When describing the Bajanāk, Ibn Fadlān mentions what landmarks are near by the encampment and what the people looked like, but he focuses on the way that sheep forage for food in the area. Along with this, he says that the Bajanāk are poor in comparison with the Ghuzz. Rather than directly say whether or not the tribe is Muslim, he mentions in their physical description that their chins are shaved. This does not mean that none of the Bajanāk are Muslim, but the fact that Ibn Fadlān doesn’t even mention it speaks to the value that he places on these people. It might be that he doesn’t think they are consequential enough to call for conversion efforts. His description of the tribe is, no doubt, stunted by the fact that the group only stayed one night with the Bajanāk. Ibn Fadlān says that they are camped by “the edge of a body of water resembling a sea, for it was not flowing” (22). This could be the upper part of the Caspian Sea, but this seems suspect since the sea is far away from the pathway mapped out in the front of the book. Yet, it does not seem like Ibn Fadlān would mistake a smaller body of water for a sea. This might give reason to reconsidering how long one day’s travel is for this caravan. 

What caught my attention about Ibn Fadlān’s description of this group is that he mentioned them at all. He spends one paragraph describing them and immediately moves on. He also basically only references them based on their material difference from the Ghuzz turks. This implies that wealth is of interest to Ibn Fadlān, even though he mentions it in negative ways when it comes to modesty in other passages. He also describes very specifically how hard it is for the sheep of the Bajanāk to get food in the winter yet how thin they get in the summer, saying that “the sheep mostly graze on what lies under the snow, which they scrape aside with their hooves in order to get to the grass. When they cannot find any, they nibble snow and become very fat. When summer comes, they eat grass and grow thin” (22). So, the ability to feed and keep healthy livestock is important, too. This information might come together to describe a poor people who are not well sustained and could be taken over very easily. But it could also speak to the worth of such an action. What would the point be of taking over territory where it is difficult to raise healthy sheep? Extending this idea, could these people sustain themselves under the caliphate or would they, ultimately, need to be supported by it? Even though the group only stayed with the Bajanāk for one night, it seems as though Ibn Fadlān is doing a quick cost benefit analysis in order to be as transparent as possible in his report back to the caliph. How impactful such a short description could be is debatable, but this passage is at least helpful in tracking the group’s route north.