Arab Culture in the Middle Ages - Essay Example

1. Fadlan appears to look down upon the Rus and describes them as the “filthiest of Allah’s creatures”. He considers them to be ‘creatures’ and ‘specimens’ who have a scary air about them. They are tall and blonde and their clothing style is also unique as described by Fadlan. They also emit a scare as they are always adorned with weapons like axe, sword and a knife. The kings of Rus lead a life full of women and sex and the description itself stinks. This is demonstrated when the author says, ‘on the throne sit forty female slaves destined for his bed’ or when he further describes, ‘occasionally he has intercourse with one of them in the presence of his companions’. They live a royal and lustful life and it would appear as if that was all the purpose of human life according to them. The general impression that Fadlan emits of the Rus is that they are dirty, with their minds polluted and they are sexually frustrated. They are no better than animals as they do not even wash their hands after eating. Even when they do wash their hands and face, it is in the same bowl one after the other, with a girl servant carrying the same bowl to the next person. The women are no better as they wear jewelry on their breast which is meant to entice the menfolk. The women wear jewelry according to the husband’s wealth and this is clearly evident from what they wear. The Rus appear to be God loving at least to the extent they want their wares sold. It appears to be a bargain with God. They are materialistic in nature and believe that they can offer incentives to God and get away with it. They are absolutely ruthless and have no mercy even for the sick and invalid. They leave a sick person to fend for himself and at best would cremate him should he die. A slave is not even cremated and is left to the mercy of dogs and birds. A thief is hanged from a tree till his ‘body falls into pieces’. The Rus neither respected the human beings when alive and nor when dead. They make merry at the death of a person for ten days and use his wealth to make merry and get intoxicated. Even more heinous is the act of forcing a woman to be cremated along with the dead man. These ‘creatures’ did everything in the name of God. They found comfort or freed themselves from guilt when they claimed to be doing everything for God. Even the sexual act with the woman who has decided to be cremated with the dead man, was done out of love for the lord. With every man that dies, one woman has to be killed. This implies that the proportion of men and women in their community is always equal and should remain equal but the process of death is nothing less than a crime and a murder. The woman is alive but has to give herself up through merry-making, dancing, and allowing others to use her in sex. The way she is killed shows how heartless and cold-blooded the community is. In nutshell, what the author tries to say is that they are animals in human form and shape, when he describes them as ‘wild assess’. While there are some biases in the description, by and large he seems to condemn the style of life and death of the Rus. 2. The words and the expression that the author uses give enough evidence of Arab influence. When he is describing their attire, he says, ‘they wear neither tunics nor caftans’. Caftans are used only by Arabs and the author can think only in those lines. He compares the height of the Rus with ‘date palms’ because palm trees are in abundance in the Arab region. The author converts the value of gold and silver in Arab currency. He calls them the ‘filthiest of Allah’s creatures’, again Allah being predominantly a Muslim connotation. 3. The two cultures that interacted came from widely different backgrounds. Had there been any similarities, the description would not have been so repelling and disgusting. The tone of the author suggests that the action of the Rus community is not at all human in nature and is more like animals. The Rus community has no respect for the human beings – alive or dead. They have no values, no culture that can be called as culture, no respect, no humanity in them at all. They trade the human being as they trade their wares. They even treat the slaves as they treat animals. They negotiate and bargain with the Lord and even when dogs eat up the offered food, they live under the euphoria that God has eaten it. The description all tells us that the Arab culture during the Middle Ages was civilized and recognized the worth of human beings. Had this been not so, the author would not have the discrimination to give such a vivid description. Women, wine and gold – these are three materialistic possessions that showed a man’s worth in the Rus culture. The glamorization of death too has vested interests of the others around. The sexual intercourse is openly performed in front of others and this shows that even this is a part of normal culture among the Rus. This is quite different from what the Arabs would accept and they do maintain some sort of privacy. There is absolutely no respect for the women folk who are nothing more than objects of pleasure. They are adorned because of lust and can be killed as savagely, again a form of lust. The Arab-Islamic culture on the other hand condemned and looked down upon such acts that degraded humanity. They also recognized that if acts are not human in nature, the doers are nothing but animals in human form and not worthy of being called humans. Read More