Viacheslav Kuleshov The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

The final phases of the Viking-Age import of Islamic coins, c. 945-1015

In Sweden the previously massive import of Islamic coins was severely reduced in the beginning of the 950s and finally came to an end in the early 1010s. However, based on the hoard material I will focus on the development in Eastern Europe which was quite different, 1. The paper deals with the typological structure and the chronology of monetary circulation in Eastern Europe for the period c. 945-1015. The set of a dozen (out of c. 70 or so) entirely preserved and well-attributed and large silver coin hoards, originating mainly from Belarus’, Northwestern Russia and Volga Bulgaria, is taken into consideration. Amongst them are the Koz’yanki and Rakovtsy II hoards for the 940s, the Novgorod Nerevskiy I, Novgorod Nerevskiy II, Khutyn’ and Yerilovo hoards for the 970s, the newly discovered Malaya Pustomerzha hoard of 2012-2014 for the 990s (as of 2015, completely attribut by me) and the Vas’kovo and Kreshchyony Baran hoards for the 1000s and 1010s. 2. The period c. 930s - c. 1000s is, after Roman Fasmer (Richard Vasmer, 1933), Nikolay Bauer (Nickolas Bauer, 1939) and Valentin Yanin (1956), traditionally considered as the last period (the fourth out of four) of import of Islamic minted silver into Eastern Europe and further, into the Baltic region. Some crucial observations over the best preserved and well investigated hoards, as well as the main facts of the political and the numismatic history of the Islamic civilization, make it possible to more precisely divide this period into the following three phases, or stages. 3. The final phases of the import of Islamic silver coins are F, G and H. (The proposed numbering in letters indicates the attachment of these labels to the same chronological system, being developed and implemented by me during the last few years, as the preceding stages A to E, c. 750 - c. 945.) The end of stage E (E3) and the beginning of stage F is sharply marked by a series of hoards (‘the horizon of Koz’yanki—Rakovtsy—Velaikiai) concealed about 945 or so in Belarus and Lithuania (Koz’yanki, Rakovtsy II, Velaikiai, Resta-Rudeya I). The horizon is presumably connected to the events of the Rus’—Drevlyane war and the establishment of a new dynasty of Scandinavian origin in the principality of Polotsk. The typological structure of the numismatic complexes of the horizon of Koz’yanki—Rakovtsy—Velaikiai (Sāmānid dirhams of Ismā‘īl b. Aḥmad, Aḥmad b. Ismā‘īl and Naṣr b. Aḥmad, the earliest Volga-Bulgarian imitations of al-amīr yaltawār and Mikā’īl b. Ja‘far) is the best starting point for a descriptive analysis of the innovations in monetary circulation during phase/stage F. 4. The phase/stage F is represented by coin hoards concealed from the later 940s / early 950s lasting to the late 970s (roughly c. 945/946 - c. 976/977). The youngest coins of the stage are represented by the types minted by Sāmānid rulers Nūḥ b. Naṣr, ‘Abd al-Malik b. Nūḥ and Manṣūr b. Nūḥ, Būyid (Buwayhid) amīrs of Iraq and Iran, peculiar are Volga-Bulgarian coinage of ‘Abdallāh b. Mikā’īl (in Bulghār) and Ṭālib b. Aḥmad (in Suwār), in minor quantities are represented the coins of the Ḥamdānids (of Syria and Mesopotamia) and Khwarizmshahs Afrighids (the only type of 347 AH, but in several hoards). In comparison to the typological structure of the previous stage E, the number of Būyid (Buwayhid) dirhams increased significantly, as well as the number of current Sāmānid types. For the stage the emergence of Byzantine miliaresii is peculiar. 5. The phase/stage G is represented by coin hoards concealed from the later 970s to the mid-990s or slightly later (roughly c. 976/977 - c. 996/997). The youngest coins of the stage are represented by the types minted by the Sāmānid rulers Nūḥ II b. Manṣūr and his (Turkic) governors in Ḫurāsān and Transoxiana (Mā warā’ al-naḥr), later Būyid (Buwayhid) amīrs of Iraq and Iran, Ziyārid (first period of minting, the later 350s and 360s AH only), Bawandid rulers of South Caspian region and the latest Volga-Bulgarian dirhams of Mu’min b. al-Ḥasan and his suwārī contemporary Mu’min b. Aḥmad. In comparison to the typological structure of the previous stage F, the number of current Būyid (Buwayhid) and Ziyārid dirhams increased significantly, as well as the number of current Simjūrid (Sāmānid warlords and governors of Ḫurāsān) types. The most peculiar feature of the stage is the emergence of European denarii of Anglo-Saxon and German origin and an increased inflow of Byzantine miliaresii of Basil II and Constantine VIII. 6. The phase/stage H is represented by coin hoards concealed in the later 990s or early 1000s to the mid- 1010s (tpq of the Vas’kovo hoard 1012/1013). The structure of the monetary circulation has become mixed, consisting not only of Kufic dirhams, but of greater numbers of European denarii. The youngest coins of the stage are represented by the types minted by ‘Uqaylid and Marwanid rulers of the Upper Mesopotamia and adjacent areas, on the one hand (the pattern of the Vas’kovo hoard and of the Baltic region), and by later Ziyārids, Shirwānshāhs Mazyadids, Qārākhānid and Khwarizmshāhs Ma’mūnids from the other (the pattern of the Kreshchyony Baran an Bilyarsk Hoards and Volga-Bulgarian region). 7. According to the numismatic material, the inflow of Islamic coins completely stopped during the later 1010s. The numerous coin hoards of the following period (from c. 1020 to the end of the 11th century, phase/stage J) found mainly in Northwestern Russia (including present day Carelia and the Ladoga region) are of a European (Baltic) type and entirely consist of denarii.