81 (117)

156 The Viking Age in Denmark

Figurę 46 Distribution of Arabie coins in a samplc of castcrn Russian silver-hoards

slaves, furs and weapons that were supplied from Russia and other areas. (The Slavonian, Finnish and Scandinavian populations received very fcw Islamie products apart from the silver coins.) War faro, of course, may also havc interrupted the connection but, with the Scandinavian experiences in mind, we tend to see fighting and decline in trade as connected factors, each spurring the other in a negative direction. Moreover the ninth century, especially the latter half, saw much unrest within the Islamie world, such as the long and terrible Zanj slave revolt in Southern Mesopotamia.

The problem of alternative markets must also be taken into consideration. During the ninth century the Arabs came into control of some Southern French and Italian towns, as well as the island of Sicily, for instance, through which slaves may have becn acquired. The Franks participated in this trade, exchanging non-Christian slaves. Even earlier, Muslim Spain had established close connections with the Frankish and other slave markets in western Europę. In-cidentally, the word ‘slave’ discloses that many of thesc persons originated from the Slavonian areas. To the east, furthermore, on the borders of the Turkish peoples, and in Africa, slaves entered the Islamie world. But the generał unrest of the latter half of the ninth century seems, all in all, to be a better explanation of the decline of Russian trade than the existence of alternative markets, sińce thesc were long established.

The decline of Arabie silver in the tenth century might be explaincd in the same way, stressing unrest, but a stronger factor is probably the emptying of the silver mines in Transoxania and other areas (near

Samarkand and Bukhara). Indccd, the majority of the tenth-century Arabie coins in Scandinavia arc from Samanid dynasty mints in these extremely rich provinces. Under the ruler Na$r II (913-942) the influence of the emirate stretched as far north as Bulghar on the Middle Volga, where there was an important Muslim settlement. To the west and north only Finnish-speaking tribes, with a language not too unfarniliar to the neighbouring Swedes, separated the Islamie from the Scandinavian world, in spite of the enormous distance between, say, Birka and Baghdad. Furthermore, the large Russian rivers facilitated the communication, and from the beginning of the tenth century we possess written Arabie sources describing the transportation of, among other things, slaves and furs through Russia, commodities which were exchanged for eastern silver, for instance at Bulghar.³¹

Studies of the composition of Arabie coins in the single Russian or Scandinavian silver hoards have rcvealed some interesting patterns, giving rise to a wide variety of speeulation about the trade and exchange.³² The Russian and Scandinavian finds of the ninth century have long tails of older coins whose distribution may disclose, for instance, an importation peak around 8(X) (Fig. 47), at the time of Harun-al-Raschid,^3:i known to the Franks as the Caliph who sent Charlemagne an clephant, which, incidentally, died during a campaign against the Danish King Godfred in 810 (cf. Translations). Another, and smaller, peak in the imported silver is best seen in the hoards of south-west Russia and of Scandinavia and dates from about 850.

Shortly after 900 the finds were loosing their tails, bcing a natural consequence of the late ninth-century recession of the silver, together with the powerful flow in the early tenth century and a constant export of the coins and melting down for jewellery (Figs 48-9).³⁴ The morę silver there is, the morę will be exported or used for trinkets and, in short, consumed. The later hoards of the tenth century have long tails with a pow^erful termination, reflecting the heavy importation of the early part of the century and the gradual decline of the Arabie coin stream (Fig. 50).³⁵ As noted above, the decline took place at different times in different areas. It should also be mentioncd that the contemporary hoards of coins within the Islamie world have weak

Figurc 47 Distribution of Arabie coins in a ninth century mid-Swedish silver-hoard (Fittja)