The discovery of Arabic characters that spell “Allah” and “Ali” on Viking funeral costumes in boat graves in Sweden has raised questions about the influence of Islam in Scandinavia.
The grave where the costumes were found belonged to a woman dressed in silk burial clothes and was excavated from a field in Gamla Uppsala, north of Stockholm.
Annika Larsson, a textile archaeologist at Uppsala University, discovered the Arabic characters in February, as she was preparing some of the items for an exhibition on Viking couture in Enkoping, Sweden. Upon closer examination of the band from all angles, she said, she realized she was looking at Kufic script. The words Allah and Ali appeared in the silk.
“My opinion is that those who wore the fabrics must have understood the symbolism,” said Dr. Larsson. “Some Viking women most likely converted to Islam.“
Christian Skoldborg, a spokesman for Fenris, a Viking re-enactment group that travels to markets all over Europe to sell crafts and show how Vikings lived, said the thought of a deeper cultural exchange between the Vikings and the Arab world was not such a shock. “This notion that Vikings were a pure race — that picture is something we need to wash away,” he said. “There are so many artifacts that show Arabic writing in the bands. It is very likely that they came here and lived,” said Mr. Skoldborg.
Solveig von Malmborg, who belongs to the network Vikings Against Racism, which tries to combat the extreme right’s appropriation of Viking heritage, said Viking enthusiasts were often mistaken for racists and Nazis. We think they should find their own symbols.”
Not even pol, but the amount of self loathing and historical revisionism to match that self loathing that comes out of Sweden truly is disgusting
James Anderson
okay 1: The text on the cloth is mirrored 2: A part of the word is missing. The reconstruction spells Illah - not Allah. 3: The writing used on the cloth wasn't invented until the 15th century, far after the viking age. So it was only considered a neat pattern at the time. Also: 4: If sandpeople had lived in scandinavia in the early middle ages, missionaries would've noticed. There would've been traces of their religion. There would've been skeletons with arab dna. But there isn't. The scandinavians are likely the third least mixed group in Europe, coming after the Sardinians and Basques.
John Lewis
For one, I dont think this text is legit. But I dont think it would be unusual for an Arabic item to end up in viking possesion. We know Muslims traveled to the Rus, and the Rus would have traded with swedish vikings, and they could have possibly exchanged arab goods
What I dont understand is how possession of an arab coin means vikings are muslim. Vikings also had Roman coins depicting Jupiter, that doesnt make them roman pagans
Dylan Phillips
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Crusade >First European king to ever go pilgrim to Jerusalem >Spent the rest of his life killing pagans in Sweden when he returned
Apologize.
Mason Robinson
debunked anti white kike propaganda
Ryan Taylor
No, the article you linked explicitly states they do NOT think the vikings were Muslim. Take your bait to /pol/
Aaron Gutierrez
read this
Chase Brown
read this
Joseph Green
Yet again it does not say they were muslim. Stop being a revisionist.
If Vikings were so muslim why did they convert to christianity first?
Leo Mitchell
but silver dirhams from the abbasids are found in the largest quantities in the world in scandinavia
Chase Stewart
In 3018, when future archaeologists discover US dollars in Zimbabwe, there will be news articles saying "NEW EVIDENCE ZIMBABWEANS WERE AMERICAN"
Zachary Kelly
Stupid post
Julian Martin
The earliest example of Square Kufic is from the 11th century; an inscription on a minaret in Ghazna, Afganistan. That said, there is still a gap of two centuries. To me the symbols resemble Baltic and Slavic patterns, an influence that can be explained via the Kievan Rus. Though they could be Germanic as well, but I am not familiar with them. Similar finds are silk bands from Birka and in that case the consensus is that the silk in question is of Byzantine origin. In the end the worst thing in this fiasco is the completely groundless conjecture that Viking women were Muslims.
Adam Torres
>archaeologists 1000 years from now find Levi brand jeans >ALL THESE ANCIENT PEOPLE WERE JEWS THEY CERTAINLY KNEW AND HELD THE RELIGIOUS BELIEFS OF THINGS WRITTEN ON THEIR CLOTHING
Juan Flores
It's litterally the same thing.
Lucas Richardson
Who gets buried in jeans?
I mean seriously, if you found a grave of someone with a fish necklace stating "I love Jesus" on it and a cross for a gravestone would you say...
>THIS PERSON WAS NOT A CHRISTIAN THAT IS JUST RIDICULOUS!!!
Andrew Lopez
Also - what they interpeted as Kuffic script for Allah necessitates presuming the script on a woven band in question extends for several extra lines.
You know what the script makes as it actually is? An extremely common Northern European ornament.
Grayson Cruz
That depends. Was the grave in America?
Owen Williams
No arguments here
Gavin Fisher
If you found a grave of someone with a fish necklace stating "I love Jesus" on it and a cross for a gravestone in America you would say that person was not a Christian?
Andrew Hall
didn't read rest of the thread but yes, it's been debunked t. swede it's a well known fact that swedish vikings travelled all the way down to särkland (baghdad) and did plenty of trade with the arabs in exchange for not raiding them we learned this shit in elementary school pre-cuckening
Juan Sullivan
Not a Christian
Charles James
Roman coins are found in the Mekong delta, your point?
Aiden Miller
This. Even if it is a genuine Arab/Islamic artifact, it doesn’t prove that there was a significant number of Muslims living among the Vikings. The Vikings were prolific traders and could have easily come into possessions of goods from the Middle East through trade. The Romans had possession of Chinese silk, this doesn’t mean that there were many Chinese in Ancient Rome.
Jayden Diaz
On what basis?
Robert Walker
Being American
Jose White
>Even if it is a genuine Arab/Islamic artifact, it doesn’t prove that there was a significant number of Muslims living among the Vikings.
I'm not arguing in favor of this article but it strikes me you are already attacking a strawman. It says "some" not "a significant number".
Jordan Anderson
It's more the OP being a retard saying "many Vikings were muslim" when neither of his sources say such a thing
Ryan Barnes
I'm pretty sure a large part of the victims in the genocide in Srebrenica were buried in jeans.
Benjamin Harris
Ahhh, sorry, I didn't notice that, I went straight to the link, fair point.
Camden Long
>inb4 some autistic "la cretura" response
Julian Bailey
So you think the graves in question were part of a mass genocide?
Xavier Roberts
What the fuck is wrong with cultural marxist? Why are they trying to ruin history after they tried to ruin biology?
Dylan Ramirez
Because it is fun, as a Cultural Marxist I am proud of the way we have successfully made sure the peer review process in the fields of Biology and Archaeology are much less stringent than anonymous posts on anime sharing websites.
I am very proud of my achievements, the white race will be eliminated soon thanks to me conspiring with my Jewish friends on Reddit.
Tough luck sucker :-)
Logan Robinson
Well, history and biology are branches of science that trigger them most. History tells us that almost all of the nice things we have today were invented by white males. And biology tells us there is a reason for that.
Justin Bell
>das just a right wing conspiracy! :)
Jonathan Reyes
Pretty cringey how this dude calls himself a Viking just because he likes to play dress up. Who uses the language of runes isn't something he has any say about.
Asher Ward
It's not a right wing conspiracy, it is entirely true and we are winning. Consider it evolution, friendo xD