Mission to the Volga

by Ahmad Ibn Fadlan

  Ūrn (§38) the second river crossed by the caravan after its departure from Bāshghird territory.

  Togan (Reisebericht, 37, n. 2) suggests it is the river Ürän, which enters the Volga across from modern Ulyanovsk. Near the Ürän is a Tatar village called Ürän-bashi (see Kovalevskiĭ, Kniga, 194). It is “Uran,” according to Canard (Voyage, 51; see 108, n. 145), “Ūran,” according to al-Dahhān (Risālah, 110, n. 2) and McKeithen (Risālah, 81, n. 227), and “Uran,” according to Lunde and Stone (Ibn Fadlān, 24, 226, n. 49). Frye (Ibn Fadlān’s Journey, 97), identifies it as the modern “Uran”; on Róna-Tas’s map (Hungarians and Europe, 223), it is the Uren.

  Wārsh (§34) the sixth river crossed by the caravan, on portable, collapsible camel-skin rafts, after its departure from Ghuzziyyah territory.

  Togan (Reisebericht, 33, n. 1) and Kovalevskiĭ (Kniga, 192, n. 304) identify it as the modern Qaldagayti (or Kandagayti) river. It is to be read as “Wakhch,” according to Canard (Voyage, 107, n. 134), who does not include it in his translation of the passage; “Wārsh,” according to McKeithen (Risālah, 76, n. 201) and Lunde and Stone (Ibn Fadlān, 22, 226, n. 45); and “Warish,” according to Frye (Ibn Fadlān’s Journey, 42). Frye (Ibn Fadlān’s Journey, 97) identifies it as the modern “Olenty or Kaldigayti.”

  Wbnā (§34) the eighth river crossed by the caravan, on portable, collapsible camel-skin rafts, after its departure from Ghuzziyyah territory.

  Kovalevskiĭ (Kniga, 192, n. 306) identifies it as the Lesser Ankaty river (Sholek Antaky), which empties into Shalkar lake, in southern Kazakhstan. Togan (Reisebericht, 33, n. 3) suggests it may be read as “Wtbā” and correspond to the modern Utwa, which connects with the Ural river, but also points out that this would have been an unlikely detour for the embassy. It is the “Wtbā,” according to al-Dahhān (Risālah, 106, n. 5), and the “Wabnâ,” according to Canard (Voyage, 48, 107, n. 134), followed by McKeithen (Risālah, 76, n. 203) and Lunde and Stone (Ibn Fadlān, 22, 226, n. 45). According to Frye (Ibn Fadlān’s Journey, 97), it is modern “Utba.”

  Wīsū (§§50, 65, 68; Yāqūt §1.2) according to the king of the Bulghārs, the Wīsū live three months’ travel north of the Bulghārs and trade with them. Togan (Reisebericht, 55, n. 3) and Kovalevskiĭ (Kniga, 205, n. 475) agree that the Wīsū are the Veps.

  See Göckenjan and Zimonyi, Orientalische Berichte, 261–62, ns. 85–95.

  Wtīʿ (§38) the fifth river crossed by the caravan after its departure from Bāshghird territory.

  Togan (Reisebericht, 37, n. 5) reads it as “Wtīgh” and identifies it as the Utka. It is “Watigh,” according to Canard (Voyage, 51 and see 108, n. 145, where he reads “Watighla/Utka”); “Watīgh,” according to al-Dahhān (Risālah, 110, n. 5), McKeithen (Risālah, 82, n. 230), and Lunde and Stone (Ibn Fadlān, 25, 226, n. 49). Frye (Ibn Fadlān’s Journey, 97) identifies it as the modern “Utka.” On Róna-Tas’s map (Hungarians and Europe, 223), it is the Utka.

  W*rʿ (§69) the name or title of a son-in-law of the Bulghār king, with whom the Suwāz clan ally themselves when they refuse to travel with the king and thus reject his conversion to Islam. According to Togan (Reisebericht, 75, n. 2), it is to be read “Wïyrïg” and reflects a Bulghār form of the ancient Turkic title buyrug (modern Turkish buyruk). Kovalevskiĭ (Kniga, 224, n. 604a) reads “Vyrag”; according to al-Dahhān (Risālah, 140, n. 7) and McKeithen (Risālah, 119, n. 372), it is to be transcribed as “Wīrigh” and, according to Lunde and Stone, as “Wīragh” (Ibn Fadlān, 42 and 228, n. 75).

  yabghū (§29) the regal title of the king of the Ghuzziyyah Turks.

  See Togan, Reisebericht, 140–41; Canard, Voyage, 105, n. 113; al-Dahhān, Risālah, 101, n. 1; Frye, “Some Early Iranian Titles,” 356–58; Golden, Khazar Studies, 1:187–90; Golden, Introduction, 209.

  Yāqūt Yāqūt ibn ʿAbdallāh al-Rūmī al-Ḥamawī (d. 626/1229), a biographer and geographer renowned for his encyclopedic writings. “Al-Rūmī” (“the man from Rūm”) refers to his Byzantine origin, and “al-Ḥamawī” connects him with Ḥamāh, in Syria. In his topographical dictionary Kitab Muʿjam al-buldān, he included quotations from Ibn Faḍlān’s account, which remained the principal vestiges of the work until Togan’s discovery of the Mashhad manuscript in 1923.

  Yilghiz (§33) a member of the delegation of senior Ghuzziyyah figures convened by Atrak in order to consult about the embassy.

  The word is variously transliterated “Baghliz” by Canard (Voyage, 47), followed by McKeithen (Risālah, 72 and n. 190) and Lunde and Stone (Ibn Fadlān, 21), “ʾĪlghz” by al-Dahhān (Risālah, 103), and “Ylgz (Yughrush?)” by Frye (Ibn Fadlān’s Journey, 41).

  See Golden, Introduction, 209.

  yilik (Yāqūt §4.2) one of the titles of the vice-regent, that is, the nonkhaganal ruler of the Khazars.

  See Golden, Khazar Studies, 1:184–85; Golden, Introduction, 240; Róna-Tas, Hungarians and Europe, 233.

  Yilṭawār (§§2, 44; Yāqūt §§3.2, 3.5) an arabicized form of the Turkic title elteber, written as blṭwār once in the Mashhad manuscript and in Yāqūt’s quotation of the opening of the text. It seems to have been conferred on the Bulghār king or his father or both, presumably by the Khazars, to indicate a ruler subordinate to the Khazar khāqān.

  Yināl (§§25, 33) apparently a title of a high-ranking Ghuzziyyah tribesman, used twice in the text. The first occurrence is qualified by the adjective al-ṣaghīr (“the younger” or “the lesser”), which may indicate age or status. It is possible that Ibn Faḍlān meets two men, the lesser Yināl (§25) and the Yināl (§33). The position of yināl is thought by some to designate the deputy of the kūdharkīn or the heir apparent to the yabghū.

  The word is transcribed “Yināl” by McKeithen (Risālah, 63, n. 157), “Yanal” by Frye (Ibn Fadlān’s Journey, 37), and “Ināl” by Lunde and Stone (Ibn Fadlān, 21, 226, n. 43).

  See Golden, Introduction, 209.

  Zamjān (§15) a garrison post, referred to as the Gate of the Turks, the first stopover taken by the embassy on leaving al-Jurjāniyyah, on the edge of the Ustyurt.

  Zaydī/Zaydiyyah a branch of the Shiʿah, whose name comes from Zayd ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn, who led a revolt in Kufa in 122/740. In Ibn Faḍlān’s text, the Caspian (and not the Yemeni) Zaydiyyah are meant, in particular the group known as the Nāṣiriyyah, who accepted leadership from among the descendants of al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī al-Uṭrūsh (d. 304/917), whose title was al-Nāṣir li-l-Ḥaqq, “he who brings victory to God’s Truth.”

  See Madelung, “Zaydiyya.”

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  FURTHER READING

  Works prefixed with an asterisk are either popular writings or useful overviews from which those unfamiliar with the subject might benefit. Readers should look out for the publication of Muslims on the Volga in the Viking Age, edited by Jonathan Shepherd and Luke Treadwell, proceedings of the important Oxford 2016 conference “Ibn Faḍlān and the Great Unwashed.” This volume will provide a comprehensive companion to my translation.