Today's episode is brought to you by Yorvik Viking Center, an immersive historical experience

located in York, UK. In just a few days, I will be touring Yorvik Viking Center and attending

the annual Yorvik Viking Festival, which features merchants, scholars, and events dedicated to the Viking Age and the rich history of Viking Age York. Please be sure to follow the link in the description below for more information on the annual Yorvik Viking Festival. I certainly hope to see you there. Yeah. So, I'm

Yeah.

I'm Hello and welcome to the history of Vikings.

Hello and welcome to the history of Vikings.

Today I'm joined by Professor James Montgomery, Sir Thomas Adams Professor of Arabic at Cambridge University.

Professor Montgomery has served as a lecturer at Glasgow University and has held senior

lectureships at both Oslo and Leeds as well. He has done fascinating work in both television

and radio, having been featured in the BBC three-part series called Vikings with Neil Oliver,

and on Melvin Braggs in our time, BBC Radio 4 broadcast, just to name two. Professor Montgomery,

thank you so much for joining me today. Oh, Thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk to.

It's my pleasure.

So I'm very excited to really get into our conversation today.

We're going to be talking about Iban Fadlan, who is someone who I don't know nearly enough about as I should.

And I know I've gotten a few requests from listeners to cover him on our show, but very basically, for those who aren't familiar, who was Ibn Fatlan?

Ivan Fadlan, to be honest, we don't really know anything about him at all, beyond the fact that in the year 9-21, he took part in an embassy from Baghdad to the upper reaches of

the Volga and acted in that embassy as its sort of master of ceremonies. He was in charge of

reading out letters, official correspondence and making sure that the gifts designated for the

appropriate personages

were actually given to the right people. But beyond his name, Ahmed bin Fadlan, and the fact that

he was a member of the household of the caliph, we really, and the text that he left of the mission,

...