In 921 an embassy left Baghdad for the Volga Bulgars. Its secretary wrote down the journey. That report is the closest thing the Arabic material has to an eyewitness account of the northern steppe.
The route and its peoples
The road ran through the Oguz, the Pechenegs and the Bashkirs before it reached the Volga. Ibn Fadlan describes what he passed: the way the Oguz lived, what they believed, how their chiefs decided.[1] He also describes the Rus he met on the Volga. This is the passage for which the report is best known outside this field.[1]
On the Khazars he writes from just outside. The embassy did not go to Atil. What he gives about the double kingship and the court is what was told to him.[1]
Reliability
Two things have to be held together. Ibn Fadlan is an eyewitness, which is rare enough in this material to be decisive. He is also an eyewitness of 921, a full three centuries after the Göktürk khaganates.
A description of Oguz custom in 921 is evidence for Oguz custom in 921. Used backwards, as a picture of what the steppe was like in the sixth century, it becomes a different kind of statement. Turkic Atlas has to say so wherever it uses it that way. The same holds for the three other Arabic and Persian witnesses that stand beside him: the Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam of 982 and the two works of al-Masʿūdī.
The title ilteber, which the Göktürk order knows from the sixth century, turns up in his report as the title of the Bulgar prince. His testimony bears this kind of use without strain.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d Ibn Fadlan
Literature
- Peter B. Golden, An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples (1992)
Articles resting on this source 23
Balanjar · Bride-Price in Livestock · Burial and the balbal · Camels · Captives and the Unfree · Conversion of the Khazars to Judaism · Diplomacy of the Steppe Empires · Envoys and Embassies · Farming among the Volga Bulgars · Inal · Itil · Khazar Customs and Tribute · Khazar Dual Kingship · Livestock in the Hudud al-Alam · Oghuz Herds in Ibn Fadlan's Account · Oghuz Yabgu State · Seasonal Pastures · Sheep · Trade Routes of the Steppe · Volga Bulgaria · Water Cult · Women among the Turkic Peoples · Wood and Woodworking
What links here11
- States
- Oghuz Yabgu State · Volga Bulgaria
- Battles & Events
- Conversion of the Khazars to Judaism
- Institutions and Titles
- Bride-Price in Livestock · Envoys and Embassies · Farming among the Volga Bulgars · Inal · Trade Routes of the Steppe · Women among the Turkic Peoples
- Sources
- al-Masʿūdī · Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam
Cite this article
Yavuz, Emre-E. “Ibn Fadlan.” Turkic Atlas, revised 8 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/sources/ibn-fadlan/
Last revised: 8 November 2026
