Why did Vikings have 'Allah' embroidered into funeral clothes?

“Everybody wants a counter-narrative for the narrative that’s been put forward by white supremacists,” said Stephennie Mulder, an associate professor of Islamic art and architecture at the University of Texas at Austin. She was referring to the tendency of white supremacists to appropriate the symbols of Vikings, whom they claim constituted a pure-bred white race; in Charlottesville, for example, neo-Nazis were seen toting banners with Viking runes. The idea that Vikings were influenced by Muslims would likely be anathema to them. “The Vikings are every white supremacist’s favorite white guy.”

In fact, for Vikings, Arabic may have come with cultural cachet. They circulated coins bearing Arabic inscriptions, as well as weights for measuring silver bearing pseudo-Arabic inscriptions (writing that imitates the look of Arabic but doesn’t get it quite right). In a journal article for Current Swedish Archeology, scholar Lotta Fernstal writes that Vikings may have used the language to “‘spike’ certain objects with additional meaning” as part of constructing their self-image. “It seems likely that the Eastern, Oriental, Arabic and/or Islamic was alluring and desirable, perhaps as an ideal image of the ‘Other’ as part of a Viking Age Orientalism,” she adds.

Given this exoticizing attitude, Mulder said, it wouldn’t be surprising if Vikings were to have bought funeral clothes with Arabic inscriptions. “It would be like, for us, buying a perfume that says ‘Paris’ on it,” she told me. “Baghdad was the Paris of the 10th century. It was glamorous and exciting. For a Viking, this is what Arabic must have signaled: cosmopolitanism.”

Responding to critics who say that the burial clothes say “lllah” and not “Allah,” Larsson wrote, “If it is another word, it is still Kufic … that’s interesting.” She does not agree with the experts who say that there’s a dating issue with that claim and that “lllah” is a senseless jumble of letters.

“The meaning of research is to open questions,” Larsson added. “This discovery opens new questions.”

That, at least, is certainly true. Perhaps unusually for questions in medieval archeology, these questions feed directly into a contemporary heated political debate. The answers and debunkings of those answers are sure to be used as fodder by the left and the right alike.

I don't think evidence of contact with Islamic culture is what stands out,

Whoa...

Quote:

An expert has disputed claims that Allah's name was embroidered into ancient Viking burial clothes - a discovery hailed as "staggering" when Swedish researchers announced their findings last week.

Independent

It would be most unusual for "Allah" to be written on any Muslim textiles other than funeral shrouds and other ornamental textiles.

Can you think of anything ornamental in Islam other than a funeral shroud?

Textiles bearing embroidered or woven verses from the Holy Qur’an are an important part of the MIA collection. Most of them covered the Holy Ka’aba at some point.

They are hizams – the embroidered bands from the walls, covers from external and internal doors, and interior hangings.

The Kaaba textiles in the museum date from the 17th century to the early 20th century. Pieces of the kiswah or Ka’aba cover were distributed to pilgrims after its annual change.

the only thing l can think of right now that would have "Allah" written on would be funerary textiles, and the shroud over the Ka'aba shrine. Nobody would put it on a carpet, for sure!