Using specific coin types (tenth-century dirhams and pre-970 Byzantine miliaresia) imported from the eastern Mediterranean and upper Mesopotamia in a very restricted chronological period (950s-960s) through (the Dnepr River) and into a confined region of the Northern lands (mainly Sweden) – combined with the evidence of Arab, Byzantine, and Rus’ written sources – this study argues that it is possible to trace numismatically the participation of Rus’ mercenaries in the Byzantine-Arab wars of the late 950s-960s. While dirhams discovered in the Northern lands are most commonly associated with trade relations between the Islamic world and Viking-age Northern Europe, the coins considered in this study offer a unique opportunity to identify and examine some of the non-commercial origins of silver imported into the region: they were products of loot and payments, generated by the Rus’ from their military operations in the eastern Mediterranean basin in the 950s-960s.
