Birka, Sweden: Muslim Vikings?
Viking settlements in Russia were not an end in themselves. Rather, they were stepping-stones to the Middle East and Constantinople where the real riches lay. Trading rather than raiding was the key contact between the two cultures. The Swedish Vikings were after eastern gold and silver. For themselves, the Arabs found the North men could supply them with honey, iron, amber, slaves, and furs such as that of the coveted black fox.
But more than goods were exchanged. In 2015, an unguilded silver ring was found in the 9th century grave of a woman who lived at the Viking trade center of Birka in Sweden. The ring, which was set with a large violet stone was also inscribed with the words “il-la-lah” which has been interpreted as meaning ‘for/to Allah’.
The lettering of the inscription is an Arabic-style script developed in the Arab world in the 7th century AD and was popularly used for two centuries afterward. Unlike coins that show signs of wear and tear suggesting a convoluted route to their last resting place, this ring is relatively unmarked, meaning it came straight from the caliphate to Sweden.
The ring could be evidence of cultural as well as material exchange. Accounts exist of Vikings converting to Islam. In 921 AD, Caliph Al Muqtadir sent a series of delegates from Bagdad to the upper reaches of the Volga to aid its Viking king who had recently converted to Islam. This ring could be the first evidence that substantiates these accounts.