Abstract
This study examines the interactions between the Turks and the Scandinavia-origin Rus’ in Byzantine historiography, focusing on the multifaceted networks of interaction that emerged between the Turks, Rus’, and Byzantium in Eastern Europe, particularly in the northern Black Sea region, during the IXth to XIth centuries. Byzantine sources, which provide uninterrupted information about Turkish peoples over a broad temporal and spatial spectrum-from the Huns to the Ottomans-are recognized for their significance in Turkish historiography. However, it is also a fact that these sources document not only Turkish communities but also the political, commercial, and military relations of Scandinavian groups with Byzantium and other Turkish peoples. Byzantium’s geographical position enabled continuous interaction with Scandinavian groups arriving from the north and Turkish peoples from the east. Scandinavian merchants advancing through the Dnieper to the Black Sea and via the Volga to the Caspian Sea encountered Turkish groups such as the Pechenegs, Khazars, and Volga Bulgars, establishing various levels of relations with these peoples. The study also addresses the role of Scandinavians as mercenaries in the Byzantine army, forming the elite unit known as the Varangian Guard, which also included Turkish members. The activities of the Scandinavians in Eastern Europe, particularly the trade networks formed along the Dnieper River, are analyzed in detail. These trade routes played a critical role in facilitating contact between the Scandinavians and Turkish peoples. The Pechenegs, in this context, are emphasized as a strategic element serving both as facilitators and obstacles in these interactions. Moreover, the deepening of diplomatic and commercial ties between the Rus’ and Byzantium and their implications for the relationship between these two societies are discussed. An important finding of the study is that Byzantine historiography not only documented the interactions among these peoples but also facilitated the transmission of cultural and military knowledge through these relations. One noteworthy aspect is the acquisition of mounted combat techniques by the Scandinavians from the Turks, which they employed while serving in the Byzantine army and later transmitted back to Scandinavia. However, it is also noted that the ethnographic and socio-cultural descriptions in Byzantine sources, often rooted in the Classical Greek and Roman traditions, have led to certain ambiguities in modern research. In conclusion, the study demonstrates that Byzantine sources serve as a fundamental reference for understanding the multilayered nature of Turkish and Rus’-Scandinavian relations. Highlighting the mutual dependence between Turkish and Scandinavian peoples in military and commercial contexts, the study underlines that Byzantine sources, when carefully analyzed, offer an unparalleled guide for evaluating the historical background of the period from a broad perspective.
Keywords
References
- Vs 1 - Västmanland: Stora Rytterns kyrkoruin, Erişim 23 Aralık 2024.
- https://www.christerhamp.se/runor/gamla/vs/vs1.html
- Central Asia - Uppsala University. Erişim 19 Aralık 2024. Erişim 19 Aralık 2024.
- https://www.uu.se/en/centre/centre-for-the-world-in-the-viking-age-wiva/themes-and-study-areas/central-asia
- ANDROSHCHUK, Fedir, Vikings in the East: Essays on Contacts Along the Road to Byzantium (800-1100), Uppsala Universitet, Uppsala 2013.
- _______________, Fedir, “Vikingler Doğuda”, Viking Dünyası. ed. Stefan Brink – Neil Price, Alfa Tarih Yayınları, İstanbul 2015, ss. 653–685.
- BİBİKOV, M. V. vd, (ed.). Drevnyaya Rus v Svete Zarubejnıh İstoçnikov: Vizantiyskiye İstoçniki, II. Rossiyskaya Akademiya Nauk, Moskova 2010.
- BRUTZKUS, J., “Eski Kiev’in Türk-Hazar Menşei”, çev. İkbal Berk – Halil İnalcık, Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Dergisi 3'ten ayrıbasım/IV (1946), ss. 344–357.
- Constantine Porphyrogenitus, De Administrando Imperio, çev. Romilly J. H. Jenkins, thk. Gyula Moravcsik, Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies, 2. Basım, 1967.
- DENNİS, George T., (ed.) Three Byzantine Military Treatises: Text, Translation, and Notes, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington D.C. 1985.
- DUCZKO, Wladyslaw, Viking Rus: Studies on the presence of Scandinavians in Eastern Europe, Brill, Leiden, Boston 2004.
- GUBAREV, O. L., “"Neonormanizm" ili Neoantinormanizm?”, Stratum Plus 5 (2015), https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=603720, ss. 351–355.
- IVANOV, Ivelin, “Travelling to Grikkland and Mikligarðr: The Byzantine Empire and the Byzantines in Two Scandinavian Sagas”, VTU Review: Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences 4/1 (2020), ss. 68–75.
- İbn Hurdazbih, Yollar ve Ülkeler Kitabı, çev. Murat Ağarı, Ayışığı Kitapları, 2. Basım, İstanbul 2019.
- İbn Rüsteh, El-Alaku'n-Nefise, Dünya Cografyası, çev. Ali Fuat Eker, Ankara Okulu, Ankara 2017.
- JANSSON, Sven B. F., Västmanlands Runinskrifter, Almqvist & Wiksells, Uppsala 1964.
- KARAGÖZ, Selim, IX.-XI. Yüzyıllarda Türk-İskandinav Halkları İlişkileri, Ankara Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Basılmamış Doktora Tezi, Ankara 2023.
- KATONA, Csete, Vikings of the Steppe: Scandinavians, Rus', and the Turkic World (C. 750-1050), Routledge, London 2022.
- KAZAKOV, Yevgeniy P., “Ninth and Tenth-Century Volga Bulgar Trade”, Muslims on the Volga in the Viking Age In the Footsteps of Ibn Fadlan, ed. Jonathan Shepard – Luke Treadwell, London, New York, Dublin, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023, ss. 299–315.
- KLEYN, L. S. vd., “Normanskiye Drevnosti Kiyevskoy Rusi Na Sovremennom Etape Arheologiçeskogo İzuçeniye”, Istoriçeskiye Svyazi Skandinavii i Rossii IX - XX vv. ed. N. E. Nosov – İ. P. Şaskolskiy, Leningrad: Nauka 1970, ss. 226–252.
- _______, Lev S., Spor o Varyagah: İstoriya Protivostoyaniye i Argumentı Storon, Sankt Peterburg: Yevraziya 2009.
- KOZLOV, S. A., “Vasiliki na Putyah Gardariki”, ISTORIYA 10/9 (83) (2019), https://doi.org/10.18254/S207987840007494-2
- KUZMİN, A. G., Povest Vremennıh Let. thk. A. G. Kuzmin, İnstitut Russkoy Tsivilatsii, Moskva 2014.
- LEBEDEV, G. S. – Nazarenko, V. A., “The Connections Between Russians and Scandinavians in the 9th-11th Centuries”. Norwegian Archaeological Review 6/1 (1973), ss. 5–9.
- Leo the Deacon, The History of Leo Deacon: Byzantine Military Expansion in the Tenth Century, çev. Alice-Mary Talbot – Denis F. Sullivan, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. 2005.
- LÜBARSKY, Ya. N. vd., (ed.). Prodoljatel' Feofana: Jizneopisaniya Vizantiyskih Tsarey, Sankt Petersburg: Aleteiya 2009.
- MÄGİ, Marika, In Austrvegr: The Role of the Eastern Baltic in Viking Age Communication Across the Baltic Sea, Brill, Leiden 2018.
- MAMMADOVA, Jeyran, “Rusların Köken Problemi ve Norman Teorisi”, ATDD 2 (2023), ss. 116–126.
- MARTİNEZ, A. P., “Gardizi's Two Chapters on the Turks”, Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi II (1982), ss. 109–175.
- MELNİKOVA, Elena A., Skandinavskie Runiçeskie Nadpisi: Novıe Nahodki i İnterpretatsii, Tekstı, Perevod, Kommentarii, Vostoçnaya Literatura, Moskva 2001.
- ____________, Elena A., “Rhosia and the Rus in Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos’ De administrando imperio”, Byzantium and the Viking World, ed. Fedir Androshchuk vd., Uppsala Universitet, Uppsala 2016, ss. 315–337.
- ____________, Elena A. – Petruhin, V. Ya., (ed.), Drevnaya Rus v Srednevekovom Mire Ladomir, Moskova 2014.
- Mesudî, Murûc ez-zeheb (Altın Bozkırlar), çev. D. A. Batur, Selenge Yayınları, 2. Basım, İstanbul 2004.
- MONTGOMERY, J. E., “Arapça Kaynaklarda Vikingler”, Viking Dünyası, ed. Stefan Brink – Neil Price, Alfa Tarih Yayınları, İstanbul 2015, ss. 694–708.
- MORAVCSİK, Gyula, Byzantinoturcica I: Die Byzantinischen Quellen der Geschichte der Türkvölker, Leiden 1983.
- NELSON, Janet L., The Annals of St-Bertin, çev. Janet L. Nelson, Manchester University Press, Manchester 1991.
- NOONAN, Thomas S., “Rus', Pechenegs and Polovtsy: Economic Interaction Along the Steppe Frontier in the Pre-Mongol Era”, Russian History 19/1/4 (1992), ss. 301–326.
- Photius, The Homilies of Photius Patriarch of Constantinople, çev. Cyril Mango, Massachusetts: Dumbarton Oaks, Cambridge 1958.
- REİSKE, Johann JAcob, (ed.) Constantine Porphyrogenitus De Cerimoniis Aulae Byzantinae, 2 Cilt, Bonn, Weber, 1830.
- SAKARYA BOZALİOĞLU, Tuğçe Müge, İki Anomim Bizans Kaynağına Göre X. Yüzyılda Bizans Ordusu, Ankara Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Basılmamış Doktora Tezi, Ankara 2014.
- SHEARD, Jack, Byzantium and the Black Sea, c.1000-1204, University of London, Royal Halloway, London 2021.
- STRITTER, Johann Gotthelf von., Memoriae Populorum, Olim, Ad Danubium, Pontium Euxinum, Paludem Maeotidem, Caucasum, Mare Caspium, Et Inde Magis Ad Septemtriones Incolentium. Impensis Academiae Scientiarum, ss. 1771-1779.
- SVERDLOV, Mihail Borisoviç, Latinoyazıçnıye İstoçniki po İstorii Drevey Rusi IX-XIII v.: Pravda Russkaya İstoriya Teksta, Olega Abışko, Sankt Peterburg 2017.
- THOMSEN, Vilhelm, Rus Devleti'nin Kökenleri: Eski Rusya ve İskandinavya Arasındaki İlişkiler, çev. Emine Dikmen, Selenge Yayınları, İstanbul 2021.
- TREADGOLD, Warren, The Middle Byzantine Historians, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke 2013.
- ULUSAN, Ahmet, "Geçmiş Yılların Hikâyesi" (Povest Vremennıh Let) Adlı Kroniğin Tahlili ve Tenkitli Tercümesi, Ankara Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Doktora Tezi, Ankara 2016.
- VALK, Heiki, “Vikingler ve Doğu Baltık”, Viking Dünyası, ed. Stefan Brink – Neil Price, 613, Alfa Tarih Yayınları, İstanbul 2015.
- VLASTO, A. P., The Entry of the Slavs Into Christendom: An Introduction to the Medieval History of the Slavs, Cambridge U.P, London 1970.
- WAİTZ, Georg, Annales Bertiniani, İmpensis Bibliopolii Hahniani, Hannover 1883.
- Zakharii – Roman, The Historiography of Normanist and Anti-Normanist Theories in the Origin of Rus', The University of Oslo, Centre for Viking and Medieval Studies, The Faculty of Arts, Yüksek Lisans Tezi, Oslo 2002.
- ZİMONYİ, István, Muslim Sources on the Magyars in the Second Half of the 9th Century: The Magyar Chapter of the Jayhānī Tradition, Boston: Brill, Leiden 2015.
Abstract
This study examines the interactions between the Turks and the Scandinavia-origin Rus’ in Byzantine historiography, focusing on the multifaceted networks of interaction that emerged between the Turks, Rus’, and Byzantium in Eastern Europe, particularly in the northern Black Sea region, during the IXth to XIth centuries. Byzantine sources, which provide uninterrupted information about Turkish peoples over a broad temporal and spatial spectrum-from the Huns to the Ottomans-are recognized for their significance in Turkish historiography. However, it is also a fact that these sources document not only Turkish communities but also the political, commercial, and military relations of Scandinavian groups with Byzantium and other Turkish peoples. Byzantium’s geographical position enabled continuous interaction with Scandinavian groups arriving from the north and Turkish peoples from the east. Scandinavian merchants advancing through the Dnieper to the Black Sea and via the Volga to the Caspian Sea encountered Turkish groups such as the Pechenegs, Khazars, and Volga Bulgars, establishing various levels of relations with these peoples. The study also addresses the role of Scandinavians as mercenaries in the Byzantine army, forming the elite unit known as the Varangian Guard, which also included Turkish members. The activities of the Scandinavians in Eastern Europe, particularly the trade networks formed along the Dnieper River, are analyzed in detail. These trade routes played a critical role in facilitating contact between the Scandinavians and Turkish peoples. The Pechenegs, in this context, are emphasized as a strategic element serving both as facilitators and obstacles in these interactions. Moreover, the deepening of diplomatic and commercial ties between the Rus’ and Byzantium and their implications for the relationship between these two societies are discussed. An important finding of the study is that Byzantine historiography not only documented the interactions among these peoples but also facilitated the transmission of cultural and military knowledge through these relations. One noteworthy aspect is the acquisition of mounted combat techniques by the Scandinavians from the Turks, which they employed while serving in the Byzantine army and later transmitted back to Scandinavia. However, it is also noted that the ethnographic and socio-cultural descriptions in Byzantine sources, often rooted in the Classical Greek and Roman traditions, have led to certain ambiguities in modern research. In conclusion, the study demonstrates that Byzantine sources serve as a fundamental reference for understanding the multilayered nature of Turkish and Rus’-Scandinavian relations. Highlighting the mutual dependence between Turkish and Scandinavian peoples in military and commercial contexts, the study underlines that Byzantine sources, when carefully analyzed, offer an unparalleled guide for evaluating the historical background of the period from a broad perspective.
Keywords
References
- Vs 1 - Västmanland: Stora Rytterns kyrkoruin, Erişim 23 Aralık 2024.
- https://www.christerhamp.se/runor/gamla/vs/vs1.html
- Central Asia - Uppsala University. Erişim 19 Aralık 2024. Erişim 19 Aralık 2024.
- https://www.uu.se/en/centre/centre-for-the-world-in-the-viking-age-wiva/themes-and-study-areas/central-asia
- ANDROSHCHUK, Fedir, Vikings in the East: Essays on Contacts Along the Road to Byzantium (800-1100), Uppsala Universitet, Uppsala 2013.
- _______________, Fedir, “Vikingler Doğuda”, Viking Dünyası. ed. Stefan Brink – Neil Price, Alfa Tarih Yayınları, İstanbul 2015, ss. 653–685.
- BİBİKOV, M. V. vd, (ed.). Drevnyaya Rus v Svete Zarubejnıh İstoçnikov: Vizantiyskiye İstoçniki, II. Rossiyskaya Akademiya Nauk, Moskova 2010.
- BRUTZKUS, J., “Eski Kiev’in Türk-Hazar Menşei”, çev. İkbal Berk – Halil İnalcık, Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Dergisi 3'ten ayrıbasım/IV (1946), ss. 344–357.
- Constantine Porphyrogenitus, De Administrando Imperio, çev. Romilly J. H. Jenkins, thk. Gyula Moravcsik, Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies, 2. Basım, 1967.
- DENNİS, George T., (ed.) Three Byzantine Military Treatises: Text, Translation, and Notes, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington D.C. 1985.
- DUCZKO, Wladyslaw, Viking Rus: Studies on the presence of Scandinavians in Eastern Europe, Brill, Leiden, Boston 2004.
- GUBAREV, O. L., “"Neonormanizm" ili Neoantinormanizm?”, Stratum Plus 5 (2015), https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=603720, ss. 351–355.
- IVANOV, Ivelin, “Travelling to Grikkland and Mikligarðr: The Byzantine Empire and the Byzantines in Two Scandinavian Sagas”, VTU Review: Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences 4/1 (2020), ss. 68–75.
- İbn Hurdazbih, Yollar ve Ülkeler Kitabı, çev. Murat Ağarı, Ayışığı Kitapları, 2. Basım, İstanbul 2019.
- İbn Rüsteh, El-Alaku'n-Nefise, Dünya Cografyası, çev. Ali Fuat Eker, Ankara Okulu, Ankara 2017.
- JANSSON, Sven B. F., Västmanlands Runinskrifter, Almqvist & Wiksells, Uppsala 1964.
- KARAGÖZ, Selim, IX.-XI. Yüzyıllarda Türk-İskandinav Halkları İlişkileri, Ankara Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Basılmamış Doktora Tezi, Ankara 2023.
- KATONA, Csete, Vikings of the Steppe: Scandinavians, Rus', and the Turkic World (C. 750-1050), Routledge, London 2022.
- KAZAKOV, Yevgeniy P., “Ninth and Tenth-Century Volga Bulgar Trade”, Muslims on the Volga in the Viking Age In the Footsteps of Ibn Fadlan, ed. Jonathan Shepard – Luke Treadwell, London, New York, Dublin, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023, ss. 299–315.
- KLEYN, L. S. vd., “Normanskiye Drevnosti Kiyevskoy Rusi Na Sovremennom Etape Arheologiçeskogo İzuçeniye”, Istoriçeskiye Svyazi Skandinavii i Rossii IX - XX vv. ed. N. E. Nosov – İ. P. Şaskolskiy, Leningrad: Nauka 1970, ss. 226–252.
- _______, Lev S., Spor o Varyagah: İstoriya Protivostoyaniye i Argumentı Storon, Sankt Peterburg: Yevraziya 2009.
- KOZLOV, S. A., “Vasiliki na Putyah Gardariki”, ISTORIYA 10/9 (83) (2019), https://doi.org/10.18254/S207987840007494-2
- KUZMİN, A. G., Povest Vremennıh Let. thk. A. G. Kuzmin, İnstitut Russkoy Tsivilatsii, Moskva 2014.
- LEBEDEV, G. S. – Nazarenko, V. A., “The Connections Between Russians and Scandinavians in the 9th-11th Centuries”. Norwegian Archaeological Review 6/1 (1973), ss. 5–9.
- Leo the Deacon, The History of Leo Deacon: Byzantine Military Expansion in the Tenth Century, çev. Alice-Mary Talbot – Denis F. Sullivan, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. 2005.
- LÜBARSKY, Ya. N. vd., (ed.). Prodoljatel' Feofana: Jizneopisaniya Vizantiyskih Tsarey, Sankt Petersburg: Aleteiya 2009.
- MÄGİ, Marika, In Austrvegr: The Role of the Eastern Baltic in Viking Age Communication Across the Baltic Sea, Brill, Leiden 2018.
- MAMMADOVA, Jeyran, “Rusların Köken Problemi ve Norman Teorisi”, ATDD 2 (2023), ss. 116–126.
- MARTİNEZ, A. P., “Gardizi's Two Chapters on the Turks”, Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi II (1982), ss. 109–175.
- MELNİKOVA, Elena A., Skandinavskie Runiçeskie Nadpisi: Novıe Nahodki i İnterpretatsii, Tekstı, Perevod, Kommentarii, Vostoçnaya Literatura, Moskva 2001.
- ____________, Elena A., “Rhosia and the Rus in Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos’ De administrando imperio”, Byzantium and the Viking World, ed. Fedir Androshchuk vd., Uppsala Universitet, Uppsala 2016, ss. 315–337.
- ____________, Elena A. – Petruhin, V. Ya., (ed.), Drevnaya Rus v Srednevekovom Mire Ladomir, Moskova 2014.
- Mesudî, Murûc ez-zeheb (Altın Bozkırlar), çev. D. A. Batur, Selenge Yayınları, 2. Basım, İstanbul 2004.
- MONTGOMERY, J. E., “Arapça Kaynaklarda Vikingler”, Viking Dünyası, ed. Stefan Brink – Neil Price, Alfa Tarih Yayınları, İstanbul 2015, ss. 694–708.
- MORAVCSİK, Gyula, Byzantinoturcica I: Die Byzantinischen Quellen der Geschichte der Türkvölker, Leiden 1983.
- NELSON, Janet L., The Annals of St-Bertin, çev. Janet L. Nelson, Manchester University Press, Manchester 1991.
- NOONAN, Thomas S., “Rus', Pechenegs and Polovtsy: Economic Interaction Along the Steppe Frontier in the Pre-Mongol Era”, Russian History 19/1/4 (1992), ss. 301–326.
- Photius, The Homilies of Photius Patriarch of Constantinople, çev. Cyril Mango, Massachusetts: Dumbarton Oaks, Cambridge 1958.
- REİSKE, Johann JAcob, (ed.) Constantine Porphyrogenitus De Cerimoniis Aulae Byzantinae, 2 Cilt, Bonn, Weber, 1830.
- SAKARYA BOZALİOĞLU, Tuğçe Müge, İki Anomim Bizans Kaynağına Göre X. Yüzyılda Bizans Ordusu, Ankara Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Basılmamış Doktora Tezi, Ankara 2014.
- SHEARD, Jack, Byzantium and the Black Sea, c.1000-1204, University of London, Royal Halloway, London 2021.
- STRITTER, Johann Gotthelf von., Memoriae Populorum, Olim, Ad Danubium, Pontium Euxinum, Paludem Maeotidem, Caucasum, Mare Caspium, Et Inde Magis Ad Septemtriones Incolentium. Impensis Academiae Scientiarum, ss. 1771-1779.
- SVERDLOV, Mihail Borisoviç, Latinoyazıçnıye İstoçniki po İstorii Drevey Rusi IX-XIII v.: Pravda Russkaya İstoriya Teksta, Olega Abışko, Sankt Peterburg 2017.
- THOMSEN, Vilhelm, Rus Devleti'nin Kökenleri: Eski Rusya ve İskandinavya Arasındaki İlişkiler, çev. Emine Dikmen, Selenge Yayınları, İstanbul 2021.
- TREADGOLD, Warren, The Middle Byzantine Historians, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke 2013.
- ULUSAN, Ahmet, "Geçmiş Yılların Hikâyesi" (Povest Vremennıh Let) Adlı Kroniğin Tahlili ve Tenkitli Tercümesi, Ankara Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Doktora Tezi, Ankara 2016.
- VALK, Heiki, “Vikingler ve Doğu Baltık”, Viking Dünyası, ed. Stefan Brink – Neil Price, 613, Alfa Tarih Yayınları, İstanbul 2015.
- VLASTO, A. P., The Entry of the Slavs Into Christendom: An Introduction to the Medieval History of the Slavs, Cambridge U.P, London 1970.
- WAİTZ, Georg, Annales Bertiniani, İmpensis Bibliopolii Hahniani, Hannover 1883.
- Zakharii – Roman, The Historiography of Normanist and Anti-Normanist Theories in the Origin of Rus', The University of Oslo, Centre for Viking and Medieval Studies, The Faculty of Arts, Yüksek Lisans Tezi, Oslo 2002.
- ZİMONYİ, István, Muslim Sources on the Magyars in the Second Half of the 9th Century: The Magyar Chapter of the Jayhānī Tradition, Boston: Brill, Leiden 2015.
Details
| Primary Language | Turkish |
|---|---|
| Subjects | Pre-Islamic Turkish History, History Methodology, Historiography (Other) |
| Journal Section | Articles |
| Authors | |
| Publication Date | May 31, 2025 |
| Submission Date | December 26, 2024 |
| Acceptance Date | March 21, 2025 |
| Published in Issue | Year 2025 Volume: 7 Issue: 14 |
