“The Early Russians” is a description of the funeral practices of the Rus, the early medieval Norse people who gave their name to modern-day Russia and Belarus. The Rus, or Varangians, were Norse or Viking people who moved from Sweden into what is now European Russia in the century. The Rus’ are said to have founded the first major Russian state, Kievan Rus’, in what is now the Ukraine. Kievan Rus’ is seen as the political and cultural ancestor of the modern-day Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian nations. The Rus’ gave their name to the modern-day Russia and Belarus. The Rus’ were eventually absorbed into the local Slavic-speaking populations of the region, just like the Turkic Bulgars adopted the local South Slavic language in Bulgaria, and the Germanic Franks adopted the Latin-based language of France. This document comes from a manuscript dating from the 13th century, written by Yaqut al-Hamawi, a Syrian writer of Greek origin. Al-Hamawi, in turn, quoted much of his account of the Rus’ from a 10th century account of an Arab traveler named Ahmad ibn Fadlan. Ibn Fadlan was sent to what is now European Russia in 921 as an emissary to the ruler of the Volga Bulgars by the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad, al-Muqtadir. While in what is now Russia, he met some of the Rus’ people, and witnessed a funeral of one of their chiefs. The funeral involved the burning of the chief in one of his boats, along with some of his servants or slaves. Ibn Fadlan left behind a written account of his experiences in what is now Russia. The original document was lost for centuries, but parts of it were preserved in the works of later Arabic writers, including those of al-Hamawi. Three manuscripts of al-Hamawi’s “Geographical Dictionary” were kept in Europe in the early 19th century (in Oxford, Copenhagen, and St. Petersburg). This English-language translation of al-Hamawi’s excerpt of the original ibn Fadlan text was first published in a periodical of the British East India Company in 1828.