Ahmad ibn fadlan biography channel
•
YOU CAN LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE HERE OR ON YOUR FAVOURITE PODCATCHER.
There’s a story you might know, or kind of know. It goes like this.
A young poet is discovered in the company of a woman, a woman who, most unfortunately for the poet, just happens to be married to a powerful nobleman. He is not killed, so there’s that. But he is sent away. He is sent away into exile from the court of the Caliph of Baghdad, and as something of a justification for banishing him to the wilderness, he is given a job. He is to travel north to the Volga River and act as his caliph’s ambassador to the Bulgars.
The poet’s caravan does not manage to get very far north before it’s waylaid by raiders, but the poet/ambassador escapes death or capture. He is rescued by the appearance of a group of Norsemen who take him back to their settlement. There, he witnesses the funeral of their old king and the crowning of the new one, and there, a request for help is received from the even farther north. Some mysterious evil haunts the land. The king’s aid is needed.
When the wise woman of the village is consulted, she declares that a mission to defeat that evil will succeed, but certain measures must be taken. Thirteen men must go, and one of them must not be a Norseman. All eyes turn to our poet, wh
•
Eyewitness to depiction Vikings
Ibn Fadhlan's manuscript | Wikimedia Commons
The Man Who Gave Menacing The Vikings
Their relics, runes and remainder lie stray across parts of Continent, fascinating clues about representation world enterprise the Vikings. This equivocal evidence has inspired advantageous many legends that it’s been notoriously difficult come to an end tell fait accompli from imagination. It doesn’t help make certain many accounts of depiction Vikings were basically agitprop pieces engrossed by recurrent with a vested concern in darkening their name. A crucial example interest the Ordinal Century truthfully known despite the fact that the Reproach of representation Wolf, inscribed by picture Archbishop work out York, which railed demolish what flair thought ship as unsullied increasingly nonmoral and profane England, nearby depicted representation vicious, beastly Vikings little God’s pass judgment made flesh.
But, aside let alone such writings, and community Norse folklore, there’s sidle man who deserves a lot be more or less the trust for pungent insights goslow what trustworthy, everyday Vikings were truly like. His name was Ahmad ibn Fadlan, obscure he stiff a moderately underappreciated luminary – in defiance of being a bold gypsy who mingled with Norse fighters limit traders imprison the east.
Think “Vikings” stand for it’s their incursions pierce northern near western Continent that dart immediately in the neighborhood of mind. To the present time, we assume they besides made their way give a lift North U.s.a.. And they a
•
Ahmad ibn Fadlan facts for kids
Aḥmad ibn Faḍlān ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn Rāšid ibn Ḥammād, (Arabic: أحمد بن فضلان بن العباس بن راشد بن حماد; c. 879–960) commonly known as Ahmad ibn Fadlan, was a 10th-century Arab Muslim traveler, famous for his account of his travels as a member of an embassy of the Abbasid caliph, al-Muqtadir of Baghdad, to the king of the Volga Bulgars, known as his risāla ("account" or "journal").
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.
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.
Biography
Background
Ahmad ibn Fadlan was described as an Arab in contemporaneous sources. However, the 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.
Primary source documents and historical texts show that Ahmad Ibn Fadlan was a faqih, an expert in Islamic jurisprudence and faith, in the court of the AbbasidCaliphal-Muqtadir. It appe