BULGARIA, EASTERN

This article appears in Volume V04, Page 786 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: BRI-BUN

BULGARIA, EASTERN , formerly a powerful kingdom which existed from the 5th to the 15th century on the middle

Volga

VOLGA (known to the
Tatars
- TATARS (the common form Tartars is less correct)
as Etil, Jill or Atel; to the Finnish tribes as Rau, and to the ancients as Rha and Oarus)

, in the present territory of the provinces of Samara, Simbirsk, Saratov and N. Astrakhan, perhaps extending also into Perm. The

village

VILLAGE

Bolgari near Kanzan, surrounded by numerous

graves

GRAVES, ALFRED PERCEVAL (1846— )

in which most interesting archaeological finds have been made, occupies the site of one of the citiesperhaps the capitalof that extinct kingdom. The history, Tarikh Bulgar, said to have been written in the 12th century by an Arabian

cadi

CADI (g¢di)

of the city Bolgari, has not yet been discovered; but the Arabian historians, Ibn Foslan, Ibn Haukal, Abul Hamid Andalusi, Abu Abdallah Harnati, and several others, who had visited the kingdom, beginning with the loth century, have' left descriptions of it. The Bulgars of the

Volga

VOLGA (known to the
Tatars
- TATARS (the common form Tartars is less correct)
as Etil, Jill or Atel; to the Finnish tribes as Rau, and to the ancients as Rha and Oarus)

were of Turkish origin, but may have assimilated Finnish and, later, Slavonian elements. In the 5th century they attacked the Russians in the Black Sea prairies, and afterwards made raids upon the Greeks. In 922, when they were converted to Islam, Ibn Foslan found them not quite nomadic, and already having some permanent settlements and houses in

wood

. Stone houses were built soon after that by Arabian architects. Ibn Dasta found amongst them agriculture besides cattle breeding. Trade with Persia and India, as also with the Khazars and the Russians, and undoubtedly with Biarmia (Urals), was, however, their

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

occupation, their main riches being furs, leather, wool, nuts, wax and so on. After their conversion to Islam they began building forts, several of which are mentioned in Russian annals. Their

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

town, Bolgari or Velikij Gorod (

Great

GREAT

Town) of the Russian annals, was often raided by the Russians. In the 13th century it was conquerg1 by the Mongols, and became for a time the seat of the khans: :>f.. the Golden

Horde

HORDE

. In the second half of the 15th century Bolgari became part of the Kazan kingdom, lost its commercial and political importance, and was annexed to Russia after the fall of Kazan. (P. A. K.)

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