Dirhams for Slaves. Dirham hoards from Northern Europe, trade in Slavic slaves, and the emergence of Medieval Europe.

在整个北方的囤积中，可能发现了多达一百万迪拉姆的伊斯兰银。他们从伊拉克和中亚的造币厂到波罗的海的哥特兰岛，波罗的海周围的其他土地，并在公元9世纪和10世纪进一步到英格兰，当时长途陆地通信被认为几乎不存在。这个项目的目的是解释和评估这一前所未有的银流动的历史作用。到目前为止，它还没有得到学术界的关注。尽管人们认为迪拉姆囤积反映了9世纪和10世纪伊斯兰世界与非基督教欧洲之间的商业交流，但它们的机制和历史意义都没有受到审查。该项目将讨论斯拉夫奴隶，而不是毛皮或森林产品，是否是换取迪拉姆的主要商品。阿拉伯地理学家和旅行者的叙述、其他长途奴隶贸易系统的比较证据以及对银囤积的分析将使我们能够追溯供应商、中间商和消费者的复杂网络。我们相信，将有可能发现考古遗迹，例如人口突然减少，这反映了购买奴隶的情况，目前尚不清楚这种奴隶贸易制度为何停止。我们认为，答案将来自对11世纪斯堪的纳维亚和斯拉夫土地之间贸易的研究，盎格鲁-撒克逊和德国硬币取代了北方囤积的迪拉姆。这仅仅反映了对奴隶需求的地理变化吗？这是否意味着11世纪世纪的西欧经济比通常认为的更依赖于奴隶劳动力？如果答案是肯定的，那么就需要重新考虑封建主义出现的概念框架，我们对这种奴隶贸易制度的研究将要求我们解决当前学术界的一些重大空白。首先，我们将探讨为什么大多数囤积在北方土地上的硬币是由萨曼王朝的埃米尔在中亚生产的。尽管萨曼王朝在与北方的贸易中发挥着关键作用，但它本身从未被研究过。我们将出版这个王朝的第一部学术专著，它将阐明萨曼王朝在多大程度上能够控制流向北方土地的迪拉姆。我们还将探讨它们在约950年后贸易体系崩溃中的作用。其次，北方囤积的一组重要硬币迄今几乎完全没有引起学术界的注意。这些被称为迪拉姆仿制品。它们代表了一个尚未开发的历史资源，具有巨大的潜力，但也具有不同寻常的复杂性。它们很可能是由控制主要贸易港口的政治力量发行的，比如可萨人或伏尔加人;然而，它们生产的理由仍然未知。我们认为，它们是理解贩卖奴隶的经济机制的关键。我们将第一次提供一个主要类型的目录，最后，我们将重新评估北方的银囤积现象。根据瑞典、俄罗斯和波兰的最新研究成果，对这些国家的窖藏考古背景进行比较研究，将发现窖藏的模式，进而澄清窖藏和不取回窖藏的原因，这些研究将从多方面描绘斯拉夫奴隶贸易体系。它们的意义将不仅仅是揭示中世纪历史的一段插曲。该项目将大大有助于研究仍然被忽视的欧洲中世纪奴隶制现象。我们还将检验我们的假设，即销售斯拉夫奴隶所产生的财富使北方欧洲的国家得以形成。如果得到证实，它将为欧洲历史的形成时期提供一个新的视角。

Perhaps as many as one million dirhams, Islamic silver coins, have been found in hoards across Northern Europe. They travelled thousands of kilometres from the mints of Iraq and Central Asia to the Baltic island of Gotland, other lands around the Baltic and further on to England in the 9th and 10th centuries AD, when long-distance land communications are thought to have been virtually non-existent. The objective of this project is to explain and to evaluate the historical role of this unprecedented flow of silver.It has so far received little scholarly attention. Even though it is accepted that dirham hoards reflect commercial exchanges between the Islamic world and non-Christian Europe in the 9th and 10th centuries, neither their mechanisms nor their historical significance have been subjected to scrutiny. The project will discuss whether Slavic slaves, rather than furs or forest produce, were the primary commodity sold in return for dirhams. Accounts of Arab geographers and travellers, comparative evidence of other long-distance slave trade systems and the analysis of the silver hoards will allow us to retrace the complex network of suppliers, intermediaries and consumers. We believe that it will be possible to detect archaeological traces, such as abrupt depopulation, that reflect the procurement of slaves.It is currently unknown why this slave trade system drew to a halt. The answer, we think, will come from a study of the 11th-century trade between Scandinavia and the Slavic lands, evidenced by Anglo-Saxon and German coins which replaced dirhams in the Northern hoards. Does this reflect merely a change in the geography of the demand for slaves? Does it follow that Western European economies of the 11th century relied more heavily than usually thought on slave labour? If yes, the conceptual framework for the emergence of feudalism will need to be reconsidered.Our study of this slave trade system will require us to address some major gaps in current scholarship. Firstly, we will investigate why the majority of coins hoarded in the Northern Lands was produced in Central Asia by Samanid emirs. Despite its pivotal role in the trade with the North, the Samanid dynasty has never been studied in its own right. We will produce the first scholarly monograph of this dynasty, which will clarify to what extent the Samanids were able to regulate the flow of dirhams to the Northern Lands. We will also explore their role in the collapse of the trade system after ca 950.Secondly, a significant group of coins known from the Northern hoards has so far almost entirely escaped scholarly attention. These are known as dirham imitations. They represent an untapped historical source of significant potential, but also unusual complexity. They were probably issued by political powers controlling the principal ports of trade, such as the Khazars or the Volga Bulgars; the rationale for their production remains, however, unknown. We think that they hold the key to understanding the economic mechanisms of the slave trade. We will offer, for the first time, a catalogue of their principal types.Finally, we will reassess the phenomenon of silver hoarding in Northern Europe. A comparative study of the archaeological contexts of hoards in Sweden, Russia and Poland, based on new research in these countries, will detect patterns of hoarding that will, in turn, clarify the reasons for hoarding and for the non-retrieval of the hoards.These studies will result in a multifaceted picture of the trade system in Slavic slaves. Their implications will go beyond shedding light on an episode of medieval history. The project will substantially contribute to the study of the still neglected phenomenon of European medieval slavery. We will also test our hypothesis that the wealth derived from the sale of Slavic slaves enabled state formation in Northern Europe. If proved, it will offer a new perspective on the formative period of European history.