New Perspectives on Eastern Vikings/Rus in Arabic Sources

Arabic sources of the ninth and tenth centuries are valuable yet poorly studied material on the expansion of Scandinavians, called Rus by these writers, into Eastern Europe. While these sources have usually been introduced as auxiliary material for other witnesses, such as the Slavonic Primary Chronicle and Old Norse and Byzantine writings, there are ample grounds to examine their accounts as an independent body of information. A comparison of Arabic and non-Arabic accounts on the Rus reveals important geographical, social, and cultural differences in their descriptions, opening up a new perspective on this chapter of the Viking Age.