Great - City
A close study of the text of a medieval legend, cited as an example of political wisdom, has brought out some information about the Bulgarian public opinions after the long-lasting war with the Khazars. A considerable number of utensils made of precious metals (20 silver and 17 gold), arms inlaid with precious metal, a gold horn and a gold spoon - symbols of authority, 69 gold coins, a gold buckle weighing almost half a kilogram, gold rings, etc. According to the Ethiopian chronicler Joan Niciusky, just the news of Khan Kubrat backing up Martina and her children had risen in arms in their support the people and the army of Constantinople under a certain Jutalius, the son of Constantine. And why was his vault erected on the border itself It seems that Khan Kubrat has had time before he died to oblige his commanders bury him there, right on the borderline. Apparently, the Khazars broke away in the same manner and at the same time. As a matter of fact, if in 610 AD he was still a child, then in 651 AD the khan must have been a 55 or 60-year-old man in the prime of his life. As such, it had a strictly outlined territory, its own administration, uniform laws (probably based on the customary law observed by the Bulgarian tribes) and its own foreign policy. Based on some suppositions is the information about the capital of Old Great Bulgaria. Both of them were high-ranking officers in the administration and in the chain of command. Bulgarians was the only name used thereafter. Create a New User if you don't already have an account. Cyril and Methodius ChurchRestoration and Rise of the Bulgarian StateThe ThraciansRussiaBulgaria's Struggle for IndependenceViennaUkraineVolgaTurkicY'know, if you log in, you can write something here, or contact authors directly on the site. His deputy, effectively the second man in the administrative hierarchy, was the kavkhan. However, his being baptized as a Christian helped his troops be victorious. However, it was they who formed the territory the population of Bulgaria. However, the new reading of a sumptuous burial, advanced by the German academic Joachim Werner, shows that Kubrat had died hundreds of kilometers further up to the north, in the present-day steppes of Ukraine. However, the 'youngest' coins of emperor Constantine II of Byzantium were dated 647 AD. If they allowed a split or dissension in their community and in their actions, they will be destroyed one by one, causing Bulgaria to be swept away, too. If this were a defeat, the khan will not have been buried at all. In 1912 an exceptionally rich burial was discovered in the sand dunes of the Vorskla river near the Ukrainian village of Malaya Pereshchepina, 13 km away from the town of Poltava. In 635 AD these relations were impressed with a signature and a seal affixed to an inter-state agreement - an indirect act of recognition of the new state. In this way, he had turned his last resting place into a defender of Bulgaria, too. In time of war they were in charge of large army units. It goes that at his death bed Khan Kubrat bid his sons to break a bundle of vine twigs. It is no accident that about that time the individual names of all Bulgarian tribes were deleted from every page written by the ancient chroniclers. It is only logical to assume that he was leading his troops to beat off another consecutive raid of the Khazars but, this time the latter were taken unawares and defeated at the very borderline. It is regrettable that the ancient records contain very little in- formation about the domestic and international policies of Bulgaria in the reign of Khan Kubrat. It is viewed as a state both in the Bulgarian historical records of that time and in the annals of Byzantium. It is worth devoting some space to the end of this great Bulgarian leader and to his last resting place. It now appears that he did not meet his death as a decrepit and sick man. It was at the town of Phanagoria on the coast of the Azov Sea. It was once believed that this had happened in Phanagoria, the capital city of his realms. Judging by some events after Heraclius's death, we can say that Khan Kubrat's friendship with the emperor was of a purely human nature, too. Khan Kubrat died in a defensive battle, safeguarding Bulgaria. Khan Kubrat was honored with the title of a patrician. No sources bear any evidence of the Turks counteracting Kubrat's undertaking. Now, having long realized that the prospects to keep these territories intact were very slim, they also began to insist on conquering new lands blessed with natural defence lay, natural resources and better climate. Obviously, the khanate did not have any military capacity to make the break-away Bulgarian tribes come back to their state. Old Great Bulgaria was ruled by a khan who made the decisions after discussing them with the Council of the Great Boyls. Perhaps hundreds of villages, crops and herds had been plundered or set on fire before the Bulgarian troops can locate, overpower and eventually destroy the Khazar invaders. Raised and educated in Byzantium, baptized as a Christian and known as a personal friend of emperor Heraclius, the khan maintained peaceful neighborly relations with the empire up till the end of his rule. Running the risk of worsening relations with Byzantium, upon the death of the emperor in 642 AD, Khan Kubrat supported his widow Martina and their children to whom he had been strongly attached, in their battle for the emperor's throne. Seibt of the Byzantine Studies Institute in Vienna managed to puzzle out the monograms on the two gold signet rings as Kkubratu, and Khubratu Patrichiu. Some indirect sources of reference, as quoted above, indicate that the raids had been beaten off successfully, at least up till Kubrat's death. Some of the pots, an integral part of the Christian cults, indicated that the man buried was a Christian. The above facts alone lead to the conclusion that of all possible potentates who had ruled tribes or states in those times, Khan Kubrat was the one corresponding to the archeological findings concerning the burial near Malaya Pereshchepina. The Bulgarian lands were all plains offering no natural shelters, and thus being an easy pillaging target for the attacking Khazar cavalry. The burial itself attests the khazars' defeat and banishment. The Byzantine statesmen and chroniclers referred to it as Bulgaria or even Great Bulgaria. The conflict looked imminent and inevitable but its vicissitudes had regrettably never become known to us. The deceased was buried in a wooden coffin, set with 250 rectangular gold plates, 6.5x5.5 cm each. The enemy can not afford treading unpunished a Bulgarian grave because they cherished high the cult to their ancestors. The Ethiopian chronicle also sheds light on the fact that Khan Kubrat was already in conflict with some barbarian tribes along the border. The find obviously made its first researchers specify the burial as the last abode of not only a rich or high-born chieftain, but also the head of state of any one of the barbarian formations which had possessed those lands for any length of time. The German scholar's interpretation has also allowed to take a better look at the khan's last efforts as a statesman. The Khazar state, established on the northern Caspian Sea coast, proclaimed itself a successor to the Turkic khanate and, on these grounds, claimed all its former lands and tribes in the east. The moral was clear - as long as the Bulgarians and their political leaders are united, Bulgaria will be invincible. The newly founded state-like formation was evidently not a military-tribal alliance as there had been no such legal category in the antiquity, but it was a state. The place of the burial which was in the furthest northern point of the state, hundreds of kilometers away from its capital, puts in a totally different light the last days in the life of the great Bulgarian. The practice of combining administrative and military responsibilities was applied to all ranks down the hierarchy ladder, too. The rest of the neighboring peoples were rather loosely-knit to try their strength against the Bulgarians or to submit any claims to them. The specially made expensive coffin, the lavish burial gifts and the strict observance of the rites showed that the funeral had taken place in a peaceful atmosphere. The successful repulsion of the Khazar raids was at the cost of numerous victims and heavy losses for the economy. The utensils were of no great importance for determining the precise 'age' of the treasure since they had obviously been collected over a 200-year period. The war with the state of the Khazars was the second and last occasion on which the then chroniclers cared to record an event of the relations of the Bulgarian state with other states at the time of Khan Kubrat's rule. Then how did the Bulgarian ruler pass away? Then Kubrat, himself, took the vine shoots and broke them one by one with his old frail hands. There is something else that has also been causing bewilderment: why was not the khan's body taken back to the capital and buried there with the same honors? There was no further doubt that in 1912 the Russian archeologists had discovered the tomb of Khan Kubrat, the founder of Great Bulgaria. This gave clear proof that the burial had taken place after that date. This is the legend which has come down to us from Byzantine chroniclers. This, unfortunately, we do not know exactly, but in fact, it makes no difference whatsoever. Thus, even with his tomb Khan Kubrat put his successors under the obligation to defend the borders of Bulgaria into death. Virtually all Bulgarian tribes living in the region of the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov and the Caspian Sea immediately united under him. Wanting to give this lesson to his closest kin, Khan Kubrat must have had serious doubts and worries about some trends in the Bulgarian political statecraft engendered by the Khazar invasion. Was he taken to bed with a treacherous illness at the time of the combat march, or did he fall during the fight with a sword in his hand, or did he die of his wounds after the victorious battle?
