Facts and battles between the Vikings and Muslims

 

Facts and battles between the Vikings and Muslims

Facts and battles between the Vikings and Muslims

The Vikings were a group of adventurous invaders who lived in Scandinavia and practiced piracy, looting, and piracy throughout the eleventh and twelfth centuries. They terrorized all European cities and raided Andalusian Islamic cities many times. They themselves are the "Norman" people.

They moved from the Scandinavian countries - currently known as Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland - to France and settled in Normandy, northwest of France. They were very fond of invasion, wars, and piracy, from which they benefited from money and treasures. Normandy became one of the richest provinces at that time due to the large amount of looting and plunder they took from people. They had a hand in the Crusades against Muslims.

They also seized England and many parts of Europe and Italy. They established the city of Aversa in France as a central center for them. They were greatly influenced by French civilization, so they took many customs and cultures from it.

They were polytheists and idol worshippers, and they had strange customs that were extremely strange, such as burial rituals, punishments, and other rituals that knew no mercy or compassion, as the Muslim traveler Ibn Fadlan - may God have mercy on him - explained - and this is not the place to elaborate on them.

The Vikings' invasion of the city of Seville

The Vikings prepared fifty-four ships to invade this Andalusian Islamic city in the year 229 AH. They first attacked the city of Lisbon and stayed in its port for thirteen days in fierce battles with the Muslims. They were confronted by the Muslim commander Wahb ibn Hazm - may God have mercy on him - and with him were Mujahideen from the city's residents.

This commander corresponded with the governor Abd al-Rahman II, historically known as Abd al-Rahman al-Awsat - who was one of the governors of the Umayyad state - requesting help and military support, and the governor responded to him, and this will become clear shortly.

In the year 230 AH, they headed to the city of Seville, and their greatest concern was to loot, plunder and seize the wealth of this city. The governor Abd al-Rahman al-Awsat resisted them with a fierce resistance that lasted for one hundred days, during which the Vikings stayed inside the city of Seville for forty-two days, wreaking havoc there, and then they left after this battle.

The Vikings were raiding on the principle of deadly guerrilla warfare, and when they entered Seville, they caused great corruption that would break the heart, so they looted the wealth of Seville, violated the honor of its free women, and spread terror and panic in it, and this is what they did in some cities such as the city of Sidona, Murcia and Almeria.

Resistance of Abd al-Rahman II

As we said, Abd al-Rahman II resisted them with a fierce and fierce resistance, repelling the honor and lands of the Muslims, until God granted him victory, so God destroyed at the hands of his army nearly half of the Viking ships, as they sank twenty-three of their ships.

The reaction of this governor after this fierce battle was to wake up to the great danger of these savages, so he established two naval fleets that were of great benefit later, as he placed one in the Mediterranean and the other in the Atlantic Sea, and these two fleets were guarding Andalusia from their attacks.

They also played a prominent role in the conquest of some cities and islands such as the Balearic Islands, and Abd al-Rahman II also built a huge wall around Seville, to protect it and safeguard it from the attacks of the Vikings and other aggressors on the borders of the Islamic Andalusian state.

The Vikings Break the Covenant and Attack Andalusia Again

After Abd al-Rahman al-Awsat repelled these murderers from the city of Seville, he contacted the King of Denmark to establish a diplomatic solution that would establish a truce between the two parties, so he sent a delegation of noble politicians to the King of Denmark to conclude a peace treaty between the two parties, and they succeeded in doing so, but this covenant between them did not last long.

The Vikings broke the covenant and resumed their attack in the year 254 AH on some Andalusian cities, but they were unsuccessful attacks in which they did not achieve any gains due to the Muslims' fierce and heroic resistance to them through their naval fleets that they had previously established.

Reasons for the battles between the Vikings and Muslims

The Viking attacks on the Muslims were not purely religious attacks caused by imposing religion, but rather their goal was purely economic and materialistic, and trade relations arose after those battles between the Muslims and the Vikings, where the Muslims took some of their good goods in exchange for gold and silver.