Vadas Ferenc (szerk.): A Wosinszky Mór Múzeum Évkönyve 15. (Szekszárd, 1990)

Handelsbeziehungen - Thomas S. Noonan: Scandinavian-Russian-Islamic trade in the ninth century

dirhams deposited throughout western Eurasia during the period ca. 775-ca. 900. The Arabic literary source traces the routes used by European merchants to reach Khazaria and Baghdad while the many dirhams provide our best evidence for the flow of Islamic goods northward to European Russia and Scandinavia. It is essential to use both the literary and numismatis evidence to understand the great ninthcentury trade that linked the c

Abbasid caliphate, European Russia, and the Viking world. According to Pritsak's reconstruction of the literary evidence, Rus merchants came from the furthest reaches of Saqlabiyah (northern-eastern Europe) bringing beaver skins, black fox skins, and [Frankish] swords. These merchants travelled to the Black Sea [Sea of Rum] where the Byzantine emperor collected a tithe from them (apparently at Cherson in the Crimea). From here, they proceeded to Samkarch (Tamatarkha or Tmutorokan') on the eastern shore of the Kerch strait where they sold their goods and then returned home. Alternatively, the Rus merchants went by the river of as-Saqaliba (probably the Northern Donets) to the Khazarian river (the Don) where the Khazar governor collected a tithe from them. The merchants then portaged from the Don to the Volga and sailed downstream to Khamlikh (Itil, the Khazar capital located somewhere in the mouth of the Volga). From here, they sailed along the Jurjän Sea (the Caspian) and sold their goods at various, ports along its coasts. Sometimes the Rüs sailed to the town of Jurjän on the southeastern coast of the Caspian from whence they took their goods by camel to Baghdad. At the c

Abbâsid capital, they pretended to be Christians in order to pay a lower duty on their goods. Assuming that the Rüs were Scandinavians, our common Arabic source provides a reasonably good account of how Viking merchants travelled to European Russia, the Black Sea, Khazaria, and Islam in the ninth century for trade. Obviously, many scholars would disagree with various aspects of Pritsak's reconstruction and would question some if not all of his identifications. Be that as it may, the general thrust of our literary evidence is quite clear, assuming that the information in our common source is accurate. Scandinavian merchants bringing Frankish sword blades and furs apparently went by the Dnepr to the Byzantine Crimea and Khazar Tamatarkha for commerce. These merchants could also go by river from the interior of Russia to the Don from whence a portage connected them to the Volga and the Khazar capital of Itil. The Rus merchants were then able to sell their goods along the coasts of the Caspian or travel overland to Baghdad, the greatest Islamic market of the period (For the emergence of Baghdad as a great international market in the 760s and 770s see HODGES & WHITEHOUSE 1983, 125-157). While the literary evidence provides a good overview of Scandinavian-Rus- sian-Islamic trade in the ninth century, it also raises a host of important questions about this commerce. When and how did this trade begin? Is the picture presented by our common source true for the entire ninth century or only one particular period of time during the century? In addition to the Black Sea and Don-Caspian routes, did Rus merchants also sail down the Volga from its upper reaches on their way to and from Itil and Baghdad? How long did the various trips of the Rus merchants take? What goods did the Rus merchants obtain in exchange for their furs and swords besides dirhams? Was this trade in the hands of Rus merchants all the way from the Baltic to Baghdad, as implied in our common source, or did Islamic 54