Ibn Fadlan: The Real 13th Warrior

Gone Medieval

History Hit

History

4.6 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 30 November 2021

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ibn Fadlan might be familiar to many based on modern-day renditions from films such as The 13th Warrior. Ibn Traveled from Bagdad to Russia, journaling his encounters and cultural observations. Amazingly his manuscripts were preserved, but what do we know about him? In this episode, Cat is joined by historian Tonicha Upham who specialises in Arab Sources. Tonicha delves into the life, text, and impact of Ibn Fadlan's. From translations, the Soviet Union, and even Nazi-occupied Norway. How has Ibn's legacy been kept alive?

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Have you ever wondered why one of Ruan Cathedral's towers is called the Tower of Butter, or what
0:06.2	animals have faced trials in courts for, or even how the black country got its name?
0:12.4	Well, you can find the answers to questions like these and hundreds more in our new book,
0:18.4	The History Hit Misscellanie. It's the perfect present for any history fan.
0:23.3	It's available to buy now from your favourite bookshop or by visiting historyhit.com forward slash
0:29.8	book.
0:34.4	Hello and welcome to Gone Medieval. My name is Doctor Cat Jarman.
0:39.2	In the year 922, a man called Ibn Fidelan travelled from Baghdad and into what is now Russia.
0:46.4	His journey took him along the Volga River and while he was travelling,
0:50.0	he wrote down a rather extraordinary account, what ended up as an ethnographic
0:55.2	description of the people he encountered along the way. We've actually come across this account
1:00.4	in a rather gruesome description of a ruse or possibly a Viking funeral before in another
1:05.4	episode of Gone Medieval. The one on Human Sacrifice with Marianne Mourn. And you might also be
1:11.5	familiar with Ibn Fidelan's account from films like The 13th Warrior. But there's an awful lot
1:17.2	more to Ibn Fidelan than that. And also, there's an interesting story of how his account has reached
1:22.4	us here in the 21st century. A story involving the Bolshevik Revolution, the Soviet Union and even
1:28.2	Nazi-occupied Norway. So to get the full story on Ibn Fidelan, I've invited someone who specialises
1:34.7	in Arab sources like this and what they can tell us about North-Western Europe in the Middle Ages.
1:39.7	Very warm welcome today to Tanisha Upam, who is a PhD student at the University of Orhus in Denmark.
1:46.1	So today's guest is somebody who's specialising in these Arab sources and what they can tell us
1:53.8	about North-Western Europe in the Middle Ages as well. And she's working on a PhD on this subject now
2:00.0	at the University of Orhus. So very warm welcome to Gone Medieval to Tanisha Upam. Thank you very
	...

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