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The Role of Trade in the Conversion to Islam and in the History of the Volga Bulghars
 
PIIS086919080021351-3-1
DOI10.31857/S086919080021351-3
Publication type Article
Status Published
Authors
István Zimonyi 
Occupation: Professor
Affiliation: University of Szeged
Address: Szeged, Szeged, Hungary
Journal nameVostok. Afro-Aziatskie obshchestva: istoriia i sovremennost
EditionIssue 4
Pages85-94
Abstract

The trade-network of Afro-Eurasia changed radically in the 9th–10th centuries, instead of the former east-west routes the south-north came to the fore. The Volga-Kama region became the most important port of trade between the Islamic world and Eastern Europe in the beginning of the 10th century which set in motion the formation of the Volga Bulghar state and the conversion to Islam. The Volga Bulghars are mentioned in the Muslim sources as the center of trade. Ibn Faḍlān, al-Masʿūdī give a detailed picture of this intensive trade. The Muslim dirhams came from Samanid mints to the Volga region and the Volga Bulghar merchants bought northern merchandise (furs, slaves, wax, honey etc.) in the 10th century. Al-Muqaddasī gives an exhaustive list of trade goods from the Volga Bulgar area at the end of the 10th century. After the disappearance of the silver dirhams in the first decades of the 11th century the state of the Volga Bulghars remained a significant trade center. The Muslim maps of Ibn Ḥawqal, Maḥmūd al-Kāshġarī and al-Idrīsī reflect a river system called Etil which is waterway commercial network. It connects Central Asia via Siberia with the Volga-Kama region, the northern regions can be reached on the way along the Kama and perhaps the Vyatka, the northeastern network includes the Oka, Unzha and upper Volga. The southern routes represent the lower Volga from the territory of Volga Bulghars to the Caspian Sea and the Volga-Don portage plus the lower Don until its estuary to the Azov Sea.

Keywordsthe Volga Bulghars, Islam, trade, islamic maps
Received04.08.2022
Publication date06.09.2022
Number of characters27451
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1 The spread of Islam was the consequence of the grand scale conquests of the Arabs in the age of Orthodox Caliphs and later under the Umayyads extending to China in the East and Andalusia in the West in the 7th–8th centuries [Kennedy, 2007]. The new wave of Islamization directed toward the peoples of Central Asia, Eastern Europe and India [Golden, 1990, p. 343–370]. New states were formed in Eastern Europe in the 10th century and three world-religions competed to convert these states to their own religion. The Khazars adopted Judaism earlier [Golden, 2007, p. 123–162], but Islam and Christianity became involved in religious conversions. The Volga Bulghars embraced Islam in the beginning of the 10th century [Zimonyi, 1994, p. 235–240; Mako, 2011, p. 199–223; Izmailov, 2016, p. 68–92], whereas the Kievan Rus converted to Christianity from Constantinople by the end of the 10th century [Franklin, Shepard, 1996, p. 151–169].
2 The long-distance trade played an important role in nomadic empire-building and in the adoption of a world religion by the steppe peoples. In Eastern Europe the Jewish merchants had basic influence in the Khazar court and they must have influenced the adoption of the Mosaic faith among the Khazars.
3 Similarly, the Rus centre moved from the north to Kiev in the 10th century which lies on the trade route connecting Byzantium with Scandinavia and its result was the adaptation of Christianity from Constantinople.
4 There was a turning point in the 9th– 10th centuries in the history of trade-network of Afro-Eurasia. The former two hubs of the Silk Road (2nd c. BC – 2nd c. AD and 6th c. – 8th c.) connected the East with the West, whereas the 9th –10th centuries the characteristic trade-routes directed from South to North [Christian, 2000, p. 18–20; Vassière, 2014, p. 102–106]. The change of the trade routes brought Eastern Europe to completely new situation. The Khazar Kaghanate became a commercial empire in the 9th century and two other new state-formations appeared in the 10th century: the Kievan Rus and Volga Bulgharia partly due to this prosperous trade. The two strategic trade routes: the Volga and caravan route from Khwarazm via Kazak steppe to the Volga-Kama estuary met in the Volga Bulgharia [Noonan, 1985, p. 179–204].
5 After the Ommayad-Khazar wars in the first half of the 8th century, the Abbasids established trade relations with the Khazars, because of which was a flourishing trade through the Caucasus and along the Volga starting form c. 800. The Khazar Kaghanate became a commercial empire and played an intermediary role in trade between the Islamic world and north-eastern Europe and Scandinavia. The furs, slaves, honey, wax, and amber came from the North and the Muslim merchants paid for them silver dirhams [Kovalev, 2011, p. 43–155].
6 The dirham-hoards in Western Eurasia between c. 700 and c. 1100 were catalogized by Noonan and Kovalev. More than 80% of the 1656 dirham-hoards including almost half a million (486,956) dirhams of Afro-Eurasia were found in north-eastern Europe. During the first phase, i.e. the 9th century 20% of the dirhams arrived Eastern Europe via the Caucasus – the Volga-Don waterways from the mints of central Islamic lands. 80% of the dirhams can be dated to the 10th century and they were stuck in the territory of the Samanids [Kovalev, Kaelin, 2007, p. 1–21]. The first silver crises appeared at the end of the 9th century. The Pecheneg westward migration brought a turning point in the history of Eastern Europa in the 890s. The great power position of the Khazars was shattered due to the loss of the territory west of Don, and at the same time the trade route along the lower Volga was temporarily closed. By 914, these coins could be supplied from the Samanid Empire via the southern coast of the Caspian Sea to the Volga route. However, the Samanids lost their Caspian provinces in 914, so then the main trade route to Eastern Europe passed through Khwarazm and the present Kazak steppe to the Volga-Kama region which Ibn Faḍlān followed during his journey to the king of the Volga Bulghars. The Volga-Kama region became the strategic center of trade route network connecting Eastern Europa with Transoxania. The Samanids facilitated the conversion of the Volga Bulghars not only with the aim of securing their trade relations with Eastern Europe but from political motivation [Noonan, 2000, p. 140–218].
7 The land of the Volga Bulghars was a trade center between the Islamic world and Eastern Europe in the 10th–13th centuries [Valeev, 2011].
8 I quote some of the Muslim sources concerning the significance of this trade. Ibn Faḍlān travelled to the Bulghars on the main caravan route from Khwarazm through the steppes to the Volga-Kama. In the territory of the Oghuz he reported: “On the following day, we met a Turk. He was an ugly man, wretched looking, small and stunted in appearance, really ignoble. We had just been caught by a violent cloudburst. ‘Stop!’ he cried. The whole caravan halted. It was made up of some 3,000 horses and 5,000 men” [Montgomary, 2014, p. 206–207; Lunde, Stone, 2011, p. 17]. It shows the volume of trade on land route. There were an influential commercial group among the Volga Bulghars as Ibn Faḍlān noted: “There are many merchants among them who go to the lands of the Turks and bring back sheep, and to a land called Wisu, from which they bring the skins of sable and black foxes” [Montgomary, 2014, p. 232–233; Lunde, Stone, 2011, p. 39].

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