The Khazar Way

Kovalev: 2004, What does historical numismatics suggest about the monetary history of Khazaria in the Ninth Century? Revisited "Ibn Khurdadhbeh (writing in ca.850-885)... describes large segments of this route, but also speaks of how the Rus' merchants made their connection via it with the Islamic Near East. Thus he reports that the ar-Rus' merchants brought beaver and fox pelts as well as (Frankish) swords from Northern Europe/Russia to Khazaria by ship, and thereafter sailed across the Caspian sea to its southern coast where they disembarked (sometimes also traded) and transported their goods via camel caravans to Baghdad. There, they traded their goods (for dirhams), and returned to Northern Russia via Khazaria. Based on numismatic evidence, this trade can only be dated to as early as ca.800 (Kovalev: 2004, 100)