A revisionist view of the Viking Age

[Celerity]

Vikings on the Silk Roads

The Norse ravaged much of Europe for centuries. They were also cosmopolitan explorers who followed trade winds into the Far East

https://aeon.co/essays/the-viking-age-is-undergoing-a-revisionist-transformation


Detail from the 15th-century Radziwiłł Chronicle depicting the viking campaign against Constantinople. Courtesy Wikipedia



In the middle of the 9th century, in an office somewhere in the Jibāl region of what is now western Iran, a man is dictating to a scribe. It is the 840s of the Common Era, though the people in this eastern province of the great Caliphate of the ’Abbāsids – an Islamic superpower with its capital in Baghdad – live by the Hijri calendar. The man’s name is Abu ’l-Qāsim ʿUbayd Allāh b ʿAbd Allāh Ibn Khurradādhbih, and he is the director of posts and police for this region.

In his office, he is compiling a report as part of his duties. As his job title implies, he oversees communications and security in the Jibāl region, reporting to officials in Baghdad. What he provides is an intelligence service: in essence, Ibn Khurradādhbih is what we would call a station chief, like those CIA officials who manage clandestine operations abroad. The report he’s working on is part of a much larger document that will one day be known as Kitāb al-Masālik wa l-mamālik (the ‘Book of Itineraries and Kingdoms’), a summary of exactly the kind of thing that governments usually want to know: who was visiting their territory, where they came from, where they were going, and why. This is what he says about a group of people known as the Rus’:

The Rūs … journey from the farthest reaches of the land of the Slavs to the eastern Mediterranean and there sell beaver and black fox pelts, as well as swords. The Byzantine ruler levies a 10 per cent duty on their merchandise. On their return they go by sea to Samkarsh [Taman], the city of the Jews, and from there make their way back to Slavic territory. They also follow another route, descending the river Tanais [the Volga], the river of the Saqāliba, and passing by Khamlīkh, the capital of the Khazars, where the ruler of the country levies a 10 per cent duty. There they embark upon the Caspian Sea, heading for a point they know … Sometimes they transport their merchandise on camel back from the city of Jurjān to Baghdad.

They also follow a land route. Merchants departing from Spain or France sail to southern al-Akçâ [Morocco] and then to Tanja [Tangier], from where they set off for Ifriqiyya [the North African coast] and then the Egyptian capital. From there they head towards Ramla, visit Damascus, Kufa, Baghdad and Basra, then cross the Ahwaz [north of the Persian Gulf], Fâris [Iran], Kirman, Sindh [southeast Pakistan], India, and finally arrive in al-Ṣīn [Turko-China]. Sometimes they take a route north of Rome, heading for Khamlīkh via the lands of the Saqāliba. Khamlīkh is the Khazar capital. They sail the Caspian Sea, make their way to Balkh, from there to Transoxiana, then to the yurts of the Toghuzghuz [the Uyghurs?], and from there to al-Ṣīn.

snip


Glass, rock crystal and carnelian beads, mostly from the eastern Mediterranean region. Courtesy Ola Myrin, Swedish History Museum


The reality of the Norse world: a map of Eurasia showing selected objects excavated from late Iron Age contexts in Sweden but depicted at their point of origin. Map by Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson, Centre for the World in the Viking Age

[ScoutHikerDad]

1. Fascinating!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/PoiL1h9m2awa5nte9
Interesting info. Ever since I taught a high school mythology elective for 15 years, I have been fascinated by Viking lore, and my students were always the most intrigued by Norse mythology.

In preparation for a recent craft fair, I turned a replica of a thousand year old Viking bowl found in Dublin, Ireland. It is made with Ash, the same as Yggdrasil, the sacred Ash tree that supported the cosmos in Norse mythology. Turning wood (sort of) keeps me sane during our current nightmare.