Kubrat

Kubrat (Bulgarian: Кубрат) was probably born circa 605 AD and became a significant Bulgar ruler in 632 by uniting under single rule all the Bulgar tribes and defeating the Avars.

His name could be read as Chouvrt, possibly meaning "Uarian or Uar Father". In the Namelist of Bulgarian Rulers his name is given as Kurt.A later legend describes Kubrat as a descendant of Attila the Hun. Actually, his paternal line was of the house of Dulo, Dub or Duba and his maternal line of the Ermi clan. His signet ring found at his burial mound was inscribed "Chouvr(a)Tou patr(i)k(iou)" (the Old Bulgar form of his name has no 'a' present) indicating the status he had achieved in the Byzantine world.

Kubrat was endorsed by his uncle, Sibir khan, or khan Mokhodu, or Tukai khan (Bulgar: "born in the Year of the Horse") as the first king of the Onogurs around the time the western Turkic Khaganate collapsed. Under his and his son Bezmer's (also called Bayan) rule, Old Great Bulgaria grew to stretch from the Danube delta to the Volga river. In 619, he was sent as a hostage to Constantinople and was soon baptized. His maternal uncle Organa (also Organ or Ornag) acted as regent over his tribe, the Unogundur, until Kubrat was old enough to rule. Kubrat ruled in peace with the Byzantine Empire, a result of his knowing and respect for the 7th century Byzantine culture.

After Kubrat's death (some time between 641 and 668), Bezmer (also called Bezmes Bayan and Batbayan) inherited his rule, but soon other relatives led factions of the once great tribal union into secession. By comparing the Bulgarian legend of the Silver Stag with the respective Hungarian legend of the Wonderous Stag, we find the circumstances leading to that separation. Unlike the Bulgars, who were helped by an allegorical beautiful stag, apparently a people whom the early Magyars felt very closely associated with sought blood but failed because were not familiar with the waters of the area, even so, female hostage taking by these people occurred in the process and the events contributed to the establishment of Danube Bulgaria.

The first group which migrated, the one led by Kotrag, moved up the Volga and settled in the basin of Middle Volga and Kama, to later found the state of Volga Bulgaria. Then Ultzindur, or Balkor, led a rebel Kouber tribe into Pannonia, but subsequently his group broke away and moved south. Asparukh moved west of the river Buginto the region north of the Danube Delta, and eventually founded the state of Danubian Bulgaria, or modern Bulgaria. Emnetzur, who was based in Pannonia, sought refuge from the ensuing chaos for his Altsikurs (also called Alcek) and fled to Italy, into the kingdom of the Lombards.

External links

* Khan Kubrat
* Khan Kubrat and the Birth of Bulgaria