85 They lifted her onto the boat but did not take her into the yurt. The men approached with shields and sticks and handed her a cup of alcohol. Before drinking it she chanted over it. The interpreter said to me, “Now she bids her female companions farewell.” She was handed another cup which she took and chanted for a long time. The crone urged her to drink it and to enter the yurt where her master was lying. I could see she was befuddled. She went to enter the yurt but missed it, placing her head to one side of the yurt, between it and the boat. The crone took hold of her head and entered the yurt with her. The men began to bang their shields with the sticks, so that the sound of her screaming would be drowned out. Otherwise, it would terrify the other female slaves, and they would not seek to die with their masters.
86 Six men entered the yurt. They all had intercourse with the female slave and then laid her beside her master. Two held her feet, two her hands. The crone called the Angel of Death placed a rope around her neck with the ends crossing one another and handed it to two of the men to pull on. She advanced with a broad-bladed dagger and began to thrust it in between her ribs, here and there, while the two men strangled her with the rope until she died.
87 The deceased’s nearest male relative came forward. He picked up a piece of wood and set it alight. He was completely naked. He walked backwards, the nape of his neck towards the boat, his face towards the people. He had the ignited piece of wood in one hand and had his other hand on his anus. He set fire to the wooden structures under the boat. The people came forward with sticks and firewood. They each carried a lighted stick that they threw on top of the wood. The wood caught fire. Then the boat, the yurt, the dead man, the female slave, and everything else on board caught fire. A fearsome wind picked up. The flames grew higher and higher and blazed fiercely.
88 One of the Rūsiyyah was standing beside me. I heard him speaking to the interpreter who was with me. I asked him what he had said, and he replied, “He said, ‘You Arabs, you are a lot of fools!’” “Why is that?” “Because you purposefully take your nearest and dearest and those whom you hold in the highest esteem and put them in the ground, where they are eaten by vermin and worms. We, on the other hand, cremate them there and then, so that they enter the Garden on the spot.” I asked about this and he said, “My lord feels such great love for him that he has sent the wind to take him away within an hour.” In fact, it took scarcely an hour for the boat, the firewood, the female slave, and her master to be burnt to ash and then to very fine ash. The Rūsiyyah then built a structure like a round hillock over the beached boat, and placed a large piece of khadhank in the middle. They wrote the man’s name and the name of the king of the Rūsiyyah on it. Then they left.
89 Ibn Faḍlān said: It is one of the customs of the king of the Rūsiyyah to keep in his palace four hundred of his bravest comrades and most trusted companions beside him. They die when he dies and sacrifice themselves to protect him. Each one has a female slave to wait on him, wash his head, and provide him with food and drink, and a second to have intercourse with. These four hundred companions sit below his huge couch, studded with precious stones. Forty concubines who belong to the king also sit on his couch. Sometimes he has intercourse with one of them in the presence of his comrades. He never steps off his throne. When he wants to satisfy an urge, he does so in a salver. When he wants to ride, he has his horse brought to the throne and mounts it from there. When he wants to dismount, he rides the horse to the throne so he can dismount there. He has a deputy, who leads the armies, fights the enemy, and represents him among his subjects.
The Khazars
90 The title of the king of the Khazars is khāqān. He appears in public only once every four months, at a distance. He is called the Great Khāqān. His deputy is called Khāqān Bih, who leads and commands the army, manages and conducts the affairs of the kingdom, and appears in public and leads the raids. The neighboring kings obey him.66 He enters ….
YĀQŪT’S QUOTATIONS FROM THE BOOK OF IBN FAḌLĀN
Itil67
Y 1.1 … I read the following in the written account of Aḥmad ibn Faḍlān ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn Rāshid ibn Ḥammād, the envoy of al-Muqtadir to the realm of the Ṣaqālibah (i.e., the people of Bulghār):
Y 1.2 [68] I learned that a giant lived there. When I arrived, I asked the king about this, and he replied, “Yes, he used to live among us, but he died. He was not one of the local inhabitants—in fact, he was not really human. This is his story. A group of merchants went to the Itil, one day away, as is their custom. Now, this river was in spate and had burst its banks. Barely a day later a group of merchants came back and said, ‘Your Majesty, there is a man who has followed the course of the river. If he is from a community close by, then we cannot remain in our homes. We will have to migrate.’ So I rode to the river with them. I was surprised by what I found when I got there—a man twelve cubits tall, using my forearm as a measure, with a head the size of a huge cooking-pot, a nose more than a span in length, two great eyes, and fingers longer than a span. He unnerved me, and I was gripped by the very terror that had gripped the others. We tried to speak to him, but he did not answer. He just looked at us. So I had him brought to my residence and wrote to the inhabitants of Wīsū, three months distant, asking them for information. They wrote back: ‘He is one of the Gog and Magog, who live three months away from us in a state of absolute nakedness. The sea separates us. They live on the far side of the sea, on its shore. They mate with one another, like the beasts of the field. Every day the great and glorious God provides them with a fish from the sea. They come one by one with their knives and cut as much as they need to feed them and their dependents. If they take more than they need, they develop a pain in their stomach. Their dependents also develop a pain in their stomachs. Should he die, then they all die, too. When they have what they need from the fish, it flips over and is taken back into the sea. This is how they live day by day. On one side we are separated from them by the sea. They are hemmed in by mountains on all other sides. A wall separates them from the gate from which they will swarm forth. When Almighty God intends them to swarm forth into the inhabited lands, He will cause the wall to be breached, the sea will dry up, and the fish will no longer be provided.’” The king said, “He stayed with me for a while, but he developed an illness in his chest that proved terminal.” I went to see his bones. They filled me with great fear.
Y 1.3 May Almighty God have mercy on the author. I take no responsibility for this and similar statements he makes. I give no guarantee of their accuracy. Ibn Faḍlān’s tale of how al-Muqtadir sent him to Bulghār is still preserved. It is well known and popular with people. I saw many copies of it.
BĀSHGHIRD68
Y 2.1 … The king of the Ṣaqālibah and the people of his realm had converted to Islam. The Commander of the Faithful, al-Muqtadir bi-llāh, sent Aḥmad ibn Faḍlān ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn Rāshid ibn Ḥammād as his envoy to bestow on the king a robe of honor and teach him the rules of Islam, according to the sharia. Al-Muqtadir was Ibn Faḍlān’s patron. Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān was also Ibn Faḍlan’s patron. Ibn Faḍlān left a description of all his experiences from the time of his departure from Baghdad, in the month of Safar, 309 [June, 921], until the time of his return. He wrote the following as part of his account of the Bāshghird:
Y 2.2 [37] We stopped in the territory of a tribe of Turks called the Bāshghird. We were on high alert, for they are the wickedest, most powerful, and most ferocious of the Turks. When they attack they take no prisoners. In single combat they chop off your head and make off with it. They shave their beards. They eat lice by carefully picking over the hems of their tunics and cracking the lice with their teeth. Our group was joined by a Bāshghird who had converted to Islam. He used to wait on us. I saw him take a louse he found in his clothing, crack it with his fingernail and then lick it. “Yum!” he said when he saw I was watching him. [38] Each carves a
piece of wood into an object the size and shape of a diadem and hangs it round his neck. When they want to travel or take the field against the enemy, they kiss it and bow down before it, saying, “My lord, do such and such with me.” I said to the interpreter, “Ask one of them to explain this. Why does he worship it as his lord?” “Because I came from something like it. I acknowledge this alone as the giver of life,” he replied. Some of them claim that they have twelve lords: a lord for winter, a lord for summer, a lord for rain, a lord for wind, a lord for trees, a lord for people, a lord for horses, a lord for water, a lord for night, a lord for day, a lord for death, a lord for life, and a lord for the earth.69 The lord in the sky is the greatest, but he acts consensually, and each lord approves of the actions of his partners. God is exalted above what the wrongdoers and the repudiators say!70 Ibn Faḍlān said: We noticed that one clan worships snakes, another fish, and another cranes. They told me that they had once been routed in battle. Then the cranes cried out behind them, and the enemy took fright, turned tail, and fled, even though they had routed the Bāshghird. They said, “These are our lord, because they have routed our enemies.” This is why they worship cranes.
Y 2.3 This is what he says they said.
BULGHĀR71
Y 3.1 … The king of Bulghār and his subjects had converted to Islam during the reign of al-Muqtadir bi-llāh. They sent an envoy to Baghdad to inform al-Muqtadir of this and to petition him to send them people to teach them how to perform their prayers correctly and acquaint them with the rules of Islam, according to the sharia. I have not been able to discover the cause of their conversion. I read an epistle that Aḥmad ibn Faḍlān ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn Asad72 ibn Ḥammād wrote. He was the envoy of al-Muqtadir bi-llāh to the king of the Ṣaqālibah, and his patron was Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān. In the epistle he gave an account of all his experiences, from his departure from Baghdad until his return. He said:
Y 3.2 [2] When the letter of Almis, son of Shilkī Bilṭawār the king of the Ṣaqālibah, was delivered to al-Muqtadir bi-llāh, the Commander of the Faithful, the king petitioned the caliph to send people to instruct him in law and acquaint him with the rules of Islam according to the sharia, to construct a mosque and build a minbar from which he could proclaim al-Muqtadir’s name throughout his kingdom. He also beseeched him to build a fort to protect him against the kings who opposed him. His requests were granted. [3] The representative of the king of the Ṣaqālibah at court was Nadhīr al-Ḥaramī. I, Aḥmad ibn Faḍlān, began by reading al-Muqtadir’s letter to the king, presenting him with the official gifts designated, and supervising the jurists and instructors. The caliph’s envoy was Sawsan al-Rassī. Sawsan’s patron was Nadhīr al-Ḥaramī. We traveled from Baghdad, City of Peace, on Thursday the twelfth of Safar, 309 [June 21, 921].
Y 3.3 Ibn Faḍlān proceeds to record everything that occurred on the road to Khwārazm and then on the road from Khwārazm to the realm of the Ṣaqālibah. It would take too long to quote it and comment on it. Ibn Faḍlān said:
Y 3.4 [39] We were a day and night’s march from our goal. The king of the Ṣaqālibah dispatched his brothers, his sons, and the four kings under his control to welcome us with bread, meat, and millet. They formed our escort. When we were two farsakhs away, he came to meet us in person. On seeing us, he got down from his horse and prostrated himself abjectly, expressing thanks to God! He had some dirhams in his sleeve and showered them over us. He had yurts pitched for us, and we were lodged in them. We arrived on Sunday the twelfth of Muharram, 310 [May 12, 922]. We had been on the road for seventy days since leaving al-Jurjāniyyah, the main city of Khwārazm. We remained in our yurts through Wednesday, while the kings and the elite of the realm gathered to listen to the reading of the letter. [40] On Thursday we unfurled the two standards we had brought with us, saddled the horse with the saddle meant for the king, dressed him in black, and placed a turban on his head. I brought out the letter of the caliph and read it while he stood. [41] I next read the letter of the vizier Ḥāmid ibn al-ʿAbbās. The king continued to stand. He was a big man. His companions showered him with many dirhams. Then we produced the gifts and presented them and then presented a robe of honor to his wife, who was seated by his side. This is their customary practice. [42] Later he sent for us, and we attended him in his tent. The kings were on his right. He ordered us to sit on his left. His sons were seated in front of him. He sat alone, on a throne draped in Byzantine silk. He called for the table. It was carried in, laden with roasted meat. He picked up a knife, cut off a piece of meat, and ate it, then a second piece and a third, before anyone else. Then he cut off a piece and handed it to Sawsan, the envoy, who had a small table placed in front of him in order to receive it. Such is their custom. No one reaches for the food before the king hands him a portion and a table is provided for him to receive it—the moment he receives it, he gets a table. He cut off a piece and handed it to the king on his right and he was given a table. He handed some meat to the second king and he was given a table. This continued until everyone present was given a table. Each of us ate from the table intended for his sole use. No one took anything from any other table. When the meal was finished, everyone took what remained on his own table back to his lodging. [43] When we had finished, he called for the honey drink they call sujū and drank, as did we.
Y 3.5 [44] Before we turned up, the phrase “Lord God, keep in piety the king Yilṭawār, king of the Bulghārs!” was proclaimed from the minbar during the Friday oration. I told the king, “God is the king, and He alone is to be accorded this title, especially from the minbar. Take your patron, the Commander of the Faithful. He has given instructions that the phrase, ‘Lord God, keep in piety the imam Jaʿfar al-Muqtadir bi-llāh, your humble servant, caliph and Commander of the Faithful!’ be proclaimed from his minbars east and west.” He asked me, “What proclamation can I rightly use for the Friday oration?” and I said, “Your name and that of your father.” “But my father was an unbeliever,” he said, “and I do not wish to have his name mentioned from the minbar. Indeed I do not wish to have even my own name mentioned, because it was given me by an unbeliever. What is the name of my patron, the Commander of the Faithful?” “Jaʿfar,” I replied. “Am I permitted to take his name?” “Yes.” “Then I take Jaʿfar as my name, and ʿAbdallāh as the name of my father.” This was conveyed to the preacher. The proclamation during the Friday oration became, “Lord God, keep in piety Your bondsman Jaʿfar ibn ʿAbd Allāh, the emir of Bulghārs, whose patron is the Commander of the Faithful!”
Y 3.6 Ibn Faḍlān said: [48] I lost count of the number of marvels I witnessed in his realm. For example, on our first night in his territory, an hour before sunset, I saw the horizon turn a bright red. The air was filled with an uproar and loud voices. I looked up and was surprised to see fiery-red clouds nearby. The voices and the uproar came from the clouds, where there were shapes that looked like soldiers and horses. These shapes brandished bows, spears, and swords. I could form a clear image of them in my mind. Then another group, similar to the first, appeared. I could make out men, animals, and weapons. This second group charged the first, as one squadron attacks another. We were scared and began to pray to God and entreat Him. The locals were astonished at our reaction and laughed at us. Ibn Faḍlān said: We watched as one unit charged the other, engaged in combat for an hour, and then separated. This lasted for a part of the night, then they disappeared. We asked the king about this, and he told us that his forebears used to say, “These are two groups of jinn, believers and unbelievers, who do battle every evening.” This spectacle had occurred every night for as long as they could remember.
Y 3.7 [49] Ibn Faḍlān said: I went into my yurt with the king’s tailor, a man from Baghdad. We were chatting but did not chat for long—less than half an hour, I reckon. We were waiting for the call to prayer at nightfall. When we heard it, we went outside the yurt, and noticed that the morning sun had already risen. S
o I said to the muezzin, “Which prayer did you call?” “The daybreak prayer.” “And what about the last call, the night call?” “We perform that along with the sunset prayer.” So I said, “And what of the night?” “The nights are as short as you have observed. They have been even shorter but now they have started to grow long.” He said that he had not slept for a month, afraid he would miss the morning prayer. You can put a cooking pot on the fire at the time of the sunset prayer, and by the time you have performed the morning prayer, the pot will not have started to boil. Ibn Faḍlān said: Daylight was very long. I observed that, for part of the year, the days were long and the nights short. Later on I observed the nights grow long and the days short. [50] On our second night, I sat down outside and could make out only a few constellations, I think maybe no more than fifteen. I noticed that the red glow that precedes sunset did not disappear—night was hardly dark at all. In fact you could identify another person at more than a bow-shot away. Ibn Faḍlān said: The moon would rise in one part of the sky for an hour, then dawn would break, and the moon would set. The king told me that a tribe called the Wīsū lived three months from his territory, where night lasted less than an hour. Ibn Faḍlān said: I noticed that at sunrise the whole country, the ground, the mountains, anything you cared to look at, grew red. The sun rose like a giant cloud. The red persisted until the sun was at its zenith. The inhabitants of Bulghār informed me, “In winter, night is as long as day is now and day is as short as night. If we set out at sunrise for a place called Itil less than a farsakh away, we will not get there before nightfall, when all the constellations have risen and cover the sky.”
Mission to the Volga Page 8