Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness

Author: Ibn Fadlan
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141975040
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 292

Book Description
In 922 AD, an Arab envoy from Baghdad named Ibn Fadlan encountered a party of Viking traders on the upper reaches of the Volga River. In his subsequent report on his mission he gave a meticulous and astonishingly objective description of Viking customs, dress, table manners, religion and sexual practices, as well as the only eyewitness account ever written of a Viking ship cremation. Between the ninth and fourteenth centuries, Arab travellers such as Ibn Fadlan journeyed widely and frequently into the far north, crossing territories that now include Russia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Their fascinating accounts describe how the numerous tribes and peoples they encountered traded furs, paid tribute and waged wars. This accessible new translation offers an illuminating insight into the world of the Arab geographers, and the medieval lands of the far north.

The Adventures of Ibn Battuta

Author: Ross E. Dunn
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520243854
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 395

Book Description
Ross Dunn's classic retelling of the travels of Ibn Battuta, a Muslim of the 14th century.

Mission to the Volga

Author: Aḥmad ibn Faḍlān
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479829757
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 178

Book Description
The earliest surviving instance of sustained first-person travel narrative in Arabic Mission to the Volga is a pioneering text of peerless historical and literary value. In its pages, we move north on a diplomatic mission from Baghdad to the upper reaches of the Volga River in what is now central Russia. In this colorful documentary from the tenth century, the enigmatic Ibn Fadlan relates his experiences as part of an embassy sent by Caliph al-Muqtadir to deliver political and religious instruction to the recently-converted King of the Bulghars. During eleven months of grueling travel, Ibn Fadlan records the marvels he witnesses on his journey, including an aurora borealis and the white nights of the North. Crucially, he offers a description of the Viking Rus, including their customs, clothing, body painting, and a striking account of a ship funeral. Together, these anecdotes illuminate a vibrant world of diversity during the heyday of the Abbasid Empire, narrated with as much curiosity and zeal as they were perceived by its observant beholder. An English-only edition.

The Book of Contemplation

Author: Usama ibn Munqidh
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141919175
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 428

Book Description
The volume comprises lightly annotated translation of a key medieval Arabic text that bears directly on the Crusades and Crusader society and the Muslim experience of them.

From the Meadows of Gold

Author: Masʻūdī
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 9780141025353
Category : Islamic Empire
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Allows readers to travel both around the planet and back through the centuries - and also back into ideas and worlds frightening, ruthless and cruel in different ways from our own.

Two Arabic Travel Books

Author: Tim Mackintosh-Smith
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479803502
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 322

Book Description
In its ports, we find a priceless cargo of information; here are the first foreign descriptions of tea and porcelain, a panorama of unusual social practices, cannibal islands, and Indian holy men--a marvelous, mundane world, contained in the compass of a novella. In Mission to the Volga, we move north on a diplomatic mission from Baghdad to the upper reaches of the Volga River in what is now central Russia. This colorful documentary by Ibn Fadlan relates the trials and tribulations of an embassy of diplomats and missionaries sent by caliph al-Muqtadir to deliver political and religious instruction to the recently-converted King of the Bulghars. During eleven months of grueling travel, Ibn Fadlan records the marvels he witnesses on his journey, including an aurora borealis and the white nights of the North. Crucially, he offers a description of the Viking Rus, including their customs, clothing, tattoos, and a striking account of a ship funeral.

The Icon and Axe

Author: James Billington
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307765288
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 793

Book Description
"A sweeping, intricate description of Russian cultural history, spanning the pre-Romanov era through six centuries to the reign of Joseph Stalin. Flowing with ease through time and topic — from art to music, literature, philosophy, mythology and more — the book provides readers with an alluring portrayal of Russia’s proud heritage. Its impressive scope and lasting insights have made it a foundational text in Russian studies. In fact, it was this book, more than any other, that captured my imagination and propelled me toward the study of Russia and the Soviet Union." --Condoleezza Rice, The New York Times "A rich and readable introduction to the whole sweep of Russian cultural and intellectual history from Kievan times to the post-Khruschev era." - Library Journal Includes Illustrations, references, index.

Persians and Other Plays

Author: Aeschylus
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN:
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 396

Book Description
Classical Greek dramatic poetry and drama.

Ancient Accounts of India and China

Author: Abū Zayd Ḥasan ibn Yazīd Sīrāfī
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : China
Languages : en
Pages : 426

Book Description

Eaters of the Dead

Author: Michael Crichton
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307816435
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 179

Book Description
From the bestselling author of Jurassic Park, Timeline, and Sphere comes an epic tale of unspeakable horror. It is 922 A.D. The refined Arab courtier Ibn Fadlan is accompanying a party of Viking warriors back to their home. He is appalled by their customs—the gratuitous sexuality of their women, their disregard for cleanliness, and their cold-blooded sacrifices. As they enter the frozen, forbidden landscape of the North—where the day’s length does not equal the night’s, where after sunset the sky burns in streaks of color—Fadlan soon discovers that he has been unwillingly enlisted to combat the terrors in the night that come to slaughter the Vikings, the monsters of the mist that devour human flesh. But just how he will do it, Fadlan has no idea.