Description by Ahmed Ibn-Fozlan (an eye-witness) of the Ceremonies attending the Incremation of the Dead Body of a Norse Chief, written in the early part of the Tenth Century. Translated from Holmboe's Danish Version of the Arabic Original, with Notes on the Origin of Cremation, and its Continuance

Abstract

The following description, by an eye-witness, of the ceremonies attending the incremation of the dead tody of a Norse chief, on the "banks of the Volga, in the early part of the tenth century, is so remarkable, that I have thought it might be interesting to have it presented to the Society, by translating Professor Holmboe's Danish version of the Arabic original, along with such portions of his notes as exhibit the correspondence of the remains found in the early Norse tumuli of the cremation period, with the ceremonies here described. In his introduction Professor Holmboe says:-" The remarkable find at Mammen 1 in Denmark, and the find at Nedre-Haugen 2 in Norway, in some respects analagous to it, have induced me to bring out a translation (which has lain beside me in manuscript for many years) of an Arabic description of the funeral obsequies of a Eussian (that is, a Norseman) of rank on the banks of the Volga. The burial rites here depicted are manifestly the same as those that were in use among our heathen forefathers in the North, and therefore form a connecting link between the north of Europe and Asia, where we find much

'Danes . . . in this Country': discovering the Vikings in Scotland

“…In this 'Introduction', Anderson quoted at length (1873, cxvii-cxx) from his first publication on a Northern subject, which had appeared the year before, in 1872 (the same year as his Scandinavian tour). This is a translation into English from a Danish version of Ibn Fadlan's, now well-known, account of the Rus boat burial (a cremation, with human sacrifice) witnessed by him on the Volga in ad 922 (Foote & Wilson 1970, 407-11), accompanied by 'notes on the origin of cremation and its continuance' (Anderson 1872).…”