ahmad ibn fadlān

Ahmad ibn Fadlān ibn al-Abbās ibn Rašīd ibn Hammād (Arabic: أحمد بن فضلان بن العباس بن رشيد بن حماد‎) was a 10th century Arab Muslim writer and traveler who wrote an account of his travels as a member of an embassy of the Abbasid Caliph of Baghdad to the king of the Volga Bulgars, the Kitāb ilā Mulk al-Saqāliba (كتاب إلى ملك الصقالبة). His account is most known for providing a description of the Volga Vikings, including an eye-witness account of a ship burial.
Ibn Fadlan was sent from Baghdad in 921 to serve as the secretary to an ambassador from the Abbasid Caliph al-Muqtadir to the iltäbär (vassal-king under the Khazars) of the Volga Bulgaria, Almış.

The embassy's objective was to have the king of the Bolğars pay homage to Caliph al-Muqtadir and, in return, to give the king money to pay for the construction of a fortress. Although they reached Bolğar, the mission failed because they were unable to collect the money intended for the king. Annoyed at not receiving the promised sum, the k…more