Ibn Fadlan's Account of the Rus Vikings

By Kyle Welker and Sam St John

Ibn Fadlan• Ibn Fadlan is short for ibn

al-Ahmad ibn Fadlān ibn al-Abbās ibn Rāšid ibn Hammād

• A famous 10th century Arab traveler

• Member of the embassy of the Arab Abassid Caliph of Baghdad to the king of the Volga Bulgars

• Probably biased by his Moslem culture against the traditions of the Rus

      Below: Ibn Fadlan

• The Rus Vikings wore sleeved knee-length tunics, which was worn with a belt. 

• They also wore a heavy rectangular coat, which was pinned at one shoulder to leave their sword arm free.

• Each viking is tattooed from hands to neck in green, dark green, or blue-black.

• Every viking carries an axe, a knife, and a sword.

 

Clothing and Outward Appearance

• Ibn Fadlan wrote in his accounts about how The vikings were "the filthiest of God's creatures".

• He says they do not wash or clean themselves before eating or after eating, using the bathroom, and even after taking part in activites with women.

• Ibn Fadlan was disgusted and appalled by the vikings ways.

Below: My view of the vikings being slobs!

Burial

• If a poor man dies, they make him a boat, place him in it, and burn it.

• If a rich man dies, they divide his wealth into three parts: one for his family, one to pay for burial clothes, and one for a type of beer.

• One of the deceased man's female slaves must die with him.

Royalty

• The king keeps four hundred trusted men and concubines in his palace who all die with him

• He answers his calls of nature in a basin

 

Trading

• When one of them goes to sell his wares, he prays to a long piece of wood with a face on it for a merchant to come and buy his merchandise.

• If he has difficulty selling his items he will bring a cow or sheep and sacrifice it.

 

Miscellaneous

• When a person is sick, he is quarantined into a tent and people do not come and see him every day. If he gets better he goes and lives with them, and if he dies they cremate him, unless he is a slave, in which case they leave his body to rot.

• Thievery is punished by hanging from a tree.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw0fhJSO2no

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