The Jurist Who Met the Vikings

<p><strong>The year is 921 CE. From the shining capital of the Abbasid Caliphate a meticulously ordered world is about to collide with the raw untamed heart of Eurasia.</strong></p><p>Ahmad ibn Fadlan a devout scribe and jurist from Baghdad is dispatched on a vital diplomatic mission: to journey thousands of miles across the perilous Persian corridor and the brutal Turkic steppes to affirm a newly converted king on the distant Volga River.</p><p>Ibn Fadlan's professional report the <strong>Risala</strong> was meant to be a ledger entry. Instead it became a transcendent historical document-a chilling firsthand encounter with the forgotten people of the north.</p><p>He chronicles the brutal extortion of the nomadic <strong>Oghuz</strong> Turks the complex political maneuverings of the great Khazar Empire and the strange customs of the forest dwellers. Most famously he provides the single most detailed eyewitness account of the <strong>Rus</strong> (Vikings) including their barbaric hygiene their fierce trade practices and the unforgettable ritualized spectacle of a <strong>Viking ship cremation and funeral sacrifice. </strong>Approx.170 pages 30700 word count</p>