The Volga Vikings had extensive trading routes all over what is now the Middle East.
Originally from Scandinavia, they followed the Volga through what is now Russia, and eventually founded Kiev. They called their new country "Rus"; the first few kings of Kievan Rus had Nordic names, but they Slavicised after about four generations. Eventually, Kiev became the capital of the emergent Russia: it wasn't for a few centuries that the capital moved to Moscow.
Anyway... point is, they were trading with the Turks in Istanbul both from the East and - via the Mediterranean - the west.
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Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Thu 30 May 2013, 8:45,
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