Viking raids into the Mediterranean
The Viking raids into the Mediterranean in the middle of the 9th century were among the first formative contacts between the Northmen and the Christian southern Europeans and Islamic Moors and Arabs. The Vikings plundered much of the European coastline and their raids inspired numerous legends.
Raid 844
In the year 844 a Viking fleet of 100 ships under the command of Björn Járnsiða and Hástein appeared on the coast of Aquitaine . They followed the course of the Garonne to Toulouse and plundered the area to the left and right of the river with impunity. They spared Toulouse, however. In the same year, the fleet, decimated by storms, appeared on the coast of Asturias . They sacked Gijón but encountered well-organized resistance from the Asturians under King Ramiro in their attempt to take A Coruña . Björn and Hástein's fleet then circled itCape Finisterre and sailed towards the Moorish area. For thirteen days the Lisbon area was plundered at the mouth of the Tagus . Before the Islamic rulers could react, the Vikings were back on the high seas.
However, some ships separated from the rest and attacked Arzila on the Moroccan Atlantic coast. Most of the fleet, however, moved towards Cádiz , which, like the inland Medina-Sidonia, was plundered. Then they drove further up the Guadalquivir and stormed Seville . For a full six weeks, the sources report, Seville was in Viking hands. Then, however, Emir Abd ar-Rahman II started the counterattack. He managed to destroy a large part of the Viking fleet. He had numerous prisoners hanged in Seville and the surrounding area. He sent the severed heads of two hundred high-ranking warriors to his allies in Morocco.
Björn and Hástein recognized their hopeless situation. With the booty they had made so far, they bought themselves free withdrawal from Moorish territory. Defeated, they started their journey home, but that didn't stop them from looting on the way back. A year after leaving, the fleet reappeared in Aquitaine.
diplomacy
In 845, Emir Abd ar-Rahman II is said to have entrusted one of his most experienced diplomats, Yahya ibn Hakam al-Bakri, known as al-Ghazal, with the task of traveling to the court of the king of the Majus (as the Moors called the Northmen) to dissuade them from attacking al-Andalus again . This is believed to be a legend. After this he should have been on the road for nine months. The seafaring became the occasion for all kinds of adventurous reports and stories about what he had experienced. It is said to have been an island world with beautiful gardens and large rivers. You can reach them after a three-day journey by ship from the mainland.
The account of al-Ghazal's trip is adorned with numerous anecdotes. Before his trip, the emir ordered the diplomat not to kneel before the Viking ruler. When al-Ghazal arrived there, however, he discovered that the Viking had had the entrance to his throne room constructed so low that you would inevitably have to step through on your knees. But Al-Ghazal lay down on his back and crawled, feet first, up to the king. After completing his mission, al-Ghazal returned to Cordoba after an alleged nine-month voyage across the Atlantic.
The historicity of this diplomatic mission is very controversial. Most importantly, many of the anecdotes seem to have been added later. It is also unclear whether al-Ghazal is said to have been with King Erik in Denmark or with Hochkönig Turgesius in Ireland . And even if there should have been that mission, it did not prevent the Vikings from undertaking another raid in the direction of the Iberian Peninsula almost 15 years later .
Raid 859-862
In the year 859 it was again the sons of Ragnarr Loðbrókr , Björn Járnsiða and Hástein, who this time plundered the west Atlantic coast with a fleet of 62 ships. Again they first attacked the Christian kingdom of Asturias , which, under King Ordoño I , was able to defend itself with its own fleet. The Viking fleet was now moving south along the Iberian west coast. Two ships ahead were picked up by a patrolling Moorish association. The Muslims noticed with astonishment that the Madjus had already made rich booty, because the ships were already loaded with gold and silver.
The main part of the fleet soon reached the estuary of the Guadalquivir, presumably with the intention of attacking Seville and possibly Cordoba again. This time, however, the new Emir Muhammad I sent a Moorish fleet to meet them. Under the command of a certain Chashchāsch ibn Saʿīd ibn Aswad , the Muslims did not achieve a complete victory, but at least they were able to push back the attackers and dissuade them from looting along the Atlantic coast of southern Spain.
However, part of the Viking fleet was still intact, and so they crossed the Strait of Gibraltar (in the Nordic springs of Njörvasund) . They attacked the unprepared Algeciras on the southern Spanish Mediterranean coast, plundered it and burned the great mosque . Then they sailed south towards Morocco to invade Mazimma . Well, they succeeded a number of black slaves (with the Vikings blámaðr , so Blue Men called) to take, they took as a kind of souvenir home. At least that's what Irish sources report.
After eight days Björn and Hástein's fleet turned north again. First they sacked the Murcia area , then they raided the Balearic islands of Ibiza , Formentera , Mallorca and Menorca in turn . In contrast to later campaigns of conquest, the Vikings did not intend to conquer permanent possessions. After extensive sacking, they left the islands again so that they remained under Moorish rule.
In the fall of 859 they invaded Roussillon and possibly set about sacking Narbonne . A little later they set up camp in the Camargue near the mouth of the Rhone , in which they spent the winter. In the spring of 860 they used the camp for raids upriver to Arles , Nîmes , Valence and numerous monasteries in the surrounding area. In some areas, however, they met with successful opposition. Part of the fleet, presumably under Hástein's command, headed south-east for Italy. They followed the course of the Arno , took Fiesole and devastated Pisa .
The story that Hástein is said to have tried to take Rome , the supposed capital of the world, belongs to the realm of legends . The Viking faked his death and asked for a Christian burial beforehand. After Hástein's alleged corpse had been escorted to the church, Hástein jumped up and killed the clergy present together with his followers. In the end, however, the Vikings found that they had not controlled Rome, but the city of Luna . This anecdote, which also exists in a similar form for Harald Hardraada's war campaign 200 years later, is presumably devoid of any historicity.
The further course of the Viking raid is unclear. Some sources report that Björn and Hástein sailed as far as Greece and Alexandria in Egypt . However, since these are not contemporary sources, the historicity is doubtful here too. In any case, in the summer of 861 the Viking fleet crossed the Strait of Gibraltar again. Again a Moorish fleet stood in their way and prevented the sack of al-Andalus. The remnants of the fleet sailed north again on the Atlantic. They managed one more attack on the Basque Pamplona before they reappeared at the Loire estuary in 862 .
consequences
The Viking raid from 859 to 862 remained - if it took place in this form - the only attack by the Northmen on Spain for over 100 years. Only in the 960s there were new raids to Santiago de Compostela and the Umayyad Caliphate. At the end of the 9th century, the Vikings limited themselves to attacks on the nearby Franconian Empire , where they undertook raids into the Rhineland and besieged Paris in 885/86 .
literature
- swell
- Yearbooks of St. Bertin (Annales Bertiniani), ed. v. Reinhold Rau, Berlin 1958.
- Secondary literature
- Régis Boyer: The Vikings. Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-608-93191-0
- Douglas M. Dunlop: The British Isles According To Medieval Arabic Authors. In: The Islamic Quarterly , 1957, here salaam.co.uk
- Arnold Hottinger: The Moors. Arabic culture in Spain. Zurich, 1995. ISBN 3-85823-566-0 .
- F. Donald Logan: The Vikings in history. 2nd Edition. London / New York 1991, ISBN 0-415-08396-6 .
- Rudolf Simek: The Vikings. 3. Edition. Munich 2002.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hottinger p. 100 with reference to A. Huici Miranda in ECI² under “al-Ghazal” - vol. II, p. 1038 and Évariste Lévi-Provençal , Histoire de l'Espagne Musulmane I , pp. 251-254; ders .: Islam d'Occident I, 75-107.
- ↑ Dudo von Saint-Quentin and Stephan von Rotten according to: Ekkehard Eickhoff: Sea war and sea politics between Islam and the West . De Gruyter Publishing House, Berlin 1966. p. 199.
- ↑ Georg Stadtmüller (Ed.): Saeculum 24. Verlag K. Alber, Freiburg / Munich 1973, p. 25.