Європейська торгівля з арабським Сходом у VIII–Х ст.: роль слов’ян і Русі

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to analyze written and archaeological sources on early medieval international trade and to clarify the role of the Slavs and Kyiv Rus in the development of European and transcontinental trade relations. The research methodology is based on the principles of historicism, interdisciplinarity as well as on general historical methods of historiographical and source analysis, historical-genetic and comparative methods. Scientific novelty. Based on sources and historiographical research, an attempt has been made to find out the role of the Slavs and Kyiv Rus in Europe’s early medieval trade with the Arab East, and to identify possible routes for international trade including the Vikings to the Greeks route. Conclusions. As a result of the Arab conquests, there were significant changes in the geography of international trade routes. They shifted from the Mediterranean basin to the north and passed through the Slavic-populated regions of Central and Eastern Europe and Ruthenia. The new system of water and land routes connected the European Frankish West, the Slavic Baltic Pomerania, the Danube and the Ruthenian East of the continent. With the development of trade with the Arab East, the Way from the Vikings to the Greeks was formed and began to function, connecting the lands of the Baltic Wagri Slavs with Kyiv and Constantinople. It ran through the trade centers of the Pomeranian Slavs in the Baltic, across the Vistula, Western Bug, Pripyat, Dnieper and to the Black Sea coincided with the route of the transcontinental highway between Europe and the Arab East, which passed further east through the Sea of Azov, Don, Volga and the Caspian Sea. According to Arab authors, the main goods of Arab imports, including fur, honey, wax, and Frankish swords, came to the east from the Slavic lands and Ruthenia. The earliest and largest treasures of Arab dirhams, found in the lands of the Baltic Slavs, also indicate that the main counterparts of Arab trade in Europe were the Slavs and Ruthenia. The active participation of Ruthenian state in international trade is also evidenced by the construction of a network of stone fortresses in the upper Seversky Donets, Oskol and the Middle and Lower Don, which were not only border outposts of Ruthenia, but also trading posts.