Scandinavian Origins of The Burqa

AP Trondheim

Scandinavian researchers at the Skraeling Institute have released new data to suggest the origins of the Islamic Burqa tradition for women. After painstaking reviews of thousands of delicate records kept by Scandinavian adventurers around 1000 AD, Tor Malverson and his team are publishing an article that indicates how the Koran was first interpreted to require Muslim females to wear head to toe covering.

According to the researchers, Viking adventurers first arrived in the Middle East as early as around 950 AD, and according to their inscriptions and captain's notes aboard ship, females in the region did not wear head to toe coverings, but were dressed merely conservatively, as we would understand the terms today. However, the adventurers and raiders who made the trips were less than enthusiastic about the reception they received from the feminine Middle East counterparts, and on future trips apparently chose to bring Scandinavian women along with them.

On a later trip believed to be around 1000 AD, The Vikings, along with their wives or girlfriends, made a trading trip to exchange polar bear furs for spice. One of their trading partners is thought to be Sheik Muhammad El Abdul, a powerful religious leader in what is now Syria. According to notes, Abdul struck up a friendship with the ship's captain, believed to be Erik Blackson, and his wife, Signe. After consummating the trade, Abdul invited Blackson to visit his home in Damascus. Blackson noted in his ship's log that upon entering Abdul's home with Signe, Abdul looked at his own wife, then at Blackson's, and said, "here, put this on," indicating a burlap rice sack.

On future visits to the region, Vikings noted that the fashion of covering Islamic women from head to toe spread like wild fire, especially when any Scandinavian women were within eyesight of Islamic men.