Paper long abstract:

The Rihlah of Ibn Fadlan is most commonly read for its unique description of a Viking burning-ship funeral, and as a cabinet of medieval ethnographic curiosities. In this particular approach, the historical relevance of the Rihal, in fact an official report of a diplomatic mission in the twilight years of the Abbasid Caliphate, is generally ignored. In fact, as a fascinating record of diplomatic competition to maintain control of the Steppe zone west of the Urals, this account is a rare document of world history. Seen in the context of diplomatic and socio-economic competition between the Caliphate and the nascent Samanid Kingdom, the journey of Ibn Fadlan can shed light on the rise of Central Asia as an important world historical region, away from older models of understanding the history of the 10th century such as the Iranian Intermezzo. The present paper, by contextuatlising the Rihlah in this way and by using sources such as numismatics, Scandinavian Sagas, and the rise of the Kievan Rus', will present a new reading of the text outside a purely Middle Eastern context.