Researchers have discovered that Vikings had “Allah” embroidered into their funeral clothes, raising questions about the ties between the Islamic world and the Viking-era Scandinavians and even suggesting some Vikings were Muslim.
BBC News reported that Arabic characters spelling the words "Allah" and "Ali" were discovered on the burial costumes from Viking boat graves that had been kept in storage for over a century.
It was only after textile archaeologist Annika Larsson of Uppsala University decided to revisit garments – excavated in Birka and Gamla Uppsala in Sweden in the late 19th and mid-20th centuries – that the discovery was made.
At first Larsson could not make sense of the small geometric designs woven into the garment with silk and silver thread but she finally managed to unlock the puzzle.
“I remembered where I had seen similar designs - in Spain, on Moorish textiles," she said, per BBC.
"I suddenly saw that the word 'Allah' [God] had been written in mirrored lettering.”
Historians, archaeologists and researcher have often locked horns when it comes to painting a clearer picture of the Scandinavian Viking-era and this new discovery has re-ignited those debates as experts turn their focus to the inhabitants of those graves.
Larsson has not dismissed the possibility that some of those in the graves could have been Muslim, although she believes it is more likely that burial customs were influenced by Islamic ideas.
"Presumably, Viking Age burial customs were influenced by Islam and the idea of an eternal life in Paradise after death," she told the Swedish science portal Forskning, per Sputnik News.
"Grave goods such as beautiful clothing, finely sewn in exotic fabrics, hardly reflect the deceased's everyday life, just as little as the formal attire of our era reflects our own daily lives. The rich material of grave goods should rather be seen as tangible expressions of underlying values.”
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