4 ms·
Swedish Vikings extended mostly toward what is now Russia and Ukraine, using Volga, Don and Dniepr as major communication/transport channels [0]. This brought t
by rusanu 9y ago
Swedish Vikings extended mostly toward what is now Russia and Ukraine, using Volga, Don and Dniepr as major communication/transport channels [0]. This brought them into contact with the Khazar Khanagate at the mouth of Volga [1] and the Volga Bulgars [2] (both muslim at the time). When Vladimir (half viking) had to choose a religion for his Kievan Rus, Islam was one of the choices [3] (rejected because it would forbid the joy of drinking, see link).
So there was ample cultural contact with Islam, a religion actively proselytizing. It lasted about 150-200 years. That some influence made it back to Sweden should not be surprising.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volga_trade_route https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volga_trade_route
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khazars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khazars
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volga_Bulgaria https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volga_Bulgaria
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_the_Great https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_the_Great
- fpoling 9y agoI remember reading that Vikings used ships rented in Khazar Khanagate to attack targets in Mediterranean as a form of disguise. They payed the rent with things they captured during the raids.
- d--b 9y agoThanks, I just googled this. Apparently it's Khaganate rather than Khanagate.
- posterboy 9y agoWith old names it might be both, I guess, depending on who you ask. I wonder, has khan any to do with Kahn (ger. ship).
- kingofpandora 9y agoIt doesn't. "kh" should be read as a single sound (Arabic or Persian خ) not a sequence of two sounds.
- posterboy 9y agoboth khan and kahn come out as british can't modulo t does, I guess, though noone knows what it sounded like originally.
- Grustaf 9y agoNo they don't, kh is an aspirated k sound. In any case that is not what was mistyped in the original post, it was the second and third syllables that hade changed places.
- jhanschoo 9y agoThis is an opportunity for me to link to one of my all-time favorite Vikings, alive contemporary as the dating of the finds. Harald Hardrada, whose journeys show just how mobile the Vikings might have been at that time period; if he had not contested the English throne at the same time as William contested it, history would surely have taken a greatly different course. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harald_Hardrada https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harald_Hardrada