First Bulgarian Empire

The First Bulgarian Empire was founded in 681 AD in the lands near the Danube delta and disintegrated in 1018 AD by annexion to the Byzantine Empire. At the height of its power it spread between three seas - the Black sea to the east, the Egean to the south and the Adriatic.

During the time of the late Roman Empire, the lands of present-day Bulgaria had been organised in several provinces - Scythia Minor, Moesia (Upper and Lower), Thrace, Macedonia (First and Second), Dacia (south of the Danube), Dardania, Rhodope and Hemimont, and had a mixed population of Romanised Thracians and Greeks. Several consecutive waves of Slavic migration throughout the 6th and the early 7th century led to a dramatic change of the demographics of the region and its almost complete "Slavonisation".

The Bulgars

Little is known about the orgins of the Bulgars that reached the Balkan peninsula in the 7th century AD (according to some sources even earlier) because during the ages the original Bulgars melted into the local population of what is nowadays Bulgaria.

One theory is that the Bulgars originated in central Asia but their origin is not entirely clear. The established theory is that the Bulgars are related to the Huns. Clues for this can be found in the advanced calendar and system of government of the early Bulgars.

However more recent studies in genetics have tried to show that the Bulgars were not directly linked to the Huns and the Bulgars originated from what is nowadays Eastern Ukraine. It is possible that Bulgarian rulers employed Huns and had close cultural relations with them but were very ethnically different.

It is assumed that the Bulgars were governed by hereditary khans.The only similar title found so far is kanasubigi and it was used by only three of the Bulgarian rulers, namely Krum, Omurtag and Malamir, which were respectively a grandfather, son and a grandson and after them the title disappears. Other similar but non-kingly titles were attested among Bulgarian noble class and these are kavkan (vicekan), tarkan, and boritarkan. Starting from there (if there was a vicekhan (kavkhan) so there was a khan, too) the scolars assume the title khan for the early Bulgarian leader. Later iscriptions speak of archonts (a Greek title) and knyaze (a Slavic title). There were several (probably more than 100) aristocratic families whose members, called boila (boyars) who bore military titles and formed a governing class. The religion of the Bulgars is also obscure but it is supposed that it was monotheistic, worshipping the Turkic Sky god Tangra. There is only one mentioning of Tangra in the 8 century inscription near the Madara Rider. All other sources simply talk about Bog, the Slavic and Aryan word for God. More confunsingly some Bulgar rulers, renowned for their persecution of Christians were depicted with Christian state symbols. There is a theory that Bulgars were Arians (an early Christian sect).

The migration of Bulgars to the European continent started as early as the 2nd century AD when branches of Bulgars settled on the plains between the Caspian and the Black Sea. Between 351 and 389 AD, some of these crossed the Caucasus and settled in Armenia. They were eventually assimilated by the Armenians.

Swept by the Hunnish wave at the beginning of the 4th century AD, other numerous Bulgarian tribes broke loose from their settlements in central Asia to migrate to the fertile lands along the lower valleys of the Donets and the Don rivers and the Azov seashore. Some of these remained for centuries in their new settlements, whereas others moved on with the Huns towards Central Europe, settling in Pannonia.

In the 6th and 7th century, the Bulgars formed an independent state, often called Great Bulgaria, between the lower course of the Danube to the west, the Black and the Azov Seas to the south, the Kuban river to the east, and the Donets river to the north. The capital of the state was Phanagoria, on the Azov.

The pressure from peoples further east (such as the Khazars) led to the dissolution of Great Bulgaria in the second half of the 7th century. One Bulgar tribe migrated to the confluence of the Volga and Kama Rivers in what is now the Russian Federation (see Volga Bulgaria). They converted to Islam in the beginning in the 8th century and maintained an independent state until the 13th century. Smaller Bulgar tribes seceded in Pannonia and in Italy, northwest of Naples, while other Bulgars sought refuge with the Lombards. Another group of Bulgars remained in the land north of the Black and the Azov Seas. They were, however, soon subdued by the Khazars. These Bulgars converted to Judaism in the 9th century, along with the Khazars, and were eventually assimilated.

Establishment and development of the Bulgarian state

Yet another Bulgar tribe, led by Khan Asparuh, moved westward, occupying today’s southern Bessarabia. After a successful war with Byzantium in 680 AD, Asparuh’s khanate conquered Moesia and Dobrudja and was recognised as an independent state under the subsequent treaty signed with the Byzantine Empire in 681 AD. The same year is usually regarded as the year of the establishment of present-day Bulgaria.

Another opinion is that Great Bulgaria, although it suffered a major territory loss from the Khazars, managed to defeat them in the early 70s of the 7th century. Khan Asparuh, the successor of Khan Kubrat, conquered Moesia and Dobrudja after a war with Byzantine Empire in 680 AD. This war ended with signing a peace treaty in 681. Therefore the year of establishment of present-day Bulgaria has to be considered 632, and not 681 AD.

Territorial expansion

Under the warrior Khan Krum (802-814), also known as Crummus and Keanus Magnus, Bulgaria expanded northwest and southwards, occupying the lands between middle Danube and Moldova, the whole territory of present-day Romania, Sofia in 809 and Adrianople (modern Edirne) in 813, and threatening Constantinople itself. According to some late sources Khan Krum implemented law reform intending to reduce the poverty and to strengthen the social ties in his vastly enlarged state. During the reign of Khan Omurtag (814-831), the northwestern boundaries with the Frankish Empire were firmly settled along the middle Danube and magnificent palace, pagan temples, ruler’s residence, fortress, citadel, water-main and bath were built in Bulgarian capital Pliska, mainly of stone and brick. Under Boris I the Bulgarians became Christians, and the Ecumenical Patriarch agreed to allow an autonomous Bulgarian Archbishop at Pliska.

The Bulgars were greatly outnumbered by the Slav population among whom they had settled. Between the 7th and the 10th centuries, the Bulgars were gradually absorbed by the Slavs, adopting a South Slav language and converting to Christianity (of the Byzantine rite) under Boris I in 864. At that time the process of absorption of the remnants of the old Romanised Thracian population from south of the Danube had already been significant in the formation of this new ethnos. Modern Bulgarians are normally considerred to be of Southern Slavic origin, even though the Slavs were only one of the peoples that took part in the formation of their ethnicity.

The Bulgarians were classified as a Southern Slavic people related to the Serbs, rather than as a Turanian one. With the adoption of christianity the title khan changed to kniaz (Slavonic for prince). Later on, Simeon I (the son of Boris) adopted the title Tsar of Bulgaria, and ruler of the Bulgarian Empire (called by some historians the West Bulgarian Empire to distinguish it from the lands of the Turanian Bulgars who still lived in the Volga valley).

Cultural development

Missionaries from Constantinople, Cyril and Methodius, devised the Glagolitic alphabet, which was adopted in the Bulgarian Empire around 886. The alphabet and the Old Bulgarian language gave rise to a rich literary and cultural activity centered around the Preslav and Ohrid Literary Schools, established by order of Boris I in 886. In the beginning of 10th century AD, a new alphabet - the Cyrillic alphabet - was developed on the basis of Greek and Glagolitic cursive at the Preslav Literary School. According to an alternative theory, the alphabet was devised at the Ohrid Literary School by Saint Climent of Ohrid, a Bulgarian scholar and disciple of Cyril and Methodius. A pious monk and hermit St Ivan of Rila (Ivan Rilski, 876-946), became the patron saint of Bulgaria. After 893 Preslav became truly new and in many aspects authentic Bulgarian capital.

The "Golden Age"

By the late 9th and the beginning of the 10th century, Bulgaria extended to Epirus and Thessaly in the south, Bosnia in the west and controlled the whole of present-day Romania and eastern Hungary to the north. A Serbian state came into existence as a dependency of the Bulgarian Empire. Under Tsar Simeon I (Simeon the Great), who was educated in Constantinople, Bulgaria became again a serious threat to the Byzantine Empire. Simeon hoped to take Constantinople and make himself Emperor of both Bulgarians and Greeks, and fought a series of wars with the Byzantines through his long reign (893-927). The war boundary towards the end of his rule reached Peloponnese in the south. Simeon proclaimed himself "Tsar (Caesar) of the Bulgarians and the Greeks," a title which was recognised by the Pope, but not of course by the Byzantine Emperor.

Decline

After Simeon's death, however, Bulgarian power declined. Under Peter I and Boris II the country was divided by the egalitarian religious heresy of the Bogomils, and distracted by wars with the Hungarians to the north and the breakaway state of Serbia to the west. In 972 Emperor John Tsimisces was able to make eastern Bulgaria a Byzantine protectorate. The Bulgarians maintained an independent state for a time in the western part of the country, but in 1014 Emperor Basil II defeated the armies of Tsar Samuil at the Balasita and massacred thousands, acquiring the title "Bulgar-slayer" (Voulgaroktonos). He ordered 14,000 Bulgarian prisoners blinded and sent back to their country. At the sight of his returning armies Samuil suffered a heart attack and died. By 1018 the country had been mostly subjugated by the Byzantines.