Blades travelled a long way
 

In ‘Early Medieval Islamic Arms and Armour’ by David Nicolle I found this.
He is writing that the imported swords from Andalusia, China and India are of a better quality than the ones from Egypt, and then he goes on: "Swords also entered Islam from the north, via the Virangian traders of Scandinavia. Ibn Hurdadba in the second half of the 9th century mentions such traders selling swords from the Rhinland in the markets of both Baghdad and Constantinople. Half a century later another writer, Ibn Fadlan in 921/922 AD, wrote to the Halif Muqtadir concerning large and 'damascened' Varangian blades".

Somewhere else he writes that the blades were straight, and one or double edged.

It is not often we hear about blade trade north south.

If my memory does not betray me, this Ibn Fadlan was a spy sent by arabs to the north, through the land of Khazars to the land of vikings (northern Russia). He left one of the best descriptions of viking's customs, especially a highly grafic of that of a viking burial.

On the other hand vikings were massively employed by Byzantine and even Georgian royalty, primeraly in their war against arabs; later Osman army initially consisted of a very large number of western and armenian mercenary troops. One can also find a lot of evidence of mamluks using western made swords (starting with military manuals).

I would greatly recommend another book by David Nicolle - arms and armour of the crusading era, Volume II (the east) - truly fantastic collection of images.

The 13th Warrior
 

Hi All,
There is a work of fiction by Michael Creighton that has Ibn Fadlin as its main character. The story is about the spy mission. Originally called "The Eaters of the Dead", it has been reprinted as "The 13th Warrior". I thought it was pretty good.
Sincerely,
RobT

Thirteenth warrior is extremely loosely based on the mission. In the time the difference between trader, diplomat and spy was somewhat shady; he indeed was sent mostly to gather the information. However, large arab settlements have beeen established as far north as Tbilisi; Caucasus was involved in a 300 year long war between arab armies, khazars, alans and local caucasians up until the arrival of seljuks. It has made all the sence to them to investigate the northern territories, even though Khazars were already declining at this point.