and their role in the formation of the Bulgarian State
The most remarkable fact in the history of the Old Bulgarians is that they are the sole early European people who have succeeded in creating not one but three great countries. And each of them was called with its own name- Bulgaria under Kubrat (known as Great Bulgaria), Volga Bulgaria and Asparuh Bulgaria (which is the one that survived to the present day.) But to learn more about the Bulgarians and the states that they have formed we have to return to the past and follow their evolution. Although the History of Bulgaria can not be written in a single essay I’ll try to impress on several important points.
Even up to the present day these people have remained an incredible puzzle for the historians. It is their early history that is the most puzzling. When they came into touch with Europe they naturally came to the notice of Greek and Latin authors who began to give information about them.
It is considered that The Ancient Bulgarians were people that had inhabited the steppes between Pamir, Middleasian Mountain, Ural and the territory of present day Kazakhstan. After almost two centuries of research and the endeavors of many scholars the sacred fatherland of the Bulgarianswas discovered to be Pamir. Pamir is the old lands of Balgar and is stilled called Palgar by the local Tadziks. This land so dear to us was situated in the foots of the Pair and the Hindukush, where since ancient times the states of Balgar and Balhara had existed. Bulgarian is a Uralo-Altai language under strong Indo-European influence. According to the “Chinese chronicles” the town Bugur had existed till 87 BC. Then it was demolished to the ground by the Chinese imperial troops, accordingly the time of Bugur’s creation and its neighboring town which was referred to by the Chinese as Boluga must be sought far behind in the past around the 2nd or possibly 3rd century BC.
The hierarchy of the Old Bulgarians was elaborate- a leader who was called kansubigi determined the social state of the old Bulgarians and gradually his power became hereditary. The character of the Bulgarian society was centralized on a strong military organization that was of vital importance to its independent existence. The great amount of iron extracted made it possible for them to think up and make the instruments and tools they needed and to maintain a fighting force of 30,000 warriors and horses, clad from head to foot in iron. In battles against all the armies of the time, against those of the barbarian peoples and against those of the civilized Romans this ‘iron wall’ had the same effect, for instance, as could be achieved today by an army of tanks attacking infantry companies armed only with light rifles. That is why the Bulgarians were practically invincible a miracle should have to happen in order that their army would lose a big battle. That permitted them to save themselves from the ups-and-downs of fortune in this stormy time and to be sought for as allies by all the ambitious persons of the period. Very few people know that the striking power of the armies of Atilla of the Dulo dynasty were, in fact, the Bulgarians. The Bulgarians were unusually tall and strong. When the average height of the Europeans in the Middle Ages was 1.60 metres, the average height of the Bulgarian was 1.75 metres. “Ten of our men cannot overcome one Bulgarian” complained an Arabian geographer of that time.
The religious beliefs of The Old Bulgarians was in the existence of a solitary, extraordinary force. It possessed the ability to haunt all the palpable objects and to pass from one man to another and from one object to other. According to the old Bulgarians the things that were strongest with the force were the blood, the human head, and the sword, the horsetail and so on. For the Bulgarians, the time that separated days and hours also could be filled with supernatural forces. Alongside with that extraordinary force they also exalted one supreme deity- Tangra “The creator of the Earth and Sky”. To appease him and receive his support they sacrificed animals, but in special cases they could immolate people. Also the Old Bulgarians used totemism- in a close relation to the totemism was the Ancient Bulgarian Calendar which is recognized by UNESCO as the most accurate so far.
During the tumultuous period of the Great Migration the ancient Bulgarians were pushed out of their lands by Nomad tribes and settled, together with their old civilized neighbors the Masagets, the Saks and others in the valleys of the Caucasus. During the period 377 till 453 the Bulgarians had fallen under the power of the Huns. One of the few written monuments of early Bulgarian history, known to us, is the list of the Names of the Old Bulgarian Rulers. In part I of this Name List we find described the reign of the kansubigi Avitohol, Irnik, Gostun, Kurt (Kubrat), Batbayan*, dated by the Ancient Bulgarian Calendar. Most scholars connect the mythical Avitohol, the father of the second ruler in the Name List Kan Irnik, with kan Atilla of Dulo family, who died in the same year 453, given for Avitohol.
They primarily occupied the old towns of the Caucuses. Soon after that there appears the first state of the Bulgarians in Europe, called by the Armenians "The Bulgarian Land in Caucasus", and by the Byzantine "Old Great Bulgaria." The Syrian chronicler Zaharia the Rhetorician mentions that in their new land the Bulgarians and their old neighbors are among the few people to build up towns. The towns built by the Bulgarians during that period very often bore old Pamir names. In the Eastern Caucasus there was a town called Balk (today’s Balhar), named after the ancient town of Balh (the capital of old Balhara), also the town of Anzi, related in its name to the ancient Anzoi, not far from the eastern Balh. This transfer of names from Balhara to Great Bulgaria shows that the two Bulgarian states - the old one in the east and the new one near the Caucasus, are connected by an unseverable umbilical cord. The Kubrat Great Bulgaria included the territory from Dnepar to Kuban and from Donetsk to the Black and Azov seas. It was formed in the beginning of the VII century after he had discarded the Turkic suppressers. The capital had become Fanagoria, built on the Taman Peninsula.
The difference among the Old Bulgarians and the low developed stockbreeding tribes that have flooded East Europe at that time is that the Bulgarians have had a varied and quite developed economy for its time. Through the last decades number of archeological and linguistic materials connected with the economy of the old Bulgarians have been discovered - the evidence shows that our forefathers have had around 20 names for stocks and farm crops, from which 12 were used in the early middle ages.
During the year 635 kanasubigi Kubrat had sent envoys to the Byzantine Empire to sign a peace treaty with Emperor Iraklii and then Kubrat was given the title “Patrician”. The peace contract with Byzantine was of vital importance for the Bulgarian Kingdom that was constantly threatened by Hazars’ inroads. After Kubrat’s death in the middle 60s of the 7th century, Great Bulgaria gradually disintegrated under the blows of the Hazars. His first son- Bayan (Batbayan)* - remains in the lands of Great Bulgaria as a vassal to the Hazars. His second son - Kotarg, together with parts of the Bulgarian people, settled along the middle reaches of the Volga where, some time later, still another state of the ancient Bulgarians was born –Volga Bulgaria, which was also to play an important role in the medieval world. The third son - Asparuh - started west to meet the mightiest empire of that time - Byzantine. Crossing the rivers Dnepr and Dnestr, he finally settled in the Ongul (southern Besarabia), in immediate proximity to Byzantine borders and Kuber settled in the land that is today Macedonia.
The settlement of Asparuh and the foundation of Danube Bulgaria are one of the most significant events in the history of the Balkan Peninsula during the Middle Ages. This event is outstanding by its consequences ethnically, ad by the social-economical and political processes. In a direct closeness with the mighty Byzantine Empire the Bulgarians, the Slavs and the remnants of once great Thracians ethnos succeeded to form and strengthen into one new political power, that was destined to render in certain moments considerable influence over the development of the Middle Ages European Civilization. One of the most important advantages of the Old Bulgarians that helped them in the creation of the Dunavian Bulgaria was their formidable experience from their previous States.
The Byzantines met the settlement of the Old Bulgarians in the Ongul with animosity, but for a long period of time Constantine IV didn't undertake some drastic actions against Asparuh, because he was involved in a heavy struggle with the Arabians. Once he turned his attention to the situation there he decided to punish the newcomers. He decided to send two armies one through the mainland, which must cross Stara Planina (Old Mountain) and the rest by ships set sail towards Danube shores. Constantine IV didn't decide to launch an immediate assault, but he suddenly had decided to leave for Mesembria for medication. His departure was considered by his troops as a retreat. In the Roman camp everyone became panic seized and Asparuh noticed that. He and his horsemen left their fortification and dashed into the ebbing armies. Quite few Byzantine soldiers succeeded to stumble to the ships and rescue themselves. After the debacle of the Eastern Roman Empire Asparuh crossed the Danube and arrivd in Southeast Bulgaria (Dobrudza). There they entered in a conversation with the native Slav Aristocracy and they had undertaken the first step towards the composing of common political unification. Asparuh continued his military campaigns against Byzantine. Constantine wasn’t in the situation of enduring this any longer so he was compelled to sign a treaty in 681- according to it he was to pay an annual tribute. In this way Byzantine practically recognized the right of Bulgarians and Slavs to build their own country. Asparuh proved to be a far-sighted statesman and gave the Slavs the opportunity to live with him on the principle of internal political autonomy. All citizens of the state, however, were obliged to defend together the new acquisitions of the country. Special places among the seven Slav tribes were occupied by the Severi who had agreed to guard the eastern passages of the Balkans. The ancient Bulgarians concentrated in northeastern Bulgaria where the fortress Pliska became the capital of The State. This was the beginning of the history of the Danube Bulgaria the only one of the Three States that has survived to present days and has accomplished huge achievements, but also and some downfalls in its development and expansion. In the year 865 Bulgaria officially received the Christianity from the Eastern Roman Empire, and kanasubigi Boris received the title King, which was going to be used since then.
It is interesting to notice that almost at the same time the Volga Bulgarian was formed so too was formed on the territory around the middle stream of Volga River the Capital Bolgar or Biliar. The first inhabitants had arrived there since I BC. The Volga Bulgarians accepted the Islam. The founder of Volga Bulgaria is considered to be Almush. The coinages started around the X century and they were known as the best Merchants. Their capital was even compared with Constantinople in beauty. But during the Mongol invasions of Chingiz Han 1219-1220 Bulgaria in Volga was seriously threatened. For three times Volga Bulgarians succeeded to repulse the Tatars-1223, 1229 and 1223 but the fourth attack was successful - as in 1236 Chingiz Han sent the sizable army of 300,000 soldiers (half of it from the vassal states) towards Bolgar. The encounter was terrible, because the 50,000 defenders couldn’t withhold the numerous foes. The town was razed to the ground and the same happened to forty more, and the victims were countless. Today the Archeologists have discovered the remains of Bolgar, bones, weapons, shattered pottery, and a huge area devastated by fire, they are referring to it as the “black layer”. In the places of the former houses today the scientist are discovering crashed skulls. They estimate that there was a severe fight over eight million square metres. Everything was disrupted and a whole civilization had been wiped out with all its beauty gone.
In the year 1558 the last discharge announcesd that in the place where once had been Volga Bulgaria later captured by the Tatars in 1236 and existed three centuries under the name Kazan Haganate is already Russian territory and the river which once the Bulgarians called Etil is now going to be Volga. After this Ivan IV had received the opportunity to use the title King of Russia. Today Tatarstan is an autonomous country in the Russia Federation. But even nowadays if it is raining, or if something good happens they are mentioning the name of Tangra.
At the end I want to impress on several points. The difference between the Bulgarians from the time of Avitohol, Kurt, Kubert and Asparuh and the present Danube Bulgarians is less than the difference of the Elins since Homer’s time and the present Greece. The historical and language proofs point that the Bulgarians are one of the oldest nations that have succeeded to survive to nowadays. They intermingle to some extent with the Slavic population that they have met on the Balkan Peninsula, but in opposite to the generally accepted notion they retain their language and their distinctive traits. The Slavic influence is basically linguistic and it is based on the alphabet created in 855 by St. Cyril and Methodius. But the alphabet doesn’t change the Old Bulgarian base of our language. Also there is no turkic tribe that can pronounce the word БЪЛГАРИ* B[∂]lgari ([ ∂] like in the transcription of dare) the turkic people-turks and tatars, and according to their special articulation they always pronounce БЪЛГАРИ as Bulgar also with a stress at the back.
And today we still continue to make new discoveries that assist us in creating the full picture of the Old Bulgarians, their origin which dates back long ago in the Pamir region, and the three states which have emerged under their control. The history of our predecessors is wealthy and resplendent. It is not precarious that the Bulgarian civilization is registered from the temporary scientists around the XVIII century before the new era. The English researcher Arnold Toinbi writes in his twelve-tome work of the history of the nations that in the beginning there were 21 civilizations and one of them was the Bulgarian.
*Bulgarians- “ БЪЛГАРИ” the name in Bulgarian sounds different than the English name assigned to us. Bulgarians is pronounced like ” B[∂]lgari”.
*Bate- Boyan,(Bat-Bayan)- “Bat” for the Old Bulgarians has the same meaning as “bate” today, as we are referring with this word to an elder brother or a respected person.
Link
Dr. Sc. Dobrev, Petar. The Bulgarian Fireplaces of Civilization on the Map of Euro-Asia Bulgarian Academy of Science, Sofia, 1998.
Prof. Dr. Sc. Alexander Fol History of the Bulgarians. Necessity for a New Approach. Reconsiderations Sofia Sate University, 1998.
Prof. Dr. Sc. Alexander Fol The Bulgarians Sofia State State University, 2000.
Prof. George Bakalov. Prof. Dr. Sc. Alexander Fol and other professors from Sofia State University, Bulgarian Centuries, 1999.
Written by: Peter I. Batakliev