Educated at
Indiana University, Noonan was, for many years, a
Professor of History at the
University of Minnesota. He was the author of dozens of books and articles and one of the leading authorities on the development of the
Kievan Rus and the
KhazarKhaganate. Noonan placed a great deal of importance on
numismatics in understanding economic and social trends. He was the mentor of numerous scholars and leading historians. In 2001 many of his colleagues honored him by publishing the first of a multivolume collection of articles under the title "
Festschrift in Honor of Thomas S. Noonan," which was edited by Roman K. Kovalev and Heidi M. Sherman. The second volume appeared in 2005.
Noonan, Thomas S. "Did the Khazars Possess a Monetary Economy? An Analysis of the Numismatic Evidence." Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi 2 (1982): 219-267.
Noonan, Thomas S. "What Does Historical Numismatics Suggest About the History of Khazaria in the Ninth Century?" Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi 3 (1983): 265-281.
Noonan, Thomas S. "Why
Dirhams First Reached Russia: The Role of Arab-Khazar Relations in the Development of the Earliest Islamic Trade with
Eastern Europe." Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi 4 (1984): 151-282.
Noonan, Thomas S. "Khazaria as an Intermediary between Islam and Eastern Europe in the Second Half of the Ninth Century: The Numismatic Perspective." Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi 5 (1985): 179-204.
Noonan, Thomas S. "Byzantium and the Khazars: a special relationship?" Byzantine Diplomacy: Papers from the Twenty-fourth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, Cambridge, March 1990, ed.
Jonathan Shepard and Simon Franklin, pp. 109–132. Aldershot, England: Variorium, 1992.
Noonan, Thomas S. "What Can Archaeology Tell Us About the Economy of Khazaria?" The Archaeology of the Steppes: Methods and Strategies - Papers from the International Symposium held in Naples 9–12 November 1992, ed. Bruno Genito, pp. 331–345. Napoli, Italy: Istituto Universitario Orientale, 1994.
Noonan, Thomas S. "The Khazar Economy." Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi 9 (1995–1997): 253-318.
Noonan, Thomas S. "The Khazar-Byzantine World of the Crimea in the Early Middle Ages: The Religious Dimension." Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi 10 (1998–1999): 207-230.
Noonan, Thomas S. "Les Khazars et le commerce oriental." Les Échanges au Moyen Age: Justinien, Mahomet, Charlemagne: trois empires dans l'économie médiévale, pp. 82–85. Dijon: Editions Faton S.A., 2000.
Noonan, Thomas S. "The Khazar Qaghanate and its Impact on the Early Rus' State: The translatio imperii from Itil to Kiev." Nomads in the Sedentary World, eds.
Anatoly Khazanov and André Wink, pp. 76–102. Richmond, England: Curzon Press, 2001.
Further reading
Kovalev, Roman K. "Thomas S. Noonan, 1938–2001: [Obituary]", Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History, Vol. 3, No. 2. (2002), pp. 369–371.