Caspian Expeditions of The Rus' - Later Expeditions

Later Expeditions

In 987, Maymun, emir of Derbent, asked the Rus' to help him against local chiefs. The Rus', many of whom appear to have been professional soldiers, arrived on 18 ships. Uncertain of their reception, they sent only one ship to reconnoitre the situation. When its crew were massacred by the local population, the Rus' went on to loot the city of Maskat. In 989, this same Maymun is reported to have refused the demand of a local preacher to turn over his Rus' mercenaries to him for either conversion to Islam or death. In the ensuing struggle, Maymun was driven from the city and forced to surrender the Rus' soldiers, but he returned in 992.

In 1030, the Rus' raided the region of Shirvan; the ruler of Ganja then paid them much money to help suppress a revolt in Beylagan. Afterwards, the Rus' returned home. According to one source, in November 1031 the Rus' returned, but were defeated near Baku and expelled. The year of 1032 saw another Rus' raid into Shirvan; they were joined by the Alans and Sarir. Local Muslims defeated the Rus' in 1033. It is unclear to which Rus' grouping these raiders belonged. Omeljan Pritsak suggests that they operated out of a base near the Terek estuary and had their principal home in Tmutarakan. Pritsak also speculated that the Rus', operating from the Caspian basin, shortly thereafter lent support to the Oghuz in a power struggle in Khwarezm.

The legendary saga Yngvars saga víðförla describes the last expedition of the Vikings into the Caspian, dated to 1041 and possibly connected with the Georgian-Byzantine Battle of Sasireti in which a Varangian force participated around the same time; in the saga much legend is conflated with the historical facts. This expedition was launched from Sweden by Ingvar the Far-Travelled, who went down the Volga into the land of the Saracens (Serkland in Norse). There are no less than twenty-six Ingvar Runestones, twenty-three of them being in the Lake Mälaren region of Uppland in Sweden, referring to Swedish warriors who went out with Ingvar on his expedition to the Saracen lands, an expedition whose purpose was probably to reopen old trade routes, now that the Bulgars and the Khazars no longer proved obstacles. A stone to Ingvar’s brother indicates that he went east for gold but that he died in the Saracen land. Afterwards, no attempts were made by the Norsemen to reopen the route between the Baltic and Caspian seas.

Khaqani tells about the invasion of Shirvan in 1173 or 1174. In his odes, Khaqani names the Rus' and Khazars, Rus' and Alans, Rus' and Sarir as the invaders. Peter Golden argued that the Rus' mentioned by Khaqani were Volga pirates who came in 73 ships. Yevgeni Pakhomov and Vladimir Minorsky thought the invasion was initiated by the ruler of Darbent, Bek-Bars b. Muzaffar. According to Minorsky, "the initiative of Bek-Bars was independent of Kiev, and he must have used bands of free-lances (бродники) who were roaming in the south, as a prototype of the future Cossacks". The shirvanshah Ahsitan I turned to the Georgian king, George III for aid and a combined army, which also included the future Byzantine emperor Andronikos Komnenos, defeated the invaders and recaptured the fortress of Shabaran. Georgian sources speak of the Khazars, but do not mention Rus' in connection with this event.