Old Great Bulgaria

Rouran epoch Göktürk epoch Uyghur epoch Kirghiz epoch

Rouran First Göktürk Tang rule Second Göktürk Uyghur Kirghiz Huns Western Göktürk Türgesh Karluk Khazar

Rouran 400–554
First Göktürk 552–630
Tang rule 630–682
Second Göktürk 682–744
Uyghur 744–840
Kirghiz 840–924
Huns 370–469
Western Göktürk 552–659
Türgesh 699–766
Karluk 766–800
Khazar 650–969

Before the Göktürks reached the west, a Bulgar tribal union had formed in the Kuban and the eastern Pontic steppe. By the early seventh century, some of its Oguric tribes were chafing under Avar rule. One Greek source calls them Onogundur-Bulgars.^[1] Their leader Kubrat was the nephew of Organas. According to John of Nikiu, who calls him chief of the Huns, Kubrat was baptized in Constantinople as a child and grew up in the imperial palace. The baptism is placed about 619. It bound him to the emperor Herakleios, who faced a Persian-Avar alliance.^[2] About 635 the adult Kubrat revolted and cast off the Avar overlordship. His independent polity, which Greek sources call Old Great Bulgaria, entered an alliance with Byzantium.^[3] Kubrat died in the 660s, though some place his death in 642. He had told his five sons never to separate their dwellings, so that their power would thrive.^[4] The union was only loosely held. Batbayan and Kotrag stayed in the Pontic steppe, where the expanding Khazar state absorbed them. A fourth brother went to Pannonia. A fifth settled near Ravenna as a subject of the Romans. Asparuch led his following to the Danube.^[5]

One account sets the union in a longer line. In it the Bulgars were a branch of the Kutrigurs. In the second half of the seventh century they formed a strong union in the north-west of the Caucasus.^[6] Under Khazar pressure the union soon divided. One part came under Khazar rule and became the Volga Bulgars. The other part went under Asparuch to Bessarabia and then to the Danube, where it became the Danube Bulgars.^[6] In the same account, the Khazar state was founded on the ruins of the Onogur-Bulgar state, which had held the North Caucasus.^[7]

Rulers

Kubrat—

References

^ Golden 1992, p. 244
^ Golden 1992, p. 244–245
^ a b c Golden 1992, p. 245
^ Nikephoros; Golden 1992, p. 245
^ Nikephoros; Golden 1992, p. 245–246
^ a b Ögel 1984, p. 239–240
^ Ögel 1984, p. 229, 234

Sources

Nikephoros

Literature

Peter B. Golden, An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples (1992)
Bahaeddin Ögel, İslâmiyetten Önce Türk Kültür Tarihi. Orta Asya Kaynak ve Buluntularına Göre (1984)