Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness by Ibn Fadlan

Author:Ibn Fadlan [Ibn Fadlān]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141975047
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2012-05-21T16:00:00+00:00

4. Zuhrī on Viking ships c. 1160

Abū ‘Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Abī Bakr al-Zuhrī (d. between 1154 and 1161) was an Andalusian cosmographer about whom almost nothing is known. He was a contemporary of al-Idrīsī (d. 1165) and Abū Hāmid al-Gharnātī (d. 1169). His Kitāb al-ja‘farīya (Book of Geography) is based on earlier written sources, some of which have not survived. This passage describes a Viking longboat.

There used to come from this sea [the Atlantic] large ships which the people of al-Andalus called qarāqīr. They were big ships with square sails, and could sail either forwards or backwards. They were manned by men called majūs, who were fierce, brave and strong, and excellent seamen. When they attacked, the coastal peoples fled for fear of them. They only appeared every six or seven years, never in less than 40 ships and sometimes up to 100. They overcame anyone they met at sea, robbed them and took them captive.

Zuhrī (1968), 215 [§ 240]

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