Reference no: EM133457063

Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness

Discuss anything (preferably, several things) that you found interesting from your reading. Do try to consider what you learnt that was unusual or striking or completely unexpected from any preconceived ideas you had about northern Eurasia just before the first millennium CE.

Keep Harari's hypotheses of imagined realities in mind. Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness should make you confront your own preconceived notions. Again, keep in mind that many (most) societies in the ancient world were violent and that many observers (including Ibn Fadlan) seem to us to be quite matter-of-fact about incidents that horrify us, today. However, we too, live in a violent society...we simply have come to terms with and accepted our forms of violence in our own imagined order.

Think about syncretism

1. In what ways do cross-cultural interactions replicate interactions and transmissions of ideas and habits from the past (Mesopotamia, Hellenization, China-and-Confucianism, etc.)?

2. Think about how geography and climate influenced societal habits.

3. What religion do the Khazars practice?

4. In addition to imagined orders, Harari had discussed trust as the foundation of monetary systems; how is that demonstrated from your reading?

5. Compare and contrast the habits of personal hygiene, body image, sexual mores* (see the TW, above), attitudes toward women* and foreigners, and anything else that captures your attention.

6. How is Ibn Fadlan's account important to us?