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I believe that the Vikings also raided cities in Islamic Spain. Could have been something they stole and made clothes of it.
They didn't just rape and pillage, as is popularly assumed; they settled and traded as well. It's not improbable that they'd buy exotic clothing, especially the ornate kind worn for various events or ceremonies.
Norse were trading and raiding all over the rivers of eastern Europe, down into the Black Sea, and likewise along the Atlantic seaboard into the Mediterranean. It would be profoundly weird if some items of Islamic provenance did not make their way into grave goods and hoards in Scandinavia.
They fought with the Turks for 100's of years. It wouldn't surprise me if this clothing was not just something they came across on a raid or purchased.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Robust trade, or spoils of conquest/pillaging. In either case, it's not totally surprising that good from half a world away would end up in some viking longhouse.
It's doubtful they were especially more keen on raiding and pillaging than other cultures of the time. They were some of the last pagans of Europe and they didn't shy away from raiding churches and monasteries. Monks were almost the only people who could write about it, and their bias influences their accounts. It's not that vikings were especially nice and peaceable people but neither was anyone then.
Viking raided silk traders travelling far, or raided people who had access to those traders, traders who were either wearing or selling the silk cloth with pattern.
Sceptical that this means that there were Muslim Vikings. Arabic script was commonly used throughout medieval Iberia as decoration, often without any meaningful words, just Arabic letters strung together for aesthetic effect. Wouldn’t surprise me if something similar was going on here, where Iranian weavers were simply mass producing cloth for export with Ali and Allah embroidered as decoration. Keep in mind that Vik…
Wow, talk about conjecture! If they found these artifacts in their graves, the closes thing to truth is that they were Muslims, nothing else.
I don't think they thought this through. BBC, lol
Sceptical that this means that there were Muslim Vikings. Arabic script was commonly used throughout medieval Iberia as decoration, often without any meaningful words, just Arabic letters strung together for aesthetic effect. Wouldn’t surprise me if something similar was going on here, where Iranian weavers were simply mass producing cloth for export with Ali and Allah embroidered as decoration. Keep in mind that Vik…
> "We know from other Viking tomb > excavations that DNA analysis has > shown some of the people buried in > them originated from places like > Persia, where Islam was very dominant Which is also not proof-positive that there were Muslim Vikings, but as we know there were Persian Vikings, and as the name Allah appears as decoration, it does start to see pretty likely, no?
Was that true at the time? They were certainly ruled by a caliphate, but other religions survive in Persia till this day so I wouldn't be surprised if the process took centuries. There also appears to be some repression of Persian people after. That Viking could of also been a refugee of the islamification process or the various power struggles in the region at the time.
This makes me think of the movie the 13th warrior[0] where a warrior from Baghdad fights along side Vikings [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_13th_Warrior
This makes me think of the movie the 13th warrior[0] where a warrior from Baghdad fights along side Vikings [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_13th_Warrior