Why did Vikings have 'Allah' embroidered into funeral clothes?

[SunflowerP]

Researchers in Sweden have found Arabic characters woven into burial costumes from Viking boat graves.

Larsson says the tiny geometric designs - no more than 1.5cm (0.6in) high - resembled nothing she had come across in Scandinavia before.
"I couldn't quite make sense of them and then I remembered where I had seen similar designs - in Spain, on Moorish textiles."

Sunflower

[Owl]

Researchers in Sweden have found Arabic characters woven into burial costumes from Viking boat graves.

Sunflower

Absolutely cool!


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[Sefiru]

Researchers in Sweden have found Arabic characters woven into burial costumes from Viking boat graves.

Sunflower

Related: this Nova program on the Viking Ulfbehrt sword (warning: long video is long):



The steel for the swords may have come from the Middle East via a trade route through Russia.

[Ashmire]

Researchers in Sweden have found Arabic characters woven into burial costumes from Viking boat graves.

Sunflower

Interesting! Though, I hate to say it, but the first answer that comes to my mind is that it's for the same reason modern humans have tattoos of Kanji they don't know how to read ( or Asian people often do the same thing in reverse).   

[Sefiru]

Interesting! Though, I hate to say it, but the first answer that comes to my mind is that it's for the same reason modern humans have tattoos of Kanji they don't know how to read ( or Asian people often do the same thing in reverse).

Yeah, I think this is more likely than Vikings converting to Islam. Especially considering how Islam was able to put down roots in other parts of the world; if there had been any significant number of Viking converts, I suspect they would still be around.

[Naunau]

Yeah, I think this is more likely than Vikings converting to Islam. Especially considering how Islam was able to put down roots in other parts of the world; if there had been any significant number of Viking converts, I suspect they would still be around.

They were merchants and travelled long distances. This is like when they find medieval coins and artifacts from thousands of kilometers away buried somewhere. More common that we imagine.

[Waldhexe]

Cool, I'm just imagening Vikings adoring muslimic artwork on their travels...would make interesting stuff for a historic novel

[Hariti]

Researchers in Sweden have found Arabic characters woven into burial costumes from Viking boat graves.

Sunflower

Wow. I am very interested in History and anthropology, and this is quite amazing. Makes me think of Ahmad ibn Fadlan and his travels among the Volga Vikings.

[Oíche]

They were merchants and travelled long distances. This is like when they find medieval coins and artifacts from thousands of kilometers away buried somewhere. More common that we imagine.

~

Yep! There have been many Viking silver hoards found with Middle Eastern coins in them too. They got a lot of silver from their trading in the east.

Not surprising to me at all! Could be a personal convert but probably simply a case of 'this looks nice- I'll wear it!' 

[Darkhawk]

Researchers in Sweden have found Arabic characters woven into burial costumes from Viking boat graves.

Sunflower

THough of course another scholar disputes (link is to the middle of a long tweet thread):

It’s a style called square Kufic, and it’s common in Iran, C. Asia on architecture after 15th c., ex: Safavid Isfahan w/Allah and Ali 9/60 pic.twitter.com/pbGJNFITGk

— Dr. Stephennie Mulder (@stephenniem) October 16, 2017

[BRIGGS]

Researchers in Sweden have found Arabic characters woven into burial costumes from Viking boat graves.

Sunflower

I don't believe in there study, if you look at the original cloth, the researchers edited it on their copy of the cloth.  They're symbols plus the original had a swastika on it which was not a symbol of Arab culture.  Also they added some symbols to the cloth in their copy the original was missing the symbols that would need to spell Allah.  However, it is possible and even likely that Arab symbols will appear every now and then, Rus vikings mainly but some others of course made trading trips and raids in the middle east.