The Summary and Opinion of "ibn Fadlan's Account of Vikings in Early Russia" by Albert Stanburrough Cook

This is a summary and opinion of “Ibn Fadlan’s Account of Vikings in Early Russia” by Albert Stanburrough Cook. In 921 the Caliph of Baghdad, Al-Muktadir, sent Ahmend ibn Fadlan to King of Bulgaria. He was sent to arrange the sending of Muslim missionaries to Bulgaria. Ahmed ibn Fadlan’s went through a journey, started north from Baghdad and then west to Bulgaria, which took him through southeastern Russia where, near the Volga River in 922, he run into a Viking settlement and recorded the impressions of the “Northmen.”

Ahmend ibn Fadlan described these men as nasty, careless peoples with no manners, “They are the filthiest race that God ever created. They do not wipe themselves after going to stool, nor wash themselves after a nocturnal pollution, any more than if they were wild asses.” They come from their own country and they anchor their ships in a great river called, Volga in which they stay and build large wooden houses on its banks. It is said that in every such house there lived ten or twenty, more or fewer men. Each man has their own couch in which they sit with the beautiful girls he has for sale.

These girls would take a tub of water in the mornings and place it in front of her master. The man then proceeds to wash his face, hands, and hair. Shortly after that he blows his nose and spits in the tub, transmitting everything into the tub of water once he gets done, the girl takes the tub to the next man, whom does the same process. This process continues till each of those who live in the house has blown his nose and spit into the tub and washed his face and hair, leaving no dirt behind.

Ahmend ibns Fadlan witness their process of how they do things after one of their chiefs die and he describes us this process. “First they laid him in his grave-over which a roof was erected-for the space of ten days, until they had completed the cutting and sewing of his clothes.” When a poor man dies they merely build him a boat, in which he is placed and consumed in fire. At a death of a rich man, they bring together his goods, and divide them in three parts. The firs part is for his family; the second is used for the garments they make; and with the third they purchase strong drinks. To the use of wine, the men’s abandon themselves in mad fashion, drinking it day and night.

After their chiefs dies, his family asks his beautiful girls, ‘”which one of you will die with him?”’ then one of the girls will answer, “I.” As we can tell, for