Ahmad ibn Fadlan is sent from Baghdad…

Ahmad ibn Fadlan is sent from Baghdad to the king of the Volga Bulgars, on behalf of the Abbasid Caliph al-Muqtadir.

Primarily, the purpose of the embassy is to explain Islamic law to the recently converted Bulgar peoples living on the eastern bank of the Volga River in what is now Russia.

(These are the Volga Bulgars; another group of Bulgars had moved westward in the sixth century, invading the country that today bears their name, and become Christians.).

Additionally, the embassy is sent in response to a request by the king of the Volga Bulgars to help them against their enemies, the Khazars.

Ibn Fadlan serves as the group's religious advisor and lead counselor for Islamic religious doctrine and law.

Ibn Fadlan and the diplomatic party utilize have established caravan routes toward Bukhara, now part of Uzbekistan, but instead of following that route all the way to the east, they had turned northward in what is now northeastern Iran.

Leaving the city of Gurgan near the Caspian Sea, they have crossed lands belonging to a variety of Turkic peoples.

One notable group he has encountered are the Khazars, a uniquely religious khanate that is one of the few peoples to adopt Judaism amid the surrounding Christian and Muslim spheres of influences.