Sherman, Yes, I know those facts, that is specifically why I made the comment. Actually I was being sarcastic towards the socialist “liberals” diversity police that will use that as a reason why the rapes should be “forgiven” or “ignored.”
Sorry, didn’t mean to imply you personally were unaware of this rather remarkable history. I only recently became aware of it myself. It seems quite surprising that the Vikings of extreme northern Europe got all the way to the Middle East and even Persia.
As you no doubt are aware, the elite Varangian Guard of the Byzantine Empire was largely composed of Vikings for several hundred years, and spent much of its time fighting Muslims.