ÿþ<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=unicode"> <meta name="Author" content="Vassil Karloukovski"> <meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 5.0"> <meta name="ProgId" content="FrontPage.Editor.Document"> <title>Hudud al-'Alam - 45 - Commentary of V. Minorsky</title> </head> <body> <font face="Palatino Linotype"> <b><font size=+1>Hudud al-'Alam, The Regions of the World</font></b> <br><b>V. Minorsky</b> <br>&nbsp; </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><b>§ 45. The Inner Bulghr.</b> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">Marquart, <i>Streifzüge</i>, 503-6, 517-19; Westberg, <i>K analizu vosto . Isto </i>., in <i>Zhurnal Min. Nar. Prosv</i>., February 1908, pp. 387-9. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">The term undoubtedly belongs to Balkh+ for only the two geographers who remodelled his work mention the <i>Bulghr al-dkhil</i>. Is</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">t</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">., 226, writes: "the Rks trade with the Khazars, Rkm, and Great Bulghr (<i>Bulghar al-a'z</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">am</i>). They border from the north on the Rkm; their numbers are great and their might is reported to be such that they have imposed the <br>&nbsp; </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><img SRC="line_down.gif" height=18 width=596> <br>§ 45&nbsp;&nbsp; <i>The Inner Bulghar</i>&nbsp;&nbsp; 439 </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><i>kharj</i> on those of the Rkm and Inner Bulghr who live near to their country. The Inner Bulghr are Christians." I.H</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">., 286, gives a considerably different version: "the Great Bulghr border on the Rkm from the north; their numbers are great and their might is reported to be such that in the old days (<i>qad+man</i>) they imposed the <i>kharj </i>on those of the Rkm who lived near them. As regards the Inner Bulghr there are among them Christians and Muslims." To this I.H</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">. adds that in his time (<i>f+ waqtin hdh</i>) no trace (<i>baqiya</i>) was left of the Bulghr, Burt</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">s, and Khazar for the Rks having attacked them appropriated their lands. Those who escaped from the Rks lived scattered in the neighbouring places "in view of their attachment to their lands and in the hope that they would be able to enter a pact with the Rks and place themselves again under the latter's authority". <a href="#439 1.">[1]</a> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">These parallel passages reflect some vagueness and confusion in the original source. The term "Inner Bulghr" is evidently opposed to "Outer Bulghr" (<i>Bulghr al-khrija</i>) which name is given by Is</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">t</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">., 10, to "a small madina (town, or country) having few dependencies and known only as the trading centre of those [northern] countries"; cf. a more complete description of the Volga Bulghr in Is</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">t</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">., 225. <a href="#439 2.">[2]</a> The Inner Bulghrs were identified by Westberg, <i>l.c.</i>, with the Black Bulghrs mentioned both in Const. Porph., <i>De admin, imp.</i>, ch. 12 and 42, and in Russian chronicles (as raiders of the Crimean Chersonese). <a href="#439 3.">[3]</a> However, in the introductory part of his work, Is</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">t</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">., 7, describing the breadth of the earth and starting from the Ocean and Gog and Magog goes on as follows: "then [the line] skirts the farther side (z</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype"><i>ahr</i>) of the&nbsp;S</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">aqliba, crosses the land of the Inner Bulghr and&nbsp;S</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">aqliba and goes along the Rkm country and Syria." Marquart, <i>o.c.</i>, 517, interprets this passage in the sense that Inner Bulghr and&nbsp;S</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">aqliba both, as a sort of <i>hendiadyoin</i>, refer to the Danubian Bulghrs ("so weist das darauf hin, dass beide Namen bereits Wechselbegriffe geworden waren"). This interpretation <a href="#439 4.">[4]</a> is hardly correct and the impression of the <br>&nbsp; </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="439 1."><font size="2"></font></a><font size=-1><b>1.</b> I.H</font><font size="2" face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font size="2">., 281, places the devastation of Bulghr by the Rks in 358/968-9 referring undoubtedly to Sviatoslav's eastern raids. As Barthold has suggested in his <i>Mesto prikaspiyskikh oblastey v istorii musul. mira</i>, Baku 1925, p. 43, the date properly refers to I.H<font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font>.'s sojourn in&nbsp;T<font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font>abar+stan where he collected the information on Sviatoslav's raid of 965. </font> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="439 2."><font size="2"></font></a><font size=-1><b>2.</b> The difference between the <i>Inner</i> and <i>Great</i> Bulghar is not clear. The latter name according to I.H</font><font size="2" face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font size="2">.'s improved text refers to the Danube Bulghr. In older Greek sources the "<i>Old</i>, or <i>Great</i> Bulghr" refers to the seats of the Uturghur, to the east of the Maeotis, cf. Marquart, <i>Streifzüge</i>, 503. In the explanation of <i>Bulghr al-a'z<font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font>am</i> Marquart, <i>ibid</i>., 518, hesitates between the Volga and Danube. In Russian chronicles (1236) the "Great town of Bolgar" (<img SRC="439_1.jpg" height=17 width=263 align=ABSBOTTOM>) is the town on the Volga. Similarly the Hungarian Dominican monk Julian who, in search of the Hungarian kinsmen, travelled in A.D. 1234-6 beyond the Volga calls the country of the Volga Bulghars <i>Magna Bulgaria</i>, see G. Fejér, <i>Cod. diplom. Hungariae</i>, Budapest 1829, iv/i, p.54. </font> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="439 3."></a><font size=-1><b>3.</b> Marquart, <i> Streifzüge</i>, 503, places the Black Bulghars between the Dniepr and the Khazar lands, and further identifies them with the Kuturgur mentioned in Syriac and Byzantine sources.</font> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="439 4."></a><font size=-1><b>4.</b> Marquart refers to the <i>Tanb+h</i>, 141, where the Burghar are defined as a sort of Slavs. [Cf. p. 429, 1. 25.]</font> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><img SRC="line_down.gif" height=18 width=596> <br>440&nbsp;&nbsp; <i>Commentary</i>&nbsp;&nbsp; §§ 45-6 </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">text is that the Inner Bulghrs lived north of the [Western]&nbsp;S</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">aqliba, or in close contact with them, cf. the indications of the present paragraph. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">Our author tries to weld together the data found in Is</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">t</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">. and in his other source but the result of this operation cannot be trusted. The details on the&nbsp;S</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">aqliba as the western neighbours of the Inner Bulghrs and on the Russo-Bulghr wars hail evidently from Is</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">t</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">., 7 and 226. The Mirvt&nbsp; living to the east of our Bulghr along the Black Sea (cf. §§ 3, 6. and 46) reflect a wrong interpretation of the source which is better preserved in Gard+z+ (<i>v.s.</i>, § 22 on the basic error with regard to the Majghar+ territory). </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">To sum up: our chapter is worth only as much as is due to Is</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">t</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">. who himself knows very little about Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Westberg's theory is too specious and Marquart seems to be right in identifying the <i>Inner Bulghr</i> with the Danubian Bulghrs. Our author must have taken the different names found in his sources for four distinct peoples: <br>&nbsp; </font> <table BORDER CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=2 COLS=2 WIDTH="60%" > <tr> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype"><b>I.Kh.</b></font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">Burjn (§ 42, 16.)</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype"><b>I. Rusta&nbsp;</b></font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">Bulghar+ (§ 42, 18.)</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype"><b>Is</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">t</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">.&nbsp;</b></font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">Inner Bulghr (§ 45)</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">source common with Gard+z+</font></td> <td><font face="Palatino Linotype">V.n.nd.r (§ 53) (?)</font></td> </tr> </table> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">[<a href="hud_45.html">Previous</a>] [<a href="hud_46.html">Next</a>] <br>[<a href="index.html">Back to Index</a>] </font> </body> </html>