Ibn Daniyal
Ibn Daniyal (c. 1248-1310). Arab writer in Egypt. He was the author of the earliest shadow plays in medieval Egypt.
Ibn Daniyal (c. 1248-1310). Arab writer in Egypt. He was the author of the earliest shadow plays in medieval Egypt.
Ibn Darraj al-Qastalli
Ibn Darraj al-Qastalli (958-1030). Andalusian poet of Berber origin. He is considered one of the greatest poets of Muslim Spain and the main representative of the golden age of Arabo-Andalusian poetry.
Ibn Darraj al-Qastalli (958-1030). Andalusian poet of Berber origin. He is considered one of the greatest poets of Muslim Spain and the main representative of the golden age of Arabo-Andalusian poetry.
Ibn Dawud
Ibn Dawud (d. 909). Zahiri jurist and the first codifier of Arabic “courtly love.”
Ibn Dawud (d. 909). Zahiri jurist and the first codifier of Arabic “courtly love.”
Ibn Dirham
Ibn Dirham. Patronym of an eminent family of Maliki jurists and judges, originally from Basra. They flourished between 717 and 971.
Ibn Dirham. Patronym of an eminent family of Maliki jurists and judges, originally from Basra. They flourished between 717 and 971.
Ibn Durayd
Ibn Durayd (837-933). Arab philologist and lexicographer. He wrote a monumental work called al-Jamhara, in which he included a large number of loanwords, tracing as far as possible their origins.
Ibn Durayd (837-933). Arab philologist and lexicographer. He wrote a monumental work called al-Jamhara, in which he included a large number of loanwords, tracing as far as possible their origins.
Ibn Fadl Allah al-‘Umari
Ibn Fadl Allah al-‘Umari (1301-1349). Author and administrator of the Mameluke period. He was a writer and expert on a wide variety of subjects related to politics and administration.
Ibn Fadl Allah al-‘Umari (1301-1349). Author and administrator of the Mameluke period. He was a writer and expert on a wide variety of subjects related to politics and administration.
Ibn Fadlan
Ibn Fadlan (Ahmad ibn Fadlān ibn al-Abbās ibn Rašīd ibn Hammād). Arabic writer of the tenth century. He left an account of the diplomatic mission sent by the ‘Abbasid Caliph al-Muqtadir to the king of the Bulghars of the Volga in 921.
Ahmad ibn Fadlān ibn al-Abbās ibn Rašīd ibn Hammād 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. His account is most known for providing a description of the Volga Vikings, including an eye-witness account of a ship burial.
For a long time, only an incomplete version of the account was known, as transmitted in the geographical dictionary of Yāqūt (under the headings Atil, Bashgird, Bulghār, Khazar, Khwārizm, Rūs), published in 1823 by Fraehn. Only in 1923 was a manuscript discovered by the Turkic scholar of Bashkir origin Zeki Validi Togan in the Astane Quds Museum, Mashhad, Iran/Persia. The manuscript dates from the 13th century (7th century Hijra). Besides other geographical treatises, it contains a fuller version of Ibn Fadlan's text.
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 king refused to switch from the Maliki rite to the Hanafi rite of Baghdad.
The embassy left Baghdad on June 21, 921. It reached the Bulghars after much hardship on May 12, 922. (This day is an official religious holiday in modern Tatarstan.) The journey took Ibn Fadlan from Baghdad to Bukhara and Khwarizm (south of the Aral Sea). Although promised safe passage by the Oghuz warlord, or Kudarkin, they were waylaid by Oghuz bandits but luckily were able to bribe their attackers. They spent the winter in Gorgan, Iran before travelling north across the Ural River until they reached the towns of the Bulghars at the three lakes of the Volga north of the Samara bend.
After arriving in Bolğar, Ahmad ibn Fadlan made a trip to Wisu and recorded his observations of trade between the Volga Bolğars and local Finnic tribes.
A substantial part of Ibn Fadlan's account is dedicated to the description of a people he called the Rūs or Rūsiyyah. Most scholars identify them with the Rus or Varangians, which would make Ibn Fadlan's account one of the earliest portrayals of Vikings.
The Rūs
appear as traders that set up shop on the river banks nearby the Bolğar camp. They are described as having bodies tall as palm-trees, with blond hair and ruddy skin. They were tattooed from "fingernails to neck" with dark blue or dark green "tree patterns" and other "figures" and that all men were armed with an axe and a long knife.
Ibn Fadlan describes the Rus as having perfect bodies, with high cheekbones in the face. In contrast to their physical beauty, he describes the hygiene of the Rūsiyyah as disgusting (while also noting with some astonishment that they comb their hair every day) and considers them vulgar and unsophisticated. In that, his impressions contrast those of the Persian traveler Ibn Rustah. He also describes in great detail the funeral of one of their chieftains (a ship burial involving human sacrifice). Some scholars believe that it took place in the modern Balymer complex.
Elements of Ibn Fadlan's account are used in the novel Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton (filmed as The 13th Warrior with Antonio Banderas as Ibn Fadlan), in which the Arab ambassador is taken even further north and is involved in adventures inspired by the Old English epic Beowulf. Indeed Crichton designed "Eaters of the Dead" as being a fictional version of the historic events which created the basis of the epic "Beowulf".
A major Arabic TV series, The Roof of the World or Saqf al-Alam, was produced in 2007 charting Ibn Fadlan's journey from a contemporary perspective. The 30 one-hour episodes tackle the relations between Islam and Europe at two moments: the time of Ibn Fadlan and the present. The motivation for the series was the 2005 Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy in Denmark.
Ahmad ibn Fadlān ibn al-Abbās ibn Rašīd ibn Hammād see Ibn Fadlan
Ibn Fadlan describes the Rus as having perfect bodies, with high cheekbones in the face. In contrast to their physical beauty, he describes the hygiene of the Rūsiyyah as disgusting (while also noting with some astonishment that they comb their hair every day) and considers them vulgar and unsophisticated. In that, his impressions contrast those of the Persian traveler Ibn Rustah. He also describes in great detail the funeral of one of their chieftains (a ship burial involving human sacrifice). Some scholars believe that it took place in the modern Balymer complex.
Elements of Ibn Fadlan's account are used in the novel Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton (filmed as The 13th Warrior with Antonio Banderas as Ibn Fadlan), in which the Arab ambassador is taken even further north and is involved in adventures inspired by the Old English epic Beowulf. Indeed Crichton designed "Eaters of the Dead" as being a fictional version of the historic events which created the basis of the epic "Beowulf".
A major Arabic TV series, The Roof of the World or Saqf al-Alam, was produced in 2007 charting Ibn Fadlan's journey from a contemporary perspective. The 30 one-hour episodes tackle the relations between Islam and Europe at two moments: the time of Ibn Fadlan and the present. The motivation for the series was the 2005 Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy in Denmark.
Ahmad ibn Fadlān ibn al-Abbās ibn Rašīd ibn Hammād see Ibn Fadlan
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