Birka was established as a Gotlandic (Varangian)

trading Emporium at the northern point of the

Rus-Varangian trading route to Bagdad
(by Tore Gannholm, ”Gotland the Pearl of the Baltic Sea Center of commerce and culture in the
Baltic Sea region for over 2000 years” ISBN:978-91-87481-05-5, ”The Gotlandic Merchant Republic
and its Medieval Churches” ISBN:978-91-87481-49-9, 701 pages 1400 photos)

After Bagdad was founded in 762 and the capital of the Islamic Caliphate was
moved from Damascus to Bagdad the Gotlandic merchants traded with the
Islamic Caliphate which they called Særkland and the Khazar Khaganate with
their capital Atil on the Volga.

From end 700s silver from the Islamic Caliphate started to flow. The Gotlan-
ders who knew the Russian rivers since earlier went all the way to the river
Volga and the Kaspian Sea. They were on the Russian rivers called Varangians

Sites with traces of Varangian material culture along the Russian rivers after Wladyzlaw Duczko.

1
and al-Rus’ (expeditions of rowing ships). The Gotlanders founded, end 700s and
first half of the 800s, between the Baltic Sea and the Volga bases which today
are called the Rus’ Khaganate. This was a state, or a cluster of city-states all
through Russia to the Volga. The Spilling’s Treasure can be dated to the Rus’
Khaganate.

The first documented contact with a delegation of Gotlandic merchants (Rhos)

to visit Miklagarðr (Constantinople) is in 838. There are three separate written
sources that mention it and a coin with the emperor Theophilos was found in
the large silver hoard at Spillings. Miklagarðr means the large farm in contrast
to the small farms they had at home in Gotland.

About 860 most of these bases in the Rus’ Khaganate were destroyed and
sources tell that the Varangians were driven away. At the same time a Gotlandic
fleet with 200 ships besieged Constantinople for about 14 months in 860-861
with the outcome of longlasting agreemets between the Gotlanders and the
Byzantine Emperor.

On June 18, 860, at sunset, a fleet of about 200 Rhos vessels sailed into the
Bosporus and started pillaging the suburbs of Constantinople, Miklagarðr.
The attackers were setting homes on fire, drowning and stabbing the residents.
The attack took the Greeks by surprise, ‘like a thunderbolt from heaven’. The
Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Photius (858-867 and 877-886) says that
it came suddenly and unexpectedly, ‘like a swarm of wasps’. Unable to do
anything to repel the invaders, Patriarch Photius urged his flock to implore
the Theotokos to save the city. Emperor Michael III and the Imperial Army,
including the troops normally stationed closest to the capital, and the dreaded
fleet which discouraged with the deadly Greek Fire, fought against the Arabs in
Asia Minor. The exceptional time of the attack when the Rhos, Gotlandic Va-
rangians, caught Constantinople unprepared suggests that the Rhos had infor-
mation about the city’s weaknesses. It shows that the Rhos trade and commu-
nication with Miklagarðr continued into the 840s and 850s. We don’t know how
many Gotlanders took service in the Imperial Guard in 838 and if they were
involved from inside. Still, the attack by the Rhos in 860 came as a surprise. The
Rhos–Byzantine War of 860-861 was the only major military expedition from
the Rus’ Khaganate recorded in Byzantine and Western European sources.

Accounts vary regarding the events that took place around Constantinople.

2
There are discrepancies between contemporary and later sources, and the ex-
act outcome is unknown. This event gave rise to a later Orthodox Christian
tradition, which ascribed the deliverance of Constantinople to a miraculous
intervention by the Theotokos, mother of God. The Rhos campaign of 860-
861 lasted ten months at least and ended some time in 861.

Evidently the hymn Acathistus was composed and first performed in comme-
moration of the solemn procession which has been described with many de-
tails and which, according to later local tradition led to the final cease of the
siege by the Rhos.

Since the yearly performance of the Acathistus was fixed for March 22, we may
consider this date as the day when the solemn procession with the sacred vest-
ment of the Holy Virgin took place. In other words, at the close of March 861
the Rhos were already withdrawing from under the walls of Constantinople.
Their invasion left so deep an impression on the minds of the people that the
Acathistus has remained permanently fixed in the ritual of the Greek-Orho-
dox Church. Without doubt some of the most impressive moments during
the invasion of 860-861 were those of the solemn processions headed by the
Patriarch Photius, when the precious garment of the Virgin Mary, preserved in
the Chruch of the Virgin at Blanchernae, was borne round the walls of the city.

It was not the first time that this venerated relic was used during a critical ex-
perience for the capital. The best known occasion was during the siege of the
city by Avars, Scythians and Persians in 626 when, according to a legendary
tradition, the relic had saved the capital. Doubtless such religious performances
deeply impressed the superstitious populace and furnished them real consola-
tion and comfort.

It is a very interesting question whether the Gotlandic Rhos invasion of 860-

861 ended in a definite agreement with the Byzanatine government or not.
Theophanes’ Continuator writes that shortly after the Rhos withdrawal a Rhos
embassy came to Constantinople beseeching to be converted to Christianity,
and that this conversion indeed took place. We can probably conclude that
negotiations initiated by the Rhos took place at once after the campaign of
860-861 and ended in a friendly agreement.

Photius writings provide the earliest example of use of the name Rhos by the

3
Byzantines. He also mentions the foresaid contact in 838 between the Byzanti-
ne Empire and the Rhos.

Previously, the inhabitants of the countries north of the Black Sea had been
called ‘archaic’or ‘Tauroscyths’. The learned patriarch reports that the Rhos
has no supreme ruler and live in some remote northern country. Photius called
them ‘unknown people’, although some historians prefer to translate the phra-
se with ‘obscure people’.

In the year 911 a document was signed between the Byzantine Emperor Leo VI
and the Gotlandic Varangians: Karl, Ingjald, Farulf, Vermund, Hrollaf, Gun-
nar, Harold, Kami, Frithleif, Hroarr, Angantyr, Throand, Leithulf, Fast, and
Steinvith.
One of the aims of the treaty was to maintain and proclaim the amity which
for many years had joined Christians, i.e, Greeks, and Rhos, Gotlanders. This
statement very well explains the peaceful relations between the two countries
that began in 861 or shortly thereafter. It is known that in the treaty of 911
there is a special clause which allows the Gotlandic Rhos who desire honoring
the Emperor to come at any time and to remain in his service. They shall be
permitted in this respect to act according to their desire. We must not forget
that Leo VI was the grandson of the Gotlandic Varangian Ingr and was well
aware of Gotlandic conditions.

Leo’s son Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos writes that the Krivichs and
other tribes transported hollowed-out sailboats, or monoxyla, which could ac-
commodate thirty to forty people, to places along the rivers. These sailboats
were then transported along the Dnieper to Kiev. There they were sold to the
Varangians who re-equipped them and loaded them with merchandise.

The most authoritative source on the first Christianization of the Rhos is an

encyclical letter from the Patriarch Photius, datable to early 867. Referencing to
the Rhos-Byzantine War of 860-861, Photius informs the Oriental patriarchs
and bishops that, after the Bulgars turned to Christ in 864, the Rhos followed
suit so zealously that he found it prudent to send a bishop to their land.

The first church was according to Guta Saga in Kulstäde. It was burned down,
but in 897 the church in Visby, probably where the present St. Clemens stands,
was allowed to remain. We today know of 55 wooden churches, probably all

4
from the 900s. From the beginning of the 1000s the wooden churches were
replaced with Romanesque stone churches in Macedonian Renaissance art.

Macedonian Renaissance art (867-1056) was a period in Byzantine art which be-
gan in the period following the death of Emperor Theophilus in 842 and the
lifting of the ban on icons, iconoclasm. The Gotlanders were deeply involved
in Miklagar∂r during that time and the early Gotlandic churches are highly in-
fluenced by Armenian church buildings and the Byzantine art.

In 886 the grandson to the Gotlandic Varangian Ingr became Emperor under
the name Leo VI the Wise. The Gotlandic church was like the Armenian and
Georgian churches independant, directly under Gutna Althingi, and did never
submit to any bishop or the Catholic Pope. During the first 300 years the Got-
landic Church was Byzantine with Byzantine ritual and paintings. From 1164,
when the Catholic bishop in Linköping was hired to inaugurate churches, even
Catholic rituals came creeping in.

Later the Gotlanders settled in Garðaríki (Kievan-Rus’) and Holmgarðr (Novgo-

rod) where Gotlandic Varangians became the first rulers. Gradually they ope-
ned Emporiums, ‘Gutagårdar’. Several such ‘Gutagårdar’ are known. They sold
furs, weapons and slaves and were paid in hard cash. Gotland has today the
worlds largest collection of coins from the Islamic Caliphate, most of them
minted in Bagdad.

We know from Arabic writers in the 800s that al-Rus’ were merchants from the
island in the Baltic Sea region, who came rowing on the Russian rivers. From
there comes later the name Russia.
The etymology of the name al-Rus’/Rhos
needs clarification. Many scholars have wrongly maintained that the word al-
Rus’ must be identical with the Finnish word Ruotsi and Estonian Rootsi.
Sven
Ekbo (1981) convincingly connects the word to Old Norse ro∂r meaning ‘ex-
pedition of rowing ships’.
Accordingly there were on the Russian rivers in the
late 700s and 800s rowing Gotlandic merchants, Varangians, who the Arabic
writers called al-Rus’.

In the Baltic Sea and on the Russian rivers there were no Vikings. The Got-
landic merchants were called Varangians. Please note that there is no sign of
Scandinavians on the Russian rivers or in Kiev until Olof Skötkonung married
off his daughter Ingegerd to Jaroslav in Kiev in 1019. The large amount of

5
Scandinavians in Kiev come in the 1040s with Ingvar and his warriors.

Gotland is said to have been an unusually homogeneous society as the po-

pulation structure is concerned. There has never been any feodal nobles on
Gotland. There were of course social inequalities. The Merchant Farmers, who
ran the trade and among other places visited outlying venues such as Aldeig-
juborg, Atil, Bagdad, Bulgar, Holmga∂r, Kiev and Miklagarðr in the east and
Bardowick, Schleswig, Bergen, London and Spain in the west, formed a wealt-
hy upper class, who surely had power in their hands, even in political terms. It
has been assumed that for instance judges were recruited mainly from these
lineages. An intermediate position holds ‘rural residents’, that the Guta Lagh
mentions. These were probably tenants. At the bottom of the scale of ranks we
find the serfs, who performed the heavy work, and who were for sale, mainly
in the eastern trading venues. Not least in this area came Christianity and the
Church to be significant, particularly in humanizing direction.

The Trade Treaty between the Gotlanders and the newly in the Lake Mälar
area immigrant Heruli (Svear), probably from second half of the 500s, means
that the Gotlanders could freely trade on the new kingdom in the Lake Mälar
area and its conquered lands east of the Baltic Sea. Instead of paying customs
duty every time they passed the border they paid a fixed amount every year and
could then trade freely in all areas controlled by the Svear. There were large
Gotlandic trading Emporiums, i. a. in Grobina (Latvia) ca 650- 850 CE, with
over 1000 Gotlandic graves, an area at that time was conquered by the Svear.

On Helgö was on the northeastern part of the island an ancient trade and
workshop site. The area consists of seven house groups, five burial fields and
an ancient castle from between 200 to 500. There are also clear traces of pre-
cocious cult on the island and an early temple building. The old trading place
at Helgö began to grow around 200, and is therefore about 500 years older
than Birka on Björkö. Already in the 400s there were skilled craftsmen in pla-
ce with strong links to Gotland. Among other things, there are rich traces of
goldsmiths and other workshops. Helgö’s greatness period is considered to be
400-800 AD. The advanced bronze foundry and craft cease in the 600s and
Helgö assumes a more ordinary farm character. About 750 the Gotlanders
move their trade to Birka that dominates trade in the Lake Mälar area until the
late 900s, when Sigtuna probably takes over the trade. Evidence of long-term
trade in the form of a small Buddha from Swat Valley in India, an early Chris-

6
tian Coptic baptismal cup from Egypt, both dating back to the 500s, as well
as an Irish Crosier from the 800s and coins from Ravenna, Rome, Bysans and
Arabia shows the importance of the site. The island’s merchants may have had
the royal families from Vendel and Uppsala as customers for their luxury items,
such as jewelery, glass and spices.

The immigration of the Herul Royal family (Svear) to the Lake Mälar area in
the early 500s, when they bring a new ruling dynasty and a new religion to the
area, what we today know as the Ynglinga dynasty and the Æsir religion, is
mentioned in several sources. Their entrance on the stage changes the situation
in the Baltic Sea region. The wars between the Skilfings (Svear) and the Gotlan-
ders are mentioned in the Beowulf epos and the Guta Saga. No traces of Æsir
religion is discernible on Gotland. The eight-legged horse that can be seen on
three Gotlandic picture stones is a Shaman horse that the Gotlanders came in
contact with in Khazaria. An eight-legged horse is not known in Scandinavia,
only on three picture stones from the 700-800s in Gotland. It is only mentio-
ned by Snorre Sturlason in his Edda from the 1200s.

Ibn Rustah travelled to Novgorod with the al-Rus’, and compiled books re-
lating to his own travels, as well as second-hand knowledge of the Khazars,
Magyars, Slavs, Bulgars, and other peoples. His impression of the al-Rus’ is
very favourable: ‘They carry clean clothes and the men adorn themselves with
bracelets of gold. They treat their slaves well and they also carry exquisite
clothes, because they put great effort in trade. They have many towns. They
have a most friendly attitude towards foreigners and strangers who seek refuge.’

The establishment of the Varangian trading place Birka in the Lake Mälar area
and Sliesthorp in Denmark show a common special Gotlandic type, which in
ancient times developed in the Baltic Sea region. What we are talking about
here is the Gotlandic or Varangian commercial Emporiums across the Baltic
Sea e.g. Grobina and Paviken which are direct models. In a semicircle around
the old town area lie the three cemeteries and, like Birka, it has also had a
stronghold as support point.

Sliesthorp was a transit harbour and therefore terminus for the Frisian trade.
Frisian koggs did not reach Sliesthorp. They stayed in Hollingstedt. The goods
were then transported on trolleys between Hollingstedt and Sliestorp or vice
versa. From there Gotlandic merchants, the Varangians, took over the goods.

7
There are many links between Gotland and Birka. Birka is very centrally located
for trading in the Lake Mälar area and on the sea line from Gotland, which at
that time was open straight up to from Södertälje. The archaeologist Gustaf
Trotzig has in 1991 published a booklet on ‘Viking burial vessels of copper
and copper alloys from Birka and Gotland’. This type of grave finds are found
in the Baltic Sea region, Birka and on Gotland. Finds of such containers in
East Prussia occurs in combination with
ceramics of the same type as found
on southern
Gotland.
If you go into individual find areas on Gotland you
get
a picture on the graves location that is similar to
the one in Birka. The graves
with metal containers
are grouped in the same way. This is i.e. shown in
the
cemetery at Barshaldar in Grötlingbo.


This type of graves in Birka are considered to accommodate foreign merchants,

while graves on
Gotland would have Gotlanders. Of course, the
Gotlanders
who died in Birka were also buried there. Another relation to Gotland is Adam
of Bremen’s words. He says in his history: “Birka is the city of the Gotlanders

8
(Gothia) situated in the middle of the country of the Sveon (Gothia habitant usque
ad Bircam, postea longis terrarum spatiis regnant Sueones).”

Birka’s location in the Lake Mälar area made the city suitable as the pivot for
an internal trade in the winter markets on the Lake Mälar ice when the furs are
the best, and summer markets, where the ships could meet in the city’s harbour.
The presence of imported objects from the Orient and Western Europe in the
tombs are many. Uppland burial grounds could indicate that Birka to a large ex-
tent sold their imported goods, especially silk fabrics on the domestic market.

One must be cautious with the conclusions. There were other ways for the
trading ships, such as waterways through Roden (Roslagen) from the coast to the
interior of Uppland. It is howeveris quite clear that Birka traded with the rural
people. Bones of eider and other waterfowl in Birka’s garbage heaps show that
the residents in the archipelago provided merchants in Birka with food, and
reindeer testify trade to the north. The information in Ansgar’s biography, that
Birka had its own Thing, indicates that the city occupied a special position in
relation to the surrounding countryside and had remote commerce. Transit
trade between east, west and north was Birkas lifeblood. When it could not be
maintained any longer, the city disappeared or lost in any case its role shortly
after the middle of the 900s.

Silk textiles from the Viking age are a small but exclusive group of archaeolo-

9
gical finds in Scandinavia. The silk fragments are produced in many different
qualities. The majority of silks have been interpreted as either Central Asian or
as made in the Byzantine production area, that is in Constantinople, or in asso-
ciated areas in the eastern Mediterranean region. A few fragments from Birka
have been interpreted as Chinese silk. Great emphasis must be placed on the
Gotlandic merchants’, the Varangians or Rus as they are called in Arabic sour-
ces, strong ties to the Byzantine Empire in the 800s and 900s and thereby the
trade on the westernmost of the Russian waterways. Archaeological sources
give no reason to believe that the distribution of silk to the Baltic Sea areas is a
result of trading along one single route. The two major eastern trading routes
along the Russian rivers Dnjepr and the Volga-Oka region are likely routes for
the arrival of silk to both Oseberg and to Birka.

In Scandinavia so far 23 archaeological sites with finds of silks dating to the

800s and 900s have been registered, in most cases from graves. This includes
both silk fabrics and silk thread and lan-cores used in embroideries. In addi-
tion there are several graves with finds of fibres assumed to be silk but not yet

10
identified. Many of the sites revealed only one or a few fragments of silk. The
largest concentration of graves is in Birka in the Lake Mälar area where 49 gra-
ves, according to Agnes Geijer, contained silk.

Based on these finds in the graves a project at Enköping museum has re-
constructed silk fabrics with Islamic patterns.

The majority of graves containing silk from Birka are dated to the 900s. Of 49
graves, 37 are dated to this period while 12 date to the 800s. The fabric type
by Geijer called S4 dominates in both centuries and is the most common type
represented in all graves. This is a type of samite with z-spun main warps and
weft with no traces of spinning. Unlike the Oseberg silk fragments it has a
double main warp. The S4 group contains several different degrees of coarse-
ness in the weave. Geijer noticed that some fragments seemed mono coloured
while others bore traces of pattern. This could very well be caused by differen-
ces in preserving condition, as seen in the Oseberg silks. Geijer explains the
arrival of the most common type called S4 with strong connections with the
Byzantine Empire. A coarser and more uneven woven quality of similar samite
was separated by Geijer in a singular group called S5 with patterns showing
similarities with some of the Oseberg fragments regarded as Central Asian
products.
11
In one of the Birka graves, a very special find appeared. This is a fabric of
two-coloured silk damask, with a pattern of stars and dots. The threads of raw
silk bear no traces of spinning in either warp or weft. This silk, the only one
of its kind so far found in Scandinavia, is probably produced in China. Two
different qualities of raw silk tabby were found in four of the graves in Birka.
The fabrics bear no traces of spinning in warp or weft.

12
Khazaria, Volga Bulgaria and the Silk Trade
The Khazars, a semi-nomadic Turkish people closely related to the Bulgarians,
established one of the largest polities of medieval Eurasia, with Atil as the ca-
pital. Their territory covered much of modern-day European Russia, western
Kazakhstan, eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan, large portions of the northern Cau-
casus (Circassia, Dagestan), parts of Georgia, the Crimea, and northeastern Turkey.
They played a role in the balance of powers and destiny of the world civiliza-
tion. After Kubrat’s Great Bulgaria was destroyed by the Khazars in the 600s,
some of the Bulgars fled to the west and founded a new Bulgar state (presentday
Bulgaria) near the Danubian Plain, under the command of Khan Asparukh. The
rest of the Bulgars fled to the north of the Volga River region and founded at
the big bend in the Volga in Russia’s heart, where the river Kama flows into the
Volga, the Volga Bulgaria kingdom with its capital Bolghar. Volga Bulgaria’s
heyday occurred in the 900s. At that time they adopted Muhammad’s teachings.

The area south of the kingdom of the Volga Bulgars, between the Caspian
and Black Seas, accordingly belonged to the Khazars. Khazaria had an ongoing
entente with Byzantium. The Khazars aided the Byzantine emperor Heraclius
(reigned 610–641) by sending an army of 40,000 soldiers in his campaign against
the Persians in the Byzantine–Sassanid War of 602–628. They also served their
partner in wars against the Abbasid Caliphate.

Sarkel, a Turkish word meaning White Fortress, was built in the 830s by a joint
team of Greek and Khazar architects to protect the north-western border of
the Khazar state. The chief engineer during the construction of Sarkel was
Petronas Kamateros who later became the governor of Cherson. Khazaria was
the first feudal state to be established in Eastern Europe. According to ibn
Khordadhbeh the Khazarian Jewish merchants (Radhanites) were responsible for
the commerce between southwestern Asia and northern Europe, as well as
the connection to the Silk Road. The name ‘Khazar’ is found in numerous
languages and seems to be tied to a Turkish verb form meaning ‘wandering’
(modern Turkish: Gezer). Pax Khazarica is a term used by historians to refer to the
period during which Khazaria dominated the Pontic steppe and the Caucasus
Mountains.

The Gotlandic Varangians made regular commercial trips to the Khazar capital
Atil at the lower Volga and the city of Bolghar in the country of the Volga
Bulgars in the region of Kamas’ inflow in the Volga river.

13
 The unique coin from the Spillings Hoard with
the inscription ‘Moses is the prophet of God’
dated to 837-838. Photo: Kenneth Jonsson

After fighting the Arabs to a standstill in the North Caucasus, Khazars be-
came increasingly interested in replacing their Tengriism with a state religion
that would give them equal religious standing with their Abrahamic neighbors.
During the 800s, the Khazar royalty and much of the aristocracy converted to
a form of Judaism. Yitzhak ha-Sangari is the name of the rabbi who conver-
ted the Khazars to Judaism according to Jewish sources. Khazaria became the
world’s largest Jewish kingdom. It is estimated today that 80% of those in the
world who confess to the Jewish religion are descended from there. They are
also called the ‘13th tribe’. In Khazaria the main languages were Turkish, va-

14
rious Slavic languages and Gothic. If you mix these languages you get Jiddish.

Khazars were judged according to Tōra (orders of the Khagan; coming from the root
Tōr meaning customs; unwritten law of people in Old Turkic) (Modern Turkish: Töre), while the
other tribes were judged according to their own laws.


Being a surprisingly tolerant and pluralistic society, even its army incorporated
Jews, Christians, Muslims and Pagans at a time when religious warfare was the
order of the day around the Mediterranean and in Western Europe. By welco-
ming educated and worldly Jews from both Christian Europe and the Islamic
Middle East, Khazaria rapidly absorbed many of the arts and technologies of
civilization.

As a direct result of this cultural infusion, they became one of the very few
Asian steppe tribal societies that successfully made the transition from nomad
to urbanite. Settling in their newly created towns and cities between the Caspian
Sea and the Crimean Peninsula on the Black Sea, they became literate and mul-
ti-lingual agriculturalists, manufacturers and international traders.

The Islamic Bulgars in the Volga river bend and Khazaria were the two main
cross points for the trade routes to Europe. The main imported goods traded
in these markets were furs, slaves and weapons.

According to ibn Rustah and ibn Haukal, al-Rus’ delivered the first two men-
tioned in Khazaria and Volga Bulgaria. Ibn Rustah and Gurdesi explain that
the Varangians refused to accept anything else but jingling silver coins for their
goods.


In return they brought silk and other exotic products that they sold in Birka,
and these goods were handled by the Varangians (Rus) and came to the Baltic
Sea region through the Russian waterways.

Between 965 and 969, Khazar sovereignty was broken by the Kievan Rus’. Svi-
atoslav I of Kiev defeated them in 965 by conquering the Khazar fortress of
Sarkel. Two years later, Sviatoslav conquered Atil.

Archaeological finds of coins show a flow of Islamic dirhams mainly into Got-
land dated to around c. 800 to the last quarter of the 900s. Gotland has the

15
largest collection in the world of coins from the Islamic Caliphate, most of
them minted in Bagdad, and some from places well-known for silk production
like Samarkand and Tashkent.

The river systems of Volkhov-Lovat, Dniepr, Volga and Don formed a central
nerve in communication and trade. From the Rus (Varangian) northern strong-
holds you could go either to the south, sailing along Dnjepr to the Black sea
and finally reach Constantinople, or you could go further east, and along the
river Volga to the trading hub of Bulghar connecting the northern trade with
the northern silk roads in Central Asia and from there to China.

The Varangians took Kiev from the Khazarians in 882 and appointed one of
their own, Oleg, as ruler. Archaeological excavations show that a line of strong-
holds was established in the Kiev area along the Dnjepr in the last two decades
of the 800s. Tax collection was probably a motivation for establishing these
strongholds.

What about the eastern route along the river Volga? This route connected the
northern trade with the northern silk roads and the silk producing hubs in
Central Asia. The earliest archaeological traces of a Varangian (Rus) presence
in the Volga area dates to the early 800s, located south west of Rostov Velikij.
Later, at about the same time as the establishment of Varangian (Rus) strong-
holds on the shores of Dnjepr, settlements with distinct Gotlandic cultural
components were established not far from Volga nearby contemporary Yaro-
slavl. Even though they are not directly on the shores of the river, they show
a Gotlandic connection with the areas north of the trading hub of Bhulgar
situated about 30 km downstream from Volga’s confluence with the Kama
River near today’s Kazar.

It was in the town of Bulghar that Ibn Fadlan made his famous observation of
a Varangian funeral in the 900s. Bulghar functioned as an eastern meeting point
between north and east, a melting pot of different cultures and languages. On
his journey to Bulghar, Ibn Fadlan travelled across the desert from Baghdad to
Bukhara, one of the main production centres for Persian silk in the 800s and
900s. Ibn Fadlan seems to have had a certain understanding of differences and
variations in luxury textiles. He brought with him a lot of different textiles to
be used as presents and tax payment on his journey. When describing the dif-
ferent textiles and clothing items, he uses the name of the place of production.

16
An example is his description of the presents he gave to an army commander
he met on his journey, who among other things was given cloth from Merv.
Not only expensive fabrics from Central Asia seem to have been transported
along this road. According to Ibn Fadlan, the Varangian chief buried in Bulg-
har was equipped with costly fabrics of Byzantine origin on his last journey at
the beginning of the 900s.

The complex trading relationship between areas of production in this peri-

od further complicates the interpretation of trading routes. In spite of strong
political rivalry and competition in trade and silk production, both preserved
silk fabrics and written sources show a strong interaction relating to pattern ex-
change and technology as well as trading and gift exchange between Byzantine
and Persian areas.

It is interesting to note that a trade regulation in Constantinople forbid mer-

chants from Bhulgar to buy Persian silk of higher value when they were visiting
the town. According to the Book of Epharc silk fabrics and clothing from Bag-
hdad were among goods brought by Syrian merchants to Constantinople in the
early 900s. In addition, Islamic fashion in the form of garments “tailored in the
Saracen style” was according to De Ceremoniis made in the Byzantine capital.

There is also reason to believe that many of the town markets were regarded
as multicultural meeting places. In several Arabic sources, towns like Baghdad
and Tashkent are described as cosmopolitan hubs of trade. A writer of the late
800s describes the thriving trade in Baghdad like this: “There are not a people
from any country but has a quarter in it, a place for the exchange of their pro-
duce, and a special district of their own. That what is not to be found in any
other town of the world is brought together here”.

Silk trade between the Caliphate and the Byzantine Empire also led to diffusion
and imitation of fashion. Arab sources written in the 700s and 800s indicate a
clear consciousness of Byzantine fashion among the people of Baghdad. This
indicates that not only physical products but also ideas and fashion to some
extent were exchanged between the rivals. This makes it extremely diffcult to
know the specific trade routes the different types of silks came through.

17
Conclusion
Silk finds in Birka and surroundings show that luxury goods from both Cen-
tral Asia and Byzans were traded by the Varangians in the 800s and 900s. The
archaeological and written sources show that the most plausible trading routes
for these silks went along the Russian rivers.

Great emphasis has been placed on the Varangians’ strong ties to the Byzantine
power. Nevertheless, both the excavations along the Volga and Gotlandic coin
finds minted in Central Asia also show a connection to the Central Asian pro-
duction areas for silk through the Volga-Oka region. It is likely that both these
routes were used for trading silk by the Varangians. Silk trade and exchange
of fashion ideas between the main areas of production makes it even more
plausible that more than one trading route was used. Silk trade was probably
part of a complex and multidimensional system in which merchandise and gifts
changed hands.

As we know the Gotlanders were deeply involved in Miklagar∂r and the Mace-
donian Renaissance art from the end of Iconclasm. It is documented in Byzan-
tine sources that from second half of the 800s and forward there were larger
Gotlandic contingents stationed in Miklagarðr.

The Gotlanders were related to the Byzantine Imperial Court from 867 when
the Gotlandic Varangian Ingr’s daughter Indrina became Empress Eudokia
Ingerina and in 886 when her son became Emperor Leo VI the Wise. The
Gotlandic Varangians were allocated their own living quarters to stay in St
Mamas outside the Theodosian wall.

On the trade route between the Baltic Sea and Constantinople Kiev was a
Slavic settlement. It was a tributary of the Khazars, until seized by the Varang-
ians in 882. Under Varangian rule, Kiev became a capital of Kievan Rus’.

To understand the history of the Gotlandic Merchant Republic and its Medie-
val Churches, one must fully realize that Gotland was an independent Merchant
Republic, and the hub of the Baltic Sea region, which from time immemorial
had its relations mainly east and south and controlled trade on the Russian
rivers from time to time. There were no Vikings in the Baltic Sea or on the
Russian rivers and no Scandinavians in Russia before 1019.
Gotland has very little in common with Swedish history.
18