Most histories of the Vikings concentrate on their activities in the west.
This includes their raids on neighboring regions, such as England and France, their settlement of Iceland and Greenland, and their voyages to the New World around the year 1000.
But now, archaeology is drawing increasing attention to Viking activity in the east, where they came into contact with the Islamic world.
But their relationship with their Islamic neighbors in the east was markedly different from that with their Christian neighbors in the west.
Allah in Archaeology
New attention has been focused on the Viking connection with the Islamic world due to the appearance of Allah in Viking archaeological contexts.
One of the most important discoveries was in 2015, when a ring found in the 9th-century burial of a Swedish woman at Birka was reexamined and revealed to be inscribed with the words “il-La-La,” or “to Allah.”
Everything else about the burial was traditionally Scandinavian, suggesting that this item was acquired through trade and represented a fairly unique archaeological context.
But in 2017, researchers in Sweden started to examine fabric found in 9th and 10th-century burials at Gamla Uppsala in Sweden, made from fabrics acquired from Asia, Persia, and China.
They discovered that a surprising number of pieces had the word “Allah” embroidered into the fabric in rich threads.
At least 10% of the 100 fabric fragments evaluated so far have included Islamic characters. Suddenly, the phenomenon of Islamic goods in Viking graves became a much more common phenomenon.
Islamic Dirhams
We have known for a long time that silver dirhams, coins produced in the Islamic world, were highly prized by the Vikings, who came from a non-silver-producing region.
Around 80,000 dirhams alone have been discovered in Sweden, dating mostly to the 9th and 10th centuries.
That these coins were prized as more than just ordinary “booty” is evident in the fact that many dirhams were punctured to create pendant necklaces, probably worn as status symbols.
Even more interesting information emerged recently in an examination of the Viking Age silver Bedale hoard found in North Yorkshire.
While it was long known that this hoard contained dirhams, it has now been discovered that more silver in the hoard came from the Islamic world.
The hoard contains 29 silver ingots, and while geochemical analysis links most of these ingots to western Europe, nine ingots, making up about a third of the silver in the hoard, can be tied to the Islamic world, probably coming from modern Iraq and Iran.
There is also an interesting large neck ring formed from multiple twisted rings that appears to have been made from a blend of Islamic and western silver, possibly crafted in northern England.
These archaeological finds are encouraging enthusiasts to revisit what we know about the Vikings in the Islamic world.
Heading East
While we know more about Viking activities in the west than the east, they were never focused on just one side of Europe.
We know that they were active in the Balkans from as early as the 6th century CE.
From here, moving further east was a logical progression.
We also know that the Vikings had encounters with the Islamic works in Spain in the 9th century.
There was a major Viking attack in Spain in 844 CE, with 54 Viking ships sailing from a base in France.
They successfully attacked Lisbon and Seville, and even threatened Cordoba, the capital of Al-Andalus, before they were turned away.
The locals responded by fortifying their coastal cities, so when the Vikings returned with a bigger fleet in 859, they were much less successful.
Their fleet was largely destroyed, and further raids were few and far between, though there is evidence of traders active in the region.
In the 9th century, the Vikings were also working their way East along the Volga River.
They set up trading outposts in the area that would later grow into independent and distinctly eastern-Viking cities, such as Kiev and Novgorod, which established their own fiefdoms from the late 9th century onwards.
The Vikings who ventured east had significant contact with the Byzantine Empire, which called them Varangians.
The Varangians traded with the Byzantines, bringing valuable furs and slaves in exchange for silver and other precious treasures.
They also worked as mercenaries, famously forming part of the Byzantine emperor’s personal guard, the Varangian Guard.
The Vikings were very active in the east in the 9th and 10th centuries.
One of the last Scandinavian Vikings to spend significant time in Constantinople was Harald Hardrada, who served in the Varangian Guard from 1030-1042, according to the Heimskringla by Snorri Sturluson.
He reportedly served in Africa, the Middle East, and Palestine, accumulating wealth that he sent to Novgorod for safekeeping.
He then used the riches to return to Norway and claim the throne.
After this time, the Vikings that had moved to the east had become a largely distinct group, converting to Christianity and heavily influenced by Byzantine culture.
Cultural Exchange
We know that there was significant contact between the Vikings and Muslims in the east because several Muslim authors wrote about it.
The most famous is the 10th-century Muslim traveler Ahmed Ibn Fadlan, who famously wrote about his encounters with the Vikings on the Volga River including describing the funeral of a chief that included a human sacrifice.
But while his account is the most extensive, it is far from the only one to mention the “saqalibah,” a term used for the fair-haired northern Europeans.
There are also mentions by Yahya Ibn Hakam al-Bakri (772 – 866), Ahmad al-Ya’qubi (897-898), Ibn Khurradadhbih (820-910), al-Mas’udi (896-956), al-Muqaddasi (940-991), Miskawayh (932-1030), Ibn Rustah (10th century), Ibn Hawqal (10th century), Ibn Qutiya (10th century), and later authors.
Ibn Rustah commented that they kept themselves clean something also observed by the Anglo-Saxons, who noted that the Vikings bathed once a week and that the men wore gold armbands.
He also noted their code of hospitality and how they treat one another and their guests well.
Others suggest that they were fire worshippers and that fire was essential to their lives, probably because of their cold climate.
There is also evidence that some Vikings may have converted to Islam, probably to ease political relations in the same way Vikings converted to Christianity.
A 16th-century memoir by the geographer Amin Razi notes that the Vikings highly valued pork, and even those who converted to Islam and were not supposed to eat it.
Why Were Viking Activities Different in the East ?
Why did the Vikings choose to raid and even invade the west, occupying large parts of England, but chose a more peaceful approach in the east, trading, forming political alliances, and signing mercenary contracts ?
There were probably a number of factors at play.
The eastern states were more organized and better able to defend themselves against Viking raiding parties.
The Vikings also did not have the same sea access, so they could not launch the same kind of smash-and-grab attacks from the water.
Above all else, the Vikings were opportunists. They raided, traded, or settled based on what was the most beneficial course of action.
The rich East had many valuables that the Vikings wanted, and they could gain more fighting as mercenaries in Byzantine wars than trying to take on the grand empire.
