A fascinating book by Arab envoy Ibn Fadlan, who in 922 AD encountered a party of Viking traders on the upper reaches of the Volga River. In his travel reports he gives astonishing descriptions about Viking customs, dress, table manners, religion and sexual practices, as well as the only eyewitness account ever written of a Viking ship cremation!
Ibn Fadlan was a tenth-century diplomat who, in 922 AD, was sent on a mission from Baghdad to the far north by the caliph Muqtadir. His subsequent account of his travels and the peoples he encountered is one of the most important documents from the period.
