BULGARIANS OF THE BALKANS AND EASTERN EUROPE ACCORDING TO MUSLIM AUTHORS OF THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES
Abstract
It is known that during the Khazar period in the 7th to 10th centuries AD, the Bulgarians lived in three or four places in Europe: on the right bank of the Middle Volga, where Volga Bulgaria emerged; in the Lower Danube, in the territory of the First Bulgarian Kingdom; and in the steppes of the Don and Azov basins. This is what stumped many Muslim geographers. Among them are al-Mas‘udi and the anonymous author of “Hudud al-‘Alam”.
Scholars have long noticed that in his work “Muruj al-Zahab...” al-Mas‘udi confuses the Volga Bulgars with the Danube Bulgars. Let us add to this the Azov and Don Bulgarians mentioned by al-Masudi. Thus, at the very beginning of the 17th chapter of his work “Muruj al-Zahab...” al-Mas‘udi notes that the Volga “flows from the upper parts of the Turkic lands”. At the same time, al-Masudi emphasizes that “a branch flows from it in the direction of the country of the Bulgars” and flows into “Maitas (the Azov Sea)”. The Bulgars are also mentioned in al-Mas‘udi's account of the Rus' march to the Caspian Sea after 912 through the Volga-Don overland transfer.
As for the data of “Hudud al-Alam” on the Bulgarians, they are even more confusing and require a more detailed analysis. Thus, speaking about the population of the Middle Volga region, the anonymous author uses the well-known ethnonym B-rtas to refer to the inhabitants of the left bank, where the Bulgarians were known.
One of the most enigmatic ethnic groups mentioned in the “Hudud al-‘Alam” is the “Inner Bulgarians”. F. Westberg and M. J. Merpert tend to identify the “Inner Bulgarians” with the “Black Bulgarians” who lived in the Northern Azov region. J. Markwart once suggested that the “Inner Bulgarians” of Muslim authors were related to the Danube Bulgarians. V. F. Minorsky suggests that the division of Bulgarians into “Exterior” and “Inner” was probably introduced into the geographical literature by al-Balkhi (9th –10th centuries AD), who mentions “Exterior Bulgarians”. Moreover, al-Balkhi was the first to mention “Inner Bulgarians”. Al-Balkhi used the term “Inner Bulgarians” to refer to the Danube Bulgarians. According to V. F. Minorsky's observations, the term “Inner Bulgarians” could have been widely used by al-Istakhri (9th –10th centuries AD), but al-Istakhri does not have any records of “Exterior Bulgarians”. Such confusing and contradictory information, both from al-Istakhri and other Arabian authors, as well as from the anonymous author of “Hudud al-‘Alam”, led V. F. Minorsky to assume that the term “Inner Bulgarians” is clearly opposed to the term “Exterior Bulgarians.”
It is possible that al-Balkhi and al-Istakhri referred to the Danube Bulgarians as “Inner” because, according to their informants, they were the most western group among all Bulgarians. In other cases, however, the author of “Hudud al-Alam” refers to the Danube Bulgarians as V-n-n-d-r and the Volga Bulgarians as B-rtas. The method of exclusion allows us not to refer to the Danube and Volga Bulgarians as “Inner”. For example, the anonymous author of “Hudud al-Alam” calls those Bulgarians who live in in the steppes of the Don and Azov basins “Inner”, i. e. Western, Bulgarians.
Such contradictory reports of Muslim authors of the early Middle Ages about the Bulgarians are explained not only by their considerable dispersion, but also by the use of various sources in which individual groups of Bulgarians were known by different names. This forced Muslim geographers to make certain adjustments to the texts of their treatises.
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