A Bulgar by Any Other Name...

Mavi Boncuk |

Bulgar Ethnonym
Ethnonyms

Bulgars, Bolgars, Bulghars, Bulkhars, Bolghars Bushki, Bulhi, Ba-go, Bao- guo, Pu-ku, Bu-gu, and other variations

Subdivisions and ethnic affiliates

Barsils, Barsilts, Bersulas, Esegels, Belendzhers, Bandzhars, Balandzhars, Hajlandurs, Hajlandurkh, Khazars, Kupi-Bulgars, Chdar-Bulgars, Kutigurs, Kutrigurs, Oghondor, Olhontor-Blkar, Onogurs, Pugurs, Unoguns, Unogundurs, Venenders, Sabirs, Suvars, and other variations

There are plenty of derogatory speculations about the etymology of the name "Bulgar", semantically profoundly of the exo-ethnonymic nature, because of their inherent negative connotations not applicable to the endoethnonyms. Not unlike the extraction of "Slav" as an endoethnonym from the English, Italian, German etc. "Slave", these etymologies sound something like this: "Term 'Bolgar' comes from the Türkic 'bulgha' = 'to mix'. These nomadic horsemen groups were mainly composed of As - Ossetians, Eastern Antes - Iranian-Slavic blend, Khazars - a mixed Türkic group, and a people known as Sarmatians, an Iranian group."

In modern Chinese the Bulgars are known as 'ba-go' or 'bao- guo', and B. Simeonov concludes that the in Chinese the ancient word 'bulgar' should sound as 'pu-ku' or 'bu-gu'. This tribal or a tribal group name is repeatedly mentioned in different Chinese sources from 103 BC to the 8-th century AD. They speak about people or tribe pu-ku/bu-gu inhabiting the western and eastern parts of the Central Asia, the lands to the north and north-west of Tien-Shan, the Jety-Su (in Russ. Semirechye) and west of the rivers Seyhun (also Jaxartes, Syrdarya) and and Cheyhun (also Oxus, Amudarya).

The Chinese annals indicate that the structure of the Bulkhar administrative hierarchy moved from the Central Asian area to the Northern Caucasus area. The title Sulifa for the tribal lord of the Central Asian Puku - Sofu people, recorded in the Chinese annals as Sulifa Kenan Bain (Sulifa Khan Bayan?), later in the 10-th century per Al-Masoudi the title Sulifa (Sulifan) was used among the Dagestani Bulgars by the Khazarian vassal, the head of the main city of Djidjan Kingdom (Kingdom of the Huns) Semender,

A corroborating evidence comes from the comparison of the burial traditions. In several necropolises in the Bishkek valley in Southern Tajikistan, in the basin of the river Kafir-nigan, a right tributary of Cheyhun, most of the graves show striking similarities with necropolises from the Lower Itil. The necropolises in Central Asia (Northern Bactria) have much in common with the succeeding Lower Itil and Danube Bulgaria necropolises . The necropolises in Northern Bactria are well dated, in the Bishkek valley they existed from the end of the 2 c. BC till the beginning of the 1 c. AD, the Babashnov necropolis existed from the 1 c. BC till the 3 c. AD. The necropolises are attributed to the northern or north-eastern Central Asian nomads, who at the end of the 2 c. BC attacked and ended the existence of the Greko-Bactrian kingdom. The events of that time span in the Bactria area can explain the pressure for the Türkic nomadic Bulkhar pastoralists to move. After the fall of the Greko-Bactrian kingdom, in the following period from the 2 c. BC to the 3 c. AD, Bactria experienced multiple wars and harassments connected with the Saka's onslaughts culminating in ca. 75 BC, the establishment of the Scythian Kushanid Empire ca. 10 AD, rout of the Eastern Hun Empire in ca. 118 AD, coming under the Persian Kushanshakh rule in ca. 350 AD and the onslaught of the Ak Huns (White Huns, Hephthalites) in ca. 410 AD. Chronologically, the documented appearance of the Türkic nomadic relatives, the Khazars and Bulgars, in the Northern Pontic, Northern Caspian and Northern Caucasus area agrees with the archeological evidence.

The Bactrian nomadic Türkic necropolises ceased to function during the 2-3 c. AD, exactly during the time when in the Lower Itil took place the profound transformations of the material culture and burial rites of the "Late Sarmatians". During the general unrest among the nomadic peoples, which followed the Chinese destruction of the Eastern Hun Empire, the population maintaining these necropolises moved westwards and settled in the lands north of the Caspian Sea. In the following centuries the Bulgars were part of the Hunnish confederation, until the death of Attila and the following revolt of the Germanic tribes brought the Bulgars into the head of the confederation.