give a picture of how the world

looked to Muslims at this early date. While the Khazars and Rus are accurately described, these travelers still believed that Gog and Magog were locked up behind iron gates built by Alexander.

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LibraryThing member antiquary

The leading item in this collection of "Arab Travellers in the Far North" is Ibn Fadlan's well-known account of his journey in about 922 AD from Baghdad through various west and central Asian states notably the Samanid Iranian-culture empire and the northward to the Bulghar people, vassals of the

Jewish Khazars but themselves recent converts to Islam. There he met Rus traders, who according to most West European scholars (though not some Russian ones) were originally Swedish Vikings who settled around Kiev. The most famous part of his report is the description of the rituals surrounding the ship-burial of a Rus leader. This part has been printed as an excerpt many times, but often without the rest of his account. This is followed by the less well-known journey of Abu Hamid to much the same region about two hundred years later after the fall of the Khazar empire (and further on to modern Hungary) , and then by other even less known fragments and excerpts from a number of other Arabic writers who visited or described roughly the same regions. The translators have provided useful notes, especially notes identifying many of the obscure place-names and names of ethnic groups. .

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LibraryThing member JHemlock

Very interesting and mildly entertaining. But I can't help but wonder how much of this was made up by some person in a dark basement in Europe a hundred years ago. Many of the accounts seem a little cartoonish, but then again maybe something got lost in translation.

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