THE BULGARS

 

Early Bulgars (375 - 668 CE)

Bolgar (Old Turkic, "Those of mixed origin")

Itil Bolgar (Old Turkic, "Bulgar-land") (375 - 480 CE)

Onogundur (Byzantine Greek, "Onogur-Bulgaria") (481 - 630 CE)

Palaia Megale Boulgaria (Cyrillic, "Old Great Bulgaria") (631 - 680 CE)

 

First Bulgarian Empire (681 - 1018 CE)

Second Bulgarian Empire (1185 - 1396 CE)

Balgarsko Tsarstvo (Cyrillic, "Bulgarian Empire")

 

Volga Bulgaria (669 - 1237 CE)

Atălči Itil Bolgar (Old Turkic, "Bulgar-land on the Volga")

 

 

A group called the Bulensii was first identified by the Greco-Latin geographer, Claudius Ptolemy (90-168 CE), as living north of the Caspian Sea in the first century CE. Claudius Ptolemy provided no other information about the Bulensii—he simply listed them among the peoples living in that region at that time—and thus their later association with the Bulgars seems to be based solely on the fact that the Bulgars are later attested as living in the same region (ca. 480 CE). However, between about 100 BCE and 375 CE, the Aryan nomad group known as the Alans dominated the steppes between the Volga and Ural rivers north of the Caspian Sea, as well as the Ust Urt Plateau to the east of the Caspian Sea, and the Kalmykia-Astrakhan region to the west of the Caspian Sea. Unfortunately, Claudius Ptolemy did not provide any information about the ethnicity of the Bulensii, nor did he explain their relationship to the Alans (e.g., were they an Alanic subgroup, or a separate ethnic group, and if a separate ethnic group, were they dominated by the Alans?). By the time they re-emerge (or emerge for the first time) in the historical record in 480 CE, they were considered to be a Hunnic group, but as I discuss in relation to the other Hunnic groups, all the Hunnic groups were likely heterogenous polyethnic federations. The etymology of the ethnym, Bulgar, is much debated, but I favor the argument based on the Old Turkic word, bulga ("to mix, shake, or stir"), which would mean that the name, Bolgar, should be translated roughly as "people of mixed origin" (an appropriate appellation for any of the Hunnic peoples). Although we know that Aryan nomads dominated the grasslands/steppes of Europe, southern Siberia, and Kazakhstan from long before the dawn of the Bronze Age (and the birth of history), there is a slowly emerging body of evidence (linguistic, genetic, and archeological) that indicates there were also groups of Ugrians—an autochthonous ethnic group—that lived in the forests (taiga) east of the Ural Mountains during this same period, and that subgroups of these Ugrians had also expanded onto the steppes of Kazakhstan as far south as the Aral Sea. Although the Ugrians were heavily influenced by the Aryans, who were horse-herders that dominated the steppes (i.e., prairies or grasslands), the Ugrians seem to have remained agro-pastoralists that dominated the forests and the littorals of the various regional waterways (rivers, as well as the Caspian and Aral seas). Thus, I think it is possible to tentatively suggest that the Bulensii were Ugrians that lived among the Alans north of the Caspian Sea (probably living along the Volga and Ural rivers, as well as the littoral of the Caspian Sea), that they may or may not have been dominated by the Alans but certainly were heavily influenced by them, and when the Alans were swept westward by the Black Huns (ca. 370-375 CE), remnant groups of Bulensii, Alans, and Black Huns likely formed a new—mixed—federation of tribes known as the Bulgars.

 

While some Alan groups joined the hordes of the Black Huns as they migrated westward across the Pontic-Caspian steppes, others migrated south into Circassia-Ossetia, while another Hunnic group called the Saragurs settled on the steppes of Kalmykia-Astrakhan, leaving the Bulgars in possession of the lands between the Volga and Ural rivers (ca. 375-463 CE). The Bulgars were later displaced by the Avars (ca. 463-480 CE)—another Hunnic group from Kazakhstan—and relocated to the Kuban region to the east of the Black Sea. At that time, the Kuban region was inhabited by another Hunnic group called the Onogurs/Ogurs. The Bulgars and Onogurs formed a federated union that Byzantine writers referred to as Onogur-Bulgaria (Onogundur)(ca. 480-630 CE). The combined Onogur-Bulgar federation put pressure on the Utigurs—a Hunnic group living to the west of Onogundur, on the Dnieper-Don steppe north of the Black Sea—until the Avars continued to push into eastern Europe and dominated all the Hunnic groups there (ca. 557-630 CE). Thereafter, the Onogur-Bulgars and other Hunnic groups of the Pontic-Caspian steppes were forced to provide auxiliaries to the Avars during the Avar-Byzantine Wars (568-626 CE). Following a failed siege of the Byzantine imperial capital—Constantinople—by the Avars in 626 CE, the Onogur-Bulgar federation led a coalition of Pontic tribes (Bulgars, Onogurs, Kutrigurs, Utigurs, Saragurs, and Goths) in rebellion. By 630 CE, the allies seem to have gained their independence from the Avars, but under the Bulgar kings, Gostun (630-632 CE) and Kubrat (632-665 CE), the Bulgars forced the Kutrigurs, Utigurs, and Goths into submission. The resulting Onogur-Bulgar state—known in Latin as Magna Bulgaria ("Great Bulgaria" or Patria Onoguria ("Onogur-land"), and in Byzantine Greek as Pelaia Megale Voulgaria ("Old Great Bulgaria")— stretched from the Kuban region to the east of the Black Sea to the Dniester River in the west (the northern frontier is more difficult to define, but it probably did not extend beyond the steppe into the taiga). By the time of the disintegration of Great Bulgaria (ca. 668 CE), the Kutrigurs, Utigurs, and Onogurs disappear as distinct groups (although the Goths remained in the Crimea until the fourteenth century). Kubrat was succeeded by his eldest son, Batbayan (665-668 CE), but Batbayan was defeated and killed by the Khazars (one of the subgroups of the Western Göktürk Khaganate). Batbayan's four younger brothers then divided the remaining folk of the Bulgar state into four hordes—Kotrag/Kazarig (668-700 CE) led one horde to the northeast, settling between the headwaters of the Volga and Kama rivers and establishing what would become known as the Kingdom of Volga-Bulgaria (668-1236 CE); Kuber/Kouber/Kuver led another horde to the west, becoming vassals of the Avars in Pannonia (ca. 668-680 CE); Alcek/Alzeco led another horde even further west, ultimately finding their way into Italy where they became vassals of the Lombard Kingdom of Italy (ca. 668-774 CE); and Asparuh/Asparukh led the final group into the lower Danube Basin, wrested the region from the Byzantines, and founded the First Bulgarian Empire (681-1018 CE).

 

Following the Battle of Ongol (680 CE), Aspurah's Bulgars were able to seize much of the lower Danube Basin from the Byzantine Empire. These Bulgars quickly assimilated with the Slavic population of the northeast Balkans (the Sklaveni and Antes), and expanded their hegemony against the Byzantines to the south, the Serbs and Croats to the southwest, the Avars to the west, and the Volhynians and Tverians to the north, eventually creating an empire—the First Bulgarian Empire (681-1018 CE)—that included most of the Balkans (modern Moldavia, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, and Kosovo). The Bulgarian Empire continued to threaten the Byzantine Empire, but the Byzantines recovered supremacy by the early eleventh century and crushed the Bulgars at the Battle of Kleidion (29 July 1014 CE)—the Byzantine emperor, Basil II (960-1025 CE), thereafter assumed the sobriquet, Boulgaroktonos (Byzantine Greek, "Bulgar-slayer"). Following Kleidion, Basil's army had taken as many as 15,000 Bulgar prisoners, and Basil ordered his men to blind all but one out of every 100 prisoners (the fortunate few were left un-maimed so that they could lead their less-fortunate comrades home). The devastating loss at Kleidion and its cruel aftermath led to the quick collapse of the First Bulgarian Empire (ca. 1018 CE), and the absorption of its territories south of the Danube by Byzantium, while those territories north of the Danube were divided between the Magyars west of the Carpathians (see my Finns, Balts, and Ugrians gallery)—who also assimilated the remaining Avars and founded the Kingdom of Hungary (ca. 1000 CE)—and the Pechenegs east and south of the Carpathians (the Pechenegs were a Turkic group that migrated into eastern Europe in the eighth century). Most of the surviving Bulgars re-settled in the Byzantine theme (i.e., province) of Bulgaria (ca. 1018-1185 CE), roughly analogous to modern Bulgaria. After almost two centuries of Byzantine rule, however, a series of incursions into the Balkans by the Pechenegs, coupled with growing discontent amongst the Bulgars over heavy Byzantine taxation, led to a Bulgar revolt and the resurrection of the Bulgar Empire. The Second Bulgar Empire (1185-1396 CE) remained one of the primary powers in the Balkans, whose fortunes waxed and waned until the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans in the late fourteenth century. By 1218 CE, it had annexed Serbia, conquered the Wallachians/Vlachs in southern Romania (Oltenia and Wallachia), and had driven the Cumans/Polovtsi from eastern Romania and southern Moldavia (an alliance between the Byzantines and Cumans had destroyed the Pechenegs, ca. 1091-1122 CE). By 1241 CE, the Bulgars had annexed most of the province of Macedonia from the Byzantines (this encompassed modern eastern Serbia, Kosovo, and Macedonia) and forced the Despotate of Epirus and the Despotate of Thessaly to become vassal-states of Bulgaria (these were Byzantine states that formed after the Fourth Crusade ignominously diverted itself from the Levant and temporarily conquered Constantinople and the lands around the Sea of Marmara from the Byzantines). The Second Bulgarian Empire had a stormy history, facing numerous threats from the Byzantines (who regained western Thrace and Thessaly from the Bulgars by 1263 CE), the Latin Empire (also destroyed by the Byzantines, ca. 1261 CE), the Mongols of the Golden Horde (who had destroyed the Cumans and occupied Moldavia, ca. 1237 CE), various Serbian states (especially the Serbian Empire, 1346-1371, which annexed the Despotate of Epirus, Thessaly, and most of the western Balkans and northern Greece), and the Kingdom of Hungary (which annexed Oltenia in 1365 CE). There were also several popular uprisings—notably, the Wallachians gained their independence in 1290 CE, and the Despotate of Dobruja broke away in 1340 CE (this state lay along the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria and eastern Romania, from the mouth of the Danube in the north to the city of Pomorie in the south). By 1371 CE, the Bulgars were once again largely restricted to a territory roughly corresponding to modern Bulgaria (except the Black Sea coast), and the royal house was sharply divided between rival claimants to the throne. The Ottoman Turks conquered what was left of the Byzantine Empire (1265-1479 CE), then went on to destroy the Serbian Empire (ca. 1371) and its successor states (ca. 1371-1389 CE). Simultaneously, the Ottomans conquered the Bulgarian Empire (ca. 1371-1396 CE) and the Despotate of Dobruja (ca. 1394 CE). The Slavicized Bulgar population of the Balkans remained under Ottoman rule until 1878 CE, when Bulgaria regained its independence according to the terms of the Treaty of Berlin.

 

The figures pictured above are appropriate to the Emirate of Volga Bulgaria (669-1237 CE). As described above, the Bulgars dispersed after Batbayan was defeated and killed by the Khazars (ca. 668 CE), and one group settled between the headwaters of the Volga and Kama rivers to the south of the Ural Mountains (northeastern Russia). These Volga Bulgars seem to have been subjects of the Khazars from the foundation of their state, and so it is likely they were forced to relocate by the Khazars when they conquered Great Bulgaria (ca. 668-675 CE)—the purpose of this forced resettlement was probably to provide a buffer-state between Khazaria and the Oghuz Turks. However, the Volga Bulgars rebelled against the Khazars in 675 CE and established the independent Kingdom of Volga Bulgaria (675-922 CE). At that time, several major trade routes were developing between the Umayyad Caliphate in Mesopotamia and Iran and the peoples of the Pontic-Caspian steppes (silver flowed north, furs and slaves moved south), and the Bulgars moved to make themselves key players in this trade by expanding into the Middle Volga/Samara Bend region. After the fall of the Khazars, trade with Byzantium via the Black Sea and the Caucasus also increased, although the Slavic-Varangian (i.e., eastern Vikings) states of Kievan Rus' came to dominate much of the western regions of Russia. During the Crusades, when trade through the Near East became hazardous, much of the Silk Road trade between China and the Mediterranean shifted north of the Caspian Sea, through Volga Bulgar territory. Most of the Bulgar population came to inhabit a number of towns along the Volga and Kama rivers, which became great trade emporiums—in addition to the capital city of Bolghar, the primary towns of Volga Bulgaria were Bilär, Qaşan/Kashan, Cükätaw/Juketau, Ashli/Oshel, Tuxçin/Tukhchin, İbrahim/Bryakhimov, and Taw/İle. These towns became a cosmopolitan mix of Turkic, Russian, Finno-Ugric, and Muslim Arab and Persian communities. At its height, Volga Bulgaria's hegemony included several neighboring Turko-Hunnic nomad tribes—the Suar/Suwar/Suvar (believed to be descended from the Sabirs), the Barsils/Barsilts/Barsula (ancestors of the modern-day Karachays and Balkars), the Bilar, the Baranjars/Balanjars/Belenjers, and the Burta—as well as several Finno-Ugric tribes—the Cherimi (ancestors of the Mari peoples), the Udmurts/Chuds, the Yugra/Ostiaks (ancestors of the Khanty peoples), the Mordvin/Mordva/Mordovians, and the Permyaks (southern Komi peoples). The exact borders of Volga Bulgaria are unknown, although it is believed that the territories directly controlled by the Volga Bulgars extended between the Volga and Kama rivers in the north, roughly between the modern cities of Nizhny-Novgorod in the west (on the Volga) and Perm in the east (on the Kama), and that it extended southward along both banks of the middle Volga (the Samara Bend region) to the vicinity of the modern city of Saratov. This hegemony was rather nebulously expanded into the forest regions of northern Russia via alliances with the Mordvins, Muromi, and Mari to the west (in-between Volga Bulgaria and Kievan Rus'), the Cherimi to the northwest (along the Volga between modern Nizhny Novgorod and Yaroslavl), the Udmurts to the north (between the headwaters of the Kama and Vyatka rivers), the Permyaks to the northeast (along the western Ural Mountains, modern Perm Krai), and the Ostiaks to the east (along the southern and eastern Ural Mountains). The Turko-Hunnic allies ranged across the steppes to the north, west, and east of the Caspian Sea, although these steppes (and the loyalty of the Volga Bulgarians' allies) were often contested by the Khazars (ca. 650-1048 CE), Pechenegs (ca. 860-1091 CE), Oghuz (ca. 750-1095 CE), Cumans/Polovtsi/Kipchaks (ca. 900-1220 CE), and finally the Mongols (ca. 1223-1240 CE). The Kingdom of Alania was an important ally to the south (in the north Caucasus), often working together with the Volga Bulgarians to control the trade routes passing through the Caucasus and between the Ural Mountains and the Caspian Sea. Although the Russians/Rus' were always important trade partners, they were also implacable competitors, and the Volga Bulgarians often raided and were raided by nearby Russian principalities (particularly Vladimir)—Russian slaves being one of the Volga Bulgarian's most lucrative trade exports. The most important trade partners of Volga Bulgaria were the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates. In 922 CE, the Abbasid caliph al-Muqtadir arranged to have a representative, Ibn Fadlan, installed at the Volga Bulgarian court in Bolghar, accompanied by Muslim teachers (mulluh and imam), judges (qadis), engineers (for the building of mosques and forts), and holy warriors (ghazis) tasked with converting the Volga Bulgarians and helping them to extend the rule of Muslim law (sharia) onto the Pontic-Caspian steppes. The Volga Bulgarians apparently took to Islam and the trappings of Muslim civilization quite readily, the Bulgar iltabar taking the title of emir ("commander"). The conversion of the Volga Bulgarians had material benefits, allowing them to trade with the greater Muslim world on equal terms with other Muslim merchants. In addition, the Volga Bulgarians could call on the aid of ghazis from throughout the Muslim world in their conflicts with the infidel ("unbeliever") Russians. Together with the Grand Principality of Kievan Rus' and the Kingdom of Alania, the Emirate of Volga Bulgaria (922-1237 CE) formed part of a unique tripartite Russian civilization that lasted for over three centuries.

 

All this came to an end with the arrival of the Mongols. Although the vanguard of the Mongol invasion of eastern Europe was ambushed and destroyed by the Volga Bulgars at the Battle of Samara Bend (1223 CE), the Mongols returned in greater force in 1229 CE. From then until 1232 CE the Mongols wrested the border regions of Bashkiria and the upper Ural valley from the Volga Bulgarians, but they failed to penetrate the central territories or to storm any major cities. Having delivered some of the few reverses suffered by the Mongol war machine in any of its far-flung conquests, the Volga Bulgarians then found themselves in the uncomfortable position of being taken very seriously by the Mongols. In 1236 CE, Batu Khan, grandson of the Great Khan—Temujin Chinggis Kha'an—committed a huge army under the command of Subitai, probably the Mongols' best general, to the reduction of Volga Bulgaria and its primary ally, the Kingdom of Alania. From 1236 to 1240 CE the great cities of Volga Bulgaria were systematically stormed, looted, and burned, the populations killed, enslaved, or scattered as refugees (up to 80% of the population was killed). Although some small communities remained under Mongol rule (particularly in Kazan), the Mongol invasion effected the utter collapse of Volga Bulgarian civilization and completely changed the ethnic, cultural, and economic landscape of the western Eurasian steppe (the Alans and Rus' were also mauled). The Kipchak Turks, vassals of the Mongols, became the dominant social and political force in the region, under the hegemony of the Mongol Golden Horde (1240-1502 CE) with its capital at Sarai on the Akhtuba River (north of the Caucasus Mountains). The Mongols and Kipchaks of the Golden Horde ultimately adopted Islam, although relations between the Golden Horde and the Ilkhanate of Persia (the name of the Mongol state that replaced the Abbasid Caliphate) were often troubled, ending the free interchange of goods and ideas that had characterized the Volga Bulgarian period.

 

This is one of my favorite armies. You have a truly unique mix of fast-moving steppe cavalry, infantry bowmen, and skirmishing infantry that loves ambushing in rough terrain (the Volga Bulgars and their Finno-Ugric allies being particularly adept at guerrilla-style ambushes in the deep, dark forests of the Urals region). I love modeling cultures that have a real mix of stylistic elements from diverse ethnic/cultural sources. In this case, you have elements that show varying degrees of Turkic, early Russian, Finno-Ugric, and Aryan (i.e., Alanic) influence. Most of the figures are from Mirliton's wonderful "Russians of Alexander Nevsky" range, although there are some Khurasan and Essex figures thrown in, and I modified some of the figures to show the Islamic influence under the Emirate. The trade networks that criss-crossed the region during this period meant that many of the Turkic, Russian, Bulgarian, Finno-Ugric, and Alanic warriors of eastern Europe would have had similar panoplies, so they really didn't require a lot of modification. In particular, I love how the Islamic banners from Stephen Hales at Little Big Men Studios give this army a flash of color. This army is part of my Mongol Conquest set of armies, and since the Mongols did much of their fighting in Russia in winter I used a snow setting (see also my Mongols and Early Russians).