Editing Birka (section)

=== Dirham coins ===
[[Dirham]] coins have been located all around Scandinavian countries and suggest strong trade relations existed between the medieval Middle East and Northern Europe.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gruszczynski|first=Jacek|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1085890965|title=Viking silver, hoards and containers : the archaeological and historical context of Viking-age silver coin deposits in the Baltic c. 800–1050|date=2019|isbn=978-1-351-24365-0|location=Abingdon, Oxon|oclc=1085890965}}</ref> A dirham coin was found in the excavation of grave sites in Birka, with Arabic writing and an absence of imagery that would date the coin sometime after the 7th century.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Deliyannis|first1=Deborah Mauskopf|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1031955948|title=Fifty early medieval things: materials of culture in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages|last2=Dey|first2=Hendrik W|last3=Squatriti, Paolo|date=2019|publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-1-5017-2589-0|language=English|oclc=1031955948}}</ref> Other writing on the coin indicates the location of the mint as well as the names of a [[Caliph (disambiguation)|caliph]] and an [[Amir]], which place the coin's origins in al-Shah, modern day [[Tashkent]] in [[Uzbekistan]]. The coin's inscription in Arabic translates into English:<blockquote>There is no deity but Allah alone he has no equal For God Muhammad is the messenger of God.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Deliyannis|first=Deborah Mauskopf|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1033548555|title=Fifty early Medieval things : materials of culture in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages|date=2019|others=Hendrik W. Dey, Paolo Squatriti|isbn=978-1-5017-3028-3|location=Ithaca|oclc=1033548555}}</ref></blockquote>