There are ancient stories about encounters between Norse Vikings and early Muslims. These stories, however, have been difficult to confirm. The most recent evidence of contact between the two groups is difficult to refute, though it does not prove a great deal of contact.

According to researchers, a ring recovered from a 9th century Swedish grave is made of colored glass and bears the inscription “for Allah” in Arabic script.

The ring was originally found during excavations made between 1872 and 1895 of grave fields attached to Birka, a Viking trading center 15 miles west of modern Stockholm.

The ring was included among other jewelry, brooches and clothing in a wooden coffin. The corpse itself was completely decomposed but the artifacts included in the burial indicate that the occupant was a woman and the burial occurred sometime around 850 CE.

In terms of the regional timeline, the burial would have been 218 years after the death of Muhammad and 245 years before the start of the First Crusade.

The ring remained, for many years, at the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm. It was described in the catalog as a ring of gilded silver set with an amethyst and inscribed with the word “Allah” in Arabic Kufic Writing.

It recently garnered a new round of attention as one of the few ties between ancient Vikings and Muslims.

“It’s the only ring with an Arabic inscription found in Scandinavia. We have a few other Arabic-style rings, but without inscriptions,” Sebastian Wärmländer of Stockholm University told Discovery News.

By analyzing the ring with a scanning electron microscope, Wärmländer and his fellow researchers discovered that the museum’s catalogue needed some correction.

“Our analysis shows that the studied ring consists of a high quality (94.5 percent) non-gilded silver alloy, set with a stone of colored soda-lime glass with an Arabic inscription reading some version of the word Allah,” Wärmländer and colleagues wrote in the journal Scanning.

Although the stone turned out to be colored glass rather than amethyst, at the time it wouldn’t have been less valuable. According to Wärmländer, colored glass was a rare and valuable material in Scandinavia at the time.

“Scandinavians traded for fancy glass objects from Egypt and Mesopotamia as early as 3,400 years ago. Thus, seagoing Scandinavians could have acquired glass items from Islamic traders in the same part of the world more than 2,000 years later rather than waiting for such desirable pieces to move north through trade networks,” wrote Bruce Bower in Science News.

The inscription, originally listed as “Allah” was more fully translated as “il-la-lah,” meaning “For Allah” or “To Allah” or possibly a short form of “Inshallah” meaning “God-willing”.

“Most likely, we will never know the exact meaning behind the inscription, or where and why it was done. For the present investigation, it is enough to note that its Arabic-Islamic nature clearly links the ring and the stone to the cultural sphere of the Caliphate,” said the researchers.

Wärmländer and his team also noted that the ring was in mint condition.

“On this ring the filing marks are still present on the metal surface. This shows the jewel has never been much used, and indicates that it did not have many owners,” said Wärmländer.

This means that it likely passed to the Birka woman directly, or almost directly rather than making its way to her slowly after being exchanged among many people.

“Perhaps the woman herself was from the Islamic world, or perhaps a Swedish Viking got the ring, by trade or robbery, while visiting the Islamic Caliphate,” said Wärmländer.

The Viking Sagas and Chronicles mention expeditions to the Black and Caspian seas and there are likewise tales of the Vikings written by Muslims, but actual evidence of these meetings is scarce.