Everything about Old Great Bulgaria totally explained
Old Great Bulgaria or
Great Bulgaria (; Παλαιά Μεγάλη Βουλγαρία in
Byzantine chronicles; alternative name:
Onoguria/
Onoghuria) was а term used by Byzantine historians to refer to the territories controlled by the
Bulgar ruler
Kubrat in the
7th century north of the
Caucasus mountains in the
steppe between the
Dniester and Lower
Volga.
Kubrat
Kubrat (also Kurt or Houvrat) was of the kingly
Dulo clan and the rightful heir of the Bulgar throne. He spent his adolescence in the
Byzantine Empire, where he was educated and baptised, while his maternal uncle
Organa was a regent over his tribe.
Around
628 Kubrat returned to his fatherland, took the leadership over his people most probably with the approval of the Avar
khagan. He soon managed to overthrow Avar domination and also to secede from the
Western Turkic Khaganate (which was entangled in dynastic wars).
Establishment
Between
630 and
635 Khan Kubrat managed to unite the two main Bulgar tribes of
Kutrigur and
Utigur under a single rule, creating a powerful confederation which is referred to by the
medieval authors as
The Old Great Bulgaria and also known as
Onogundur-Bulgar Empire (or in western version:
Onoghuria). Some scholars assume that it also included among its subjects the defeated
Avars and stretched as far west as the
Pannonian plain. It is presumed that his capital was the ancient city of
Phanagoria on the
Taman peninsula. Kubrat's grave was discovered in
1912 at
Pereshchepina,
Ukraine.
Disintegration and successor states
The events that unfolded following Kubrat's death are described by the Byzantine Patriarch
Nicephorus I . In the times of Emperor
Constantine IV, he narrates, Kubrat died and
Batbayan, the eldest of his five sons, was left in charge of the state. Under strong
Khazar pressure, Kubrat's other sons disregarded their father's advice to stay together in order to resist the enemies and soon departed, taking their own tribes.
Volga Bulgars
Kotrag, the leader of the Kutrigurs (or Kotrags), left for Middle Volga, where he later established
Volga Bulgaria at the Volga-
Kama confluence, a state which was to become very prosperous. The
Volga Bulgars or the Silver Bulgars as they were called at the time, converted voluntarily to
Islam in the
9th century and managed to preserve their national identity well into the
13th century, by repelling the first
Mongol attacks in
1223, thus becoming the only people to ever defeat
Genghis Khan. However, they were eventually subdued, their main city
Bolghar became a capital of the
Golden Horde Khanate and the Bulgars mixed with the
Tatars. The citizens of the modern
Russian republics of
Tatarstan and
Chuvashia are considered to be descendants of those Bulgars.
Bulgars in Macedonia
Kuber ruled in
Sirmium over a mixed group of peoples (Bulgars, 'Romans', Slavs, Germanics) as a vassal of the
Avar khagan. After a revolt he led his people to
Macedonia. There he'd settled in the region of Keremisia and made an unsuccessful attempt to capture the city of
Thessaloniki. After this, he disappears from history and his people merged with the Slavic tribes of Macedonia.
Bulgars in Southern Italy
Other Bulgars, circa 662, led by their "Duke Alzeco" (
Altsek) sought refuge from the Avars with the
Lombards and requested
land from the Lombard King
Grimoald I of Benevento in exchange for military service "for an uncertain reason", initially staying near
Ravenna and later moving further south. Grimoald sent Altzek and his followers to his son
Romuald in Benevento and they were then granted by Romuald land northeast of
Naples in the "spacious but up till that time deserted" towns of
Sepino, Bovianum (
Boiano), and
Isernia, in the present-day region of
Molise in the
Apennines. Instead of the title "Duke" Altzek was granted the Lombard title of "Gastald".
Paul the Deacon in his
History of the Lombard People writing after the year 787 says that in his time Bulgars still inhabited the area, and that even though they speak "Latin", "they have not forsaken the use of their own tongue".
Excavations in the necropolis of Vicenne-
Campochiaro near Boiano which dates from the 7th century, found among 130 burials that there were 13 human burials alongside horses along with artifacts of Germanic and
Avar origin. Horse burials are characteristic of Central Asian horse-nomads, and therefore these burials are clearly those of the Bulgar settlers of Molise.
Caucasian Bulgars / Balkars
BatBayan's people, the so-called Black Bulgars, remained in their homeland and were soon subdued by the
Khazars. Some believe that the present-day
Balkars are the descendants of the BatBayan horde even though they call themselves Malkars (after the river
Malka) and speak a Turkic language of the
Kipchak type.
But in most Turkic languages the sound "b" became "m".
First Bulgarian Empire
Asparuh, the successor to
Kubrat, subsequently conquered
Moesia and
Dobrudja from the
Byzantine Empire in
680 and formed the
First Bulgarian Empire.
Etymology of Onoghuria
Variations of the name include:
Onoghuria, Onoguri, Onoghuri, Onghur, Ongur, Onghuri, Onguri, Onghuria, Onguria, Onogundur, Unogundur, Unokundur, etc.
There are numerous speculations about the origin of the Onogur name:
- In modern language of the Caucasian Avars Onoghuria could mean "Everlasting", from uno - ever and guro - lasting.
Some derive it from the Turkic words On (ten) and Ghur (arrow) which in combination may mean "Ten Arrows", for example "A federation of ten tribes".
Another explanation states that because in Turkic languages the sound "z" turns to "r" when you go westwards and therefore the ethnonym of the Oguz/Oghuz Turks would sound as Ogur/Oghur in the west. Then Onogur would mean "ten clans of Oguz/Oghuz (Turks)". In support to this view is fact that the Bulgars are listed among the ten sons of Togarmah (the mythic ancestor of the Turks) in the Khazar Correspondence.
Others relate Onoghur to Unok-vndur, a Bulgar people mentioned in the early Armenian sources.
Other uses
According to some sources, seven Finno-Ugric speaking tribes, including the Magyars, joined three Khazar-Turkic speaking Kabar clans to form a confederation also known as "Ten Arrows" or Onoghur. The word "Hungary" probably derives from this name. . The Romanian name for Magyar sounds even more similar to Onoghur - Ungur as is the Bulgarian name - Ungar(tzi)
Further Information
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