Talk:Ahmad ibn Rustah

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Something is wrong with the dates here:

• Ibn Rustah was a tenth century Arab chronicler
• Of ancient Croatia he wrote in the chronical "Al-Djarmi"(842-47)

I guess either he or the author of the article had access to aqua vitae :-) Mikkalai 02:12, 11 Feb 2004 (UTC) Mikkalai 02:12, 11 Feb 2004 (UTC)

-Okay, sorry didn't notice, I just deleted the date since that seems the weakest link. sunja 09:29, 11 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Deleting the word viking, from the sentence "He also gives an account of a Viking funeral at Birka." since he didnt do that at all, the word viking is not mentioned, and Birka was a town under the protection of the swedish king, therefore protected against, vikings. It was no "viking-town".

Total nonsense. Birka was certainly a 'viking-town' to the extent that any town could be a 'viking town'. It was a town from which many of the vikings originated. However, the term 'viking' is not the correct term to use for people living in Scandinavia during the viking age, since it was not what they called themselves. 'Viking' is a romanticist term. See the viking article. .. Anyway, to return to the topic here: I remember reading about Rustah's funeral choronicle in Alf Henriksson's book of Swedish history and it does not say it was in Birka, which it certainly would have if it were so. It seems pretty far fetched - Rustah could've witnessed viking funerals all up and down the Volga and Dnjepr during his lifetime, there was no reason for him to travel as far as scandinavia to see one. --BluePlatypus 23:28, 11 October 2005 (UTC)

Checked the Henriksson book, he was referring to ibn Fadlan's chronicle. But the point still stands, I can't find a reference saying ibn Rustah actually visted Birka. Anyone? --BluePlatypus 02:06, 13 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] rv copyvio

reverted text copied from http://www.iranica.com/articles/v8/v8f1/v8f1076.html dab (ᛏ) 17:44, 12 Dec 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Not Arab

He was Persian not Arab. Please fix. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 203.82.48.54 (talk • contribs).

um, we had "Persian" since December 2004. what's the problem? dab (ᛏ) 16:24, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Contradiction?

Does anyone else think that the two quotes about the Rus are contradictory? I mean, in the first, they are portrayed as stereotypical raiders and slave traders, hence, non-settled peoples (The island is described as covered in forest, yet in the second quote, Rustah says the Rus' have many towns and are very clean).

It seems more to me as if he is describing two different types of peoples, not the same Rus'.Yarilo2 19:15, 24 August 2006 (UTC)