Csete Katona Co-operation between the Viking Rus’ and the Turkic nomads of the steppe in the ninth-eleventh centuries MA Thesis in Medieval Studies Central European University Budapest May 2018 CEU eTD Collection Co-operation between the Viking Rus’ and the Turkic nomads of the steppe in the ninth-eleventh centuries by Csete Katona (Hungary) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Medieval Studies. Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU. ____________________________________________ Chair, Examination Committee ____________________________________________ Thesis Supervisor ____________________________________________ Examiner ____________________________________________ Examiner CEU eTD Collection Budapest May 2018 Co-operation between the Viking Rus’ and the Turkic nomads of the steppe in the ninth-eleventh centuries by Csete Katona (Hungary) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Medieval Studies. Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU. ____________________________________________ External Reader CEU eTD Collection Budapest May 2018 Co-operation between the Viking Rus’ and the Turkic nomads of the steppe in the ninth-eleventh centuries by Csete Katona (Hungary) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Medieval Studies. Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU. ____________________________________________ External Supervisor CEU eTD Collection Budapest May 2018 I, the undersigned, Csete Katona, candidate for the MA degree in Medieval Studies, declare herewith that the present thesis is exclusively my own work, based on my research and only such external information as properly credited in notes and bibliography. I declare that no unidentified and illegitimate use was made of the work of others, and no part of the thesis infringes on any person’s or institution’s copyright. I also declare that no part of the thesis has been submitted in this form to any other institution of higher education for an academic degree. Budapest, 07 May 2018 __________________________ Signature CEU eTD Collection Abstract Early medieval Scandinavians operating in European Russia, often labelled as Rus’ or Varangians in contemporary sources, were in contact with steppe nomadic tribes since the ninth century. These contacts, however are largely neglected in scholarly discourse. In the present thesis, it will be pointed out on the basis of Byzantine, Muslim, Slavic and Old Norse written sources that apart from occasional hostilities, the relationship of the Viking Rus’ with the various (culturally) Turkic groups of the Volga-Dnieper region (with emphasis on the Volga Bulghars, Khazars, Pechenegs and Magyars) could have been fruitful on multiple levels. Besides the Slavs, Turkic nomads were the main partners of the Viking Rus’ in the period, testified to by close commercial ties and joint operations in warfare. It will be argued that these contacts resulted in cultural borrowings, and contributed decisively to the development of Rus’ identity during the course of the ninth-eleventh centuries. Although mainly a historical study, the investigation will be occasionally supplemented with archaeological and linguistic evidence. CEU eTD Collection i Acknowledgements I would like to express my thanks to a great many people who somehow contributed to the writing of this thesis. The bulk of this study developed during a conference presentation held at the International Medieval Congress (Leeds) in 2017, and thus I would like to thank the organizers of the session, Gwendolyne Knight Keimperna and Rebecca Merkelbach, for providing a forum for my work, and to Professor Heinrich Härke for his valuable comments and literature suggestions. I also would like to express my gratitude to my thesis supervisor, Professor József Laszlovszky, who guided me throughout the time with care, and brought new ideas to my work. I am also gratefully indebted to Balázs Antal Bacsa, Eszter Tímár and Zsuzsa Reed for correcting my English and structuring my work, and to the participants and teachers of the various MA Thesis seminars in which I was enrolled. The financial support for this research was provided by the Butler scholarship of Central European University, and thus my gratitude goes to the fundraisers as well. Finally, I should mention my three external readers: Professor Sverrir Jakobsson, Professor Judith Jesch and Professor Neil Price, who all raised my awareness on complicated issues of the thesis with their critical comments and thus improved the quality of my thesis considerably. CEU eTD Collection ii Table of contents Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 1 – Trade .................................................................................................................. 11 Trade in the Volga region .................................................................................................................. 13 Trade in the Dnieper region ............................................................................................................... 17 Chapter 2 – Warfare .............................................................................................................. 31 The Kievan Rus’ ................................................................................................................................ 32 The Byzantine Empire ....................................................................................................................... 36 The Khazar Khaganate ...................................................................................................................... 39 Hungary ............................................................................................................................................. 41 Archaeological traces ........................................................................................................................ 46 Chapter 3 – Religion and customs ........................................................................................ 51 Sources and problems ........................................................................................................................ 52 Pagan religious similarities ............................................................................................................... 54 Changes in beliefs ............................................................................................................................. 62 Changes in practicalities .................................................................................................................... 65 Mixed customs .................................................................................................................................. 67 Previous experience ........................................................................................................................... 70 Chapter 4 – Communication ................................................................................................. 73 The Importance of Communication in the ‘East’ .............................................................................. 76 Old Norse, Slavic, Turkic .................................................................................................................. 78 The Use of Interpreters ...................................................................................................................... 81 Learning each other’s tongues ........................................................................................................... 83 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 93 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................... 98 CEU eTD Collection Appendix ............................................................................................................................... 132 iii Introduction Scandinavian Vikings who as early as the eighth century had already begun to penetrate Eastern Europe via the Russian waterways were referred to as Rus’ or Varangians in contemporary Latin, Muslim, Slavic and Byzantine sources.1 The cultural interactions between these Scandinavian incomers and the Slavs of Eastern Europe have been extensively studied within the framework of the ‘Normanist-controversy’, a historical debate concerning the political role played by Scandinavians in the establishment of the first Slavic state, known as the Kievan Rus’.2 However, it has been often overlooked that the Varangian-Rus’ also maintained relationships with other inhabitants of the Eastern region. Especially significant in this regard are the contacts with the steppe nomadic groups, such as the various nomadic Turkic tribes that were dwelling along the Dnieper and the Volga, where the Rus merchants appeared with their goods or their warriors entered courtly services as mercenaries. No comprehensive study so far addressed this phenomenon,