Ibn Fadlan's Risala (journey to the Volga)
Risala de Ibn Fadlan (viaje al Volga)
- Date
- 921-922 · confidence high
- Place
- Bolgar, Tatarstan, Russia
- Credited to
- Ibn Fadlan
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Account of the Baghdad caliph's envoy to the king of the Volga Bulgars, with descriptions of Oghuz, Khazars, Bulgars and the Rus, including their funeral customs. It is the best source on the Volga and steppe peoples in the 10th century.
The work survives only in partial versions (that of Yaqut, and the Mashhad manuscript); its original text is incomplete. The place given is the embassy's destination.
What it led to
- Islamic knowledge of Russia, the Volga and Central Asian routes
- a source for the ethnography of the Rus and Norse in the East