Mission to the Volga. Ahmad Ibn Fadlan

      

      MISSION TO THE VOLGA

      LIBRARY OF ARABIC LITERATURE

      EDITORIAL BOARD

      GENERAL EDITOR

      Philip F. Kennedy, New York University

      EXECUTIVE EDITORS

      James E. Montgomery, University of Cambridge

      Shawkat M. Toorawa, Yale University

      EDITORS

      Sean Anthony, The Ohio State University

      Julia Bray, University of Oxford

      Michael Cooperson, University of California, Los Angeles

      Joseph E. Lowry, University of Pennsylvania

      Maurice Pomerantz, New York University Abu Dhabi

      Tahera Qutbuddin, University of Chicago

      Devin J. Stewart, Emory University

      EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

      Chip Rossetti

      DIGITAL PRODUCTION MANAGER

      Stuart Brown

      ASSOCIATE MANAGING EDITOR

      Gemma Juan-Simó

      FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM COORDINATOR

      Amani Al-Zoubi

      LETTER FROM THE GENERAL EDITOR

      The Library of Arabic Literature series offers Arabic editions and English translations of significant works of Arabic literature, with an emphasis on the seventh to nineteenth centuries. The Library of Arabic Literature thus includes texts from the pre-Islamic era to the cusp of the modern period, and encompasses a wide range of genres, including poetry, poetics, fiction, religion, philosophy, law, science, history, and historiography.

      Books in the series are edited and translated by internationally recognized scholars and are published in parallel-text format with Arabic and English on facing pages, and are also made available as English-only paperbacks.

      The Library encourages scholars to produce authoritative, though not necessarily critical, Arabic editions, accompanied by modern, lucid English translations. Its ultimate goal is to introduce the rich, largely untapped Arabic literary heritage to both a general audience of readers as well as to scholars and students.

      The Library of Arabic Literature is supported by a grant from the New York University Abu Dhabi Institute and is published by NYU Press.

      Philip F. Kennedy

       General Editor, Library of Arabic Literature

      ABOUT THIS PAPERBACK

      This paperback edition differs in a few respects from its dual-language hard-cover predecessor. Because of the compact trim size the pagination has changed, but paragraph numbering has been retained to facilitate cross-referencing with the hardcover. Material that referred to the Arabic edition has been updated to reflect the English-only format, and other material has been corrected and updated where appropriate. For information about the Arabic edition on which this English translation is based and about how the LAL Arabic text was established, readers are referred to the hardcover.

      MISSION TO THE VOLGA

      BY

      AḤMAD IBN FAḌLĀN

      TRANSLATED BY

      JAMES E. MONTGOMERY

      FOREWORD BY

      TIM SEVERIN

      VOLUME EDITOR

      SHAWKAT M. TOORAWA

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESSNew York

      NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS

       New York

      Copyright © 2017 by New York University

      All rights reserved

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Names: Ibn Fadlan, Ahmad, active 922 author. | Montgomery, James E. (James Edward), 1962– translator. | Toorawa, Shawkat M. editor. | Severin, Timothy author of foreword.

      Title: Mission to the Volga / by Ahmad ibn Fadlan ; translated by James E. Montgomery ; foreword by Tim Severin ; volume editor, Shawkat M. Toorawa.

      Other titles: Kitab al-Rihlah ila malik al-Saqalibah. English

      Description: New York : New York University Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

      Identifiers: LCCN 2016038305 | ISBN 9781479899890 (pb : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781479826698 (e-book) | ISBN 9781479829750 (e-book)

      Subjects: LCSH: Tatarstan (Russia)—Description and travel. | Bulgars (Turkic people)—Russia (Federation)—Volga River Region—History. | Ibn Fadlan, Ahmad, active 922—Travel—Asia, Central. | Volga River Region (Russia)—History.

      Classification: LCC DK511.T17 I2313 2017 | DDC 914.7/45042—dc23

      LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016038305

      New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.

      Series design and composition by Nicole Hayward

      Typeset in Adobe Text

      Manufactured in the United States of America

      10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

       For Josh, for the journey

      CONTENTS

       Letter from the General Editor

       Foreword

       Acknowledgments

       Introduction

       Notes to the Introduction

       Map: Ibn Faḍlānʼs Route to the Volga

       MISSION TO THE VOLGA

       Baghdad

       Bukhara

       Khwārazm

       Al-Jurjāniyyah

       The Ghuzziyyah

       The Bajanāk

       The Bāshghird