Bulgarian Empire

History

• In 632 the Bulgars formed an independent state north of the Black sea that became known as Great Bulgaria under the leadership of Kubrat.
• Pressure from the Khazars led to the disintegration of Great Bulgaria in the second half of the 7th century.
• One of Kubrat's successors, Asparukh, migrated with some of the Bulgar tribes to the area around the Danube delta, and subsequently conquered Scythia Minor and Moesia Inferior from the Byzantine Empire, expanding his new kingdom further into the Balkan peninsula.
• A peace treaty with Byzantium in 681 and the establishment of a permanent Bulgarian capital at Pliska south of the Danube mark the beginning of the First Bulgarian Empire.
• The new state brought together Thracian remnants and Slavs under Bulgar rule, and a slow process of mutual assimilation began.
• Under the warrior Khan Krum (802–814) Bulgaria expanded north-west and south, occupying the lands between the middle Danube and Moldova rivers, all of present-day Romania, Sofia in 809 and Adrianople in 813, and threatening Constantinople itself.
• Krum implemented law reform intending to reduce poverty and strengthen social ties in his vastly enlarged state.
• Omurtag pursued policy of repression against Christians.
• Under Boris I, Bulgarians became Christians, and the Ecumenical Patriarch agreed to allow an autonomous Bulgarian Archbishop at Pliska.
• Missionaries from Constantinople, Cyril and Methodius, devised the Glagolitic alphabet, which was adopted in the Bulgarian Empire around 886.
• Under Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria (Simeon the Great), who was educated in Constantinople, his aggressive policy was aimed at displacing Byzantium as major partner of the nomadic polities in the area.
• Simeon hoped to take Constantinople and become emperor of both Bulgarians and Greeks, and fought a series of wars with the Byzantines through his long reign (893–927)
• Simeon proclaimed himself "Tsar (Caesar) of the Bulgarians and the Romans", a title which was recognized by the Pope, but not by the Byzantine Emperor.
• The new independent Bulgarian Orthodox Church became the first new patriarchate besides the Pentarchy.
• After Simeon's death, Bulgaria was weakened by external and internal wars with Croatians, Magyars, Pechenegs and Serbs and the spread of the Bogomil heresy.

Slavic Paganism

The Slavs believed in a single heavenly God begetting all the lesser spirits governing nature, and worshipped it by their means. They believed that from this God proceeded a cosmic duality, represented by Belobog ("White God") and Chernobog ("Black God", also named Tiarnoglofi, "Black Head/Mind"), representing the root of all the heavenly-masculine and the earthly-feminine deities, or the waxing light and waning light gods, respectively. The Slavs perceived the world as enlivened by a variety of spirits, which they represented as persons and worshipped. These spirits included those of waters (mavka and rusalka), forests (lisovyk), fields (polyovyk), those of households (domovoy), those of illnesses, luck and human ancestors. The Slavs also worshipped star-gods, including the moon (Russian: Mesyats) and the sun (Solntse), the former regarded as male and the latter as female. The moon-god was particularly important, regarded as the dispenser of abundance and health, worshipped through round dances, and in some traditions considered the progenitor of mankind.
The cosmology of ancient Slavic religion, which is preserved in contemporary Slavic folk religion, is visualized as a three-tiered vertical structure, or "world tree", as common in other Indo-European religions. At the top there is the heavenly plane, symbolized by birds, the sun and the moon; the middle plane is that of earthly humanity, symbolized by bees and men; at the bottom of the structure there is the netherworld, symbolized by snakes and beavers, and by the chthonic god Veles.

Tengrism

Tengrism is an animistic all-encompassing system of belief that includes medicine, religion, a reverence of nature, and ancestor worship. Tengrism is an ancient religion originating in Central Asia and the Eurasian steppes, based on animism and shamanism and generally centered around the titular sky god Tengri. Tengrism is centered on the worship of the tngri (gods) and the sky deity Tengri (Heaven, God of Heaven,). This is similar to Taoism and Tengri is often linked to the Chinese Tian. Kök Tengri (Blue Sky) is the sky deity and often considered as the highest god, father of gods, similar to Zeus or Susanoo.
The highest group in the pantheon consisted of 99 tngri (55 of them benevolent or "white" and 44 terrifying or "black"), 77 "earth-demons", besides others. The tngri were called upon only by leaders and great shamans and were common to all the clans. After these, three groups of ancestral spirits dominated. The "Lord-Spirits" were the souls of clan leaders to whom any member of a clan could appeal for physical or spiritual help. The "Protector-Spirits" included the souls of great shamans and shamanesses. The "Guardian-Spirits" were made up of the souls of smaller shamans and shamanesses and were associated with a specific locality (including mountains, rivers, etc.) in the clan's territory.
As in most ancient beliefs, there is a "celestial world", the ground and an "underworld" in Tengrism.[90] The only connection between these realms is the "Tree of Worlds" that is in the center of the worlds. The celestial and the subterranean world are divided into seven layers (the underworld sometimes nine layers and the celestial world 17 layers). Shamans can recognize entries to travel into these realms. In the multiples of these realms, there are beings, living just like humans on the earth. They also have their own respected souls and shamans and nature spirits. Sometimes these beings visit the earth, but are invisible to people. They manifest themselves only in a strange sizzling fire or a bark to the shaman. It is believed that people and animals have many souls. Generally, each person is considered to have three souls, but the names, characteristics and numbers of the souls may be different among some of the tribes.

Eastern Orthodox Christianity

The barbarian raids and incursions in the 4th and the 5th centuries, and the settlement of Slavs and Bulgars in the 6th and the 7th centuries, wrought considerable damage to the ecclesiastical organisation of the Christian Church in the Bulgarian lands, yet did not destroy it. Kubrat and Organa were both baptized together in Constantinople and Christianity started to pave its way from the surviving Christian communities to the surrounding Bulgar-Slavic mass. By the middle of the 9th century, the majority of the Bulgarian Slavs, especially those living in Thrace and Macedonia, were Christianized. The process of conversion also enjoyed some success among the Bulgar nobility. It was not until the official adoption of Christianity by Khan Boris I in 865 that an independent Bulgarian ecclesiastical entity was established.
Boris I believed that cultural advancement and the sovereignty and prestige of a Christian Bulgaria could be achieved through an enlightened clergy governed by an autocephalous church. To this end, he manoeuvred between the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Roman Pope for a period of five years until in 870 AD, the Fourth Council of Constantinople granted the Bulgarians an autonomous Bulgarian archbishopric. The archbishopric had its seat in the Bulgarian capital of Pliska, and its diocese covered the whole territory of the Bulgarian state. The tug-of-war between Rome and Constantinople was resolved by putting the Bulgarian archbishopric under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Orthodox Church, from whom it obtained its first primate, its clergy, and theological books.
Following Bulgaria's two decisive victories over the Byzantines at Acheloos (near the present-day city of Pomorie) and Katasyrtai (near Constantinople), the government declared the autonomous Bulgarian Archbishopric as autocephalous and elevated it to the rank of Patriarchate at an ecclesiastical and national council held in 919. After Bulgaria and the Byzantine Empire signed a peace treaty in 927 that concluded the 20-year-long war between them, the Patriarchate of Constantinople recognised the autocephalous status of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and acknowledged its patriarchal dignity.

Military Organization

The medieval Bulgarian army was the primary military body of the First and the Second Bulgarian Empires, and some Puppet states of the former, like the Despotate of Dobruja. During the first decades after the foundation of the country, the army consisted of a Bulgar cavalry and a Slavic infantry. The core of the Bulgarian army was the heavy cavalry, which consisted of ca. 12,000 heavily armed riders. At its height in the 9th and 10th centuries, it was one of the most formidable military forces in Europe and was feared by its enemies. There are several documented cases of Byzantine commanders abandoning an invasion because of a reluctance to confront the Bulgarian army on its home territory.
Traditionally, the army's commander-in-chief was the ruler. The second in the chain of command was the kavkhan who led the army during the Emperor's absence. The third most important title in the hierarchy was the ichirgu-boil who commanded the garrison of the capital. In the field, the army was divided into three parts: center, right flank and left flank. The center was commanded by the ruler, the left flank by the kavkhan and the right flank by the ichirgu-boil. Other higher military ranks included the tarkhan which was equal to the Byzantine strategos according to Steven Runciman, and the higher officers were called bagain. All higher military ranks were part of the Bulgarian nobility called bolyars.

9th - 10th Century First Bulgarian Empire Society/Facts

Capital:

• Pliska (681–893)
• Preslav (893–972)

Area:

• 895 - 440,000 km2 (170,000 sq mi)
• 927 - 325,000 km2 (125,000 sq mi)

Common Languages:

• Bulgar
• Common Slavic
• Common Romanian
• Byzantine Greek (681–893)
• Old Church Slavonic (893–1018)

Religion:

• Tengrism
• Slavic paganism (681–864)
• Bulgarian Orthodox (864–1018)

Head(s) of State

• Krum 803–814 - Famous for the Battle of Pliska, in which the Byzantine emperor Nikephoros I perished. Krum is also famous for introducing the first written laws into Bulgaria. Died a natural death (very likely from a stroke) on 13 April 814.
• Omurtag 814–831 - Known for his construction policy, administrative reform and the persecution of Christians.
• Malamir 831–836 - Third and youngest son of Omurtag.
• Presian I 836–852 - Almost the whole of Macedonia was incorporated into Bulgaria.
• Boris-Michael I 852–889 - Christianization of Bulgaria; adoption of Old Bulgarian as the official language of the State and the Church; recognition of an autocephalous Bulgarian Church. Abdicated in 883, died on 2 May 902, aged around 80. Proclaimed a Saint.
• Vladimir 889–893 - Eldest son of Boris I. Tried to restore Tengriism. Deposed and blinded by his father in 893.
• Simeon I 893–927 - Third son of Boris I, raised to become a cleric but enthroned during the Council of Preslav. Bulgaria reached its apogee and greatest territorial extent. Golden age of Bulgarian culture. Died of a heart attack on 27 May 927, aged 63.
• Petar I 927–969 - Second son of Simeon I. His 42-year rule was the longest in Bulgarian history. Abdicated in 969 and became a monk. Died on 30 January 970. Proclaimed a Saint.

Type

Geopolitical, Empire

Related Historical Events

• 927 CE
  The Downfall of the Lekapenoi Pt. 1
• 918 CE
  Chaos East and West
• 917 CE
  Battle of Achelous

Religious Leaders

• Archbishop/Patriarch of Bulgaria
• Archbishop Joseph: 870–c. 877
• Archbishop George: c. 877–c. 893
• Archbishop Gregory Presbyter / John the Exarch: c. 893–s. 917
• Archbishop Leontius: c. 917–c. 918/919
• Patriarch (uncanonical; not recognized by Patriarch of Constantinople) Leontius: c. 918/919–927
• Patriarch canonical; recognized by Patriarch of Constantinople Demetrius: c. 927–c. 930
• Patriarch Sergius: c. 931–c. 940
• Patriarch Gregory: c. 940–c. 944
• Patriarch Damian: c. 944–c. 972

Nobles

• Theodore Sigritsa d. 924 - was a Bulgarian military commander and noble, kavkhan (first minister) of Emperor Simeon I
• Marmais d. 924 - Bulgarian military commander, nobleman and komita (duke) of a western Bulgarian region (Sredets or Macedonia) during the reign of Emperor Simeon I

Aggressive War

Roman Empire

-40

Bulgarian Empire

-80