WI: An Andalusian Ruler gives Vikings lands in Western Iberia ?

I've been thinking about how a group of Vikings under Rollo were given land in Northern France and became the Normans over time. I also remembered that the Vikings would also raid the south of Al-Andalus. This got me thinking that maybe in an alternate timeline, an Andalusia ruler might have been prudent enough to offer lands, perhaps parts of OTL Portugal so long as they converted to Islam and became vassals of Cordoba. This way, these Vikings can get wealthy off of controlling trade in their lands and they can fight for the Caliphs in return.

What would an Arabo-Viking culture look like? I think it would definitely prioritize seafaring, trade, and warfare. They'd shift to speaking Arabic within two generations probably but would retain some traces of their culture. Maybe they travel west to search for new lands and become the first Europeans to settle North America.

They'd cause trouble to the Christian Iberian Kingdoms for sure and could prevent the Reconquista. On the other hand, they might cause a lot of problems for all of Iberia and maybe the rest of Europe(looking at you Italy).
 
I am not sure Vikings would be open to eventually embrace the Islam.

They gradually accepted Christianism because there were already other Germanic people which had embraced it before, so Vikings increasingly associated the faith to their concept of 'sedentary, civilized Germanic people' and assumed that their progressive 'sedentarization' in certain parts of Europe would be tied to accept Christianism and other cultural norms of the neighbouring christianized Germanic-Roman people.

Regarding Islam, I think they would have seen it as too culturally far for their standards.
 
Vikings giving up both alcohol and pork is extremely unlikely, additionally Andalusia is in a very good point in their history by 960 - The christian kingdoms were all nominally supporting them, they had repelled the fatimids and proclaimed caliph.
 
I could see some of them joining the Saqaliba guards or eunuchs of the courts of Cordoba, but an outright equivalent to Normandy is I think unlikely, especially with the local governors already being well-established dynasties by the 960s who eventually would lead to the taifa states after the fitna.
Vikings giving up both alcohol and pork is extremely unlikely, additionally Andalusia is in a very good point in their history by 960 - The christian kingdoms were all nominally supporting them, they had repelled the fatimids and proclaimed caliph.
Well, it's not that the caliphs themselves would shy away from sinful pleasures like male harems or vine. Unlikely, but not outright impossible.
 
The question here is do they follow the tenents of islam of be more like the cordoban monarchs andalusia already has a laxed style of islam so drinking i see as no problem, pork i do.

@Planet of Hats you should ask this is his expletives of knowledge.
 
The Muslim states in Iberia would sometimes use Christian mercenaries, and the Christian states would sometimes use Muslim mercenaries. It depended on what was prudent at the time.
 
This apparently happened on a small scale: After the big raid on Seville in the 840s, some of the Vikings settled. They became cheese traders and submerged into the culture.

In general, the Andalusians were much better prepared to push back the Vikings than the French were. During the most significant of the Viking attacks, for ex, the Umayyads responded fairly quickly and even torched the Vikings' ships with Greek fire. But I suppose a large enough force of Vikings could be bought off and settled somewhere, at which point they'd likely steadily submerge into the culture and become Arabized.

Basically you'd need the raid on Seville to bring a lot more dudes. After that, the Umayyads started building more naval and defensive infrastructure and early-warning messenger networks to respond quickly to coastal raids. The Vikings didn't get very far after that.
 
Maybe the Vikings need not convert? Through some convoluted way they get classed as Dhimmi to get the extra tax revenue, and then we have the same boisterous, alcohol drinking, pig eating pagans ready to fight for the Caliph?
 
Is this a plausible idea?

Perhaps the Caliph decides to make Hastein and Bjorn Ironside local governors with the special status of paying lower taxes but instead also having to pay with fixed military service for every man in their "province". Over time, the Viking class assimilates into the local culture and also attains huge prestige and power in Al-Andalus because of its military prowess.

Maybe these Arabo-Vikings are sent to raid England, Francia, and maybe Italy for slaves and wealth. Maybe they become a distinct class of privateers in the process.
 
The Visigoths were Germanic peoples and yet many of them converted to Islam... If the Vikings need only another ‘Germanic’ people to lead the way, they have this in Iberia among many of the Visigoths.
 
The Visigoths were Germanic peoples and yet many of them converted to Islam... If the Vikings need only another ‘Germanic’ people to lead the way, they have this in Iberia among many of the Visigoths.

That's not accurate.

By 711, only part of the elites of the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania could be still considered 'Germanic/Gothic' in some way; more than 90% of the population were already Hispanic-Roman and most of the original Gothic invaders had merged with them by that time. Only part of the nobility and high officers still retained part of their Gothic distinctiveness (like the Gothic family names), even if strongly Romanized (they had embraced Catholicism for more than a century and spoke Hispanic romances).

After the Arab invasion, the main bulk of these Gothic elites fled to Asturias and the area of the Pyrenees, and only a minority of them remained in Al-Andalus. Most of the local people who eventually converted to Islam after the invasion were indeed Hispanic-Roman, not Visigothic.
 

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Maybe the Vikings need not convert? Through some convoluted way they get classed as Dhimmi to get the extra tax revenue, and then we have the same boisterous, alcohol drinking, pig eating pagans ready to fight for the Caliph?
Arab writers of the Middle Ages did consider Vikings as well as other 'peoples of the north' to be majus likening their practices to Zoroastrians.
 
That's not accurate.

By 711, only part of the elites of the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania could be still considered 'Germanic/Gothic' in some way; more than 90% of the population were already Hispanic-Roman and most of the original Gothic invaders had merged with them by that time. Only part of the nobility and high officers still retained part of their Gothic distinctiveness (like the Gothic family names), even if strongly Romanized (they had embraced Catholicism for more than a century and spoke Hispanic romances).

After the Arab invasion, the main bulk of these Gothic elites fled to Asturias and the area of the Pyrenees, and only a minority of them remained in Al-Andalus. Most of the local people who eventually converted to Islam after the invasion were indeed Hispanic-Roman, not Visigothic.

This is not my point of which they continued to speak Gothic. Only that there was a sympathy to Islam among the some of the peoples. This cannot be disputed.

Regardless, Islamic opinion of the era was that many of the Muslims within Iberia were converts from there. Not Arab migrants or Berber migrants. Hence why al-Jahiz described the Muslim world as generally divided between several different skin hues, with to him, those of Iberia having the lightest shade of tone. If the Muslims therein were all Yemeni migrants and berbers, al-Jahiz would not have differentiated them from peoples living in Iraq.
 
Arab writers of the Middle Ages did consider Vikings as well as other 'peoples of the north' to be majus likening their practices to Zoroastrians.

Admittedly, Majos/Majoosi/Majosiyya, etc, refers to the worship of fire and polytheistic gods of Iran, especially the Iranic god, Ahtar/Agni who was seen as the counterpart to Hephaestus and Tabita. Only later has it been conflated with Zoroastrianism, as in the worship of Ahura Mazda and the dualism worldview of their religious identity. Generally, in Islamic literature, we have evidence of Mazdaki, Zoroastrianism and polytheism after Islamic rule commenced.
 
That's not accurate.

By 711, only part of the elites of the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania could be still considered 'Germanic/Gothic' in some way; more than 90% of the population were already Hispanic-Roman and most of the original Gothic invaders had merged with them by that time. Only part of the nobility and high officers still retained part of their Gothic distinctiveness (like the Gothic family names), even if strongly Romanized (they had embraced Catholicism for more than a century and spoke Hispanic romances).

After the Arab invasion, the main bulk of these Gothic elites fled to Asturias and the area of the Pyrenees, and only a minority of them remained in Al-Andalus. Most of the local people who eventually converted to Islam after the invasion were indeed Hispanic-Roman, not Visigothic.
That gets fuzzy around the edges, however. Quite a few conversos in Al-Andalus boasted about their Gothic lineage even after converting to Islam. While it's true that a lot of the Gothic elite scooted north and hid out in the mountains, more than a few folks of Gothic extraction stayed behind, too.

The bulk of the population was certainly Hispano-Roman, however - that much is completely true.
 
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