Entry #126

Ahmad ibn Fadlan was a Muslim scribe who worked for the Caliphal Court of Baghdad in the 10th century and traveled to the Bulghar kingdom as part of his diplomatic duties. Ibn Fadlan produced this travel document, Risala, in 922 CE as a record of his journey, during which he encountered various ethnic groups. Of importance here is his stay with the Rus, a group of Swedish people that had formed settlements in areas such as Novgorod and the Volga River. Risala depicted a Rus funeral, which included the sacrifice of an enslaved girl. As part of the ritual, a woman called the Angel of Death by Ibn Fadlan and her two daughters prepared the enslaved girl’s body for sacrifice. The ritual demonstrates that women of low social status were reduced to a ritual commodity in the magical sphere while the women conducting the ritual were elevated to a status different from ‘woman’. The detail of a Viking Age ritual imparted upon readers is important for my project, which is concerned with Viking Age magic in Norse culture and the status of women who utilized it.