Ahmad Ibn Fadlan was a muslim traveler from Baghdad who lived through 9-10 century AD. He was an ambassador from Abbassid Caliph to northern Europe. He recorded his travel diaries (without his personal life) mostly his encounters with different ethnicities during his journey to Russia. In some parts his diary shows biases toward Europeans and non-muslims.
During his time his hometown Baghdad was one of the big cities in the region, even bigger than Paris, Constantinople, and Rome. Baghdad had more than 100,000 workers to build mosques, churches and big buildings.
There was a trade between Russians and the Islamic Empire. In the Islamic Empire there were high demands for amber, pellet, ivory, mink and for Russians there were high demands for gold and silver.
During Ibn Fadlan’s time, Islamic laws were not completely codified; it was the early stage of different cultural groups who converted to Islam. The cultural groups who recently became Muslims, they did not completely erase their old beliefs, most of them blended Islam with their pre-existing beliefs. ( )