Ibn Fadlan's Description of a Rus Burial Ithough Ibn Fadlan, an envoy from the Abbasid court, looked down on the Rus I las coarse and uncivilized, his account of a king's funeral is the most detailed description of pre-Christian Rus religious beliefs and practices sur- viving today. It is particularly moving because he was able to observe a young girl who died so that she could be buried with her lord. The Angel of Death who kills the girl may have been a priestess of either Frey or Odin, whose devotees sometimes engaged in sex as part of their fertility rites. While A Ibn Fadlan clearly finds the Rus funerary practices strange, the Scandinavian he quotes at the end of this selection finds the Islamic practice of burial equally alien. Source: From James E Montgomery, "Ibn Fadlan and the Rusiyyah," Joumal of Arabic and Isamic Studies 3 (2000): 12-20. http://www.lancs.ac.uk/jais/volume/docs/ vol3/3_001-25_MÓNTGOljun24a.pdf. Reprinted by pemission of Lancaster University. I was told that when their chieftalns die, the least they do is cremate them. I was very keen to verify this, when I learned of the death of one of their great men. They placed him in his grave and erected a canopy over it for ten days, until they had finished making and sewing his funeral garments. In the case of a poor man they build a small boat, place him inside and burn it. In the case of a rich man, they gather together his possessions and divide them into three, one third for his family, one third to use for his funeral garments, and one third with which they purchase alcohol which they drink on the day when his slave-girl kills herself and is cremated together with her master. (They are addicted to alcohol, which they drink night and day. Sometimes one of them dies with the cup still in his hand.) When their chieftain dies, his family ask his slave-girls and slave-boys, "Who among you will die with him?" and some of them reply, "I shall." Having said this, it becomes incumbent on the person and it is impossl- ble ever to tum back. Should that person try to, he is not permitted to do so. It is usually slave-girls who make this offer. will die with him?" and one of them sald, "I shall." So they placed two slave-girls in charge of her to take care of her and accompany her wherever she went, even to the polnt of oc- caslonally washing her feet with their own hands. They set about attending to the dead man, preparing his clothes for him and set- ting right all that he needed. Every day the slave-girl would drink alcohol and would sing merrily and cheerfully. On the day when he and the slave-girl were to be burned I arrived at the river where his ship was. To my surprise I discovered that It had been beached and that four planks of birch and other types of wood had been placed in such a way as to resemble scaffold- Ing. Then the ship was hauled and placed on top of this wood. They advanced, going to and fro around the boat uttering words which I did not understand, while he was still in his grave and had not been exhumed. Then they produced a couch and placed It on the ship, covering it with quilts made of Byzantine silk brocade and cushions made of Byzantine silk brocade. Then a crone arrived whom they called the "Angel of Death" and she spread on the couch the coverings we have mentioned. She is responsible for hav- Ing his garments sewn up and putting him in When that man whom I mentioned earlier died, they sald to his slave-girls, "Who order and it is she who kills the slave-glrls. I myself saw her: a gloomy, corpulent woman, nelther young nor old. When they came to his grave, they re- moved the soil from the wood and then his male-slaves. He summons me, so bring me to him."... The men came with their shields and sticks and handed her a cup of alcohol over which she chanted and then drank. removed the wood, exhuming him still dressed in the izar [clothing] in which he had died.... They carried him inside the pavilion on the ship and laid him to rest on the quilt, propping him with cushions. ... Next they brought bread, meat, and onions, which they cast in front of him, a dog, which they cut in two and which they threw onto the ship, and all of his weaponry, which they placed beside him.... At the time of the evening prayer on Friday, they brought the slave-girl to a thing they had constructed, like a door-frame. She placed her feet on the hands of the men and was ralsed above the door-frame. She Six men entered the pavilion and all had intercourse with the slave girl. They laid her down beside her master and two of them took hold of her feet, two her hands. The crone called the "Angel of Death" placed a rope around her neck in such a way that the ends crossed one another and handed it to two of the men to pull on it. She advanced with a broad-bladed dagger and began to thrust it in and out between her ribs, now here, now there, while the two men throttled her with the rope until she died. Then the deceased's next of kin ap- proached and took hold of a plece of wood and set fire to it....A dreadful wind arose and sald something and they brought her down. [This happened two more times.] They next the flames leapt higher and blazed flercely. One of the Rus stood beside me and Iheard handed her a hen. She cut off its head and threw it away. They took the hen and threw it on board the ship. I quizzed the interpreter about her ac- tions and he sald, "The first time they lifted her, she sald, "Behold, I see my father and my mother.' The second time she sald, 'Behold, I see all of my dead kindred, seated.' The third time she said, 'Behold I see my master, him speaking to my interpreter. I quizzed him about what he had sald, and he replied, "He sald, You Arabs are a foolish lot!" So I sald, "Why is that?" and he replied, "Because you purposely take those who are dearest to you and whom you hold in highest esteem and throw them under the earth, where they are eaten by the earth, by vermin and by worms, whereas we bum them in the fire there and seated in Paradise. Paradise is beautiful and then, so that they enter Paradise immediately." Then he laughed loud and long. verdant. He is accompanied by his men and