In the year 1028 AD, Rome was not a city of marble; it was a city of hungry bellies. The population relied entirely on grain shipments from Sicily and North Africa to survive.
When the Fatimid Caliph in Cairo and the Emir of Sicily received Ibn Fadlan's letter, they did not send a screaming army. They used a modern tactic: The Blockade.
A massive fleet of Dhows and lateen-rigged warships fanned out across the Mediterranean. They did not attack the Italian coast. They simply stopped the grain ships from sailing to Ostia.
The message sent to Pope John XIX was cold, diplomatic, and terrifying:
"The Emir of the Snow is a Brother of the Faithful. For every day he remains in your chains, ten thousand Romans will go without bread. Release him, or eat your gold."
Within a month, the price of wheat in Rome quadrupled. Riots broke out in the streets. The Tusculani nobles, who held Bilal in their deep dungeons, were panicking. They needed Bilal's secret of the "Green Fire" immediately, so they could mount the chemical weapons on their ships and break the Muslim blockade.
They doubled the torturers. They needed the Giant to break. They had no idea that they were about to break his safety filter instead.