Ibn Fadlan Biography

Very little is known about the life of this person. It is reliably known that he was a senior scribe-chin, under the auspices of the military leader Muhammad ibn Suleiman, who won Egypt in the years for the Baghdad caliph. Ahmed Ibn Fadlan took part as a secretary at the Baghdad Caliph embassy in the Volga-Kama Bulgaria: the Muslim Khan then headed the Union of Bulgarian tribes living in the basin of the Lower Kama and Volga, and searched for allies against the Khazars in the Arabs.

The embassy was headed by the eunuch of Caliph Susan Ar-Rassi. The appointment of Ibn Fadlan by the Secretary of the Embassy speaks of his high business qualities and authority, because it was the secretary who was all black work and responsibility for conducting affairs and the final outcome of the enterprise. The embassy left Baghdad on June 21. His path lay through Rei, where the embassy had to stay eleven days in anticipation of the ruler of this city Ahmed Ibn Ali.

The further path of ambassadors lay in Nishapur, and from there to Bukhara. A visit to the capital of the Samanids was aimed at strengthening the connection between the Samanid emir and the caliph. Then the embassy went back to the Amu Darya and down this river to the capital of Khorezm Kas. Then the wintering in Jurdjania followed, from there on March 4 of the year the embassy moved further to the north to the banks of the Volga, to the Kingdom of the Bulgar.

During this period, the embassy left the "youths", lawyer and creed. The fulfillment of all missionary tasks has passed into the duties of Ibn Fadlan and he actually becomes the head of the embassy. In early May, the embassy arrived at the king Bulgar, where he remained, approximately until mid -June at the headquarters of the king. It is impossible to establish the exact time of departure of the embassy.

It is only clear that Ibn Fadlan in the north did not winter and returned the same way. It is known that in the spring of the return to Baghdad Ahmad Ibn Fadlan compiled a “note” “Risale”, written in the form of travel notes and is one of the most important sources on the early medieval history of the Volga region, the Volga region and Central Asia. In the Arab-Persian world, the work of Ibn Fadlan was very popular, thanks to the entertaining stories about different wonders contained in it.

However, over time, his book was forgotten, then died and preserved only in Central Asia in an abbreviated form and in partial retelling. The only well-known list of Ibn Fadlan’s “Notes” was discovered by an orientalist A. Unfortunately, the end of the manuscript is absent, and it is not known how many sheets are not enough. In the city of Kovalevsky, the publication was prepared in Russian.

He was published in the year called "Ibn-Fadlan's Journey to the Volga." The description of a very distant era, about which the information is extremely scarce, the brightness of the description, observation, interest in issues of social relations, life, material culture made the book of Ibn Fadlan with a valuable historical source. If any of us leaves from here to the Itil River at the morning dawn between us and the river the distance of the path less than Farsakh, then he gets there to the onset of the night when the sky is full of stars.

And our embassy was in the country of Bulgar until the nights became longer, and the days are shorter. ” Proceedings and publications of Ibn-Fadlan A. Krachkovsky; Acad. Ibn-Fadlan A. The journey of Ahmed Ibn Fadlan to the Volga. Sultan Shamsi; Il. Rushana Shamsutdinova]. Literature on the life and activity of Averbukh S. Dubov I. Great Volga Path. Zakhoder B. Name index, p.

Kovalevsky A. Book of Ahmed ibn-Fadlan about his journey to the Volga in the GG. Caliph Embassy to the Tsar of the Volga Bulgars in the GG. Magidovich, V. Fakhrutdinov R. Essays on the history of the Volga Bulgaria. Name index, p.