Ibn Fadlan describes their hygiene as disgusting (while also noting with some astonishment that they comb their hair every day) and considers them vulgar and unsophisticated. In that, his impressions contradict to those of Ibn Rustah.

He also describes at some length the funeral of one of their chieftains, and their physical characteristics.

The novel Eaters of the Dead, by Michael Crichton, presents itself as a lost manuscript by Ibn Fadlan in which he returns with the vikings to their homeland and becomes involved in a series of events which, the novel implies, inspired the epic poem Beowulf. The novel was filmed as The 13th Warrior, with Antonio Banderas acting as Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan Ibn Al Abbas Ibn Rashid Ibn Hamad.

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