152 CHAPTER 3
Khazar rule. The Khazar Khaganate blocked the Rus’ access to the Caspian
Sea and the Caucasus, forcing them to seek an alternative route. The influx of
dirhams (which by then were Samanid ones) was revived in the early tenth
century and passed through Volga Bulgaria, thus evading Khazaria.13
J. Shepard offers a different view on the causes of the late ninth century cri-
sis. According to him, the commercial activity of settlements such as Ladoga,
the Riurikovo hillfort (near the site where Novgorod was later erected) or the
settlements along the Upper Volga contradicts the idea of a decline in the dir-
ham influx. The significant increase in the number of Rus’ engaged in trade
may have led to the spread of the same amount of coins on a larger territory.14
Without denying the importance of the problems in the Abbasid Caliphate and
of the Pecheneg invasion, J. Shepard believes that there was a greater demand
for silver coins. Most of them were used as raw material for ornaments, “or they
may have been repeatedly changing hands—circulating—among the Rus’ in
a way which had not happened earlier. This might have left fewer reasons for
depositing the dirhams in the ground”.15
Clarifying the causes of the trade crisis from the late ninth century is
important as it helps to understand whether the shift in the main trade routes
resulted in the isolation of the Khazar Khaganate. The evidence, provided by
Ibn Khordadbeh (who wrote the Book of Roads and Kingdoms ca. 885–886) and
by Ibn al-Faqih (who wrote the Concise Book of Lands ca. 903) indicates that
in order to reach the Caspian Sea, Rus’ merchants had to cross the Black Sea,
before entering Khazaria and continuing on towards the lower reaches of the
Volga.16 This information shows that during the ninth century the Rus’ did not
use the whole length of the Volga River, as might be expected, but headed first
towards the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region. The coin hoards help in
tracing the paths of the Rus’.
The passage along the river routes in the forest zone of Eastern Europe was
not easy and the Rus’ merchants were dependant on the local population.
Eastwards from Ladoga (where the earliest hoard with dirhams in Eastern
Europe was found, dating ca. 786–787) they either travelled straight towards
the Volga along the Mologa River, or towards Beloozero, from where they
13 Petrukhin 1995a, 92–93 and 132; Petrukhin 2005, 76–78. See also the opinion of Zuckerman
1995, 259–270, according to whom the time of submission of Kiev and the surrounding
lands by Oleg can be shifted from the 880s and 890s to the 920s and 930s. See also the view
of Petrukhin 2000a.
14 Shepard and Franklin 2000, 97.
15 Shepard and Franklin 2000, 96.
16 Novosel’tsev 1965, 384–385.