The year is 921 CE. From the shining capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, a meticulously ordered world is about to collide with the raw, untamed heart of Eurasia. Ahmad ibn Fadlan, a devout scribe and jurist from Baghdad, is dispatched on a vital diplomatic mission: to journey thousands of miles across the perilous Persian corridor and the brutal Turkic steppes to affirm a newly converted king on the distant Volga River. Ibn Fadlan's professional report, the Risala, was meant to be a ledger entry. Instead, it became a transcendent historical document-a chilling, firsthand encounter with the forgotten people of the north. He chronicles the brutal extortion of the nomadic Oghuz Turks, the complex political maneuverings of the great Khazar Empire, and the strange customs of the forest dwellers. Most famously, he provides the single most detailed, eyewitness account of the Rus (Vikings), including their barbaric hygiene, their fierce trade practices, and the unforgettable, ritualized spectacle of a Viking ship cremation and funeral sacrifice. Approx.170 pages, 30700 word count