Larsson, Annika ; Guennoun, Mohammed

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Viking bliss

There are rich examples of geometric Square Kufic patterns and Islamic blessings in the Scandinavian textiles from the 9th and 10th centuries. The authors of this book describe these ancient patterns in detail, turning upside down traditional ideas about Viking culture as purely Nordic.

The discoveries will allow archaeologists and art historians to shift from primarily local perspectives regarding pre-Christian Viking customs, to extensive Eurasian contexts. Thanks to the Scandinavian findings of Islamic blessings in Kufic writing, also Arab linguists and Muslim historians get the opportunity to study expressions much older than previously known.

Around 1000 CE, in connection with the Scandinavian Christianization, the Kufic influences from the East ceased in the Scandinavian areas. To some extent, however, the Islamic patterns survived in textile folk art, although their symbolic value has now lost the Islamic meaning.

Welcome to join us in a more than 1000-year-old Square Kufic journey - from Central Asia to Viking Age Scandinavia.

ANNIKA LARSSON (1958) holds an interdisciplinary PhD in Viking Age archaeology and textile history from Uppsala University, combined with Silk Road studies from Stockholm University. She also holds a degree in pattern design from the Swedish Textile Institute and is trained in Craft Lab Research at the University of Art, Craft and Design in Stockholm. Today she runs her own research network in textile archaeology - Acts of Art(e)Facts.

MOHAMMED GUENNOUN (1982) holds a DTS and diploma in modern literature from Rabat, as well as special knowledge of Islamic culture and religious, artistic expressions in ancient Kufic patterns contempory with the Scandinavian Viking Age. Since 2017, he has been co-researcher with Dr Annika Larsson within the framework of the project Viking Bliss, as part of the research network Acts of Art(e)Facts.