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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy was a 9th century Viking woman buried with a ring that says ‘for Allah’?
In the modern-era, Scandinavian countries have become known for their sometimes awkward embrace of migrants from the Arab and Muslim world. But the history behind that relationship goes back far further than you might expect.
Consider the case of a ring discovered in a Viking grave in Birka, a historic trading center in what is now Sweden. The woman in the grave died in the 9th century and was discovered around a thousand years later by the famous Swedish archaeologist Hjalmar Stolpe, who spent years excavating the grave sites around Birka.
The ring is unique. Made of silver alloy, it contained a stone with an inscription written in the Kufic Arabic script widely used between the 8th and 10th centuries. "For/to Allah," the inscription read. It was the only known Viking Age ring with an Arabic inscription to be found in the entire of Scandinavia. Exactly how the woman got the ring wasn't clear she was found wearing typical Scandinavian dress, so presumably the ring arrived through trade...
Wärmländer and his colleagues suggest it appears to show direct contact between Viking society and the Abbasid Caliphate that dominated much of the Middle East and North Africa. The authors write, "it is not impossible that the woman herself, or someone close to her, might have visited -- or even originate from -- the Caliphate or its surrounding regions."
While physical evidence of it is unusual, there have been plenty of accounts of Scandinavians from this period crossing paths with the early Muslim world. By the 11th century Vikings had become known for their lengthy sea voyages, journeying as far west as the Americas and likely reaching Constantinople and even Baghdad when they traveled the other way. And while contemporary accounts of Vikings from Western Europe suggests terrifying invaders, most accounts suggest the Vikings, likely fearful of the more sophisticated warriors in the region, instead looked for trade when they went east...
In an otherwise complimentary description of people now believed to be Vikings, Ahmad ibn Fadlan, an emissary of the Abbasid Caliph, wasn't so sure about their hygiene. "They are the filthiest of all Allahs creatures," the Arab writer wrote in the 10th century. "They do not purify themselves after excreting or urinating or wash themselves when in a state of ritual impurity after coitus and do not even wash their hands after food."
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/weekendreads/why-was-a-9th-century-viking-woman-buried-with-a-ring-that-says-%e2%80%98for-allah%e2%80%99-on-it/ar-BBilOqk?ocid=iehp
leveymg
(36,418 posts)Who might you cast for the lead role?
Fla_Democrat
(2,547 posts)But can it really be a spoiler for a movie that came out in 1999?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120657/
Storyline
In AD 922, Arab courtier Ahmad Ibn Fadlan accompanies a party of Vikings to the barbaric North. Ibn Fadlan is appalled by the Vikings customs-- their wanton sexuality, their disregard for cleanliness, their cold-blooded human sacrifices. And then he learns the horrifying truth: he has been enlisted to combat a terror that slaughters the Vikings and devours their flesh.
Maybe she was Olga.
Codeine
(25,586 posts)It's a stretch to assume the wearer had a single clue about what it said.
Will future archaeologists assume widespread knowledge of Chinese in America based on our tattoos?
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)What is interesting is the lack of even basic hygiene by the Europeans.
And once, when the Chinese were building the Great Wall, folks in Britain were still swinging from trees.
ND-Dem
(4,571 posts)don't know what you think you're laughing about
Orsino
(37,428 posts)That's why they called them Vikings. They viked all over the place.
sarisataka
(18,497 posts)Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan after coitus
?
AnnieBW
(10,413 posts)And you've probably gotten closer to the truth. Her husband, or future husband, probably got in raiding somewhere and gave it to her.
LeftyMom
(49,212 posts)Trade networks.
MisterP
(23,730 posts)Zorra
(27,670 posts)while his Viking Horde was raping and pillaging near Mecca.
Then he brought a pretty present home for his wife, Ylva.
Not rocket science.
djean111
(14,255 posts)bluedigger
(17,086 posts)What's so hard to understand?
kwassa
(23,340 posts)Was she carrying her suicide axe?