By :Abu Zakariya
In 921, an Arabian nobleman, Ahmad ibn Fadlan, set out on a diplomatic mission from Baghdad to the Vikings on the Volga River, known as the “Rus.” They were Nordic Vikings who had set out on voyages of trade and plunder. Ibn Fadlan was sent by the caliph in Baghdad to explore the newly conquered areas under Islamic rule.
The account of Ibn Fadlan—a distinguished and refined Islamic scholar representing the upper echelons of Islamic society—is both fascinating and disturbing. It is particularly fascinating because it reveals to us the very apparent superiority of Islam and Muslims at the time. However, it is also very telling as to how the roles have now been reversed, and it imparts some very valuable lessons that can be gleaned from history.
The work itself reveals Ibn Fadlan as a keen and fair observer. His tone is neutral, and he does not try to color the account in any biased way. One could even say that it comes off as a bit humorous sometimes due to the awkwardness of such a cultured man having to endure the company of people as low and savage as the Vikings.
During my reading of the account, I would have found myself laughing if it were not for the seriousness of some of the atrocities he describes. Ibn Fadlan contributes, in graphic detail, valuable insights that are often missing within Christian sources due to biases.
He describes the Vikings as unsophisticated, vulgar, and unhygienic. They have tattoos from their necks to their fingers (not much unlike Western culture today, which should give us food for thought). They fornicate, they drink, they make human sacrifices, and their personal hygiene is practically non-existent. Enjoy.
When Islamic Civilization Meets Barbarians
The story begins in 922, when Ibn Fadlan and his entourage reach the Volga River and come across a people “tall as date palms, blond and ruddy.”[1] He had never seen a people like this before, where each one of them has “from the tip of his nails to the neck figures, trees and other things, tattooed in dark green.”
They are the dirtiest creatures of God. They have no shame in voiding their bowels and bladder, nor do they wash themselves when polluted by emission of semen, nor do they wash their hands after eating. They are then like asses who have gone astray.
He goes on to describe how they build great wooden houses on the banks of the Volga, and ten or twenty people live together in these houses. Each of them has a couch whereupon he sits, and with them are fair maidens who are destined for sale, and they have intercourse with their girl while their comrades look on:
At times a crowd of them may come together, and one does this in the presence of the others. It also happens that a merchant, who comes into the house to buy a girl from one of them, may find him in the very act of having intercourse with her, and he [the Viking] will not let her be until he has fulfilled his intention.
Hearing Ibn Fadlan describe this promiscuous and lewd behavior, is it really any surprise, then, that we see this same kind of behavior from the descendants of these people? The West is immersed in sexual promiscuity, not having any sense of hayā’ (shame, modesty) for their womenfolk, parading them around half-naked and even sharing their wives with other men.[2] It is no surprise, therefore, that the pornography industry arose from the descendants of the Vikings.
Ibn Fadlan goes on to describe how the Vikings “clean” themselves (if it can even be described as such) in an almost nauseating manner. A slave girl would bring her master a large vessel filled with water. He washes his hands, face, and hair in this vessel. He combs all the dirt into the vessel, blows his nose, and spits into it. All of this may not sound too bad, that is, only until you hear the rest:
After he has done what was necessary, the girl takes the same vessel to the one who is nearest, and he does just as his neighbor had done. She carries the vessel from one to another, until all in the house have had a turn at it, and each of them has blown his nose, spat into, and washed his face and hair in the vessel.
Imagine Ibn Fadlan, a proud Muslim accustomed to performing wudu’ (ritual ablution) and maintaining cleanliness, observing these rituals. What must have been going through his mind? How must he have viewed these people?
Shirk and the Humiliation of Shaytan
According to Ibn Fadlan, the Vikings were mushrikin (polytheists). They would worship a wooden pole/totem set upright, which has a face like that of a man. Around this are small images and, behind these, are long, tall poles driven into the earth. The Viking would go up to this idol and prostrate himself before it.
They would make offerings to the idol in the hope that it shall bless him in his trade dealings. Should any difficulties arise over what he hopes to attain, he then brings a gift to each of these little figures and begs them to intercede, saying:
“These are the wives, daughters, and sons of our lord.”
Ibn Fadlan describes how the Viking begs and implores these images to intercede for him and that he prays before them in “abasement.” The Viking then makes an offering to “his lord” by slaughtering sheep and oxen and casts it before the great wooden image. During the night, the dogs come and devour everything, and the one who has made this sacrifice says:
“Verily my lord is content with me, and he has eaten up my gift.”
How extremely lowly shirk (polytheism) is. It is so completely void of any rationality that one is left utterly bewildered as to how Shaytan manages to deceive people into debasing themselves to such low levels that they willingly humiliate themselves and their intellect.
Naturally, to a muwahhid (pure monotheist) like Ibn Fadlan, this behavior must have seemed very primitive and ignorant, and perhaps he viewed them as poor, unenlightened souls in need of hidayah (guidance).
Human Sacrifice, Rape, and a Witch
Perhaps the most significant and telling part of Ibn Fadlan’s encounter with the Vikings, is what he witnessed towards the end. It involves rape, a witch, and human sacrifice.
Whenever one of their chiefs ends up dying, they cremate the body in a lavish burial ceremony which involves heavy drinking and the killing of a slave girl:
If he is a rich man, they gather his possessions together and divide them in three parts. One third remains for his family; with the second third they cut out garments for him, and with third part they brew mead for themselves, which they drink on the day when his slave girl kills herself and is cremated with her master. They drink the mead to insensibility, day and night. It often happens that one of them dies with his beaker in his hand.
When a high chief ends up dying, his family asks his slave girls, “Who will die with him?” When one of them offers herself up by saying, “I,” she is bound by her commitment, and it cannot be revoked. To ensure this, she is followed by two girls who watch over her constantly, at all times. As the funeral is being prepared, she drinks all day, perhaps to ease her anxiety.
Ibn Fadlan then describes how an old woman arrives—he says they call her “the angel of death”—to lead the funeral proceedings. It is also this woman who kills the slave girl. Ibn Fadlan quite bluntly describes her as “fat and grim to behold.”
The slave girl who had volunteered to be sacrificed then enters each of the tents, where the head of each tent has intercourse with her, saying:
“Say to thy lord, I have done this out of love of thee.”
She is then led to the burial site, where she is given a bowl of mead that she drinks, while singing. The interpreter translates to Ibn Fadlan:
“With this she is bidding goodbye to her friends.”
Then she is given another bowl. She takes it and sings for a long period of time, while the old woman, i.e., the supposed “angel of death,” is urging her to finish and go into the burial site where her “lord” lies:
I saw then how disturbed she was. She wished to go into the tent but put her head between the tent and the side of the boat. Then the old woman took her by the head, made her go into the tent, and also entered with her.
After this, the men would beat their staves against their shields in order to drown out the cries of her shrieks so that the other slave girls would not become terrified. Six men then enter the tent and rape this girl. They then place her beside her dead lord—two men seize her by the feet and two by the hands. The witch (or the “angel of death”) then places a rope around her neck and hands it to two men to pull at both ends:
Then the old woman came to her with a broad-bladed dagger and began to jab it into her ribs and pull it out again, and the two men strangled her until she was dead.
As if this séance was not bad enough already, Ibn Fadlan goes on to describe how the relatives of the deceased prepare for the burning of the corpses in a bizarre ritual involving being naked and goggling at the spectators while holding one hand on their anus:
The closest relative of the deceased approached, and took a piece of wood, kindled it and then walked backwards to the boat, keeping his face turned toward the spectators, holding the burning brand in one hand, and placing his other on his anus. He was naked and walked backwards until he reached the boat and set fire to the wood that had been prepared beneath the boat.
How very strange it must have been for Ibn Fadlan—this proud, well-educated, and noble Arab diplomat—to witness these ignorant and wicked people at a time when the Islamic Civilization was at its peak, in what is known as “the Islamic Golden Age.”
Today, the Vikings are glamorized and romanticized in popular TV shows and movies, where they are made relatable to a modern Western society through the skewing of historical facts and making them seem like role models to be idolized. Perhaps this is done in an effort to make an increasingly estrogen-driven Western society proud of their heritage of having once, long ago, been masculine warrior men.
This is a monumental skewing of reality. They were in fact some of the worst, most uncivilized creatures to have walked upon this earth. Unfortunately, however, many of their traits have managed to survive right up to this very day within modern Western civilization, including drinking, fornicating, tattoos, rape, and shirk.
Lessons for the Ummah of Muhammad ﷺ
What lessons can we extract from this account, as equally disturbing as it is fascinating, between the Islamic Civilization and the barbarian West?
For starters, it shows us just how superior we were in comparison. While we were at the height of civilization, the West was at their lowest and worst. While we were serving Allah and worshipping Him alone, they were making human sacrifices, they were engaged in shirk and shameful acts as though they were animals. We were intellectual, lettered, and educated. They were ignorant, unlettered, and highly irrational in their superstitions.
This also serves as a lesson in how the tables can be turned. If we lose sight of what really matters (Islam, the akhirah, i.e., the hereafter, etc.) and we become too fixated on dunya (the worldly life) and worldly gains, we can very easily end up losing everything. This is what happened in Muslim Spain, and this is what happened to the Islamic Empire in 1924.
Therefore, we must reassess and realign our focus and priorities. We must not allow this worldly life to distract us. We must not be consumed by modern society and the fleeting illusions that she offers.
If we make Allah our focus, if we struggle in His path, and detach ourselves from the worries of this life, we can once again become honored in both the dunya and the akhirah.