Asparuch

The Balkan Peninsula around 680

Asparuch , also Esperich , Espererich , Isperich or Ispor ( Bulgarian Аспарух , or Есперих, Исперих, Испор ; * around 641 ; † around 702 ) was a Knjaz of the First Bulgarian Empire and ruler of the Greater Bulgarian Empire . He was the son of Kubrat and belonged to the Bulgarian ruling dynasty Dulo .

In many history books, the Central Asian title Khan is associated with Asparuch. The only known and verifiable title of Asparuch is the title Knjas.

Life

After the death of Kubrat, the Greater Bulgarian Empire split. Asparuch and part of the proto-Bulgarians were driven by the Khazars from the Russian steppe in what is now Ukraine to the Danube Delta . After the conquest of the Byzantine Dobruja , he founded another Bulgarian empire in 679 in association with the Slavic tribes living in Moesia , including the Severen , which is called the First Bulgarian Empire in historical research . It is believed that a Slavic-Bulgarian Empire emerged with a Bulgarian upper class that ruled over a Slavic, mostly peasant population and the remnants of the Roman provincial population. The town of Ongal , located in northern Dobruja, became the first capital . According to further theories, the Bulgarian rulers moved from place to place , similar to the later German emperors (see travel kingship ).

After unsuccessful attempts at submission between 679 and 680, this empire was contractually recognized in the summer of 681 by the Byzantine emperor Constantine IV Pogonatos . The Bulgarians eventually moved their capital further south to Pliska .

Presumably, the process of Slavization of the Bulgarian upper class began under Asparuch. The threat to the Byzantine Empire from the Arabs and the weakening associated with it may have initially had a stabilizing effect on Asparuch's empire.

additional

Several ships were named after Asparuch: in 1977 the largest Bulgarian ship, the tanker Khan Asparuh, and since 1982 the cargo ship Han Asparuh has been operating on the Danube . The city of Isperich in northeastern Bulgaria also bears his name. Asparuch was ranked third on Bulgarian National Television when asked about “ Greatest Bulgarian ”. Asparuh Peak on Livingston Island in Antarctica has been named after him since 2005 .

literature

• RJ Crampton: A Concise History of Bulgaria. 2nd Edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge u. a. 2005, ISBN 0-521-85085-1 .
• Detlef Kulman: Asparuch . In: Biographical Lexicon on the History of Southeast Europe . Volume 1. Munich 1974, p. 106
• Daniel Ziemann: From wandering people to great power. The emergence of Bulgaria in the early Middle Ages (7th - 9th centuries) (= Cologne historical treatises. Vol. 43). Böhlau, Cologne / Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-412-09106-4 .

Web links

Commons : Asparuch  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

1. ^ Bulgarian list of princes
2. ↑ There are some differences in the Bulgarian Princes List when it comes to the spelling of the names in the individual manuscripts, but they have one thing in common: the Central Asian title Khan is not mentioned in any of the manuscripts. The ruler Asparuch (the founder of Danube Bulgaria) and his five successors had a different title, namely the Slavic title Knjaz, which roughly means "king". The only verifiable title of Kubrat is Patricius, he got it in 635 from the Eastern Roman Emperor Herakleios.
3. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from March 17, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 

predecessor	Office	successor
-	Ruler of Bulgaria 668–700	Terwel