Download PDF | Armies of the Volga Bulgars & Khanate of Kazan_ 9th-16th Centuries-Osprey Publishing (2013).
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INTRODUCTION
From the 7th to the 8th centuries AD, a newly arrived nomadic people appeared in the Middle Volga region of what is now Russia from the south. The name of these Bulgar tribes was first recorded in Byzantine Greek sources. They came from the steppes immediately north of, and around, the Sea of Azov, and their material culture was closely linked to that of the Alans and Sarmatians who also inhabited this territory. However, the Bulgars, unlike those predecessors, belonged to the Turkic linguistic family, suggesting a powerful Turkic influence upon the peoples who had inhabited this region since the time of the Hunnic migrations during the 2nd to 5th centuries AD.
Under pressure from more recently arrived Khazars at the end of the 6th and beginning of the 7th century, the Bulgar tribes separated into two groups. The first moved south-west to the Danube and the Balkan territory of the modern state of Bulgaria, where they were gradually assimilated by the local Slavic population. They soon abandoned their own Turkic tongue to adopt a South Slavic language that evolved into modern Bulgarian; and after a relatively short time, these Balkan Bulgars also adopted the Orthodox Christian faith. Thus was created a substantial state (sometimes known as the First Bulgarian Empire) on the frontiers of the Byzantine Empire.!
Meanwhile, the second group of Bulgars migrated north, eventually reaching the basins of the Kama and upper Volga rivers, where forests and fertile valleys had been inhabited by Finno-Ugrian and Turkish tribes since at least the 4th century AD. This second group of Bulgar tribes soon created a ‘state’ (though that term is not really appropriate for the historical period and social conditions), which was itself under the distant suzerainty of the Khazars. It would remain so for some three centuries, until the Khazar Khanate collapsed in AD 965 after defeat by the Kievan Rus’ Prince Sveatoslav.”
Apart from the payment of tribute to the Khazar Khanate, the subordination of the Bulgars was not particularly harsh; they were largely left to conduct their affairs independently, as were most other subordinate peoples of the loosely organized but very extensive Khazar Khanate. This was the situation described in AD 922 by the Arab ambassador and Muslim missionary from Baghdad, Ahmad Ibn Fadlan Ibn al-Abbas Ibn Rashid Ibn Hammad (better known to an indebted posterity simply as Ibn-Fadlan), who visited the Volga Bulgars. His primary mission was to convert them to Islam, and to supervise the construction of their first mosque. However, he also kept some sort of journal, and after his return to the Abbasid capital he wrote about his journey to the lands of the J/tdbar (vassal ruler) Almish, Yiltawar of the Volga Bulgars. Initially Almish ruled over only one part of this people, but, in line with his efforts to unify them and perhaps even to win independence from the Khazars, he asked for recognition from the Abbasid Caliphate in return for embracing Islam. As part of this process he adopted the Muslim name of Ja‘far Ibn ‘Abdullah.
This initial conversion was somewhat superficial as far as the majority of his people were concerned, but nevertheless they and their descendants remain Muslim to this day. (The Volga Bulgar state would also endure until, having been defeated by Mongol and Russian armies, its survivors were assimilated into the post-Mongol Khanate of Kazan - which in many ways could be seen as a continuation of the Volga Bulgar state.)
Once it was unified, the now extensive Islamic khanate along the upper Volga began to play a vital role in long-distance trade between Western Europe, via Scandinavia, the early state of Kievan Rus’ (Russia), and the Islamic world to the south. This brought the Volga Bulgars considerable wealth and a variety of cultural connections, and resulted in their acquiring high-quality arms and armour. Most interestingly, this equipment was imported simultaneously from Western Europe, Central Asia to the east, and the Islamic world to the south (though there was also a significant amount of local production).
During the 10th century the Volga Bulgar Khanate developed an export-based economy that grew and flourished, resulting in the building of significant towns with fine public buildings. Surviving remains suggest that the most impressive of these were either religious, such as mosques, or had strong Islamic cultural associations, such as hamam public baths. Many of these new towns were also provided with impressive fortifications, mostly of earth and timber but sometimes with stone towers.
Despite a now well-entrenched Islamic identity, after 1100 some Volga Bulgars began to convert to Christianity. This shift in cultural focus (among some, but not all Bulgars) was reflected in certain military equipment, horse-furniture, and even military tactics - a downgrading of traditional Turkish horse-archery in favour of something akin to Western European cavalry close combat.
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