154 CHAPTER 3
fortresses and settlements, most probably was not used in the tenth century or
at least not as much as during the ninth century.
The alternative route was developed in the early tenth century, passing
through Volga Bulgaria, where at that time Bolgar rose as a significant trade
center. The Pechenegs, no matter how damaging to trade ties, could not
have caused such a significant change. It is indicative that the road along the
Dnieper River towards the Black Sea, situated in the middle of Pecheneg lands,
gained significant importance for the Rus’ during the tenth century.20 The rea-
son for the northward shift of the route lies rather in the change of the initial
points from which the dirhams were imported to Eastern Europe. The disap-
pearance of Abbasid dirhams and their replacement with Samanid ones from
Middle Asia indicates the development of roads to the east of the Don and the
Caucasus.
V. Petrukhin believes that Khazaria blocked the access of the Rus’ to the
Abbasid markets and interrupted the import of dirhams, thus forcing them to
create the alternative route through Volga Bulgaria that connected them to the
Samanid lands, while avoiding the Khazar Khaganate. Bolgar became the main
market for international trade with the Rus’. The fact that the rulers of the Volga
Bulgars began to mint their own coins was an act of independence, although
Ibn Fadlan notes that they paid tribute to the Khazar khagan.21 Leaving aside
the question of whether Volga Bulgaria was part of Khazaria at that time or
not, there could hardly have been a Khazar trade blockade in the late ninth
century. Following the reasoning of V. Petrukhin, the ones blocked would not
be the Rus’, but the Khazars themselves who were evaded by the main trade
routes. In addition, the first half of the tenth century is a period during which
the import of dirhams increased incredibly (and thus constituted almost a
third of all dirhams, imported during the 940s and 950s).22 It seems to me that
during this period neither the Rus’ nor the Khazars had any interest or the abil-
ity to mutually block each other. It is much more probable that the cease in the
influx of Abbasid dirhams was caused by the Abbasid Caliphate itself.
20 According to Romashov 2004, 223, the Don region lost its economic importance as a result
of the Pecheneg invasion. The analysis of Golden 2003, no. 7, 95 however proves that dur-
ing this period trade with the neighboring sedentary communities was essential for the
Pechenegs. Therefore, even if they did have the opportunity, the Pechenegs had no inter-
est in seriously hindering the passage of the international trade caravans.
21 Petrukhin 1995a, 93 and 2005, 77–78. Volga Bulgaria was not isolated from the interna-
tional trade routes either during the examined period or during previous centuries (see
Kovalev 2005b, 55–76). In this case, it is the main roads along which the silver coins were
distributed.
22 Noonan 1992, 248.