Ibn Fadlan 2: A Letter from the Caliph

Ahmad ibn Fadlan carries on to his cash-poor appointment with the Volga Bulgars. There's talk of funerals, cultural differences, and threats of death. 10th century diplomacy could be hard.

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Sources:

• Ahmad ibn Fadlan. Mission to the Volga, translated by James E. Montgomery. New York University Press, 2017.
• Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travellers in the Far North, translated and with an introduction by Paul Lunde and Caroline Stone. Penguin, 2012.
• Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia, edited by Josef W. Meri. Routledge, 2005.
• Bukharaev, Ravil. Islam in Russia: The Four Seasons. Routledge, 2014.
• Curta, Florin. Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500-1250. Cambridge University Press, 2006.
• Hansen, Valerie. The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World and Globalization Began. Simon and Schuster, 2020.
• Le Strange, Guy. The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate: Mesopotamia, Persia, and Central Asia from the Moslem Conquest to the Time of Timur. Cosimo Classics, 2010.
• Romano, John F. Medieval Travel and Travelers: A Reader. University of Toronto Press, 2020.
• Vernadsky, George. Kievan Russia. Yale University Press, 1973.

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