Ahmad ibn Fadlan went from Baghdad in 921 as secretary of the caliph al-Muqtadir's embassy to the king of the Volga Bulghars. His report survived mainly in excerpts quoted by the geographer Yaqut (13th century). The catalogue names the Library of Arabic Literature bilingual PDF, but the corpus holds Christian Martin Frähn's editions: De Chasaris (St Petersburg, 1822), the Khazar excerpts with Latin translation, and Ibn-Foszlan's und anderer Araber Berichte über die Russen (1823), the Arabic Rus passage with German translation and long notes. They cover Rus traders camped on the Volga, a Rus ship cremation, a giant said to have lived at Bulghar, and the Khazar capital Itil.
How they knew
Part eyewitness
Who “Tartar” means here
Ibn Fadlan wrote three centuries before the Mongol conquest and never uses the word Tatar. His Volga peoples (Bulghars, Khazars, Rus) lived in lands later called Tartary; the Kazan Tatars count the Bulghars among their ancestors. The only 'Tatars' in these volumes are in Frähn's notes: the Tatars of Russia he knew around Kazan.
Why read it
It is the earliest eyewitness picture of the middle Volga, the heartland of the later Kazan Tatars. It shows a mixed world of felt huts and one brick palace, wooden houses and burial mounds, with no lost stone cities.
Watch out
What survives is Yaqut's excerpts, so the text is second-hand. The Khazar section may partly come from other geographers, since Ibn Fadlan probably never reached Itil. The Rus passages reflect a Muslim envoy's disgust. The German and Latin are Frähn's 1820s translations, and his notes are editorial.
Editorial contextYaqut's excerpt describes the Khazar capital Itil on the lower Volga as two towns on either bank. The western part, where the king lived, was walled and about a parasang long, but its buildings were mostly huts of felt, with a few of clay, plus markets and baths. On the next page (n27) it says the king's palace, away from the river, was of fired brick, and that the king let nobody else build in brick.
This western part stretches for a parasang in length and is enclosed by a wall, but its buildings are scattered and few. Their dwellings are huts (or tents) made of felt, apart from a few built of clay. They have markets and baths.
Working translation
Original wording
Haec pars occidentalis in parasangae longitudinem extenditur, muro cincta, sed eo quidem sparsae raraeve structurae. Eorum autem aedificia sunt casae (seu mapalia) ex panno coactili confectae, paucis exceptis, quae e luto constructa. Sunt iis fora et balnea.
Ibn Fadlan as quoted by Yaqut (Latin translation by C. M. Frähn, De Chasaris, 1822)
Editorial contextAfter the ship cremation, Ibn Fadlan watched the Rus raise something like a round hill over the spot, set a large post of beech wood in the middle, and write on it the dead man's name and the name of the Rus king. It is a rare eyewitness account of a burial mound (kurgan) being built on the Volga.
Then, over the place where the ship drawn out of the river had stood, they built something like a round hill, set up in its middle a large post of beech wood, and wrote on it the name of the dead man together with that of the king of the Rus.
Working translation
Original wording
Darauf führten sie über dem Orte, wo das aus dem Flusse gezogene Schiff gestanden, etwas einem runden Hügel ähnliches auf, errichteten in dessen Mitte ein großes buchen Holz und schrieben darauf den Namen des Verstorbenen, nebst dem des Königs der Russen.
Ibn Fadlan as quoted by Yaqut (German translation by C. M. Frähn, 1823)
Editorial contextIbn Fadlan says the Rus came downriver with their goods, anchored on the Itil (Volga) and built large wooden houses on the bank, each holding ten or twenty people with a bench for every man. He goes on to describe, with disgust, their public sex with slave girls and a shared washing bowl passed from man to man.
They come from their own country, anchor their ships in the Itil, which is a great river, and build large houses of wood on its banks. Ten or twenty of them, more or fewer, live together in one such house.
Working translation
Original wording
Sie kommen aus ihrem Lande, legen ihre Schiffe im Itil, welches ein großer Fluß ist, vor Anker und bauen sich an dessen Ufern große Häuser von Holz. In so einem Hause leben ihrer zehn oder zwanzig, auch mehr oder weniger, zusammen.
Ibn Fadlan as quoted by Yaqut (German translation by C. M. Frähn, 1823)
'You Arabs are a stupid people': why the Rus burn their dead
Editorial contextAt the end of the famous ship funeral, in which a slave girl was killed and burned with her master, a Rus man spoke to Ibn Fadlan through the interpreter. Arabs, he said, bury their dearest in the earth to be eaten by worms, while the Rus burn theirs in an instant so they go straight to paradise. Then he laughed and said God's love had sent the wind to speed the fire.
'You Arabs,' he said, 'are a stupid people: you take the one who is dearest and most honoured to you among men and throw him into the earth, where crawling creatures and worms eat him. We, on the other hand, burn him in a moment, so that he enters paradise at once and without delay.'
Working translation
Original wording
ihr Araber, sagte er, seyd doch ein dummes Volk: ihr nehmt den, der euch der geliebteste und geehrteste unter den Menschen ist, und werft ihn in die Erde, wo ihn die kriechenden Thiere und Würmer fressen. Wir dagegen verbrennen ihn in einem Nu, so daß er unverzüglich und sonder Aufenthalt in's Paradies eingeht.
A Rus man, reported by Ibn Fadlan via an interpreter (German translation by C. M. Frähn, 1823)
Editorial contextWhen their boats arrived, each Rus trader went to a tall wooden post carved with a human face and ringed by smaller figures, bowed to the ground and listed his slave girls and sable furs, asking for a rich buyer. If trade went well he slaughtered cattle and sheep, left the meat before the idols and hung the heads on the posts; when dogs ate it at night, he said his lord was pleased.
He goes up to the large wooden figure, throws himself on the ground before it and says: 'O my lord, I have come from a distant land, bringing so many girls with me, and so many sable skins.'
Working translation
Original wording
Er tritt zu der großen hölzernen Figur, wirft sich vor ihr zur Erde nieder und spricht: o mein Herr! ich bin aus fernem Lande gekommen, führe so und so viel Mädchen mit mir, und von Zobeln so und so viel Felle,
Ibn Fadlan as quoted by Yaqut (German translation by C. M. Frähn, 1823)
Editorial contextCommenting on Ibn Fadlan's horror at Rus drinking, Frähn notes that not all Muslims keep the ban on wine. Among the Tatars of Russia, he says, 'sober as this people is', he met many who did not refuse wine and strong drink, though he never saw them drink too much. It is a small firsthand note on real Tatars by a scholar who knew them.
And so among the Tatars of Russia too, sober as this people is, I have found not a few who did not scorn wine and such strong drinks, though I never saw them exceed moderation.
Working translation
Original wording
Und so habe ich auch unter den Tataren Russlands, so nüchtern dieses Volk auch ist, nicht wenige gefunden, die Wein und derlei starke Getränke nicht verschmähten, wenn ich sie gleich nie das Maass überschreiten sah.
Could anyone know the name 'Tatar' in the 6th century?
Editorial contextIn a note, Frähn discusses a 16th-century Ottoman writer who claimed the Persian king Anushirvan (6th century) built the Caspian Gates for fear of 'Turks and Tatars'. Frähn replies that although Arab writers mention the Tatars earlier than some scholars thought, the name can hardly have been known that early in western Asia. It is a scholarly warning against reading 'Tatar' back into ancient history.
for although Arab writers mention the Tatars earlier than is noted in the excellent Mémoires sur l'Arménie (vol. II, p. 263), one can hardly assume that their name was known so early in western Asia.
Working translation
Original wording
denn erwähnen gleich Arabische Schriftsteller der Tataren früher, als in den trefflichen Mémoires sur l'Arménie T. II. p. 263 angemerkt ist; so früh kann man wohl kaum Bekanntschaft mit ihrem Namen im westl. Asien annehmen.
The Khazar king's tomb under a river, its builders beheaded
Editorial contextThe Khazar excerpt says that when the supreme king died, a great building with twenty rooms was raised over a river, with a grave dug in every room, so that no one would know which held the king. The men who buried him were then beheaded. The tomb was called 'paradise'. A page later (n30) it adds that a king was killed if he reigned a day beyond forty years.
When the supreme king dies, a great palace divided into twenty rooms is built, and a grave is dug in each one… Once the king is buried, the necks of those who buried him are cut, so that no one may know in which of the rooms his grave lies.
Working translation
Original wording
Regi supremo mortuo magnum exstruatur palatium in viginti divisum conclavia, inque singulis sepulchrum fodiatur… Sepulto Rege, colla eorum, qui eum composuere, amputantur, ne quis sciat, in quonam eorum conclavium ejus sepulchrum sit.
Ibn Fadlan as quoted by Yaqut (Latin translation by C. M. Frähn, De Chasaris, 1822)
Editorial contextFrähn summarises a tale Ibn Fadlan heard from the Bulghar king: traders found a man twelve cubits tall floating in the flooded Volga, with a head like the largest cauldron, a nose over a span long and fingers a span long. The Wisu people told the king he belonged to Gog and Magog, who lived three months away across a sea. The giant died, and the speaker claims to have seen his dreadful bones. Yaqut already refused to vouch for it, and Frähn suggests in a footnote that mammoth bones were the likely source.
who was twelve cubits tall, with a head as big as the biggest cauldron, a nose more than a span long, large eyes and fingers a span long; … that this man belonged to Gog and Magog,
Working translation
Original wording
der eine Höhe von 12 Ellen gehabt, einen Kopf so gross wie nur der grösste Kessel sey, eine Nase über eine Spanne lang, grosse Augen und Spannenlange Finger;… dass dieser Mensch zu den Jog und Magog gehöre,
C. M. Frähn, summarising Ibn Fadlan's report of the Bulghar king's story (1823)