One of the more detailed locations Ibn Fadlan stops at is Bukhara. This is about halfway through His journey. He traveled to Bukhara by camel and stayed for a total of twenty-eight days. He stays here for one of the longest periods of time compared to all the other places he stops on his voyage to Bulghar. His total trip was a year and a half long, so it’s fairly significant that he stayed for almost a month in Bukhara. Fadlan doesn’t give many details about some of the practicalities of his stay. We know that the Amir of Bukhara provided him and his caravan with lodging. The details of this lodging are nonexistent. He also states that the Amir provided a person to “attend to our needs and provide us with everything we might want”(5). He also doesn’t state much about the weather or the terrain of Bukhara.

Fadlan focuses a lot on the conversations and people he meets in Bukhara. He gives a lot of details about who is in power he is speaking and meeting with. He also gives a lot of information about specific places (towns, I’m assuming) in Bukhara that these people are from. They originally met Jahani, the Amir who leads them to Nasir ibn Ahmad. Ahmad discusses with Fadlan their journey and their interaction with the Commander of the Faithful. Ahmad also reads their letter that is asking that he allow the transfer of money to Ahmad ibn Musa. This shows that this stop wasn’t just a random place they rested, but a place of business that was planned for. He also focuses on the coinage and the conversion rates of their money.

These two main focuses remind the reader that this trip isn’t just for exploring. Fadlan’s goals weren’t to necessarily discover and document these places he was randomly visiting. He describes culture and mentions places in passing in smaller sections of his writing. The larger sections of his accounts are clearly linked to his job and the reason he was sent on this trip. We know he works for the Calif and his goal is to go to Bulghar to convert and teach these people (about Islam), as well as provide funds for a building in Bulghar. We observe his cultural bias in various sections. These biases show the conversion and teaching part of his journey. However, in Bukhara, he is describing how the money aspect comes into play. This isn’t necessarily quite interesting for the reader or dense in cultural observations, yet it was probably very relevant to the Calif whom this was written. This section sort of acts like a receipt for the Calif to gain an understanding of what occurred with the money. Fadlan tells the Calif that the person who was supposed to give the money to ibn Musa tricked and imprisoned him. They were unable to get the money as Ibn Musa was nowhere to be found. This is an important detail for Fadlan to write to show the Calif the reason they had issues with the money later on in Bulghar (so he couldn’t be blamed).

His brief explanation of the money also serves the purpose of describing the money aspect of this trip. This section on the coinage is very brief and explains their different types of currency as well as their conversion rates with Fadlan’s known currency, the danaq. Whenever Fadlan details a place, he talks about their culture and customs. To me, this short description of their money is subsidizing his need for a description. It feels like he threw this in to give an account of the location as well as explain to the Calif how the money was working.

This section doesn’t necessarily say much about the culture of Fadlan; however, it shows his career and serves as a reminder of the purpose of this trip. This section is really for the Calif to understand what occurred so that Fadlan doesn’t take the blame for the lack of funds in Bulghar. The only aspect that he details regarding the culture is their money. Which, in a previous blog post, I stated, is because this is foreign to him and to the people reading this. However, as mentioned above, this also serves as a guide for the Calid to understand the conversation of money for Bukhara because a money transfer was supposed to occur here.