Caliph Muqtadir sent an embassy to the Volga Bulgars, who lived at the intersection of the Volga and Kama Rivers. One of the embassy members, Ibn Fadlan, wrote an account of the embassy’s journey that became one of the earliest records we have of the Rus culture.
Turkish tribes were always pressing into Eastern Europe and, where possible, settling. We often project back into the past our modern idea, in this case, that Eastern Europe is basically Slavic. But at that time, it was as much Turkish as anything. The Pechenegs, Cumans, Khazars, Avars, and Bulgars were among the earliest settlers.
Kiev was not yet Christian at this point, though its prince was also a rising power. The Kievan Rus were probably Norsemen who may have come south along the great rivers. Some of the Rus served in the Varangian Guard, the Byzantine Emperor’s personal bodyguards, so they began to have ties to Christianity. The third ethnic group there, the Slavs, had not yet achieved any real political power but were the indigenous people of the forest and rivers.
The Bulgars had established a small state along the Volga River, with a capital city called Bolghar. Some of them had recently indicated a wish to convert to Islam, which would ally them with Baghdad rather than Constantinople. Their rivals, the Khazars, had chosen to become Jewish, which positioned them as neutral in the middle, but neutral in this case didn’t mean Switzerland, as they were often at war with their neighbors. The Bulgars traded with the Rus in Kiev, as well as the Avars (related to the Huns) and the local Slavs.
In 920, the Ibn Fadlan embassy brought Islamic books and teachers to the Bulgars. They also brought gifts and a letter from the Caliph, though what the Bulgars really wanted was immediate aid to build a new fortress. Ibn Fadlan stayed with them for two years. He found the already Muslim Bulgars ignorant and unorthodox in their habits, which he tried to correct.
Ibn Fadlan witnessed Rus traders who came down the Volga. Basically, they were Vikings. His report of them is the most valuable part, to modern eyes, and Michael Crichton even incorporated its basic premise and observations in his novel The Thirteenth Warrior.
Ibn Fadlan said that the Rus were as tall as date palms, with blonde hair and ruddy skin, he said. Their skin was heavily tattooed in blue or green ink. Their mode of dress always left a hand free, and they were always armed with axe, sword and knife. Their women loved glass bead necklaces, and he said each one wore on her breast a “box” of some kind of metal, from which hung her knife. It seems likely he was describing saucer brooches, which we see often in grave goods. Further, he said they were very public about having sex, which disgusted him.
Ibn Fadlan reported that the Rus didn’t farm but lived off the Slavs, who were less warlike and perhaps didn’t have ships. The Rus took them as slaves, selling them in markets. They used their Volga boats as their main residences, telling the Arab that their homeland was a large island. Most famously, Ibn Fadlan described a ship burial. The chieftain who died was placed on his ship, and then slaves were strangled to accompany him.
Ibn Fadlan returned to Baghdad and wrote up his report, which we have only partially extant. It was rediscovered by moderns in its fullest form only in 1923, when a manuscript was found in Mashhad, Iran.