Volga Bulgarian slave trade

The Viking slave trade in Volga Bulgaria was the subject of a famous description by Ibn Fadlan in the 920s.

[1] The Khazar Khaganate initially reacted to this change by making Volga Bulgaria their tributary state in order to continue to profit by the slave trade to the Caliphate,[2] but it resulted in Volga Bulgaria converting to Islam in the 920s and becoming directly aligned with the Caliphate.

The shift of the slave trade to the Caliphate via Volga Bulgaria and the Samanid Empire instead of the Khazar Khaganate is reflected in the fact that from this point on, the Arab silver dirham found in Europe now came from the Samanid Empire rather than directly from the Abbasid Caliphate.

People taken captive during the Viking raids in Western Europe, such as Ireland, could be sold to Moorish Spain via the Dublin slave trade[4] or transported to Hedeby or Brännö and from there via the Volga trade route to present-day Russia, where slaves and furs were sold to Muslim merchants in exchange for Arab silver dirham and silk, which have been found in Birka, Wolin, and Dublin;[5] initially this trade route between Europe and the Abbasid Caliphate passed via the Khazar Kaghanate,[6] but from the early 10th-century onward it went via Volga Bulgaria.

They were transported from southeastern Volga Bulgaria by caravan to Khwarazm, to the Samanid slave market in Central Asia and finally via Iran to the Abbasid Caliphate.

Map showing the major Varangian trade routes: the Volga trade route (in red) and the route from the Varangians to the Greeks (in purple). Other trade routes of the 8th to 11th centuries shown in orange.
Volok by Roerich
S. V. Ivanov. Trade negotiations in the country of Eastern Slavs. Pictures of Russian history. (1909)
Rus Caspian