{"id":702,"date":"2022-03-23T20:52:57","date_gmt":"2022-03-24T01:52:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mapping-the-middle-ages\/?p=702"},"modified":"2022-03-23T20:52:57","modified_gmt":"2022-03-24T01:52:57","slug":"ibn-fadlan-and-the-land-of-darkness-jurjaniya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mapping-the-middle-ages\/2022\/03\/23\/ibn-fadlan-and-the-land-of-darkness-jurjaniya\/","title":{"rendered":"Ibn Fadl\u0101n and the Land of Darkness: Jurj\u0101n\u012bya"},"content":{"rendered":"

On their way to \u201cthe Gate of the Turks\u201d (10), <\/span>Fadl\u0101n and his group stop in <\/span>Jurj\u0101n\u012bya and were forced to stay there for three months because the Jayhun river froze and the \u201cice was seventeen spans thick\u201d (8), though the notes show that this is an exaggeration. In this section, Ibn <\/span>Fadl\u0101n describes the cold environment, how it seems to impact hospitality, and the group\u2019s preparations for the next part of the journey. Fadl\u0101n states: \u201cWe saw a land which made us think that a gate to the cold of hell had opened before us\u201d. In this environment, Fadl\u0101n notes, hospitality is built on warmth and sharing \u201ca good fire\u201d. This society also does not leave beggars out in the cold; they can come into the houses to warm up by the fire (8). Though not much information is given, it could be interpreted that being generous towards others in culturally important in <\/span>Jurj\u0101n\u012bya. In February, when the ice began melting, the group was able to start preparing for their journey. Some of the supplies they needed were camels, folding boats, \u201cthree month\u2019s supply of bread, millet, and dried and salted meat\u201d, and much warmer clothes (9). The group stayed in Jurj\u0101n\u012bya from December 921 through February 922. <\/span>Fadl\u0101n describes the weather as being quite dire, mentioning camels that die out in the cold and his beard freezing into a block of ice. He describes his living situation during this stay, saying that he \u201cslept in a house, inside which was another, inside which was a Turkish felt tent\u201d but even in this insulated state his \u201ccheek froze to the pillow\u201d (9). <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One arguable cultural difference that Fadl\u0101n encounters here is the treatment of beggars. He says that \u201cit is a rule among them (the people from <\/span>Jurj\u0101n\u012bya) that beggars do not wait at the door, but come into the house…\u201d (8). This implies that in Baghdad, and other places <\/span>Fadl\u0101n has visited, that this is not the case. He writes without judgment and in a very neutral way in this section, so his style doesn\u2019t make it seem strange to take care of beggars but, rather, that this custom is particular to the area. Given this idea, maybe beggars are well taken care of in Baghdad, but they don\u2019t just enter someone else\u2019s home. This is a concept that is interesting enough to Fadl\u0101n as a medieval traveler to mention, but also is strange enough for the modern reader to be made uncomfortable by. For many modern cultures, it would be unthinkable to walk into someone else\u2019s home since there are now such strong ideas of property and ownership, along with what could be considered, in this way, a more individualist approach to life. Fadl\u0101n also calls the weather that he is experiencing \u201cthe cold of hell\u201d. This begs the question; how does this theologian conceptualize hell? In Islam, there is a belief that some parts of hell are hot and others are cold. Because he was raised in a warm climate, does the idea of a cold hell hold more sway for Fadl\u0101n? <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On their way to \u201cthe Gate of the Turks\u201d (10), Fadl\u0101n and his group stop in Jurj\u0101n\u012bya and were forced to stay there for three months because the Jayhun river froze and the \u201cice was seventeen spans thick\u201d (8), though the notes show that this is an exaggeration. In this section, Ibn Fadl\u0101n describes the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4663,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[143610],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ibn-fadlan","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mapping-the-middle-ages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mapping-the-middle-ages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mapping-the-middle-ages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mapping-the-middle-ages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4663"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mapping-the-middle-ages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mapping-the-middle-ages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mapping-the-middle-ages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mapping-the-middle-ages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mapping-the-middle-ages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}