“The Great Migration of the Peoples" between 4th and 7th centuries brought to the Balkans, Slavs. They were first to disrupt the tranquillity of the Eastern Roman Empire of - Byzantium, whose capital city was Constantinople and solidified their presence as an important military and political force in the Balkan provinces of the Empire.
In the late decades of the seventh century a strong ally in their permanent fights against Byzantium appeared out of the North Eastern plains, the Proto Bulgarians, an ethnic community of Turkic origin. They came from the steppes of the Central Asia and originated from the Altaic linguistic and ethnic group, early located in south-western Siberia .
The Proto-Bulgarians soon became an important factor in the history of the Balkans. Kubrat, a shrewd and energetic ruler from the Proto Bulgarian clan Dulo, took the advantage to unify all Proto-Bulgarians in a powerful military and tribal union north of the Caucasus Mountains . |
After the death of Kubrat, the tribes, led by his several sons, moved in different directions, one group to the Volga river, another, west to the present day Italy, thirdly one - the western part of the Balkans .
The third son of Kubrat Asparouh, moved to the territory of the present day North-eastern Bulgaria, where his people encountered Slavs, who had already settled there. The common enemy, the Byzantine Empire made them unite in the struggle for survival. There anti Byzantine alliance yielded the First Bulgarian Kingdom . In alliance with the Slavs they formed the Bulgarian State, which was recognised by the Byzantine Empire in 681 AD.
Khan Asparouh
stood at the head of that state and Pliska was made its capital.
Under the rule of Khan Tervel /700-718 AD/, Bulgaria expanded its territory and turned into a major political force. |
Bulgaria is one of the oldest states in Europe and the first Slavic State formation. After periods of progress and destabilisation, the Bulgarian State reached its greatest success in fighting against Byzantium under Khan Kroum /803-814/. Then it encompassed many new lands populated by Slavs and Proto Bulgarians in its territory. Under Khan Kroum Bulgaria bordered with the empire of Carl the Great to the west, and to the east the Bulgarian troops reached the walls of Constantinople the capital of the Byzantine Empire. But Kroum left a bright trial in Bulgarian history with his actions as the country's first legislator. He created first written laws of the Bulgarian State. The new state of Slavs, Proto-Bulgarians and Thracians needed one common language and one religion to solidify the basement of the statehood. Stretched between the western enemies and the pressure from the Byzantine Empire, the Bulgarian state was pressed to make choice between the Catholicism and the Orthodox Christianity. In 870 AD, during the rule of Prince Boris I Michail /852-889 AD/, famous for his wisdom and talent of great statesmanship, the Eastern Orthodox Christianity was introduced as official state religion. This act abolished the ethnic differences between Proto-Bulgarians and Slavs, and started building a unified Bulgarian nation. After adopting Christianity, the influence of the Byzantine Empire grew. This is evidenced by the ossuary in the Bachkovo Monastery /1083 AD/ and Bulgarian church music was created. |
The evangelisation of the Bulgarian people is inseparable from the inception of the Slavonic script and literature, from the work of the first Slavonic teachers, the brothers Cyril /Constantine the Philosopher/ and Methodius, who in the second half of the 9th century created and disseminated the Cyrillic alphabet.
The disciples of the two brothers, Clement and Nahum
, created two main literary centres, one in Ohrid, present Macedonia, and another one in the Bulgarian capital Pliska.
They developed a rich educational and literary activity. These two centres not only provided books for divine services in the Bulgarian language but also contributed substantially to the intellectual, spiritual and cultural development of the First Bulgarian State . From Bulgaria the Cyrillic script spread to other Slavic lands as well, present-day Serbia and Russia. The cities of Ochrida and Pliska and subsequently the new capital city Veliki Preslav as well became centres of Bulgarian culture and of Slav culture as a whole.
The reign of the Boris's son, King Simeon I, “Simeon the Great” /893-927 AD/, marked the "Golden Age of Bulgarian Culture" and the territory of his state reached the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea.
This was a time of expansion of the Bulgarian kingdom's territory, after a number of successful military and diplomatic actions, development of the culture and flourishing of the statehood. |
