The Giant Siblings Of Bulghār

A 12th-century Granadan traveler named Abū Hāmid al-Gharnātī left his original homeland of Spain far behind to explore distant regions, such as the Aral Sea, the Volga River and the Hungarian kingdom of Geza II (r. 1141-1162). He wrote about his experiences in at least two books, the Gift of the Hearts and an Exposition of Some Wonders of the West. As the title of the latter book suggests, he was greatly interested in ‘wonders’—bizarre, otherworldly and folkloric animals, peoples and places that could supposedly be found on the frontier regions in which he traveled. Some wonders were reported to Abū Hāmid by informants, other wonders he read about in texts, yet there were a few wonders that he claimed to have witnessed with his own eyes. Of these oddities that Abū Hāmid personally witnessed, one of the most peculiar was a pair of sibling giants living around the city of Bulghār, on the Volga River.

Tales of giants were nothing new for Muslim travelers along the Volga. An Abbasid diplomat named Ibn Fadlān reached Bulghār in 922, and he reported that the khan of the Volga Bulgars had shown him a skeleton of a recently-killed giant, allegedly measuring 12 cubits in height (18 feet). Curiously, the account of Ibn Fadlān had reportedly been lost by the time of Abū Hāmid and would not be rediscovered until the 13th century. Despite the probability that Abū Hāmid never read Ibn Fadlān’s report, the Granadan traveler also would claim to see evidence of giants in the Volga region. Yet, while Ibn Fadlān saw only skeletal remains of dubious origins, Abū Hāmid claimed to have personally seen two living giants.

As the story goes, Abū Hāmid traveled to Bulghār around 1135 or 1136. While there, he claimed to have seen a man called Danqa, who was over 7 cubits (10.5 feet) tall. In addition to his height, the giant was reported to have been extremely strong. With only the use of his hands, Danqa was said to have had enough strength to snap in half the leg of a muscular horse, as if the horse’s bone was a mere bundle of herbs. Such size and strength made him a coveted prospect for the army of Bulghār, and, indeed, Danqa was said to have been successfully enticed to join the military through gifts of armor. Abū Hāmid wrote: “The king of Bulghār had a cuirass made for him, which he carried to battle with him in a cart, and an iron helmet like a great cauldron. He fought with a great wooden mace, thick and long, made from a massive oak which no man could lift, but in his hand it was like a stick would be in ours” (Exposition of Some Wonders of the West, Penguin ed. pg. 86). Despite the giant’s height, strength and enlistment into the military, Abū Hāmid claimed that the towering man was of the mildest and kindest of dispositions.

Besides Danqa, there was reportedly one more giant living in Bulghār at the time that Abū Hāmid paid the city a visit. The other giant was Danqa’s unnamed sister, who was said to have equaled her brother’s size and strength. Despite her physical prowess, very few feats of strength were attributed to her. As may be expected from a medieval text, marriage was considered her greatest accomplishment. The giantess’ marriage was said to have ended tragically, however, when she accidentally caused her husband’s ribs to implode during a passionate bear-hug.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (The Giant Skrymir and Thor, depicted by Louis Huard (1813-1874), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• Exposition of Some of the Wonders in the West by Abū Hāmid al-Gharnātī, translated by Paul Lunde and Catoline Stone. New York, Penguin Classics, 2012.

The Apocalyptic Giant Of The Volga River

In May 922, an Abbasid diplomat named Ibn Fadlān reached the camp of Khan Almish ibn Shilkī Yiltawār of the Volga Bulgars, a semi-nomadic people who lived north of the Caspian Sea, along the Volga River. The khan, a new convert to Islam, had asked the Abbasid caliph for theological and financial aid. Ibn Fadlān’s arrival among the Volga Bulgars was the caliph’s response to the khan’s request. The mission of the Abbasid diplomats was to offer instruction on the ways of Islam, to construct a new mosque for the khan, and to also fund a fortress to help defend the Volga Bulgars. Unfortunately, the 4,000 dīnār budget allotted to the mission never reached the diplomats and therefore the promised construction projects went unfulfilled. Consequently, the relationship between Khan Almish and the diplomats were strained from the get-go. Ibn Fadlān, however, made the best of his situation and devoted himself to writing a detailed account of his journey from Baghdad to the Volga. He commented on landscapes he saw and people he met, also adding some cultural observations, folklore and history, to tie it all together.

One tale that Ibn Fadlān included in his account (called the Risāla) featured a giant who had a fondness for swimming in the Volga River. Ibn Fadlān claimed to have been tipped off to this story by a fellow diplomat named Tikīn the Turk. He had heard that an incredibly tall man was then living within the territory of Khan Almish. When this information was passed to Ibn Fadlān, the curious diplomat went straight to the khan to ask if the story was true. Interestingly, Khan Almish humored Ibn Fadlān’s curiosity, telling the diplomat many details of the story and even personally took him sightseeing to a spot involved in the tale.

The highly embellished yarn that Khan Almish laid out for Ibn Fadlān was an interesting mix of Volga Bulgar culture and apocalyptic ideas from Abrahamic religions. Khan Almish began by informing Ibn Fadlān that the giant was no longer alive, but that the khan had personally known him. The giant was apparently first discovered when sections of the Volga River overflowed. Concerning this flooding, rumors began to circulate from travelers and merchants that the cause of the river’s odd behavior was a giant that was wading in the water. Hearing these reports, Khan Almish set out to investigate the Volga where the river had broken its banks.

Upon arriving at the flooded section of the river, the khan supposedly saw with his own eyes a huge humanoid figure. The size of the giant, Khan Almish claimed, was a remarkable 12 cubits tall (18 feet). In addition to sheer height, the giant reportedly had such an extremely ugly or fierce demeanor that simply witnessing him could cause the viewer great distress. The Volga Bulgars attempted to speak with the giant, but the man/monster was apparently unable to speak. After assessing the situation, Khan Almish decided to recruit the giant and bring him back to the Volga Bulgar camp, if only to keep the giant from joining the ranks of an enemy.

After successfully bringing the towering stranger back to camp, Khan Almish set about researching the identity of the giant. After asking around among his own people and sending inquiries out to neighboring regions, the khan concluded that the giant was none other than a rogue member of the apocalyptic Gog and Magog end-time invasion force that is featured in Jewish, Christian and Islamic texts. When Ibn Fadlān, either with curiosity or skepticism, asked for further details about the Gog and Magog giant, Khan Almish escalated the tale to a new level of embellishment and gave the giant an abrupt and tragic end. According to Ibn Fadlān, Khan Almish said the following about life with a giant in the Volga Bulgar camp:

“He stayed with me for a time, but no child could look at him without dropping dead and no pregnant women without miscarrying. If he took hold of a man, his hands squeezed him until he killed him. When I realized that, I had him slung from a high tree until he died” (Ibn Fadlān, Risala, Penguin ed. pg. 41).

After delivering this bizarre account of the giant’s effect on the Volga Bulgar people, Khan Almish offered to show Ibn Fadlān the spot where the giant was hanged. The diplomat, hearing that the remains of the giant could actually be seen there, decided to take the khan up on the offer and the two traveled to the supposed tree from which the 18-foot tall giant was strung. On this eerie trip, Ibn Fadlān wrote:

“He rode with me into a great forest filled with immense trees and shoved me towards a tree under which had fallen his bones and head. I saw his head. It was like a great beehive. His ribs were like the stalk of a date cluster and the bones of his legs and arms were enormous too. I was astonished at the sight. Then I went away” (Ibn Fadlān, Risala, Penguin ed. pg. 41).

After the scene above, Ibn Fadlān made no further commentary about the giant. As might be expected, the tall tale told by Khan Almish to Ibn Fadlān is considered to be folklore, and it has been proposed that the remains in the forest may have been that of a bear. It should also be kept in mind that the khan still begrudged the Abbasid diplomat for failing to bring the caliph’s promised money. Therefore, when the irritated Almish forcefully brought Ibn Fadlān to a secluded, bone-scattered forest where not even a mighty giant could escape, the act was likely meant to be a veiled threat or a means of intimidation.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Scene of a chained giant from the Gest Danorum, illustrated by   Louis Moe (1857-1945), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• Risala by Ibn Fadlān, translated by Paul Lunde and Catoline Stone. New York, Penguin Classics, 2012.

The Crazed Fish-Woman Of The Yūrā People

Word-of-mouth stories can produce incredibly odd tales when passed from culture to culture over the span of many years. One such gem of folklore fell into the hands of Abū Hāmid al-Gharnātī, a 12th-century traveler from Granada who wandered all the way to the convergence of the Volga and Oka rivers, in what is now Russia. While he was in these regions, Abū Hāmid was told a bizarre tale, which he recorded in a text called the Exposition of Some of the Wonders in the West. His chain of evidence, however, was a bit gossipy. Abū Hamīd learned the tale from a Volga Bulgar informant, who heard it from a trader from the northern Yūrā region, who, in turn, was probably told the tale by a Yūrā elder.

Abū Hāmid led up to this ‘wonder’ by describing the fishing practices of the Yūra people, who hunted and fished in the arctic and subarctic regions of Russia. He described a ritual where the fishermen would drop a sword into the sea, and this would cause huge fish to rise to the surface—some modern historians propose this to be an embellished or misinterpreted description of harpoon-fishing. Whatever the case, the northern peoples of medieval Russia did indeed hunt large sea creatures, as goods like narwhal tusks were known to be bought and sold on the Volga River trade route.

According to Abū Hāmid, one such party of Yūrā whalers caught more than they expected during one of their fishing trips. As the story goes, the Yūrā did their ceremony of dropping a sword (or harpoon) into the sea and consequently a gigantic sea animal, supposedly the size of a mountain, came to the surface of the water. Perhaps the mountainous fish was too large to haul to shore, or maybe they could hear an odd sound coming from inside the creature—whatever the case, the whalers decided to butcher the creature immediately. Abū Hāmid described the peculiar scene: “Then they opened the ear of the fish and from within emerged a kind of girl, who looked like a human—white, with pink cheeks, black hair and plump buttocks, like the most attractive of women” (Exposition of Some of the Wonders in the West, Penguin edition pg. 73).

Evidently, the rescued woman found the creature’s ear to be quite comfortable, or she had been driven insane by the experience, for she began kicking and screaming and showing all the signs of dismay when she was pulled free of her fleshy cage. Nevertheless, the Yūra fishermen were able to convey the crazed woman back to land and adopted her into their way of life. After her supposed discovery in the ear of a giant fish, the woman apparently had a normal, uneventful life among the Yūrā. Abū Hāmid ended the story by simply stating “They kept that girl among them until she died. Truly, the power of God on High knows no limits!” (Exposition of Some of the Wonders in the West, Penguin edition pg. 73).

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (modified and cropped public Domain mermaid illustration, via needpix.com and Creative Commons).

Sources:

• Exposition of Some of the Wonders in the West by Abū Hāmid al-Gharnātī, translated by Paul Lunde and Catoline Stone. New York, Penguin Classics, 2012. 
• https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/abu-hamid-al-gharnati-SIM_0191?s.num=6  

The Lightning Curse Of The Volga Bulgars

An Abbasid diplomat named Ibn Fadlān traveled northward between the Caspian and Aral Seas to reach the Volga Bulgars around May 922. The diplomat found them living in yurts and tents at a seasonal market location along the Volga River. The khan of the Volga Bulgars was a recent convert to Islam, and thousands of his people converted with him. Yet, many of the Volga Bulgar people retained their original Tengri faith, and recent converts were slow to leave behind their traditional customs and superstitions.

One such superstition that Ibn Fadlān witnessed during his stay with the Volga Bulgars involved lighting. Like many cultures, the Volga Bulgars considered lightning to be an omen—in their case, a bad omen. If lightning struck one of their tents, the Volga Bulgars reportedly treated the spot as if it were infested with plague. The tent was abandoned, and all of the items that happened to have been inside the tent at the time of the strike were left behind. Even humans who survived such a strike were reportedly shunned and left behind. On this interesting tradition, Ibn Fadlān wrote:

“I have never seen more lightning than in their country. When it strikes a tent, they do not go near it again but leave it as it is, together with anything that is inside it—men, goods or other things—until time has destroyed them. They say that it is a tent upon which the wrath of God has fallen” (Ibn Fadlān, Risala, Penguin edition pg. 37)

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (Volga River trade negotiations, painted by S. V. Ivanov  (1864–1910), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• Risala by Ibn Fadlān, translated by Paul Lunde and Catoline Stone. New York, Penguin Classics, 2012.

The Trickery of al-Fadl ibn Musa

Vizier Ibn al-Furāt was imprisoned by the Abbasid caliph Muqtadir in 918, on charges of corruption. While the vizier was in jail, his estate—a place called Arthakhushmithān—was placed in the care of a certain Fadl ibn Mūsā al-Nasrānī, a devoted agent of the imprisoned official. Among the assets that Fadl ibn Mūsā was guarding for his jailed employer was a treasury of 4,000 dīnārs. Several years later, he would be ordered by the Abbasid caliph to hand over the money, but Fadl ibn Mūsā would fight back with a series of clever tricks in an effort to keep control of the dīnārs.

On June 21, 921, a party of diplomats set out from Baghdad on a mission from the caliph Muqtadir to the newly converted khan of the Volga Bulgars, Almish ibn Shilkī Yiltawār. Among the diplomats was Ahmad ibn Fadlān, whose job in the embassy was to read the caliph’s letters and to distribute gifts, and once they reached the Volga, to also supervise the region’s teachers and jurists. Thankfully, Ibn Fadlān wrote a text called the Risala, in which he described the progress of the diplomatic mission, as well as the diverse people and landscapes that he came across on his journey.

In his book, Ibn Fadlān wrote that the diplomatic mission was dispatched because Khan Almish of the Volga Bulgars “asked for someone who could instruct him in the Faith, teach him the laws of Islam, build him a mosque and erect a minbar so that he could have the prayers said in his name…and also requesting that a fortress be built, for the defence against the kings who were his adversaries” (Ibn Fadlan, Risala, Penguin ed. Pg. 3). As the Abbasids were planning to do some major construction projects in Volga Bulgar land, the caliph Muqtadir scoured the map for sources of revenue that could be diverted to the mission. Unfortunately for the aforementioned disgraced vizier, Ibn al-Furāt, his town of Arthakhushmithān, with its treasury of 4,000 dīnārs, lay right on the route of the diplomats. Therefore, when the diplomats set out from Baghdad, they had in their possession a letter from the caliph, which commanded that the 4,000 dīnārs be handed over to the embassy for use in the domain of the Volga Bulgars.

When the diplomats reached the city of Bukhārā, Ibn Fadlān read out the letter about the money to Nasr ibn Ahmad (r. 914-943), the young ruler of the Sāmānid Emirate. The emir agreed to comply with the order and the message was passed to Fadl ibn Mūsā, who still managed the finances of Arthakhushmithān. The command, however, was not received well by the agent. As mentioned earlier, he was prepared to go great lengths in order to keep the city’s 4,000 dīnārs.

Fadl ibn Mūsā quickly discovered a loophole in the letter brought by Ibn Fadlān and the diplomats. Apparently, the specific official who was supposed to personally receive the 4,000 dīnār payment was a man named Ahmad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārazmī. He, however, for whatever reason, happened to have set out from Baghdad a full five days later than the rest of the diplomats. Therefore, although the embassy was requesting the money, the person who was authorized in the letter to receive the payment was not yet in Bukhārā. Seizing upon this flaw, the crafty Fadl ibn Mūsā sent a convincing letter to the head of security who was in charge of the road that Ahmad ibn Mūsā would be traveling upon. According to Ibn Fadlān, the letter resembled this: “Keep your eyes peeled for Ahmad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārazmī in the caravanserais and customs’ posts. He is a man of such and such description. If you run across him, lock him up until you receive our letter about the matter” (Ibn Fadlan, Risala, Penguin ed. pg. 6). The security officials, not questioning the tip, kept a close watch on the traffic of the road. They found poor Ahmad ibn Mūsā at a place called Merv—which was about 150 miles from Bukhārā—and they threw him in a jail until further notice.

Although the target was imprisoned, Fadl ibn Mūsā’s plan was only half-way complete; he needed to get the diplomats to continue on their journey before anyone started looking for, or asking questions about, the missing member of their party. In order to get the diplomats to leave, Fadl ibn Mūsā and his comrades began stoking the fear of officials about the oncoming winter. Ibn Fadlān and the others in the diplomatic mission managed to wait in Bukhārā for twenty-eight days before their fear of winter finally forced them on their way. Although they were heading to the Volga Bulgars without the promised finances, they thought that surely Ahmad ibn Mūsā would catch up with them later. Little did they know that he was detained in jail.

Ibn Fadlan and the diplomats unfortunately arrived at the court of Khan Almish ibn Shilkī Yiltawār still without the 4,000 dīnārs around May, 922. Awkwardly, the letters of the caliph that Ibn Fadlan personally read to the khan specifically mentioned that the embassy would have money for construction projects in the Volga region. When Almish discovered that the money was missing, he became convinced that Ibn Fadlān had stolen it for personal use. Unfortunately for Ibn Fadlān, Almish embarked on a relentless campaign of political gamesmanship and bullying, in hopes of making the diplomat relinquish the absent money. The khan first tried blunt, angry demands and then employed pointed religious disobedience to show his annoyance over the missing funds. Almish also had a translator eerily say that, in the khan’s former pagan days, cunning and intelligent people (like Ibn Fadlān) had been sacrificed to the sky-god, Tengri. On a more jovial note, the khan sarcastically gave Ibn Fadlān the epithet of “the Truthful.”

Ibn Fadlan’s account did not include the return-trip, so we unfortunately do not know if Almish ever received the elusive 4,000 dīnārs, and the fate of Fadl ibn Mūsā is also vague, although his employer was executed in 924. Whatever the case, the relationship between Baghdad and the Volga Bulgars apparently remained warm during the reign of the caliph Muqtadir. One of Almish’s sons was known to have gone on a pilgrimage to Mecca, and he was bestowed with gifts and money as he passed through Baghdad.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (Caravan painted by Alberto Pasini  (1826–1899), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• Risala by Ibn Fadlān, translated by Paul Lunde and Catoline Stone. New York, Penguin Classics, 2012.
• https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/ibn-fadlan-arab-among-vikings-russia