Monday, April 27, 2020

April 27 The Vikings: what were the most valuable goods that they had? Who paid them the most?

The past is present

  • early Christian persecution--persecuted Christians today
  • 7th Century jihad--21st century jihad
  • Medieval muslim/viking slavery--muslim slavery today


If you want to make your mark as a historian, research the relations between Vikings and Muslims, 8th to 11th centuries. Very few people have written about this. 

The western Scandinavian raiders are known as Vikings; the eastern raiders who travelled overland to the Middle East are called Varangians by historians: same people, two different slave trading routes. 
Vikings of the East: video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvPSa8XoHDI

In "Al Andalus", Islamic Spain:

A white girl without education cost 1,000 dinars of gold. A white girl with singing abilities cost 14,000 dinars. In Abd al-Rahman III’s court there were 3,750 slaves, his harem had 6,300 women,
          Fernandez-Morera, Dario. The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise (pp. 158-159). Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ORD). Kindle Edition. 

Isis sex slave price list:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-03/sex-slaves-sold-by-islamic-state-the-younger-the-better


Viking slave trade--mid 9th century: 2 to 5:06
https://youtu.be/tPz7ibV0p0Y?t=131

Truth about the history of the African slave trade  3:30

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok9EQ_hvr0c

Today: Africans sold into Libyan slave markets: 1:44
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dV7o31P4q4g

Brave CNN reporter films Libyan slave market: 5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY_0YCbc8gc

Did you know that Muslim slave traders captured English men, women, and children from the 1500's to about 1815? 11 mins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhw1ATYxWcQ

Iceland: DNA tests reveal that more than half of the women are celtichttps://allthatsinteresting.com/iceland-founded-viking-slaves  while 80% of the men are Viking. The women were enslaved from Ireland and Scotland.

What we know about Viking slaves: National Geographic article

Ahmad Ibn Fadlan, an Arab from Baghdad who encountered the men of Scandinavia in his travels, wrote that Vikings treated their female chattel as sex slaves. If a slave died, he added, “they leave him there as food for the dogs and the birds.”

Historians answer questions about Viking slavery:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/9ilh2z/what_was_it_like_to_be_enslaved_by_vikings/ slave from northern Europe tripled in value by the time they reached Islamic markets, and Viking-Age Scandinavia picked up a lot of silver. 

Recently, hundreds of thousands of Islamic coins from the eighth century were found in Scandinavia. Hundreds of thousands of coins (which must themselves represent only a tiny fraction of those in circulation) that have been recovered across the Viking world to date.  
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0144039X.2019.1592976

What else besides slaves could Vikings have sold that was more valued by the Muslims?

I see some interesting dots--might they be connected?

  • There was a huge slave market in Islamic regions.
  • Cordoba, the capital of Spain, was a major market for European slaves.
  • Within a hundred year period, say mid 700's to 800's, many Muslim rulers in Spain were blonde haired and blue eyed. How did that happen?
  • Within decades, the Viking raiders had stolen everything worth stealing in Europe. So what was worth stealing for another two hundred or so years?


  • Baghdad, in modern Iraq, was the capital of the Abbasid Islamic Empire, also a major slave market.
  • The Vikings captured hundreds of thousands of European slaves, mostly women and children, from the late 700's to approximately 1000.
  • The Vikings sold slaves in both Cordoba and Baghdad during this time.
  • Viking trade routes encircled Europe. By sea in the west, and by land and sea from the north all the way to Iran via Russia--the word "Russia" is derived from "Rus" Rus was was the self-description of people living in coastal eastern Sweden around the eighth century.

The period of Viking raids on Europe covered much the same time period as the Muslim domination of Al Andalus--Spain. When the Muslims were losing control of Spain in the 11th century, the Viking raids ceased.



1. Did you find any connection between the Vikings and the Islamic slave trade in "The Fury of the Northmen" lecture?


2. What did you find most interesting in the lecture? Why?
As much as you can explain in one minute

10 comments:

Daniel Walessa said...

I think that there is a strong connection to the Islamists in Al Andalus and the Vickings since the slave period was at it's peak when the Muslims in Spain were high in power. Additionally, there is a strong connection that these things were related since the vikings posses

Noah Gazmin said...

The thing that I found most interesting is the fact that the Vikings attacked so many villages so many times, that they eventually had to stop because of the fact that there wasn't much more to take.

Josh Zwicker said...

1. I did find a connection between the Vikings and the Islamic slave trade because the Vikings always raided and stole people and money etc. The Vikings had all these slaves that they captured from their raids.

Kaelyn said...

There is a connection between Vikings and Islamic slave trade. The lecture was very interesting because it talked about things that I did not know about the vikings, such as the fact that they sold slaves to Muslims. The vikings traded to the Muslims, so there is a connection.

Judah said...

2. the fact that many slave trades were done by Muslim people during the time when people thought they were peaceful.

Emma Whatley said...

I found it very interesting that they found all of the Islamic coins in Iceland. And that over half of the women were celtic.

Daniel said...

My comment is the one that says unknown

Jed.S said...

1. yes, we saw that many Vikings were a part of the slave trade and captured many slaves

2i found it most interesting that singing slaves cost more I didn't actually think about the fact that even the Arabs liked the singing and entertainment of their slaves.

Anna Cunningham said...

I found it interesting that they have superior nautical skills and longboat skills, also, that they invaded ireland, idk why but that is interesting.

Alana said...

1. I found a connection between the Vikings and the Islamic slave trade because the Vikings would take many people as slaves and/or sell them just like the Islamic slave trade.

2. I found it interesting that the Vikings traded with the Muslims.