After Bagdad was founded in 762 the Gotlandic merchants went on the Russian
rivers all the way to the Volga and the Caspian Sea and traded with the Islamic
Caliphate which they called Særkland. Gotland has today the worlds largest collection
of coins from the Islamic Caliphate, most of them minted in Bagdad.
The first documented contact with a delegation of Gotlandic merchants (Rhos)
to visit Miklagarðr (Constantinople) is in 838. A coin with the emperor Theophilos
was found in the large silver hoard at Spillings.
Miklagarðr was the Gotlandic name for Constantinople.
The Gotlanders were deeply involved in Miklagarðr during the time of the Macedonian
Renaissance art and the early Gotlandic churches are highly influenced by Armenian church buildings and the Byzantine art.