Viking connections in Sweden and the Islamic world. While Sweden was not directly involved in the Viking Age in Britain or France, it did play a significant role as a receiver of Muslim silver coinage and other goods and commodities from the Islamic world via Russia. These goods and commodities were traded with the Vikings from Denmark and Norway and later distributed across Western Europe, including Britain, Ireland, France, Iceland, Germany, Holland, and the Friesian Islands.
The archaeological evidence of a Swedish Viking with the Muslim-sounding name “Ali” (see illustration) shows that this was the case. A portion of modern-day Finland was a part of Viking Age Sweden, while the southwestern region of Sweden was a part of Denmark during that time. In addition to their military exploits in Russia and the Baltic region, the Swedish Vikings were also farmers, traders, and hunters. During the Viking Age, Sweden was an important player in both Scandinavia and Russia.
There is strong archaeological evidence in Sweden that the Vikings made many trips to the Islamic world. The Swedish Vikings believed that the east was the way to riches, rather than the west. Swedish society, economics, and culture were profoundly affected by the Viking Age, which was fueled by the foundation of commerce between the Islamic world and Sweden. Extensive archaeological evidence in Sweden and the regions where Swedish Vikings settled in Russia suggests that a significant number of these people sought to acquire Muslim silver and other aspects of the wealthy and sophisticated Islamic civilization through trade with the Islamic world via Russia.
The Swedish archaeology professor Göran Burenhult from the University of Stockholm claims that many runic stones from Sweden depict journeys to ‘Gårdarike’ in Russia, ‘Säarkland’ in the Arab Caliphate, and ‘Miklargård’ in the Byzantine capital of Constantinople. The Viking Age Scandinavians’ use of these phrases, as documented in runic inscriptions, gives us insight into their perception and naming of the territories of Russia, Byzantium, and Islam in the ninth and tenth centuries.
The abundance of Muslim coins discovered in Sweden, most of which come from the ‘Abbasid and Samanid States,’ with whom the Swedish Vikings traded, suggests that the Vikings of Sweden had extensive trade relations with the Islamic world in the ninth and tenth centuries, when there were strong commercial ties between Scandinavia and the Islamic world. As discussed in the section on Russia in this work, the Swedish Vikings’ interest in trading with Muslims led to a substantial presence of Swedish Vikings in Russia, which played a significant role as a trading post between the Islamic world and Viking Age Scandinavia.
Clements claims that the Swedes had bypassed intermediaries and made direct contact with the silver’s source. He continues by saying that two waves of silver, one from Muslims in the Rus areas and another from Gotland, suggest that the Vikings from the homeland sought out direct trade with the Muslims.When it came to intermediaries, in the ninth century CE, the demand for silver from the Vikings exceeded the supply. Archaeologists who study the Viking age believe that the Muslim dirhem was the gasoline that drove the Vikings. In addition to the more recent extremely large discovery of Islamic coinage near Stockholm airport, two important sites and regions where substantial archaeological evidence of Swedish Viking links with the Islamic world has been found in Sweden are Birka and the Island of Gotland. We will discuss both of these locations below.
Birka is situated on the island of Björkö
Birka, whose name means “black earth” due to the soil’s color, is situated on the island of Björkö in the Mälar region, some 28 kilometers west of the Stockholm area. Due to the abundance of birch trees on this little island in Sweden’s Lake Mälar, the name Björkö means “Birch Island” in Swedish. Other Swedish Viking trading posts, such as those in Finland and Ukraine, also had birch trees, as mentioned elsewhere in this book. Many (but not all) Viking trading posts and villages in the Swedish Viking world (especially in comparison to the rest of the Viking world) were named after birch trees because of their prevalence in the area.
Thus, it is reasonable to assume that birch trees played an important role in the Swedish Viking world’s landscape. This would add to what we already know about the specialization and uniqueness of the Viking world in relation to Sweden, such as the size and shape of their ships. It was believed that the sea level near Birka was roughly 5 meters lower during the Viking Age, which had consequences for shipping.