Everything about The Bulgars totally explained
The
Bulgars (also
Bolgars or
proto-Bulgarians) were a seminomadic,
Turkic people, originally from
Central Asia, who from the
2nd century onwards dwelled in the
steppes north of the
Caucasus and around the banks of river
Volga (then Itil). Some are ancestors of the modern
Bulgarians and gave rise to the
Bulgarian state.
Ethnicity and language
Racial type
Anthropological data collected from early Bulgar
necropolises from
Bulgaria,
Crimea and the
Ukrainian steppe shows that Bulgars were a high-statured
Caucasoid people with a small
Mongoloid admixture , and practiced
artificial cranial deformation of the round type . The same sort of anthropological type and burial rites are common in Central Asia, where the practice of artificial skull deformation was also common in the area
Ancient Greeks called
Bactria and the locals call
Bukhara, Bokhara or Balhara. According to the early medieval
Armenian historian
Anania Shirakatsi, and also to
Agathias of Myrina,
Theophylact Simocatta, and
Michael the Syrian that particular part of
Mount Imeon area comprising the upper watershed of Oxus River (
Amu Darya) was the land of origin of the Bulgars.
Ethnic origins
There are currently two main academic theories of the ethnic origin of the Bulgars and both of them are vigorously disputed. The prime source of discord is the classification of the
Bulgar language.
Turkic theory
The most widely accepted theory today is that the now extinct
Bulgar language belongs to a distant branch of the
Turkic languages, broadly classified as
Bulgar Turkic, whose only living representative is the
Chuvash language. Therefore, it's mainstream opinion that the Bulgars were a
Turkic people. It is supported, among other things, by the facts that some Bulgar words contained in the few surviving stone inscriptions, and in other documents (mainly military and hierarchical terms such as
tarkan,
bagatur, and probably
kan and kanartikin "prince") appear to be of Turkic origin, that the Bulgars apparently used a 12-year cyclic calendar similar to the one adopted by Turkic and Mongolian peoples from the
Chinese, with names and numbers that are deciphered as Turkic, and that the Bulgars' supreme god was apparently called
Tangra, a deity widely known among the Turkic peoples under names such as
Tengri, Tura etc. Some also point out the presence of a small number of Turkic loanwords in the Slavic
Old Bulgarian language, and the fact that the Bulgars used an
alphabet similar to the Turkic
Orkhon script, although this alphabet hasn't been satisfactorily deciphered yet: fortunately, the Bulgar inscriptions were sometimes written in
Greek or
Cyrillic characters, most commonly in
Greek, thus allowing the scholars to identify some of the Bulgar glosses. Supposedly, the name Bulgar is derived from the Turkic verb
bulģa "to mix, shake, stir" and its derivative
bulgak "revolt, disorder".
Further evidence culturally linking the
Balkan Bulgar state to
Turkic steppe traditions was the layout of the Bulgars' new capital of
Pliska, founded just north of the
Balkan Mountains shortly after
681. The large area enclosed by ramparts, with the rulers' habitations and assorted utility structures concentrated in the center, resembled more a steppe winter encampment turned into a permanent settlement than it did a typical
Roman Balkan city.
Iranian theory
A newer theory, the
Iranian theory, claims that the Bulgar language was originally an
Iranian language, and so according to this theory, the Bulgar people would be classified as an Iranian people, although some of its proponents concede that the language was later influenced by Turkic due to
Hunnic military domination. This notion became popular in Bulgaria in the 1990s, with the works of
Petar Dobrev, a specialist in
economic history. Supporters of this theory are mostly Bulgarian historians such as Georgi Bakalov and
Bozhidar Dimitrov. The theory is supported mostly by linguistic arguments, as authors (who are usually not linguists) attempt to prove the Iranian origin of a number of words and sometimes even grammatical features in Bulgar and
modern Bulgarian.
Additional theories
In the 19th century, even theories of a
Slavic or
Finno-Ugric affiliation were proposed on the basis of the little or no evidence. These have practically no adherents among today's scholars. Another alternative view is that Bulgar, far from being affiliated to Chuvash, belonged instead to the same branch as all other surviving Turkic languages and more specifically
Kazan Tatar. Bulgarian scholar Ivan Shishmanov speculated in 1900 that this was the case, and the same view is espoused also by modern
Bulgarist Kazan Tatar linguist Mirfatyh Zakiev.
Contemporaneous sources like
Procopius,
Agathias and
Menander called the
Kutrigur and
Utigur Bulgars "
Huns" while others, like the Byzantine Patriarch
Michael of Antioch, called them "
Scythians" or "
Sarmatians". But this latter identification is clearly due to the Byzantine tradition of naming peoples geographically; for example, centuries later the obviously Turkic
Petchenegs and
Cumans, were still addressed with the respective terms.
Cäğfär Taríxı, a Russian language document of disputed authenticity, purports to be a 1680 compilation of ancient Bulgar annals. It was published by a
Volga Tatar Bulgarist editor in 1993. Cäğfär Taríxı contains a very detailed description of Bulgar history. Among other things, it implies that the Bulgars were formed as a result of consolidation of many
Turkic and
Turkicized tribes.
Culture and society
Archaeological finds from the Ukrainian steppe suggest that the early Bulgars had the typical culture of the
nomadic equestrians of Central Asia. They were primarily nomadic herdsmen which migrated seasonally in prusuit of pastures but they also planted crops such as wheat and barley. The Bulgars were skilled blacksmiths, stone masons and carpenters. From the
7th century onwards they rapidly began to settle down.
Social structure
The Bulgars had a well developed clan system and were governed by hereditary rulers. The members of the military aristocracy bore the title
boila (
boyar) which could be either inherited or acquired. There also were
bagains - lesser military commanders. The nobility were further divided onto Small and Great Boyars. The latter formed the Council of the Great Boyars and gathered to take decisions on important state matters presided by the
khan (king). Their numbers varied between six and twelve. These probably included the
ichirgu boila and the
kavkan (vice khan), the two most powerful people after the khan. These titles were administrative and non-inheritable. The boyars could also be internal and external, probably distinguished by their place of residence - inside or outside the capital . The heir of the throne was called
kanartikin. Other non-kingly titles used by the Bulgarian noble class include
boila tarkan (possibly the second son of the khan),
kana boila kolobur (chief priest),
boritarkan (city mayor).
The title
khan for early Bulgar ruler is an assumed one as only the form
kanasubigi is attested in stone inscriptions. Historians presume that it includes the word
khan in its archaic form
kana and there's a supporting evidence suggesting that the latter title was indeed used in Bulgaria, for example the name of one of the Bulgarian rulers
Pagan occurs in
Patriarch Nicephorus's so-called
Breviarium as Καμπαγάνος (
Kampaganos), likely an erroneous rendition of the phrase "Kan Pagan". Among the proposed translations for the phrase
kanasubigi as a whole are
lord of the army, from the reconstructed Turkic phrase *sü begi, paralleling the attested
Old Turkic sü baši, and, more recently,
(ruler) from God, from the Indo-European *su- and baga-, for example *su-baga (a counterpart of the Greek phrase ὁ ἐκ Θεοῦ ἄρχων,
ho ek Theou archon, which is common in Bulgar inscriptions). This titulature presumably persisted until the Bulgars adopted
Christianity. Some Bulgar inscriptions written in
Greek and later in
Slavonic refer to the Bulgarian ruler respectively with the
Greek title
archon or the
Slavic title
knyaz..
Religion
The religion of the Bulgars is also obscure but it's supposed that it was
monotheistic, worshipping the Turkic Sky god
Tengri. However, the archeological evidence shows that the Bulgar sanctuarities resembled the layout of the
Zoroastrian temples of the fire. Therefore, the religion may have comprised elements of both, Turkic and Iranian cults. In
Pliska, the first capital of Danube Bulgaria, there's a building of this type - two entered one into another squares of ashlars.A second, much larger building, oriented towards the sunrise, was excavated near the Throne palace in Pliska. Its religious utilization is confirmed by the fact that after the adoption of Christianity the building was transformed into a Christian church (the so called Palace church). Similar buildings are also found in Preslav. Similar in plan is the pagan sanctuary at the Proto-Bulgarian religious complex of
Madara, near the location Daul Tash.
History
Migration to Europe
In the early
2nd century, some groups of Bulgars migrated from
Central Asia to the European continent and settled on the plains between the
Caspian Sea and the
Black Sea. The Bulgars appear (under the ethnonym of ‘Bulensii’) in certain
Latin versions of
Ptolemy’s second century AD mapping, shown as occupying the territory along the northwest coast of
Black Sea east of
Axiacus River (Southern Bug).
Between
351 and
389, some of the Bulgars crossed the
Caucasus to settle in
Armenia.
Toponymic data testify to the fact that they remained there and were eventually assimilated by the
Armenians.
Swept by the
Hunnish wave at the beginning of the
4th century, other Bulgar tribes broke loose from their settlements in Central Asia to migrate to the fertile lands along the lower valleys of the
Donets and the
Don rivers and the
Azov seashore, assimilating what was left of the
Sarmatians. Some of these remained for centuries in their new settlements, whereas others moved on with the
Huns towards
Central Europe, settling in
Pannonia.
Those Bulgars took part in the Hun raids on
Central and
Western Europe between
377 and
453. After the death of
Attila in
453, and the subsequent disintegration of the
Hunnish empire, the Bulgar tribes dispersed mostly to the eastern and southeastern parts of Europe.
At the end of the
5th century (probably in the years
480,
486, and
488) they fought against the
Ostrogoths as allies of the
Byzantine emperor Zeno. From
493 they carried out frequent attacks on the western territories of the
Byzantine Empire. Later raids were carried out at the end of the
5th century and the beginning of the
6th century.
In the middle of the
6th century, war broke out between the two main Bulgar tribes, the
Kutrigur and
Utigur. At the end of the
6th century, the Kutrigur allied with the
Avars to conquer the Utigur. The Bulgars fell under the domination of the
Göktürk Khanate in
568.
Establishment of Great Bulgaria
United under
Kubrat or Kurt of the
Dulo clan (supposed to be identical to the ruler mentioned by
Arabic chronicler
At-Tabari under the name of
Shahriar), the joined forces of the Utigur and Kutrigur Bulgars and probably the non-Bulgar
Onogurs, and broke loose from the Turkic khanate in the
630s. They formed an independent state, the Onogundur-Bulgar (
Oghondor-blkar or
Olhontor-blkar) Empire, often called by
Byzantine sources ‘the
Old Great Bulgaria’. The empire was situated between the lower course of the
Danube to the west, the
Black Sea and the
Azov Sea to the south, the
Kuban River to the east, and the
Donets River to the north. It is assumed that the state capital was
Phanagoria, an ancient city on the
Taman peninsula (
see Tmutarakan). However, the archaeological evidence shows that the city became predominantly Bulgarian only after Kubrat's death and the consequent disintegration of his state.
Subsequent migrations
The legend tells that on his death-bed, Khan Kubrat had his sons gather sticks and bring them to him, which he then bundled together and told his eldest son
Bayan to break the bundle. Bayan failed under the strength of the combined sticks, and, after the rest of the sons failed this test as well, Kubrat took the sticks back, separated each one, and broke them all one-by-one even in his weakened state. Then he told his sons the words "Unity makes strength", which have become a very popular Bulgarian slogan and now appears on the modern
Bulgarian coat of arms.
The Byzantine Patriarch
Nicephorus I tells that Kubrat's sons, however, didn't heed these very specific words, and thus soon after the death of Kubrat around
665, the Khazar expansion eventually led to the dissolution of
Great Bulgaria.
The khan’s eldest son,
Batbayan (also Bayan or Boyan), remained the ruler of the land north of the
Black and the
Azov Seas, which was, however, soon subdued by the
Khazars. Those Bulgars converted to
Judaism in the
9th century, along with the Khazars, and were eventually assimilated. A different theory claims that the
Balkars in
Kabardino-Balkaria may be the descendants of this Bulgar branch.
Another Bulgar tribe, led by Kubrat’s second son
Kotrag, migrated to the confluence of the
Volga and
Kama Rivers in what is now
Russia (see
Volga Bulgaria). The present-day republics of
Tatarstan and
Chuvashia are considered to be the descendants of
Volga Bulgaria in terms of territory and people, though only
Chuvash is thought to be similar to old
Bulgar language.
A third Bulgar tribe, led by the youngest son
Asparukh, moved westward, occupying today’s southern
Bessarabia. After a successful war with
Byzantium in
680,
Asparukh's khanate conquered
Moesia and
Dobrudja and was recognized as an independent state under the subsequent treaty signed with the
Byzantine Empire and emperor Constantine IV Pogonatus in
681. The same year is usually regarded as the year of the establishment of modern
Bulgaria (see
History of Bulgaria).
A fourth group of Bulgars, under
Kuber, initially moved to
Pannonia and subsequently settled in western
Macedonia and eastern
Albania where it formed a khanate, which joined
Slavs to attack the Byzantine Empire.
The fifth and smallest group, of
Alcek (also transliterated as 'Altsek' and 'Altzek'), after many wanderings, ended up led by
Emnetzur and settled in
Italy, northeast of
Naples.
List of Bulgar tribes
Tribes thought to have been Bulgar in origin include:
After the dissolution of Great Bulgaria these tribes formed:
Asparukh’s Horde
Batbayan's Horde
Kotrag's Horde
Kuber’s Horde
Alcek’s HordeFurther Information
Get more info on 'Bulgars'.
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