Bulgars

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The Bulgars (also Bolgars or proto-Bulgarians) were a seminomadic people, originally from Central Asia, who since the 2nd century inhabited the steppe north of Caucasus and the banks of river Itil (now Volga).

Contents 1 Ethnic origin and linguistic affiliations 2 Culture and society 3 History 3.1 Migration to Europe 3.2 Establishment of Great Bulgaria 3.3 Subsequent migrations 4 List of Bulgar tribes 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Ethnic origin and linguistic affiliations

The oldest and most widely accepted theory is that the Bulgar language, now extinct, is a distant branch of the Turkic languages, and broadly classified as Bulgar Turkic, whose only living relative is Chuvash language.^[1] This Turkic theory is from the 19th century, when the first historical researches appeared. It is supported by the facts that the Bulgars used an alphabet similar to the Orkhon script, that the Bulgar words contained in the few surviving stone inscriptions (words which mainly defined military and hierarchical terms) and remnants in modern Bulgarian language, are of Turkic origin, and that the Bulgars' supreme god was called Tangra, a deity widely known among the Turkic peoples.^[2] The inscriptions were sometimes written in Greek or Cyrillic characters, thus allowing the scholars to surely identify some of the words.

A newer theory, the Iranian theory, is that the Bulgar language was originally an Iranian language, and so the Bulgar people were an Iranian people, and the language was later influenced by Turkic due to Hunnic military domination. This is supported by several Bulgar words supposedly of Iranian origin^[3] and by clues about the grammar^[4]. Supporters of this theory are mostly Bulgarian historians. They argue that Bulgars wrote from left to right, unlike Turkic peoples, and that ancient authors made differentiation between Turks and Bulgars. However, this last argument is not endorsed by the fact that the term "Turk" was not used either exclusively, or particularly, for a certain, well-defined people, until much later.

Contemporary sources like Procopius, Agathias and Menander called the Kutrigur and Utigur Bulgars "Huns"^[5] 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.

Archaeological remains show that the Bulgars had the typical culture of the nomadic equestrians of Central Asia. Anthropological data collected from early Bulgar necropolises from Bulgaria and the Ukrainian steppe shows that Bulgars were a high-statured Caucasoid people of brachycephalic type, with slight mongoloid features, and practiced artificial cranial deformation of the round type^[6]. 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 locals call Bukhara, Bokhara or Balhara.^{[citation needed]} It is the presumed land of origin of the Bulgars.

[edit] Culture and society

The Bulgars were governed by hereditary khans until they adopted Christianity.^[7] Three Bulgar rulers also bore the title kanasubigi which might be related to khan, and translated as '(ruler) from God', from the Indo-European *su-and baga-, i.e. *su-baga.^[8] 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.^{[citation needed]} Other similar but non-kingly titles attested among the Bulgarian noble class include kavkan (vicekan), tarkan, and boritarkan. The aristocratic families, whose members were called boila (boyars), bore military titles and formed the tribal and state governing class. The religion of the Bulgars is also obscure but it is supposed that it was monotheistic, worshipping the Turkic Sky god Tangra.

[edit] History

[edit] 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. Between 351 and 389, some of these crossed the Caucasus and settled 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 defeat of the Huns in the Battle of Chalons on September 20, 451, 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.

[edit] Establishment of Great Bulgaria

Main article: Old Great Bulgaria

United under Kubrat or Kurt (known to Arabs as Shahriar)^[9] of the Dulo clan^[10], the joined forces of the Onogur and Kutrigur Bulgars broke loose from the Turkic khanate in the 630s. They formed an independent state, often called by Byzantine sources^[11] ‘the Old Great Bulgaria’, 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.

[edit] 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 ^[12] tells that Kubrat's sons, however, did not 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 Kouber, 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 peripeties, ended up led by Emnetzur and settled in Italy, northeast of Naples.

[edit] List of Bulgar tribes

Tribes thought to have been Bulgar in origin include:

• Utigur
  • Oghondor (Olhontor)-blkar (Unogundur)
  • Kupi-bulgar
  • Duchi-bulkar
  • Chdar-b'lkar
• Kutrigurs (Kotrags)
• Onogurs
• The Unok-vndur federation

After the dissolution of Great Bulgaria these tribes formed:

• Asparukh’s Horde
• Batbayan's Horde
• Kotrag's Horde
• Kuber’s Horde
• Alcek’s Horde

[edit] See also

• Bulgar language
• Bulgarians
• Pamir languages
• Madara Rider
• Chuvash
• Volga Bulgaria
• Bactrians
• Balkar
• Bolghar
• Yuezhi

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• History of Bulgaria
• History of the Bulgars
• Bulgars on Regnal Chronologies
• The language of the Asparukh and Kuber Bulgars, Vocabulary and grammar by Peter Dobrev
• Inscriptions and Alphabet of the Proto-Bulgarians, by Peter Dobrev
• On the origins of the Proto-Bulgarians
• Proto-Bulgarian Epigraphic Monuments, Vesselin Beshevliev
• Conceptions of Ethnicity in Early Medieval Studies, by Walter Pohl
• History of the Proto-Bulgarians north and west of the Black Sea