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

266 Pages·2012·1.84 MB·English

by  Ibn Fadlan

IBN FADLĀN
Ibn Fadlān and the Land of Darkness
Arab Travellers in the Far North
Translated with an Introduction by
PAUL LUNDE and CAROLINE STONE
PENGUIN BOOKS
Contents
List of Maps
Chronology
Introduction
Note on the Texts
Maps
IBN FADLĀN AND THE LAND OF DARKNESS
Part I The Book of Ahmad ibn Fadlān 921–922
Part II The Travels of Abū Hāmid al-Andalusī al-Gharnātī 1130–1155
Part III Passages from Other Geographers, Historians and Travellers
1. Qudāma ibn Ja‘far on Alexander in China 928–932
2. Ibn Khurradādhbih on Sallām the Interpreter and Alexander’s Wall 844
3. Ibn Hayyān on the Viking attack on Seville 844
4. Zuhrī on Viking ships c. 1160
5. Ibn Khurradādhbih on the routes of the Rādhānīya and the Rūs c. 830
6. Ibn al-Faqīh on the Rādhānīya 903
7. Ibn Khurradādhbih on exports from the western Mediterranean 885
8. Ibn Rusta on the Khazars 903–913
9. Ibn Rusta on the Burtās 903–913
10. Ibn Rusta on the Bulkārs 903–913
11. Ibn Rusta on the Magyars 903–913
12. Ibn Rusta on the Saqāliba 903–913
13. Ibn Rusta on the Rūs 903–913
14. Mas‘ūdī on the Iron Gates 943
15. Mas‘ūdī on the Khazar capital 943
16. Mas‘ūdī on the Khazars 943
17. Mas‘ūdī on the khāqān of the Khazars 943
18. Mas‘ūdī on the Bulghārs 943
19. Mas‘ūdī on the Land of the Midnight Sun 943
20. Mas‘ūdī on the Saqāliba 943
21. Mas‘ūdī on the Rūs 943
22. Mas‘ūdī on a Viking raid on the Caspian c. 913
23. Miskawayh on the Rūs raid on Bardha‘a 943
24. Istakhrī on the Khazars and their neighbours c. 951
25. Mas‘ūdī on the fur trade 956
26. Ibrāhīm ibn Ya‘qūb on northern Europe 965
27. Muqaddasī on exports from Bulghār 985–990
28. Muqaddasī on the land of the Khazars 985–990
29. Ibn Hawqal on the trade in eunuchs 988
30. Ibn Hawqal on the fur trade and the Rūs attack on Itil and Bulghār 965
31. Ibn Hawqal on Khwārazm and its trade 988
32. Ibn Hawqal on the Rūs destruction of Itil 965
33. Bīrūnī on dog sleds, skates and silent barter c. 1030
34. The ‘Enclosed Nations’ of the far north 1118
35. Marwazī on the Rūs c. 1130
36. Marwazī on Bulghār and the far north c. 1130
37. Marwazī on the Saqāliba c. 1130
38. Yāqūt on Hungary 1228
39. Qazwīnī on Gog and Magog 1275
40. Marco Polo on dog sleds and the Land of Darkness 1293
41. Ibn Battūta on travel in the Land of Darkness 1332
42. Ibn Battūta on a winter journey to New Sarai 1332
43. Ibn Fadl Allāh al-‘Umarī on Siberia and Alexander’s Tower 1342–1349
Appendix 1 The Khazars, c. 650–c. 965
Appendix 2 The Rūs
Appendix 3 The Sāmānids
Appendix 4 The fur trade
Glossary
Bibliography
Notes
List of Maps
I. The Journey of Ibn Fadlān, 921–922
II. The Travels of Abū Hāmid al-Andalusī al-Gharnātī, 1117–1162
III. The Routes of the Rādhānīya Merchants, c. 830
IV. The Trade Routes of the Rūs, 10th century
V. The Trade in Saqāliba Slaves, 10th century
VI. The Flow of Silver to the West, 9th–10th centuries
VII. The Political Divisions of Eurasia, 923
IBN FADLĀN AND THE LAND OF DARKNESS
IBN FADLĀN’s account of his journey from Baghdad to the camp of the
Bulghār 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 Bulghār encampment was
far beyond the frontiers of the Islamic heartlands, and Ibn Fadlān
faithfully recounts the customs, dress and religious beliefs of the peoples
through whose territory he passed, all of whom were still pagan. In
Bulghār 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 Fadlān from other sources.
ABŪ HĀMID 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 Saqsīn. In 1150, Abū Hāmid went to Hungary, where he
developed close ties with the king, Geza II, and was employed to recruit
Pečeneg 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 Saqsīn, 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-Mu’rib ‘an ba‘d ‘ajā’ib 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 Mas‘ūdī’s Meadows of Gold,
published by Penguin.
For Gabriella and Béla Bollobás