Chapter 2 from the book "Ibn Fadlan 921-922 CE" extremely important source on the history of Eastern Europe about X century. The author visited the Volga Bulgaria as part of the Embassy of the Abbasid Caliph al-Muqtadir. The trip was undertaken at the initiative of the governor of the Volga Bulgaria, who, wishing to get rid of from the power of the Khazars, the caliph asked patronage and promised to convert to Islam. Author came from Baghdad in 921 and came to the Volga Bulgaria in May 922 (Gordon 23). Ibn Fadlan left a detailed account of the journey, and in this report provides a set of unique ethnographic information about Bashkirs, Bulgars and the Khazars. Moreover, Ibn Fadlan seen in Bulgaria and Russ left a detailed description of their funeral rites. The history of Bulgaria has great importance for the study of feudal states on the territory of modern Russia, the lighting of the last Turkish-speaking and Finno-Ugric ethnic groups. It contains a number of important aspects of the Bulgarian state relationships with its immediate neighbors, and first of all with the Russian government, can solve the complex problems of the history of the peoples of the Volga-Ural region.
The analysis of the facts and all the changes that have occurred in the region is clearly not without significance. Besides questions of origin and development of ethno-cultural and ethno-political relations in the Volga Bulgaria is one of the poorly studied. Ibn Fadlan's report differs breadth of all he had seen, describing the brightness, coupled with great powers of observation, keen interest in issues of social relations, life, culture and beliefs of the Oghuz Turks, Khazars, Bulgars. In fact, his work is an encyclopedia of medieval life of ethnic groups, and so to this day attracts huge public interest. The importance of the theme in the scientific sense and can not be overestimated, since pre-Mongol period are of great importance in the history and ethnogenesis of the peoples living on the territory of the Volga and Ural regions. At this time, the process of unification takes place actively Bulgarian tribes, formed a political organization with a unified territory, developing various sectors of the economy, established close trade relations, formed a single cultural layer between the individual regions of the country.
This is the main perspectives of the study of the subject in a number of other problems. The scientific relevance of the work is, above all, that if the earlier literature, questions on the history and the adoption of Islam broke away from the ethno-political and cultural, that only their joint consideration will give us the key to understanding complex phenomena in the history of Volga Bulgaria and the achievement of its goals. It is connected with the fact, that ethno-social system and external contacts is a measure of diplomacy, trade, national and international relations, not only economic, military or related order, but also cultural, political relations, that is, the material and spiritual spheres of any society. In the study of the spiritual sphere and the religious beliefs of the Bulgars IX-XIII centuries big role belongs to real materials (Hraundal 20). It is thanks to them, we can ascertain the extent and nature of religious ideology in the whole of the Volga-Ural region, specific features of the funeral rites of various ethnic groups, including the changes in them after converting to Islam. The important category of written sources make up the Russian chronicles, which contain a lot of interesting things on the political history of the Bulgarian state and its international relations. The historical value of Russian chronicles is that they most accurately indicated the most important events and dates of the Bulgarian history. Fragmentary, but the valuable information contained in the Note by Western missionaries and travelers XIII-XVI centuries. Saturated and bright pages of Bulgarian history, mainly ethnic and cultural character and history of individual cities, give Tatar historical sources XVII-XVIII centuries and works of folklore.
Works Cited
Gordon, Stewart. When Asia was the world. Da Capo Press, 2009.
Frazer, James George. "The Killing of the Khazar Kings." Folklore 28.4 (1917): 382-407.
Hraundal, Thorir Jonsson. The Rus in Arabic Sources: Cultural Contacts and Identity. The University of Bergen, 2013.
