Ibn Fadlan sees 'armies of jinn' in the Volga sky
The Abbasid envoy Ahmad ibn Fadlan, at the court of the Volga Bulgar king in 922, described a red glow in the night sky in which shapes like warriors with spears and swords clashed; the Bulgars told him they were believing and unbelieving jinn at war.
922 CE · 54.98, 49.06 · status: account
The account
Ibn Fadlan's Risala is one of the earliest eyewitness descriptions of the aurora borealis from the middle Volga. He says the glow rose on the horizon, columns moved like armies and charged one another, and the king laughed at his fear. He also notes the very short summer nights. The Volga Bulgars had just asked the caliph for teachers of Islam, and the account is a foundational text for Tatar and Bashkir history.
The sceptical view
A clear description of an auroral display read through the beliefs of the time; nothing in it is hard to explain.