Ibn Fadlan Risala: Ahmed ibn Fadlan Sees a Jinn Army in the Land of the Slavs

This passage is from Ahmed ibn Fadlan's Risala:

And I saw many wonders in the Land of the Slavs that I cannot count. The first night we spent in his country, I saw, at a remarkable hour before sunset, the horizon of the sky turn intensely red, and I heard in the air loud noises and a loud hum. So I raised my head and saw a red cloud, like fire, close to me, and those hummings and sounds came from it. In it were the likes of people and animals, and in it were spirits who resembled people, and in their hands were spears and swords that I could recognize and imagine. There was another piece like it, in which I also saw men, animals, and weapons. Then this piece came forward against the other as one battalion attacks another. So we were terrified by this and began to supplicate, while the Slavs laughed at us and were amazed by our actions.

He said, “We were looking at the two pieces attacking each other, and they would all mix in a fight for an hour and then separate. The matter continued like that for an hour into the night, then they disappeared.” So we asked the king about this, and he claimed that his ancestors used to say that these are among the believers and the disbelievers of the jinn, and that they fight each other every night, and that they have never ceased to do so, every night since they were.