The Arab envoy Ibn Fadlan described the Rus as 'tall as date palms'. On the Volga in 922 he admired their build, fair hair and ruddy skin — then called them the filthiest of God's creatures for not even washing their hands after eating.

922

◍ Show on the globe

The event

• Volga Bulgaria adopts Islam922 · Bolgar, Middle Volga. In 922 an embassy from the caliph of Baghdad reached the ruler of Volga Bulgaria, and the country officially adopted Islam. The embassy's secretary, Ibn Fadlan, left notes describing Rus' merchants and a ship burial, one of the most vivid accounts of early Rus'.

10th century

More amazing facts

• 905 'Born in the purple' was literal.
• 911 Legend says that when the Viking Rollo received Normandy in 911, he refused to kiss the French king's foot and sent one of his men instead.
• 916 The Russian word for China, Kitai, comes from a people who were not Chinese: the nomadic Khitans, who founded the Liao empire in northern China in 916.
• 918 The name Korea comes from Goryeo, the kingdom founded in 918 that united the peninsula for almost five centuries and under whose name the country became known abroad.
• 935 · 1853 'Good King Wenceslas' of the English carol was never a king.
• 938 · 1288 The Vietnamese twice destroyed an enemy with the same trick on the same river.

All amazing facts (1058) →