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Whom Did Al-Ghazal Meet? an Exchange of Embassies Between the Arabs from Al-Andalus and the Vikings

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Whom Did Al-Ghazal Meet? an Exchange of Embassies Between the Arabs from Al-Andalus and the Vikings 1 SAGA-BOOK VOL. XXVIII VIKING SOCIETY FOR NORTHERN RESEARCH UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON 2004 VIKING SOCIETY FOR NORTHERN RESEARCH OFFICERS 2003–2004 President JOHN HINES, M.A., D.Phil, F.S.A., Cardiff University. Hon. Secretaries MICHAEL BARNES, M.A., University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT. Judith Jesch, B.A., Ph.D., University of Nottingham. Hon. Treasurer Kirsten Williams, B.A., University College London. Hon. Assistant Secretary Alison Finlay, B.A., B.Phil., D.Phil., Birkbeck College, London. Saga-Book: Editors of Articles Anthony Faulkes, B.Litt., M.A., dr phil., University of Birmingham. Alison Finlay, B.A., B.Phil., D.Phil., Birkbeck College, London. John McKinnell, M.A., University of Durham. Desmond Slay, M.A., Ph.D., Aberystwyth. Saga-Book: Editors of Notes and Reviews Alison Finlay, B.A., B.Phil., D.Phil., Birkbeck College, London. Andrew Wawn, B.A., Ph.D., University of Leeds. ISSN: 0305-9219 Printed by Short Run Press Limited, Exeter CONTENTS - WHOM DID AL-GHAZAL MEET? AN EXCHANGE OF EMBASSIES BETWEEN THE ARABS FROM AL-ANDALUS AND THE VIKINGS. Sara M. Pons- Sanz .................................................................................................... 5 MEDIEVAL NORSE VISITS TO AMERICA: MILLENNIAL STOCKTAKING. Richard Perkins ............................................................................. 29 SOME O BSERVATIONS ON M ARTYRDOM IN POST-CONVERSION SCANDINAVIA. Haki Antonsson .............................................................................. 70 WORD-PLAY ON BJÑRG IN DREAMS AND E LSEWHERE. Jamie Cochrane... 95 DESMOND SLAY ..................................................................................... 105 REVIEWS ODDAANNÁLAR OG ODDVERJAANNÁLL. Edited by Eiríkur Þormóðsson and Guðrún Ása Grímsdóttir. (Haki Antonsson) ............................. 108 BISKUPA SÖGUR II: HUNGRVAKA, ÞORLÁKS SAGA BYSKUPS IN ELZTA, JARTEINA- BÓK ÞORLÁKS BYSKUPS IN FORNA, ÞORLÁKS SAGA BYSKUPS YNGRI, JARTEINABÓK ÞORLÁKS BYSKUPS ÖNNUR, ÞORLÁKS SAGA BYSKUPS C, ÞORLÁKS SAGA BYSKUPS E, PÁLS SAGA BYSKUPS, ÍSLEIFS ÞÁTTR BYSKUPS, LATÍNUBROT UM ÞORLÁK BYSKUP. Edited by Ásdís Egilsdóttir. (Kirsten Wolf) ................................................................................. 110 SAGA HEILAGRAR ÖNNU. Edited by Kirsten Wolf. (Katrina Attwood) .... 113 BEVERS SAGA. Edited by Christopher Sanders. (Christine Lorenz) ..... 115 ÚLFHAMS SAGA. Edited by Aðalheiður Guðmundsdóttir. (Andrew Wawn) .............................................................................................. 118 LJÓÐMÆLI 2. By Hallgrímur Pétursson. Edited by Margrét Eggerts- dóttir, Kristján Eiríksson and Svanhildur Óskarsdóttir. (Silvia Cosimini) ......................................................................................... 120 FAGRSKINNA, A CATALOGUE OF THE KINGS OF NORWAY. A TRANSLATION WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES. By Alison Finlay. (Theodore M. Andersson) ....................................................................................... 122 THE SAGA OF OLAF TRYGGVASON. By Oddr Snorrason. Translated by Theodore M. Andersson. (Elizabeth Ashman Rowe) .............. 127 LANGUAGE AND HISTORY IN VIKING AGE ENGLAND. LINGUISTIC RELATIONS BETWEEN SPEAKERS OF OLD NORSE AND OLD ENGLISH. By Matthew Townend. (Michael Barnes) ........................................................... 129 HRAFNKELS SAGA ELLER FALLET MED DEN UNDFLYENDE TRADITIONEN. By Tommy Danielsson; SAGORNA OM NORGES KUNGAR: FRÅN MAGNÚS GÓÐI TILL MAGNÚS ERLINGSSON. By Tommy Danielsson. (Gísli Sigurðsson, translated by Nicholas Jones) .................................... 134 ERZÄHLTES WISSEN: DIE ISLÄNDERSAGAS IN DER MÖÐRUVALLABÓK (AM 132 FOL.). By Claudia Müller. (Richard North) ..................................... 136 STURLA ÞÓRÐARSONS HÁKONAR SAGA HÁKONARSONAR. By Ulrike Sprenger. (David Ashurst) ................................................................................... 139 CHAOS AND LOVE. THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE ICELANDIC FAMILY SAGAS. By Thomas Bredsdorff. Translated by John Tucker. (Heather ODonoghue) ................................................................................... 141 LJÓÐMÁL. FORNIR ÞJÓÐLÍFSÞÆTTIR. By Jón Samsonarson. Edited by Einar G. Pétursson, Guðrún Ása Grímsdóttir and Vésteinn Ólason. (Bo Almqvist) ..................................................................... 144 MYTHIC IMAGES AND SHAMANISM: A PERSPECTIVE ON KALEVALA POETRY. By Anna-Leena Siikala. (Clive Tolley) ................................................. 148 THE SCANDINAVIANS FROM THE VENDEL PERIOD TO THE TENTH CENTURY. AN ETHNOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVE. Edited by Judith Jesch. (John Hines) 150 ANTOLOGÍA DE LA LITERATURA NÓRDICA ANTIGUA (EDICIÓN BILINGÜE). Edited by M. Pilar Fernández Álvarez and Teodoro Manrique Antón. (Manuel Aguirre) ............................................................................... 152 Whom did al-Ghazal Meet? 5 - WHOM DID AL-GHAZAL MEET? AN EXCHANGE OF EMBASSIES BETWEEN THE ARABS FROM AL-ANDALUS AND THE VIKINGS BY SARA M. PONS-SANZ HE VIKINGS terrorised most of western Europe from the end of the T eighth century to approximately the middle of the eleventh century. The Iberian Peninsula was no exception, though the Viking raids there were much less significant than those on the British Isles and Frankia. Even though these northern marauders visited the north, the south, the east and the west of the Iberian Peninsula (Dozy 1881, II 250371; Gon- zález Campo 2002a, 930, and 2002b; Jón Stefánsson 190910; Melvinger 1955), I will concentrate in this paper on their relations with the territories under the control of the Arabs, known as al-Andalus. In particular, out of the six attacks that the Vikings launched against the Arabs (El-Hajji 1967 and 1970, 15763), I will pay close attention to the first one in 844, and its possible diplomatic consequences. The Chronicon Rotensis, one of the earliest chronicles of the kingdom of Asturias (c.883) (Ruiz de la Peña 1985, 3841), explains that in the year 844 nordomanorum gens antea nobis incognita, gens pagana et nimis crudelissima, nabali [sic] exercitu nostris peruenerunt in par- tibus (Gil Fernández and Moralejo 1985, 142) the race of the Normans, previously unknown to us, a pagan and excessively cruel race, came with their naval army to our regions (my translation). This gens pagana et . crudelissima met greater resistance than they may have expected, and, after having lost many ships in Asturias, decided to continue sail- ing along the Atlantic coast. They went first to Lisbon on the twentieth of August; having been in that city for thirteen days, they moved to the southern coast of Spain. They went up the river Guadalquivir, and turned an island close to Seville into their base camp. From there they attacked interior towns such as Moron or Cordoba. Despite their initial panic, however, the Arabs managed to defeat the Vikings in Seville forty-two days after the first attack on this city. Thus, the Vikings had to make their way back to Frankia after an unsuccessful attempt to take Niebla, the Algarve and Lisbon (cf. Lévi-Provençal 1944, 15253). In his al-Mut,rib fiaú‘ar ahl al-Magrib, an anthology of Arab poets of the West, the Valencian writer Umar b. al-H. asan al-Kalbi, known as Ibn 6 Saga-Book Dih. ya (d. 1235), describes an exchange of embassies between a king of the Majus and the emir Abd-ar-Rah.man II, who was in control of al- Andalus (r. 82252). The circumstances of the first Viking attack on al-Andalus are generally equated with those in which this exchange is supposed to have taken place (Allen 1960, 19): When the envoys of the king of the Vikings came to Sultan Abd-ar-Rah.man to ask for peace, after they had left Seville, had attacked its surroundings and had then been defeated there with the loss of the commander of their fleet, Abd-ar-Rah.man decided to reply accepting this request. Ibn Dihya. explains that Abd-ar-Rah.man II decided to send in return the poet Yah.ya b. H. akam al-Jayyani, known as al-Ghazal (the Gazelle) on account of his good looks (Huici Miranda 1965). He had proved to have great diplomatic skills when he was sent to the Byzantine emperor Theophilus in 840 (Arié 1982, 162). Most of the scholars interested in Viking activities in the Iberian Peninsula identify the Majus mentioned in this account with the Vikings, and present this exchange of embassies as an example of diplo- matic relations between the two cultures. There are, however, only three authors who have dealt with al-Ghazals second embassy in any detail. Each represents one of the prevailing views on the matter. Lévi-Provençal (1937, 16) discounts the authenticity of the embassy, and considers the account to be a romantic version of the visit that al-Ghazal had paid to Theophilus in 840. Allen (1960) accepts the authenticity of the account, and supposes that the embassy was sent to Turgeis, a HibernoNorse king.1 El-Hajji (1970, 193201) prefers to identify the king of the Majus with the Danish king Horik I (d. 854).2 It is my intention in this paper to support the first view, and to present further evidence against the histori- cal reliability of the story. The problems involved in the identification of Ireland or Denmark as the destination of the embassy will also be discussed. 1 The identification of the destination of the embassy with Ireland was first made by Steenstrup (1878, 111–13). His suggestion was followed, before Allen (1960), by Dunlop (1957, 13) and Turville-Petre (1951, 68–69). 2 The identification of the destination of the embassy with Denmark has also been suggested
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