Ahmad travels far from his homeland and discovers the nature of life at the boundaries of society and civilization. Crichton uses Ahmad’s character arc to explore the nature of taboo between cultures and the possibility of cultural exchange, as the protagonist becomes increasingly accustomed to unfamiliar cultural standards. Ahmad is forced to leave Baghdad for violating his own social norms, yet he remains deeply attached to these norms at first. The Turkish tribes are strange and dangerous in Ahmad’s view, as they do not operate by the laws of Baghdad. As he travels further north, Ahmad discovers that the Norsemen’s culture is even further removed from his expectations, and the boundaries of social convention are moved constantly forward. Even as Ahmad is exposed to new cultures with new rules, the common feature of these societies is that the inhabitants adhere to their internal codes and laws. Ahmad witnesses the Norsemen responding to taboo within their own community, expressing their disgust with the dishonorable Rothgar and expressing shock and fear at cannibalism, even as they practice slavery and embrace violence. The more time Ahmad spends with the Norsemen, the more he realizes that they are not uncivilized, they simply operate according to a different set of civilizational principles.