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'Old Great Bulgaria' or 'Great Bulgaria' (Παλαιά Μεγάλη Βουλγαρία in Byzantine chronicles; alternative name: 'Onoguria'/'Onoghuria') was a Bulgar state founded by Kubrat, which existed in the 7th century north of the Caucasus mountains in the steppe between the Dniester and Lower Volga^[1].

Contents

Kubrat

Establishment

Disintegration and successor states

Etymology of Onoghuria

Other uses

References

External links

Kubrat

Main articles: Kubrat

Kubrat (also Kurt or Houvrat) was of the kingly Dulo clan^[2] and the rightful heir of the Bulgar throne. He spent his adolescence in the Byzantine Empire, where he was educated and baptised^[3], while his maternal uncle Organa was a regent over his tribe.
Around 628 Kubrat returned to his fatherland, took the leadership over his people most probably with the approval of the Avar khagan. He soon managed to overthrow Avar domination and also to secede from the Western Turkic Khaganate (which was entangled in dynastic wars).

Establishment

Between 630 and 635 Khan Kubrat managed to unite the two main Bulgar tribes of Kutrigur and Onogondur under a single rule, creating a powerful confederation which is referred to by the medieval authors as ''The Old Great Bulgaria''^[4] and also known as Onoghuria. Some scholars assume that it also included among its subjects the defeated Avars and stretched as far west as the Pannonian plain. It is presumed that his capital was the ancient city of Phanagoria on the Taman peninsula. Kubrat's grave was discovered in 1912 at Pereshchepina, Ukraine^[5].

Disintegration and successor states

The events that unfolded following Kubrat's death are described by the Byzantine Partiarch Nicephorus I ^[6]. In the times of Emperor Constantine IV, he narrates, Kubrat died and Batbayan, the eldest of his five sons, was left in charge of the state. Under strong Khazar pressure, Kubrat's other sons disregarded their father's advice to stay together in order to resist the enemies and soon departed, taking their own tribes.
Kotrag, the leader of the Kutrigurs (or Kotrags), left for Middle Volga, where he later established Volga Bulgaria at the Volga-Kama confluence, a state which was to become very prosperous. The Volga Bulgars or the Silver Bulgars as they were called at the time, converted voluntarily to Islam in the 9th century and managed to preserve their national identity well into the 13th century, by repelling the first Mongol attacks in 1223, thus becoming the only people to ever defeat Genghis Khan. However, they were eventually subdued, their main city Bolghar became a capital of the Golden Horde Khanate and the Bulgars mixed with the Tatars. The citizens of the modern Russian republics of Tatarstan and Chuvashia are considered to be descendants of those Bulgars.
Kuber with another part of the Kutrigurs seceded firstly in Pannonia, seemingly recognising the authority of the Avar Khaganate and later, after a unsuccessful attemp to take hold of the Khaganate, resettled in Macedonia. There he had settled in the region of Keremisia and made an unsuccessful attempt to capture the city of Thessaloniki. Later his state merged with Danubian Bulgaria (809).
Other Bulgars led by Altsek sought refuge from the Avars with the Lombards, near Ravenna, and later moved further south, finally settling northeast of Naples and eventually mixing with the Italians.
BatBayan's people, the so-called Black Bulgars, remained in their homeland and were soon subdued by the Khazars. Some believe that the present-day Balkars are the descendants of the BatBayan horde even though they call themselves Malkars (after the river Malka) and speak a Turkic language of the Kipchak type.
Asparuh, the successor to Kubrat, subsequently conquered Moesia and Dobrudja from the Byzantine Empire in 680 and formed the First Bulgarian Empire.

Etymology of Onoghuria

Variations of the name include:
''Onoghuria, Onoguri, Onoghuri, Onghur, Ongur, Onghuri, Onguri, Onghuria, Onguria, Onogundur, Unogundur, Unokundur, etc.''
There are numerous speculations about the origin of the Onogur name:

★ In modern language of the Caucasian Avars Onoghuria could mean "Everlasting", from ''uno'' - ever and ''guro'' - lasting.

★ Some derive it from the Turkic words ''On'' (ten) and ''Ghur'' (arrow) which in combination may mean "Ten Arrows", i.e. "A federation of ten tribes".

★ Another explanation states that because in Turkic languages the sound "z" turns to "r" when you go westwards and therefore the ethnonym of the Oguz/Oghuz Turks would sound as Ogur/Oghur in the west. Then ''Onogur'' would mean "ten clans of Oguz/Oghuz (Turks)". In support to this view is fact that the Bulgars are listed among the ten sons of Togarmah (the mythic ancestor of the Turks) in the Khazar Correspondence.

★ Others relate Onoghur to Unok-vndur, a Bulgar people mentioned in the early Armenian sources.

Other uses

According to some sources, seven Finno-Ugric speaking tribes, including the Magyars, joined three Khazar-Turkic speaking Kabar clans to form a confederation also known as "Ten Arrows" or Onoghur. The word "Hungary" probably derives from this name. ^[7][8]. Also the Romanian name for Magyar sounds even more similar to Onoghur - Ungur.

References

1. Theophanes,Op. cit., p. 356-357
2. Nominalia of the Bulgarian khans
3. John of Nikiû, ''Chronicle''
4. Patriarch Nikephoros I of Constantinople, ''Historia syntomos, breviarium''
5. Rasho Rashev, ''Die Protobulgaren im 5.-7. Jahrhundert'', Orbel, Sofia, 2005 (in Bulgarian, German summary)
6. Patriarch Nikephoros I of Constantinople, ''Historia syntomos, breviarium''
7. OSZK.
8. Hungary, Encyclopædia Britannica

External links

★ Old Great Bulgaria - facts and sources

★ BULGARS, Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium (1991), vol.1, p.338

★ Ivan Mikulčić, ''Towns and castles in medieval Macedonia'', Makedonska civilizacija, Skopje, 1996 (in Macedonian)

★ The Bulgarians, Minnesota State University