Ibn Fadlan’s embassy to the Volga Bulgars
An embassy of Caliph al-Muqtadir left Baghdad on 21 June 921 and reached the Bulgar ruler Almish on the Volga on 12 May 922, sealing Volga Bulgaria’s adoption of Islam; its secretary, Ibn Fadlan, left the most vivid eyewitness description of the Rus’.
- Date
- 21 June 921 – 12 May 922exact date · duration: ≈ 11 monthsDate in the Julian calendar
- Place
- Bolghartoday: Bolgar, Republic of Tatarstan, Russia · Eastern Europe
- Route
- Baghdad → Nishapur → Bukhara → Jurjaniya (Gurganj) → Bolghar
- Participants
- Ahmad ibn Fadlan, Abbasid Caliphate, Volga Bulgaria, Varangians, Khazar Khaganate
- Threads
- Eastern Europe and Rus’ before the Baptism (1st–10th c.)
- Also known as
- Risala; Volga Bulgaria adopts Islam; Rus' ship funeral; Записка Ибн Фадлана; Принятие ислама Волжской Булгарией
Almish, a vassal of the Khazars, had asked the caliph for religious teachers, builders of a mosque and money for a fortress against his overlords. The embassy, headed by Susan al-Rassi, avoided Khazaria by travelling through Iran, Bukhara and Khwarazm; after wintering at Jurjaniya it set out on 4 March 922 across the lands of the Oghuz, Pechenegs and Bashkirs. At the Bulgar ruler’s camp the caliph’s letter was read out with ceremony — the moment traditionally regarded as Volga Bulgaria’s official adoption of Islam, though the conversion of the Bulgar elite had begun earlier.
Ibn Fadlan met Rus’ merchants who had come down the Volga with furs and slaves: he admired their physique, was disgusted by their hygiene, and described in detail the cremation of a chieftain in his ship with the sacrifice of a slave girl. His account, known in full only since 1923 from a manuscript found at Mashhad, is also a key source on the Khazars and the peoples of the Volga. The embassy returned to Baghdad in spring 923.
Connections
Related events
- Vladimir’s choice of faith986–987 · Eastern Europein the chronicle the Muslim Volga Bulgars are the first to offer their faith to Vladimir
Same participants
- Great Rus’ raid on the Caspianbetween 913 and 914 · Middle East and Egyptvia Volga Bulgaria
- Gnezdovo inscriptionbetween 925 and 960 · Eastern Europevia Varangians
- Sviatoslav’s campaign against the Khazars964 – between 968 and 969 · Eastern Europevia Volga Bulgaria
- Siege of Baghdad29 January – 10 February 1258 · Middle East and Egyptvia Abbasid Caliphate
Adjacent events in the thread
- The Pechenegs first come to the Rus’ land915 · Eastern Europe
- Igor’s campaigns against Byzantium11 June 941 – 944 · Balkans and Anatolia
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within 25 years of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Abd al-Rahman III proclaims the Caliphate of Córdoba16 January 929
- First Althing at Þingvellir930
- Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte911
- Founding of Cluny Abbeybetween 909 and 910
- Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basinbetween 894 and 895 – 907
Balkans and Anatolia
- Battle of Achelous20 August 917
- Rus’–Byzantine Treaty of 9112 September 911
- Golden Age of Bulgaria under Simeon I893 – 27 May 927
- Oleg’s campaign against Constantinople907
- Igor’s campaigns against Byzantium11 June 941 – 944
+ 1 event
Middle East and Egypt
- Great Rus’ raid on the Caspianbetween 913 and 914
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Ahmad ibn Fadlan
- Wikipedia (English): Volga Bulgaria
- Wikipedia (Russian): Ибн Фадлан
- Wikipedia (Russian): Принятие ислама Волжской Булгарией
- Ибн Фадлан. Книга Ахмеда Ибн-Фадлана о его путешествии на Волгу в 921–922 гг. / Пер. А. П. Ковалевского. — Харьков: Изд-во Харьковского гос. ун-та, 1956.
- Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travellers in the Far North / Transl. P. Lunde, C. Stone. — London: Penguin, 2012.