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Around the year 950, there emerged one of the most powerful countries in eastern Europe: Rus, known in Latin as Ruthenia. However, the origins of this eastern powerhouse are uncertain. Though the Rus were literate, they did not start recording their own history until the 11th century. But it was between 930 and 950 that they became relevant enough for their superpower neighbors, the Abbasid Caliphate and Byzantine Empire, to describe them in better detail. Before then, no one can be certain as to what Rus really meant. What is certain, however, is that somewhere in Eastern Europe, there existed a powerful King, called "Rus Khagan", who loosely commanded a warlike aristocracy of violent, riverbound merchants.

Sources:
Ibn Fadlan and the land of darkness - Paul Lunde and Caroline Stone
Svear i Österviking - Holger Arbman
The Early Slavs - Pavel Markovich Dolukhanov
The Primary Chronicle - Anonymous
The Rus in Arabic Sources - Thorir Jonsson Hraundal
The Varangians - Sverrir Jakobsson
Viking Rus - Wladyslaw Duzcko

Timestamps
0:00 Introduction
4:32 The Khagan
8:00 Seat of the Khagan
13:36 The Khanate Abroad
17:51 The Turkic Connection
22:27 Conclusion

Music credits:
Solstheim OST by Jeremy Soule
Arabian Sigma - The Perfect Girl - Mareux (The Arabic Version/Rendition) - YAD Oud

#vikings #history #russia #ukraine