The Islamic World, Russia and the Vikings, 750-900: The Numismatic Evidence (Variorum Collected Studies Series, 595) [Hardcover]

Thomas S. Noonan (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0860786579 | ISBN-13: 978-0860786573 | Publication Date: July 1998

This collection of articles examines the origins and development of early medieval commerce through an analysis of the dirham hoards from European Russia and the Baltic - between 750-900 - when Viking and Rus' merchants took fur and slaves south through European Russia to the markets of Khazaria and the 'Abbasid caliphate. In exchange the merchants were provided with large quantities of silver coins or dirhams, which had a powerful influence on the merchants' home areas with little or no silver of their own. The trade precipitated the Vikings' penetration into the interior of European Russia, fostered the emergence of new towns, provided the original impetus for the formation of the Rus' and Volgar Bulgar states, and helped transform the Khazar economy and state.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 350 pages
• Publisher: Variorum (July 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0860786579
• ISBN-13: 978-0860786573
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,339,627 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very scholary and important collection., August 3, 2003

By 

Heidi M. Sherman (Minneapolis, Minnesota United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Islamic World, Russia and the Vikings, 750-900: The Numismatic Evidence (Variorum Collected Studies Series, 595) (Hardcover)

Thomas Noonan was a professor of History at the University of Minnesota and one of the world's leading and most prolific scholars of medieval Russia for nearly three decades. Particularly, Professor Noonan's research focused on analyzing the hundreds of Islamic silver coin hoards that were deposited in the soil of Scandinavia, the eastern Baltic, and European Russia during the late eighth through the late tenth centuries. Using the hoards, Noonan succeeded in establishing patterns of Viking activity in Eastern Europe which had remained elusive to historians due to the lack of literary evidence for the period. He shed further light on the numismatic evidence by surveying the Russian archaeological material and the literary evidence from Byzantium, Khazaria, Central Asia, and the Islamic Caliphate.

This collection of essays addresses such questions as: Why did the Vikings first come to Russia? One of the primary reasons, according to Noonan, was the availability of silver flowing through Eastern Europe from the Islamic Caliphate. In another article, Noonan discusses why the flow of silver began in the mid- to late-eighth century, focusing particularly on the problems within the Caliphate, which led to its concluding peace and opening of trade relations with the Khazars. In another article, Noonan examines the distribution of silver throughout Russia in the ninth century, which suggests patterns of Viking activity in the East which are not discernible in the written sources. Noonan's reconstruction of this portion of Viking history using often intractable evidence is a brilliant contribution to Viking and Russian history.

Readers should be aware, however, that this is a collection of essays and not a monograph. The reader should not expect an immediately accessible narrative of Viking raids and adventures. Noonan's writing style is, however, refreshingly lucid and engaging for high scholarship. The cost of the collection is also beyond the practical means of most readers. In order to avoid the cost, one may find all of the articles in journals and anthologies available in most research libraries.

Warnings of accessibility and cost aside, Noonan's work is fundamental to anyone seriously interested in the eastern Viking world. Viking studies has long suffered from its wetern European emphasis. General works on the Vikings may include a short section on the Vikings in Russia, but these sections are too often brief and simplistic due to the understandable problems in assimilating Russian-language material. Professor Noonan tried to redress the balance, but his work was often ignored because he did not produce a monograph before his death in 2001. It is hoped that the articles in this volume, along with his more than 100 studies, will receive more attention in the future.