While Ibn Fadlan is in Saqaliba, he comes across a people camped by the Itil river called the Rus. In Saqaliba for trade, the Rus appear to be from the North. Fadlan first recalls their “beauty,” describing their appearance. Here he mentions race for one of the only times in his travel narrative. He says they are “fair and ruddy.” Then he talks about their dress, specifically their weapons, and then he mentions that they have tattoos and how their women wear expensive jewelry. After he is done talking about their “beauty,” he talks about their “uncleanliness.” From literal dirtiness to “disgusting habits,” Fadlan spends pages ranting about the Rus and their inferiority. He belittles their religious practices, describing Rus rituals revolving around slavery and money. He focuses on practices, true or not, that the Islamic world would consider immoral. For example, abandoning sick people, cruel and unusual punishment, sex-slavery, and especially sacrilegious burials.  

In Islam, burning bodies is considered mutilation and is forbidden, so Fadlan is extremely disturbed by this. He talks in-depth about the Ritual, about slaves and animals buried with their masters and about the burning of boats. He recalls that, when a man dies, an enslaved girl and all the man’s horses must be sacrificed with him, then they are burned together.  

Fadlan’s account of the Rus is most peculiar because of his contradictions. First, he says he “has never seen bodies more perfect than theirs,” then he calls them, “the filthiest of God’s creatures.” It is almost as if he wrote the former one day, and the latter, unfavorable entries, after he had learned of the practices and culture of the Rus. Sacrilege practices like tattoos or the indulgence of jewelry does not bother Fadlan until he learns that they burn their dead. Also, Fadlan is not bothered by the treatment of enslaved people or slavery itself, until he meets the Rus.  

The day-to-night-like switch of Fadlan’s stance on the Rus suggests that his opinions on peoples and cultures are heavily dependent on how they align with his own religious culture and values. Furthermore, how he portrays a group of people is reflective of how he wants other people to think about said group of people. Here with the Rus, he wants his audience to fear and dehumanizes the Rus –to “other” them. Fadlan does not want his audience to believe that the Rus are a civilized culture worthy to interact with, to trade with, etc.