Ibn Faḍlān Aḥmad - Ibn Fadlan and the land of darkness: Arab travellers in the far north

Arab Travellers in the Far North

Translated with an Introduction by
PAUL LUNDE and CAROLINE STONE

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This edition first published in Penguin Classics 2012

Part III, sections 357 from Sharaf al-Zamn Thir Marvaz on China, the Turks and India, translated by
Vladamir Minorsky (1942), is reprinted with the permission of The Royal Asiatic Society

Translation and editorial material Paul Lunde and Caroline Stone, 2012
All rights reserved

The moral right of the translators has been asserted

ISBN: 978-0-14-197504-7

IBN FADLN s account of his journey from Baghdad to the camp of the Bulghr khan, on the Volga River, in 921 is unique in Arabic literature. Sent as an emissary of the Abbasid caliph Muqtadir, his mission was to deliver a message and gifts from the caliph to the recently converted khan, who sought religious instruction for his people and wished to forge an alliance with the Abbasids to protect himself against his powerful Jewish overlords, the Khazars. The Bulghr encampment was far beyond the frontiers of the Islamic heartlands, and Ibn Fadln faithfully recounts the customs, dress and religious beliefs of the peoples through whose territory he passed, all of whom were still pagan. In Bulghr he encountered Viking traders who were pioneering trade routes along the Russian rivers. He witnessed and meticulously describes a Viking ship burial, the only such description we have. Nothing is known of Ibn Fadln from other sources.

AB HMID was born in al-Andalus in 1080. In 1106, he travelled to North Africa, where he spent more than ten years, before sailing for Alexandria in 1117. En route, he passed the island of Sicily and observed Mount Etna in full eruption. Later years saw him travelling to Cairo, Damascus, Baghdad and Iran, before settling for two decades in the great trading city of Saqsn. In 1150, Ab Hmid went to Hungary, where he developed close ties with the king, Geza II, and was employed to recruit Peeneg Muslims into the cavalry. He was allowed to depart from Hungary only on condition that he leave his son hostage to his return. In 1153, he returned to Saqsn, before making the pilgrimage to Mecca. Settling in Baghdad in 1155, he composed the first of the works by which he is best known today, al-Murib an bad ajib al-maghrib (Exposition of Some of the Wonders of the West). He left for Aleppo in 1165, and five years later made the last journey of his remarkable life, to Damascus. He died there is 1170 at the age of ninety.

PAUL LUNDE spent his early years in Saudi Arabia and studied Arabic at the University of California in Berkeley and later at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. He has travelled widely in the Middle East and spent many years researching Arabic geographical literature in the Vatican Library in Rome. He is now based in Cambridge, concentrating on the maritime history of the Indian Ocean.

CAROLINE STONE was educated at Cambridge and Kyoto University, Japan. After living many years in Rome, she currently divides her time between Seville and Cambridge, where she is editing and translating a series of travel accounts Travellers in the Wider Levant for the Civilizations in Contact Project, funded by the Golden Web Foundation. Her publications include books on North African embroideries and Manila shawls, and she worked with Paul Lunde on a selection from Masds Meadows of Gold, published by Penguin.

Year One of the Islamic calendar. First Muslim community founded by the Prophet Muhammad in Medina.

Death of the Prophet Muhammad. Beginning of Arab conquests.

Approximate date for formation of Khazar khqnate.

Umayyad dynasty takes power.

Islamic conquest of Visigothic Spain. Arab armies reach the Indus.

Khazars invade Muslim territory with army of 30,000, take Ardabil and Bardhaa, and raid as far west as Mosul and Diyarbakr.

Muslims defeated at Battle of Poitiers by Charles Martel. iek, daughter of the Khazar khqn