---
product_id: 51129983
title: "Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travellers in the Far North (Penguin Classics)"
brand: "paul lundecaroline e.m.stone"
price: "A$35"
currency: AUD
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 8
url: https://www.desertcart.com.au/products/51129983-ibn-fadlan-and-the-land-of-darkness-arab-travellers-in
store_origin: AU
region: Australia
---

# Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travellers in the Far North (Penguin Classics)

**Brand:** paul lundecaroline e.m.stone
**Price:** A$35
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travellers in the Far North (Penguin Classics) by paul lundecaroline e.m.stone
- **How much does it cost?** A$35 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.com.au](https://www.desertcart.com.au/products/51129983-ibn-fadlan-and-the-land-of-darkness-arab-travellers-in)

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## Description

Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travellers in the Far North (Penguin Classics)

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Page turner
*by F***S on 10 June 2025*

Excellent book...meaning to read this for a while. Not disappointed...and Arab traveler to land of the norsemen.Get this book you will not be disappointed .

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ No Unicorns, Just a Great Read.
*by B***R on 22 March 2012*

It's funny how one thing leads to another. I watched the most enjoyable Viking romp "The 13th Warrior", a feature film that starred Antonio Banderas as an improbable and clean shaven Ibn Fadlan the 10th century Arab traveller. I then discovered the film was based on "Jurassic Park" author Michael Crichton's book "Eaters of the Dead". Turns out that Crichton was so impressed with reading a passage from Ibn Fadlan's travels whilst on an anthropology course that he decided to write his first book. This little book interweaves some of Fadlan's observations with the Beowulf legend, and is a most entertaining read. That Crichton's first book was so successful owes much to Ibn Fadlan. Anyway to get back on track, this of course lead me to read "Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness", and it was a case of leaving the very best till last!Fadlan's book is a priceless piece of work, if only for it's incredible eyewitness account of a Viking ship cremation, involving the ritualistic killing of a slave girl to accompany her dead master into paradise. The killing is carried out by the haunting figure of the "Angel of Death", who resembled the Incan executioners of young children on high Andean mountains. This makes for genuinely shocking reading. One has to be impressed by Fadlan's objectivity. Much of what he saw appalled him, such as the Viking habit of openly copulating with their slave girls in public. He was a devout Muslim, but none the less shrugged aside his own prejudices to give a clear and truthful account of what he saw. Whilst expressing disapproval he always gets straight back to his unblinkered observations. Fadlan is refreshing in comparison to the other Arab travellers accounts in this book, who are more restricted by their strong faith. His account is also remarkably free of the 'mirabilia' so beloved of medieval readers in the tradition of that great father of lies Herodotus. No unicorns or minotaurs in this little book thankfully!Part 2 of the book is the "Travels of Abu Hamid Al-Andalusi Al-Gharnati, 1130-1155. This man who lived to the venerable age of 90 was an incredible traveller, who travelled from Spain to North Africa and thence onto Alexandria, Cairo and Baghdad. It is his journey north from Baghdad that is covered in this book, where he travels to the frozen upper reaches of the Volga via Bukhara. The author gives interesting accounts of such varied subjects as Sturgeon, beaver, the practical use of skis, mammoth ivory and slave girls. Whilst he is not quite as objective or as entertaining as Fadlan, it is still a fascinating read.Part 3 of the book is "Passages From other Geographers, Historians and Travellers". This contains an extract from perhaps the most famous medieval traveller of them all Marco Polo, who talks about dog sleds and life in the far north. This was of course information gleaned from a second party. The rest are all accounts from Arab writers, the pick being perhaps Ibn Hayyan's account of the Viking sacking of Seville in 844 and Mas'udi's account of of a Viking raid in the Caspian in 913. The book has a useful introduction by Paul Lunde and Caroline Stone, and contains six useful maps to give a quick overview of the journeys undertaken with the geographical areas in question. There is a small glossary at the back and a set of notes that I devoured as I read the book. Although not a cheap book by any means you do get a lot for your money. This one is up to the usual very high standards that Penguin classics have been maintaining since 1946. For what it is worth it has my hearty seal of approval!

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ... who meet them and wrote down hat they where like without the christian hatred towards the pagans of the ...
*by M***M on 4 February 2015*

Being Danish and a decentence of the vikings I wanted to read the most accured acount of the viking way of life as posible and that comes from this man who meet them and wrote down hat they where like without the christian hatred towards the pagans of the north. And this is a time before the islam we know today so he would have had no reason to twist the truth in his depiction of the vikings. So thumbs up from me

## Frequently Bought Together

- Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travellers in the Far North (Penguin Classics)
- The Travels of Ibn Battutah (Macmillan Collector's Library)
- The Travels of Marco Polo

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*Product available on Desertcart Australia*
*Store origin: AU*
*Last updated: 2026-03-01*