Volga Bulgarians
The kingdom of Volga Bulgaria was a realm of proto-Bulgarians and crystallized in the 7th-10th Century in the area of Volga and Kama and existed until the 13th century (1236). It was a successor state to the Greater Bulgarian Empire , rose to become an important trading power in the north and perished in the Mongol invasion. His cultural legacy continued in the Golden Horde and Kazan Khanate .
history
The state was founded by Khan Kotrag , who came from the Greater Bulgarian Empire and was the second eldest son of Khan Kubrat . Khan Kotrag belonged to the Bulgarian ruling dynasty Dulo . When the Greater Bulgarian Empire under Khan Batbajan had to submit to the Khazars around 640 , part of the Bulgarians migrated north under Kotrag and founded the Empire of the White Bulgarians (Akh Bulkhar / Aq Bolqar) at the confluence of the Volga and Kama rivers. The city of Bolgar was founded as the capital . The empire, like that of the related Black Bulgarians (Khara Bulkhar / Qara Bolqar) in the southern Russian steppe, was dependent on the Khazars. Although the Khan Shilki (reign 855-882, father of Almush) sought to free himself from this guardianship, the Volga Bulgarians probably only became independent with the destruction of the Khazar empire by the Kievan Rus and Pechenegs around 966.
The Bulgarian empire on the Volga was largely based on groups of Turkic origin, with names such as Suar (Suwar, are associated with the Sabirs), Barsil (also Barsula, possibly Barselt), Esegel (Isgil / Asghil), Baranjar (Balanjar, possibly refugees from the Khazars). A mixture with Iranian or Alanic elements was at least partially given. For a long time the state presented itself as a better tribal alliance. For example, according to Ibn Fadlan , the Suars had their own leader ( Wirgh or Vuyrigh / Buyruq) and their own power center, which was in competition with the ruling clan. The donkeys (Isgil) also had a special position, which was expressed through a marriage alliance with the ruling house. The Burtassen , Cheremiss , Mordvins and Bashkirs are mentioned as closely neighboring or partly dependent tribal groups , so that in the course of time Finno-Ugric influences also became influential.
Volga Bulgaria adopted Islam around 922 under Khan Alamusch (Almush, Almas, Almış reigns 895–925). At that time Ibn Fadlan traveled to Alamush as the envoy of the caliph Al-Muktadir . The Khan promised recognition of the sovereignty of Baghdad (reading out a Chutba in honor of the caliph) in exchange for experts on Islam and builders (see Islam in Russia ). After the adoption of Islam , Volga Bulgaria developed into a trading power within a few decades and mediated long-distance trade (luxury products) between the Kievan Rus and the Islamic countries in the south through the factories of Islamic merchants on the Volga . In contrast to its neighbors in the south, the state was not militarily expansive; it was limited to agriculture , trade and the tributes from the neighboring Finno-Ugric tribes.
The Volga Bulgarians successfully cultivated arable land in their densely populated country and founded several cities such as Bolgar, Bilär (second capital), Suar (Suwar), Qaşan (Kashan), Cükätaw (Juketaw), Aşlı (Oshel), Tuxçin (Tukhchin), İbrahim ( Bryakhimov) and Taw İle, who owned mosques , caravanserais and public buildings. Numerous villages and small fortresses are recorded. At least in the 10th century, people left the wooden houses in summer and lived in tents.
The most influential neighbors after the destruction of the Khazar empire were the Pechenegs and the Kievan Rus. From the middle of the 11th century, the Pechenegs on the lower reaches of the Volga and Black Sea were replaced by the Kipchaks (also: Kumanen, Polowzer). Diplomatic relations for commercial purposes were established with the Rus in 1006 and reached under Ibrahim (reign 1006-1025) around 1024 to Khorasan . Serious conflicts with the Russian princes broke out as early as the 12th century, for example when the Russians plundered and mistreated Bulgarian traders, whereupon they sent their army. So it came in 1117 to a (marriage) alliance between Yuri Dolgoruki (reign 1125-1157) and the Kipchakenkhan Ayepa, which the Bulgarians neutralized with the poisoning of Ayepas and other princes. Since Andrei Bogoljubski (reign 1157–1174) the Russians repeatedly invaded the country and threatened the existence of the state. Such a war took place at the time of the Khan Gabdulla Chelbir (reign 1178-1225) 1219/20, and shortly afterwards the Mongols came, but they only plundered the area on their march back from the Kalka in 1223.
Nevertheless, the fall of the Volga-Bulgarian state with the advancing organization of the Mongol Empire was only a matter of time. In the late autumn of 1236, Batu Khan arrived, part of his army, which was gathering in the Volga region, and destroyed Bolgar , a year before it turned against northeastern Russia. With this bloodbath, the Volga Bulgarian Empire ended, and the subjugated survivors were forced to join the army on the side of the Mongols. At the time of the Golden Horde , the country recovered again, became a settlement area for the Mongol aristocracy and was an important economic center of their empire until the early 14th century.
The Chuvash people see themselves as the successors of a part of the Volga-Bulgarians, another part merged with the Mongolian conquerors and the Kipchaks who fought with them to form the Kazan Tatars , who until the late 19th century were known as "Bolgar" (Bulgarians ) and not as "Tatar" (Tatars).
Description by Ibn Fadlān
The Arab traveler Ibn Fadlān , who took part in an embassy to Bolgar to the Volga Bulgarians in 922, left a detailed description of the Volga Bulgarian Empire, its ruling court, its social and religious relationships and tribal associations. In it he describes their ruler Almysch, son of Sälkäy, as "King of the Saqāliba ", an Arabic term that goes back to the Greek name for Slavs . The expressions “King of the Slavs” and “King of the Bulgarians” are used alternately in Ibn Fadlan's accounts. In the empire of the Volga Bulgarians in the 7th – 13th centuries In the 19th century, there were no Slavic tribal associations, only the Turkic-speaking tribes of the Volga-Bulgarians and indigenous Finno-Ugric tribes. The name Almysch and the names of many other traditional rulers and sub-tribes are clearly of Turkish origin. The fact is generally explained today that Ibn Fadlān, like several other Arab authors of the time, did not use the term Saqāliba as a clear linguistic term, but as a geographical collective term for residents of east-central, south-eastern and eastern Europe.
Tribal division
The Russian chroniclers distinguish between different Bolgarian tribes: the Volga-Bolgars, the "silver" or "Nucratic", living on the Kama, Timtjusen, the Cheremshan (on the river Chezermichan) and Chwalissischen.
religion
After Yaltawar Almysh's conversion to Islam (922), the Slavic and Bulgarian parts of the population still retained the old Turkish customs and traditions of Tengrism and became part of the new Bolgarian-Islamic culture.
Web links and sources
literature
- Gert Rispling: Volga Bulgarians. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 34, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2007, ISBN 978-3-11-018389-4 , pp. 210-211.
Individual evidence
- ^ Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, Acta ethnographica, Volume 2, 1951, p. 118.
- ^ András Róna-Tas, Hungarians and Europe in the early Middle Ages, Central European University Press, 1999, p. 225
- ↑ al-Saḳāliba . in: Encyclopaedia of Islam . New Edition, Vol. 8, Leiden 1995, pp. 872-881
- ↑ Konstantin Nikolaevich Bestuzhev-Ri︠u︡min: History of Russia. E. Behre, 1874, p. 58.
- ^ John Anthony McGuckin, The encyclopedia of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Volume 1, John Wiley and Sons (2011), 79
- ↑ Hans Ferdinand Helmolt, World History: vol. Eastern and Northern Europe, Bibliographisches Institut Leipzig, 1921, page 100