The Cufic coins hitherto found in the North were partly struck by the caliphs of Bagdad, partly by different princes, particularly the Samanides in Chorasan and Segestan, which were under their authority; they are all referrible to the period between the years 700 and 1050 after the birth of Christ. From the countries on the Caspian sea, in which the coins have almost all been struck, they must have been brought, with goods, as we must conjecture, up the Wolga, into the interior of Russia, to the important commercial town of Novogorod, which must have been founded by the Northmen. Here great markets were held, in which the traders of the North received eastern coins and rarities in return for their furs, dried fish, and amber. An active communication between Scandinavia and Asia was very generally maintained by way of northern Russia, (then termed Biarmiland and Garderica,) up to the conclusion of the eleventh century; when, in the first instance troubles in the interior of Russia, and subsequently the irruption of the Mongols, put a stop for some time to the usual progress of trade. Schleswig is mentioned by Arabian writers as an important commercial town, from whence many ships sailed to Russia. At Bornholm, where many Cufic coins are found, and at Gothland it is said the travellers to Russia assembled for their journey. Gothland, judging from the innumerable Cufic coins which have been dug up there, together with silver articles, and Anglo-Saxon and German coins of the tenth and eleventh centuries, must have been even in the heathen period, the most important place in the North for its commercial intercourse with the east by way of Russia, as well as with Germany and England. It was by means of this commerce that the town of Wisby[1] attained in later times to its extraordinary height of power and riches.
- ↑ Of the town of Wisby, so interesting to antiquaries from its connection with the early commerce of Europe,—it having been perhaps the greatest place for trade in northern Europe,—and from the manner in which its ancient buildings are preserved, a slight historical sketch was published
