The Real 13th Warrior
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Shaykh Ahmad ibn Fadhlan ( r.a. ) was a faqih . He was sent from Baghdad in 921 CE to serve as the secretary to an ambassador from the Abbasid Caliph, al-Muqtadir to the Iltabar, a vassal-king under the Khazars, of the Volga Bulgaria, Almis. The embassy’s objective was to have the king of the Bulgars pay homage to Caliph al-Muqtadir in return for money to pay for the construction of a fortress. Although they managed to reach the Bulgars, the mission failed because they were unable to collect the money intended for the king. Annoyed at not receiving the promised sum, the king refused to switch from the Maliki madzhab , then practiced, to the Hanafi madzhab practised in Baghdad. The embassy left Baghdad on 21 st June, 921 CE / 11 th Swafar, 309 AH. It reached the Bulgars after much hardship on 12 th May, 922 CE / 12 th Muharram, 310 AH. This day is an official religious holiday in modern Tatarstan. The journey took Shaykh