Greater Bulgarian Empire

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Greater Bulgarian Empire (632–645)
The Greater Bulgarian Empire (before 650) and the later Danube Bulgarian Empire (around 900)

The United Bulgarian Empire ( Bulgarian Велика България Welika Bolgaria , of medium Greek ἣ παλαιά μεγάλη Βουλγαρία i palea megali Boulgaria "the old big Bulgaria") was the steppe empire probably Turkic Bulgars (also known as hunno-Bulgarians called) in South Russia and the North Caucasus . In contrast to the later Bulgarian empires (1st, 2nd and 3rd Bulgarian empires), it did not extend to the Balkan Peninsula , but lay north of the Black and Azov Seas . The name of the empire comes from Byzantine scholars. The capital of the empire was the port city of Phanagoria .

The Volga Bulgarians , who also lived in what is now Russia from the 7th to the 13th centuries , were the part of the Proto - Bulgarians that remained on the Volga after the smashing of the Greater Bulgarian Empire.

Origin of the Bulgarians

Research does not agree on the origin of the Bulgarians and many aspects remain controversial to this day. The two currently prevailing theses are based on a Turkish or an Indo-Iranian origin. Especially in Western Europe they are mostly classified as a Turkic people . According to the prevailing opinion, the Volga Bulgarians are said to have emerged from the tribes of the Onogurs (but this is ultimately uncertain), to which other Turkic peoples, such as the Sabirs and the ancestors of the Khazars , voluntarily joined or were subjected by them. At that time they spoke one of the so-called Oghur languages , so they were to be understood as Oghurs . However, their ethnic character changed when they subjugated other peoples, such as B. Slavs and Finno-Ugres . As an alternative name for the Volga Bulgarians, we also have Törk Bolğar (Tatar), Turk Bolğar or Turk Bulğar from the predominantly Turkic Turkology . This name comes from the old Turkish Türük-Bolqar / Turuk-Bulkha and had the meaning: "mixed Turuk". This clearly indicates that the ancestors of the Volga Bulgarians were a distinctly mixed people. But today “Türük-Bolqar” is often translated as Turk-Bulgarian or Turk-Bulgarian . This has a certain justification, but this translation only came up with the Tatars of Russia in the course of the Pan-Turkism of the 19th century .

The Huns were largely to 454 from Hungary to the Black Sea - Steppe deducted. According to legendary reports in the sources, the Kutrigurs and Utigurs are said to have descended from the remains of the Huns, but this is uncertain. Around 550 there was fighting between them, driven by the Eastern Roman side; they were eventually defeated by the Avars . These groups gradually mingled with neighboring as well as newly arriving Turkish and first Slavic tribal groups, so that the people of the Proto-Bulgarians formed.

Greater Bulgarian Empire

At the end of the 6th century, under Orchan, they formed the so-called Greater Bulgarian Empire in the area of ​​the Don and Volga rivers with the capital Phanagoria , which was patronized in the west by Avars and in the east by the Western Turks Tardus. As the Onogur Hun, Orchan still had a traditionally “shaved head”, but is now regarded as the first prince of those “proto-Bulgarians”. Their oldest list of rulers, however, goes way back and leads Attila's son Ernak as the founder.

His successor was his nephew Kubrat Dulo , at whose time (around 626) the pressure of the Khazars increased, who slowly separated from the Western Turks with the death of Khan Tung Sche-hu 630 ( Ziebil? ) . Kubrat stayed in Constantinople as a hostage or guest for some time in his youth , so that Byzantine , civilized customs are often said of him. At least he was considered a "friend" of the then Byzantine emperor and, according to Johannes von Nikiu , was baptized as a Christian in his childhood. The existence of this so-called Greater Bulgarian Empire is accepted by the majority in research, even though some scholars question several points due to the poor sources and warn against making sweeping judgments.

Splitting up

The migration of the Bulgarian tribes

With the death of Kubrat (668) from the Dulo - Dynasty the decline of the United Bulgarian Empire followed. When it was dissolved in southern Russia, the Bulgarian tribes emigrated under the leadership of Kubrat's five sons.

A part under Kubrat's eldest son Khan Batbajan (or Vatbajan) stayed on the lower course of the Volga and submitted to the Khazars . His group, the "Black Bulgarians" ( Khara Bulkhar / Qara Bolqar ) were mentioned for a while in Russian inscriptions and then disappeared from history. The descendants of these Bulgarians are the Balkars living in the north of the Caucasus .

A part under the second eldest son Khan Kotrag migrated north and subsequently founded a Bulgarian empire on the central Volga (in Arabic sources one speaks of the “White Bulgarians” ( Akh Bulkhar / Aq Bolqar )), which was initially called the Khazars was dependent. The capital became the important trading metropolis Bolgar , at the confluence of the Volga and Kama rivers . To distinguish it from other Bulgarian tribes, one speaks here of Volga Bulgarians .

Volga Bulgaria took under Khan Alamusch (Almush, Almas, ALMIS reg. 895-925) to 922 the Islam (cf.. Ibn Fadlan ) and soon developed into a major trading power , in particular, long-distance trade (luxury products) between the Kievan Rus and the Islamic countries in the south. Diplomatic relations reached under Ibrahim (r. 1006-1025) around 1024 to Khorasan . In the densely populated country, agriculture was successful and several cities were founded, such as Bolgar (near today's Kazan ), which owned mosques , caravanserais and public buildings. Numerous villages and small fortresses are recorded.

As early as the 12th century there were several military conflicts with Russian princes, which threatened the existence of the empire. In 1236 the Volga Bulgarian Empire was destroyed by the Golden Horde just before they brought the Rus under their rule. The Chuvash people see themselves to this day as the successors of a part of the Volga-Bulgarians, another part merged with the Kazan-Tatars, who until the late 19th century were called "Bolgarları" (Bolgars or Bulgarians) and not as " Tatarlar ”(Tatars).

Kuver (Kuber) and Alzek , Kubrat's two youngest sons, moved with their riders and smaller tribal associations to Pannonia (Hungary), where they united with the rest of the Bulgarians under Avarian rule. After a failed revolt against the Avars, their ways parted. Khan Alzek moved further west, crossed the Alps and moved through northern to southern Italy. There Alzek finally got permission to settle in the Duchy of Benevento . The historian Paulus Diaconus reports that Khan Alzek was received there by the Lombard king Grimoald . Alzek was awarded the Molise region , on the condition that he renounced his title dux and claim to power, since Grimoald himself was dux of Benevento. Even today, mountains, regions, villages, rivers and families all over Italy bear Bulgarian names or the designation "Bulgarians" (Bulgarian Bulgari). Examples are the Italian luxury goods manufacturer Bulgari , Bartolomeo Bulgarini , Cardinal Pietro Bulgaro, the name del Bulgaro or the municipality of Bulgarograsso .

Khan Kuver moved south around 680 with parts of the Sermesianoi (descendants of the Roman provincial population in the Balkans), reached Macedonia and established a khaganate in the Pelagonian landscape . However, the designation of this empire as the West Bulgarian Empire is controversial. The khaganate went up in the Danube-Bulgarian Empire. To this day, many Bulgarians do not see the Macedonians as their own people, but as western Bulgarians.

The Bulgarian Empires around 800 AD

Another part under the third son Asparuch (or Isperich; 641–702) emigrated to the Balkans and founded today's Bulgaria in 678 , or the First Bulgarian Empire. Slavic tribal groups joined Asparuch when his Bulgarians crossed the Danube around 680 . There was fighting with the army and the fleet of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine IV in the swampy Danube Delta. They ended with a success for the Bulgarians, so that the Byzantine Empire was forced to pay annual tributes. Asparuch himself fell in a battle with the Khazars in 700/01 .

The power of the Proto-Bulgarian Empire reached a high point under Khan Krum around 811, when he made a drinking bowl out of the head of the Byzantine emperor Nikephorus I and almost conquered Constantinople . At the end of 815 or beginning of 816, Krum's son Omurtag concluded a 30-year peace treaty with the Byzantine emperor Leon V and initiated a phase of rapprochement between Bulgaria and Byzantium. As an ally of Emperor Michael II , he played a decisive role in the destruction of the usurper Thomas . In the 9th century, the Danube Bulgarians converted to Orthodox Christianity . The Hunnic and Turkish ethnic groups mixed with the Slavic, so that z. B. the Slavic script and the old Turkish zodiac calendar coexisted. The Bulgarian people (in Arabic sources one speaks of the "Blue Bulgarians" ( Khökh Bulkhar / Qöq Bolqar )) emerged.

See also

Remarks

  1. ^ I. Dujcev: Bulgaria , article in: Lexikon des Mittelalters , Stuttgart / Weimar 2000; Harald Haarmann : Proto-Bulgarians , in: Lexicon of the fallen peoples , Munich 2005, p. 225
  2. ↑ For the controversial origin of the Bulgarians, see the overview in Daniel Ziemann: From Wandering People to Great Power: The Emergence of Bulgaria in the Early Middle Ages . Cologne u. a. 2007, p. 32ff.
  3. ↑ See Daniel Ziemann: From wandering people to great power: the emergence of Bulgaria in the early Middle Ages . Cologne u. a. 2007, pp. 95ff.
  4. ↑ Johannes von Nikiu, 120, 47. Daniel Ziemann: From wandering people to great power: the emergence of Bulgaria in the early Middle Ages . Cologne u. a. 2007, p. 145, thinks this is at least possible.
  5. ^ Daniel Ziemann: From wandering people to great power: the emergence of Bulgaria in the early Middle Ages . Cologne u. a. 2007, pp. 142ff., Summarized on p. 160.

literature

Web links