Ibn Fadlan was an Arab chronicler. In 921 C.E., the Caliph of Baghdad sent Ibn Fadlan with an embassy to the King of the Bulgars of the Middle Volga. Ibn Fadlan wrote an account of his journeys with the embassy, called a Risala.
Ibn Fadlan's account of the caliphal embassy from Baghdad to the King of the Volga Bulgars in the early tenth century is one of our principal, textual sources for the history, ethnogenesis and polity formation of a number of tribes and peoples who populated Inner Asia.
Ibn Fadlan’s account of his participation in the deputation sent by the Caliph al-Muqtadir in the year 921 A.D. to the King of the Bulgars of the Volga, in response to his request for help, has proved to be an invaluable source of information for scholars interested in, among other subjects, the birth and formation of the powerfull and flurishing Bulgarian state in the Middle Volga region, in the Russian state, in the Viking involvement in northern and eastern Europe, in the Slavs and the Khazars.
During the course of his journey, Ibn Fadlan met a people called the Rus, a group of Swedish origin, acting as traders in the Bulgar capital. The first allusion to the Rus comes toward the close of the description of the Bulgars. When the Rus or people of another race came with slaves for sale, the king of the Bulgars had a right to choose one slave in each ten for himself.
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