When and how dirhams first reached Russia - article ; n°3 ; vol.21, pg 401-469

Thomas S.Noonan

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Cahiers du monde russe et soviétique - Année 1980 - Volume 21 - Numéro 3 - Pages 401-469
Th. Noonan, Quand et comment les dirhams sont-ils parvenus pour la première fois en Russie.
Cet article est le premier volet d'une étude plus vaste sur l'importance historique des milliers de pièces islamiques en argent ou dirhams trouvées au Moyen Age dans la Russie d'Europe et les régions avoisinantes. Dans le présent article, on soutient que l'arrivée des dirhams en Russie d'Europe a commencé vers 800 av. J.-C, ainsi qu'il a été établi par Richard Fasmer (Vasmer) dans les années 20 et 30 du XXe siècle. Cependant la majeure partie de l'article tente de prouver que les premiers dirhams à pénétrer en Russie provenaient du Proche-Orient et qu'ils avaient été véhiculés en Europe orientale par la route du Caucase et de la Caspienne. Il n'existe pas de preuve numismatique que les dirhams soient parvenus en Russie par l'Asie Centrale ou qu'ils en soient originaires, à l'époque en question.
Th. Noonan, When and how dirhams first reached Russia.
This article constitutes the initial part of a larger study of the historical significance of the thousands of Islamic silver coins or dirhams found in medieval European Russia and adjoining areas. In this first part, it is argued that the flow of dirhams into European Russia began around 800 A.D., as was established by Richard Fasmer (Vasmer) in the 1920's and 1930's. The bulk of the article, however, attempts to demonstrate that the earliest dirhams to reach Russia came from the Near East and were transported to Eastern Europe via the Caucasus/Caspian route. There is no numismatic evidence that dirhams came to Russia from or through Central Asia at this time.
69 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

Informations

• Publié par: CAHIERS_DU_MONDE_RUSSE_ET_SOVIETIQUE
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1980
• Nombre de lectures: 19
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

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Thomas S. Noonan
When and how dirhams first reached Russia
In: Cahiers du monde russe et soviétique. Vol. 21 N°3-4. Juillet-Décembre 1980. pp. 401-469.
Résumé
Th. Noonan, Quand et comment les dirhams sont-ils parvenus pour la première fois en Russie.
Cet article est le premier volet d'une étude plus vaste sur l'importance historique des milliers de pièces islamiques en argent ou
dirhams trouvées au Moyen Age dans la Russie d'Europe et les régions avoisinantes. Dans le présent article, on soutient que
l'arrivée des dirhams en Russie d'Europe a commencé vers 800 av. J.-C, ainsi qu'il a été établi par Richard Fasmer (Vasmer)
dans les années 20 et 30 du XXe siècle. Cependant la majeure partie de l'article tente de prouver que les premiers dirhams à
pénétrer en Russie provenaient du Proche-Orient et qu'ils avaient été véhiculés en Europe orientale par la route du Caucase et
de la Caspienne. Il n'existe pas de preuve numismatique que les dirhams soient parvenus en Russie par l'Asie Centrale ou qu'ils
en soient originaires, à l'époque en question.
Abstract
Th. Noonan, When and how dirhams first reached Russia.
This article constitutes the initial part of a larger study of the historical significance of the thousands of Islamic silver coins or
dirhams found in medieval European Russia and adjoining areas. In this first part, it is argued that the flow of dirhams into
European Russia began around 800 A.D., as was established by Richard Fasmer (Vasmer) in the 1920's and 1930's. The bulk of
the article, however, attempts to demonstrate that the earliest dirhams to reach Russia came from the Near East and were
transported to Eastern Europe via the Caucasus/Caspian route. There is no numismatic evidence that dirhams came to Russia
from or through Central Asia at this time.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Noonan Thomas S. When and how dirhams first reached Russia. In: Cahiers du monde russe et soviétique. Vol. 21 N°3-4.
Juillet-Décembre 1980. pp. 401-469.
doi : 10.3406/cmr.1980.1402
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/cmr_0008-0160_1980_num_21_3_1402DOSSIER
THOMAS S. NOONAN
WHEN AND HOW DIRHAMS
FIRST REACHED RUSSIA*
A numismatic critique of the Pirenne theory
The thousands of medieval Islamic silver coins, or dirhams, found
in European Russia have been the subject of numerous studies ever
since the early nineteenth century. Given the voluminous literature
on these coins which has appeared over the past two centuries, one would
expect that many of the basic problems concerning the dirham finds
from Russia had been resolved or, at least, the means for resolving them
had been developed. In particular, one might well assume, after almost
two hundred years of investigation, that we had a fairly good idea of
when, how, and why these dirhams first appeared in medieval Russia.
Such an assumption would be erroneous.
Prior to the 1920's, much had been written about when dirhams first
reached Eastern Europe and the proposed answers spanned the period
from the seventh to the early ninth centuries. Advocates of the seventh
and eighth centuries pointed, for example, to the many dirhams of the
seventh and eighth centuries found throughout Russia. Their reasoning
was, in essence, that the earliest dirhams discovered within Russia
indicated when these coins had first reached Russia.1 However, in a
series of articles published during the 1920's and 1930's, the well known
specialist in medieval Islamic numismatics, R. R. Fasmer (Vasmer),
demonstrated that dirhams first appeared in Russia around the year 800. 2
Fasmer argued that the dirham hoards of the early ninth century always
contained coins from a much earlier time. But, drachms and dirhams
of the seventh and eighth centuries could only have reached Russia
starting around 800; otherwise, we should encounter hoards composed
exclusively of these earlier coins. But, dirham hoards dating from before
800 had not yet been uncovered (and they are still unknown in Eastern
* The original version of this study was presented at the Midwest Slavic
Conference, Bloomington, Indiana, April Г078. Л synopsis of this much revised and
expanded version was presented at the Ninth International Numismatic Congress
in Berne, September 1970. The author would like to thank Dr. D. M. Metcalf of
the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford University for his careful evaluation of the
original version ami many helpful suggestions, Sandra Haas and Su-chang Wang
of the Cartography Lab of the Department of Geography, University of Minnesota,
for drawing the maps and charts.
Cahiers du Monde russe et soviétique, XXI (3-4), juil.-déc. ig8o, pp. 401-4.69. 402 THOMAS S. NOONAN
( A ^ ,
Map I. EARLY CAUCASIAN DIRHAM HOARDS
(The numbers refer to the hoards
listed in Appendix I.)
Europe). Consequently, the date of the earliest dirham hoards deter
mines when dirhams first reached medieval Russia.3
In the mid-1950's, V. L. Ianin accepted Fasmer's methodology for
dating the appearance of dirhams and was in substantial accord with his
conclusion of ca. 800.4 In fact, since the publication of Fasmer's articles,
both his methodology and his dating have received widespread accep
tance. For this reason, the articles of N. F. Kotlar6 and U. S. binder
Welin6, published fairly recently, were quite unexpected. While Kotlar
focuses upon the Ukraine and Linder Welin deals with Sweden, both
authors argue that dirhams first reached Eastern Europe by 750 because
of the individual finds of dirhams and drachms from the mid-eighth
century and earlier. In other words, Kotlar and Linder Welin reject
Fasmer's methodology and revert to the older practice of dating by
separate finds. Given the force and logic of Fasmer's approach, it is not
surprising that both the Linder Welin and Kotlar studies have been
criticized.7
Over a century was necessary before a more or less scientific method
for dating the appearance of dirhams was devised by Fasmer. Further
more, even today, almost a half-century after Fasmer's pioneering works, AND HOW DIRHAMS REACHED RUSSIA 4ОЗ WHEN
Map II. EARLY RUSSIAN DIRHAM HOARDS
(The numbers refer to the hoards
listed in Appendix III.)
this method has not been fully accepted and a reversion to pre-Fasmer
practices is all too frequent. Despite these continuing disputes over how
to determine when dirhams first reached European Russia, we must
keep in mind that this question is the best studied of the three posed at
the start of this work. And, it is the only question for which a methodo
logy or method for resolving the issue has been developed. Despite
his later day critics, Fasmer was able to demonstrate when dirhams first
reached medieval Russia. To date, no such method has been devised
for determining how they reached Russia, i.e., the routes by which
dirhams were initially brought to Eastern Europe. And, to the best
of my knowledge, no one has yet examined the specific circumstances
which would explain why dirhams began to circulate in Russia around 800.
The purpose of this study is to propose some solutions for the question
of how and to begin to address the question of why the period around
800 a.d. in particular. THOMAS S. NOONAN 404
The discussion of how is presently at the same stage reached by the
debate over when before the time of Fasmer's studies. That is, we have
various opinions but no one has yet worked out a means for determining
how the early dirhams reached Russia. In general, two methods seem
to be employed by scholars trying to identify the routes by which dirhams
appeared in Russia. The first method is based on the find-spot. Ianin,
for example, pointed to the paucity of dirham hoards and finds in the
lower Volga and lower Donets, i.e., territory within the Khazar lands,
and he concluded that all dirhams reaching Russia between the late
eighth and early eleventh centuries must have come via the Bulgar lands
rather than through the Khazar kaganate and its capital of I til'.8
V. V. Kropotkin has used the same find-spot method but has arrived at
a quite different conclusion. He has pointed to the "numerous" coin
hoards from the Khazar lands and from the regions tributary to the
Khazars as evidence that dirhams circulated in the kaganate and from
there presumably reached European Russia.9 Thus, the first method has
not proved definitive primarily because scholars cannot agree on how
many find-spots must occur within the Khazar lands in order to show
that dirhams were brought to medieval Russia by way of It.il* and the
kaganate.
There is, however, a much more fundamental argument against the
first method. By and large, the location of a dirham hoard in Eastern
Europe does not conclusively show how the coins in the hoard reached
their find-spot. One can look at the map and construct any number of
hypothetical routes by which a given hoard might have come either
via the Khazar or Bulgar lands. In fact, the Khazar vs. Volga Bulgar
dichotomy is in itself misleading. The real question is whether