Viking+Trade+&+Cultural+Diffusion

What do you think of a "Muslim Viking"? Seems weird doesn't it? In fact there were Muslim Vikings, and that's thanks to cultural diffusion. Swedish Vikings came to the Middle East where the Arabs called them "Rus". Originally these Vikings came to the Middle East to raid as they usually do, but ended up as traders in the city of Keiv. Here they found a market for all of their stolen goods, and were receiving from all over the world in this one Middle Eastern city

.

In Keiv they traded Arabs: All in return for silver coins. The imprint of the coin was irrelevant, the only thing that mattered was the weight of the silver. Arabs have recorded a lot about the Vikings, and their information is said to be more valid than information from Europeans.
 * Beaver skin
 * Black fox skin
 * Human slaves
 * Amongst many other goods

//Whenever someone thinks of a Viking they think savage, thieves, reckless, etc. They were all of these things and more, but they did have a brain and knew how to obtain what they wanted in other ways than raiding. They could trade, and well – why wouldn’t one be able to trade with a bunch of goods everyone wants a piece of? When they went to the Middle East they could’ve taken as much silver as they could and disappeared. Instead of doing this, they set up shop and traded their goods with the Middle Easterners. With this relationship they maintained different Viking teams and traders got their hands on more silver coins than any raid would’ve rewarded them with. //