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Volga trade route

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Nicholas Roerich:Through a Portage(1915)

In theMiddle Ages,theVolga trade routeconnectedNorthern Europeand NorthwesternRussiawith theCaspian Seaand theSasanian Empire,via theVolga River.[1][2]TheRusused this route to trade withMuslim countrieson the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, sometimes penetrating as far asBaghdad.The powerfulVolga Bulgars(cousins of today'sBalkanBulgarians) formed aseminomadicconfederation and traded through the Volga river withVikingpeople of Rus' and Scandinavia (Swedes, Danes, Norwegians) and with the southernByzantine Empire(Eastern Roman Empire)[3]Furthermore, Volga Bulgaria, with its two cities Bulgar and Suvar east of what is todayMoscow,traded with Russians and the fur-sellingUgrians.[3][4]Chesswas introduced to Medieval Rus via the Caspian-Volga trade routes from Persia and Arabia.[5]

The route functioned concurrently with theDniepertrade route, better known as thetrade route from the Varangians to the Greeks,and lost its importance in the 11th century.

Establishment[edit]

The Rus trading slaves with the Khazars:Trade in theEast SlavicCampbySergei Ivanov(1913)

The Volga trade route was established by theVarangianswho settled in Northwestern Russia in the early 9th century. About 10 km (6 mi) south of theVolkhov Riverentry intoLake Ladoga,they established a settlement calledLadoga(Old Norse:Aldeigjuborg).[6]Archaeological evidence suggests Rus trading activities along the Volga trade route as early as the end of the 8th century. The earliest and the richest finds of Arabic coins in Europe were discovered on the territory of present-day Russia, particularly along theVolga,atTimerevoin the district ofYaroslavl.A hoard of coins found atPetergof,nearSaint Petersburg,contains twenty coins with graffiti inArabic,Khazarrunic,Greek,andOld Norserunic, the latter accounting for more than half of the total. These coins includeSassanid,Arab,and Arabo-Sassaniddirhams,the latest of them dated to 804–805.[7]Having examined major finds of Arabic coins in Eastern Europe,Valentin Yaninconclusively demonstrated that the earliest monetary system of early Russia was based on the early type of dirham minted in Africa.[8]Furthermore, Iranian lusterware was already discovered in the Oka and Upper Volga regions (more precisely, it is spread inRostov,Yaroslavl,Suzdal,Tver,MoscowandRyazan).[9]

Functioning[edit]

Map showing the major Varangian trade routes: the Volga trade route (in red) and theTrade Route from the Varangians to the Greeks(in purple). Other trade routes of the eighth-eleventh centuries shown in orange.

From Aldeigjuborg, theRuscould travel up the Volkhov River toNovgorod,then toLake Ilmenand further along theLovat River.Taking their boats around 3 kilometersover a portage,they reached the sources of Volga. The traders brought furs, honey, and slaves through territory held byFinnicandPermiantribes down to the land of theVolga Bulgars.From there, they continued by way of the Volga, to theKhazar Khaganate,whose capitalAtilwas a busy entrepot on the shore of the Caspian Sea. From Atil, the Rus merchants traveled across the sea to join the caravan routes leading to Baghdad.[6]In 9th and 10th centuries the river was also major trade route betweenRussians,Khazarsand Volga Bulgars.[10][11]Furthermore, the Volga connected merchants from Volga Bulgaria with people fromScandinaviaand the southernByzantine Empire,as well with Russians and Ugrians.

Around 885–886,ibn Khordadbehwrote about the Rus merchants who brought goods from Northern Europe and Northwestern Russia to Baghdad:

[They] transport beaver hides, the pelts of the black fox and swords from the farthest reaches of theSaqalibato the Sea of Rum [i.e., theBlack Sea]. The ruler of Rum [i.e., theByzantine Empire] takes a tithe of them. If they wish, they go to theTnysriver [i.e., "Tanais",theGreekname of theDon River],Yitil[i.e., Itil, the ancient name of the Volga], orTin[variously identified as Don orSeversky Donets], the River of theSaqaliba.They travel toKhamlij,the city of the Khazars whose ruler takes a tithe of them. Then they betake themselves to the Sea ofJurjan[Caspian Sea] and they alight on whichever of its shores they wish.... Sometimes, they carry their goods from Jurjan by camel to Baghdad.Saqlabslaves translate for them. They claim that they areChristiansand pay thejizya.[12]

In ibn Khordadbeh's account, the Rus are described as "a kind of theSaqaliba",a term usually used to refer toSlavs,andanti-Normanistscholars have interpreted this passage as indicative of the Rus being Slavs rather thanScandinavians.In the interpretation of the Normanist scholars, the wordSaqalibawas also frequently applied to all fair-haired, ruddy-complexioned population ofCentral,Eastern,andNortheastern Europe,so ibn Khordadbeh's language is ambiguous here (seeRus' (people)for details of the dispute between Normanists and Antinormanists).[12]

Modern scholars have also clashed over the interpretation of ibn Khordadbeh's report that the Rus usedSaqlabinterpreters. Anti-Normanists construed this passage as evidence that the Rus and their interpreters shared a common Slavic mother tongue. Slavic, however, was alingua francain the Eastern Europe at that time.[12]

ThePersiangeographeribn Rustahdescribed the Rus communities living along Volga:

They sail their ships to ravage as-Saqaliba[the surrounding Slavs], and bring back captives whom they sell atKhazaranandBolghar... They have no estates, villages, or fields; their only business is to trade in sable, squirrel, and other furs, and the money they take in these transactions they stow in their belts. Their clothes are clean and the men decorate themselves with gold armlets. They treat their slaves well, and they wear exquisite clothes since they pursue trade with great energy.[13]

In 921–922,ibn Fadlanwas a member of a diplomatic delegation sent from Baghdad toVolga Bulgars,and he left an account of his personal observations about the Rus of the Volga region, who dealt in furs and slaves.Johannes Brøndstedinterpreted ibn Fadlan's commentary as indicating that these Rus retained their Scandinavian customs regarding weapons, punishments, ship-burials, and religious sacrifices.[14]Ibn Fadlan's account includes a detailed description of the Rus praying and making sacrifices for success in trade:

On anchoring their vessels, each man goes ashore carrying bread, meat, onions, milk, andnabid[possibly, beer], and these he takes to a large wooden stake with a face like that of a human being, surrounded by smaller figures, and behind them tall poles in the ground. Each man prostrates himself before the large post and recites: 'O Lord, I have come from distant parts with so many girls, so many sable furs (and whatever other commodities he is carrying). I now bring you this offering.' He then presents his gift and continues 'Please send me a merchant who has many dinars and dirhems, and who will trade favourably with me without too much bartering.' Then he retires. If, after this, business does not pick up quickly and go well, he returns to the statue to present further gifts. If results continue slow, he then presents gifts to the minor figures and begs their intercession, saying, 'These are our Lord's wives, daughters, and sons.' Then he pleads before each figure in turn, begging them to intercede for him and humbling himself before them. Often trade picks up, and he says 'My Lord has required my needs, and now it is my duty to repay him.' Whereupon he sacrifices goats or cattle, some of which he distributes as alms. The rest he lays before the statues, large and small, and the heads of the beasts he plants upon the poles. After dark, of course, the dogs come and devour the lot -and the successful trader says, 'My Lord is pleased with me, and has eaten my offerings.'[15]

On the other hand, the Rus came under foreign influence in such matters as dead chief's costume and in the habit of overloading of their women with jewelry:[14]

Each woman carries on her bosom a container made of iron, silver, copper, or gold -its size and substance depending on her man's wealth. Attached to the container is a ring carrying her knife which is also tied to her bosom. Round her neck she wears gold or silver rings; when a man amasses 10,000 dirhems he makes his wife one gold ring; when he has 20,000 he makes two; and so the woman gets a new ring for every 10,000 dirhems her husband acquires, and often a woman has many of these rings. Their finest ornaments are green beads made from clay. They will go to any length to get hold of these; for one dirhem they procure one such bead and they string these into necklaces for their women.[16]

Connection to the slave trade[edit]

Samanid coins found in theSpillings Hoard.
Vikings captured people during their raids in Europe.
Trade negotiations in the country of Eastern Slavs. Pictures of Russian history. (1909). Vikings sold people they captured in Europe to Arab merchants in Russia.

During theViking Age,thralls(Norse slaves) were an important part of the economy and one of the main reasons for theraids on Englandin which slaves were captured. TheSamanid slave tradein Bukhara constituted one of the two great furnishers of slaves tothe Muslim marketin the Abbasid Caliphate;the other being theKhazar slave trade.[17]

Background[edit]

Slavery was common in the Viking age period, and one of the main reasons for theViking expansionwas the search for slaves in other countries. One of the reasonsKievan Ruscame to be was that Scandinavian settlers established themselves and traded with captured slaves. Arabic merchants from the Caspian Sea and Byzantine merchants from the Black Sea bought their goods to the trade markets in Rus, where they met the Viking traders and warriors known asVarangians,and traded their goods for the slaves captured by the Vikings in Europe.

The Vikings used the demand for slaves in the Southern slave markets in the Orthodox Byzantine Empire and the Islamic Middle Eastern Caliphate, both of whom craved slaves of a different religion than their own. During the Middle Ages, organized alongside religious principles. Both Christians and Muslims banned the enslavement of people of their own faith, but both approved of the enslavement of people of a different faith;[18]both did allow the enslavement of people they regarded to be heretics, which allowed Catholic Christians to enslave Orthodox Christians, and Sunni Muslims to enslave Shia Muslims.[19]However, both Christians and Muslims approved of enslaving Pagans, who came to be a preferred target of the slave trade in the Middle Ages, and Pagan war captives were sold by Pagan enemies into the slave trade.[19]

The Viking slave trade[edit]

See also:Saqaliba,Dublin slave trade,Balkan slave trade,Prague slave trade,History of concubinage in the Muslim world,andIslamic views on concubinage

The Vikings trafficked European slaves captured in Viking raids in Europe via Scandinavia to the East in two destinations via Russia and the Volga trade route; one toSlavery in the Abbasid Caliphatein the Middle East via the Caspian Sea, theSamanid slave tradeand Iran; and one to theByzantine Empireand the Mediterranean viaDnieperand theBlack Sea slave trade.[20][21] Until the 9th-century, the Vikings trafficked European slaves from theBaltic Seain the North or theNorth Seain the West via theWislaor theDonaurivers South East through Europe to the Black Sea.[22] The Viking slave route was redirected in the 9th-century, and until the 11th-century the Vikings trafficked European slaves from theBaltic Seavia Ladoga,Novgorodand theMstariver via theRoute from the Varangians to the Greeksto theByzantine Empirevia theBlack Sea slave trade,or to theAbbasid Caliphatevia the Caspian Sea (and theBukhara slave trade) via the Volga trade route.[22]

ArchbishopRimbertof Bremen (d. 888) reported that he witnessed a “large throng of captured Christians being hauled away” in the Viking port ofHedebyin Denmark, one of whom was a woman who sang psalms to identify herself as a Christian nun, and who the bishop was able to free by exchanging his horse for her freedom.[23]

People taken captive during the Viking raids in Western Europe, such as Ireland, could be sold toMoorish Spainvia theDublin slave trade[24]or transported toHedebyor Brännö and from there via the Volga trade route to Russia, where slaves and furs were sold to Muslim merchants in exchange for Arab silverdirhamandsilk,which have been found inBirka,WollinandDublin;[25]initially this trade route between Europe and the Abbasid Caliphate passedvia the Khazar Kaghanate,[26]but from the early 10th-century onward it wentvia Volga Bulgariaand from there by caravan toKhwarazm,to theSamanid slave marketin Central Asia and finally via Iran tothe Abbasid Caliphate.[27]

This trade was the source of the Arabdirhamsilver hoards found in Scandinavia and functioned from at least 786 until 1009, when such coins have been found there, and it would have been so lucrative that it contributed to the continuing Viking raids in Europe, which was used by the Vikings as a slave supply source for this trade with the Islamic world.[28] Among such hoards can be mentioned theSpillings Hoardand theSundveda Hoard.

One of the only accounts describing Norse slave practices in detail and first person is the Arabic merchantIbn Fadlanmeeting Volga Vikings. DescribingVikingsusing the Volga trade route usingSaqalibaor Slavic slaves as translators when trading. There he describes the Norseship burialsonly known in Norse society before the Viking expansion in 800 AD into Russia and Ukraine and that a slave girl was sacrificed to follow her master. Norse burials found in Sweden and Norway indicate that slaves were sacrificed in Sweden to follow their masters to the afterlife. However, Swedish archaeology shows that mostly male slaves were killed to follow their master into the afterlife and not females. Sacrificed female slaves have however been found sacrificed in Norway, where a woman found in the grave showed signs of having her throat slit in a similar manner to the execution described by Ibn Fadlan.[29][30]

During the 11th-century, the Viking nations of Denmark, Norway and Sweden became Christian, which made it impossible for them to continue to conduct slave raids toward Christian Europe and sell Christian Europeans to Islamic slave traders.

Decline[edit]

The Volga trade route lost its importance by the 11th century due to the decline of silver output in theAbbasidcaliphate,and thus, thetrade route from the Varangians to the Greeks,which ran down theDnieperto theBlack Seaand the Byzantine Empire, gained more weight.[31]TheIcelandicsagaYngvars saga víðförladescribes an expedition of Swedes into the Caspian launched around 1041 from Sweden byIngvar the Far-Travelled(Ingvar VittfarneinNorse), who went down the Volga into the land of theSaracens(Serkland).[32][33]The expedition was unsuccessful, and afterwards, no attempts were made to use the route between theBalticand Caspian seas by the Scandinavian Norsemen.

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^"COMMERCE iii. Parthian and Sasanian periods – Encyclopaedia Iranica".iranicaonline.org.Retrieved2019-08-13.
  2. ^Squitieri, Andrea (2018-02-15).Revolutionizing a World: From Small States to Universalism in the Pre-Islamic near East.UCL Press. p. 171.ISBN9781911576648.OCLC1050964552.
  3. ^ab"Bulgar | people".Encyclopedia Britannica.Retrieved2019-08-10.
  4. ^Winroth, Anders (2014).The Conversion of Scandinavia: Vikings, Merchants, and Missionaries in the Remaking of Northern Europe.Yale University Press. p. 96.ISBN9780300205534.OCLC857879342.
  5. ^"History of Chess".nejca.co.uk.Retrieved2019-10-13.
  6. ^abBrøndsted (1965), pp. 64–65
  7. ^Noonan (1987–1991), pp. 213–219.
  8. ^Денежно-весовые системы русского средневековья: домонгольский период,1956
  9. ^Necipoğlu, Gülru, ed. (1999).Muqarnas - An Annual on the Visual Culture of the Islamic World. Volume 16.Leiden: E.J. Brill. p. 102.ISBN9004114823.OCLC44157164.
  10. ^Noonan, Thomas S. (1978)."Suzdalia's eastern trade in the century before the Mongol conquest".Cahiers du Monde Russe.19(4): 371–384.doi:10.3406/cmr.1978.1335.
  11. ^"Vikings as Traders".History on the Net.2014-06-08.Archivedfrom the original on Oct 25, 2020.Retrieved2019-08-10.
  12. ^abc"Rus."Encyclopaedia of Islam
  13. ^Brøndsted (1965), p. 268
  14. ^abBrøndsted (1965), p. 267
  15. ^Brøndsted (1965), p. 266
  16. ^From ibn Fadlan. Brøndsted (1965), p. 265
  17. ^Golden, Peter Benjamin (2011a). Central Asia in World History. New Oxford World History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-979317-4, p. 64
  18. ^Slavery in the Black Sea Region, C.900–1900: Forms of Unfreedom at the Intersection Between Christianity and Islam. (2021). Nederländerna: Brill. 5
  19. ^abKorpela, J. (2018). Slaves from the North: Finns and Karelians in the East European Slave Trade, 900–1600. Nederländerna: Brill. 242
  20. ^Pargas & Schiel, Damian A.; Juliane (2023). The Palgrave Handbook of Global Slavery Throughout History. Tyskland: Springer International Publishing. p. 126
  21. ^The Palgrave Handbook of Global Slavery Throughout History. (2023). Tyskland: Springer International Publishing. p. 126
  22. ^abKorpela, Jukka Jari (2018). Slaves from the North – Finns and Karelians in the East European Slave Trade, 900–1600. Studies in Global Slavery, Band: 5. Nederländerna: Brill. p. 35
  23. ^The slave trade of European women to the Middle East and Asia from antiquity to the ninth century. by Kathryn Ann Hain. Department of History The University of Utah. December 2016. Copyright © Kathryn Ann Hain 2016. All Rights Reserved.https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6616pp7.p. 244-246
  24. ^Loveluck, C. (2013). Northwest Europe in the Early Middle Ages, C.AD 600–1150: A Comparative Archaeology. USA: Cambridge University Press. p. 321
  25. ^The New Cambridge Medieval History: Volume 3, C.900-c.1024. (1995). Storbritannien: Cambridge University Press. p. 91
  26. ^The World of the Khazars: New Perspectives. Selected Papers from the Jerusalem 1999 International Khazar Colloquium. (2007). Nederländerna: Brill. p. 232
  27. ^The New Cambridge Medieval History: Volume 3, C.900-c.1024. (1995). Storbritannien: Cambridge University Press. p. 504
  28. ^The slave trade of European women to the Middle East and Asia from antiquity to the ninth century. by Kathryn Ann Hain. Department of History The University of Utah. December 2016. Copyright © Kathryn Ann Hain 2016. All Rights Reserved.https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6616pp7.
  29. ^Simone Liw de Bernardi (2020) Vikingatidens begravningsritualer – avrättad för att följa en annan i graven, Uppsala university
  30. ^"British Archaeology magazine. Vol. 59. Britarch.ac.uk. June 2001. Archived from the original on 2011-02-13. Retrieved 2014-02-03.
  31. ^Brøndsted (1965), p. 117
  32. ^Thunberg, Carl L.(2010).Ingvarståget och dess monument.Göteborgs universitet. CLTS.ISBN978-91-981859-2-8.
  33. ^Thunberg, Carl L. (2011).Särkland och dess källmaterial.Göteborgs universitet. CLTS. pp. 20-22.ISBN978-91-981859-3-5.

References[edit]

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