The Bulgars (also Bulghars, Bulgari, Bolgars, Bolghars, Bolgari; Proto-Bulgarians) were semi-nomadic warrior tribes of Turkic extraction who flourished in the Pontic-Caspian steppe and the Volga region during the 7th century. Emerging as nomadic equestrians in the Volga-Ural region, according to some researchers their roots can be traced to Central Asia. During their westward migration across the Eurasian steppe the Bulgars absorbed other ethnic groups and cultural influences, including Hunnic, Iranian and Indo-European. Modern genetic research on Central Asian Turkic people and ethnic groups related to the Bulgars points to an affiliation with western Eurasian and European populations. The Bulgars spoke a Turkic language, i.e. Bulgar language of Oghuric branch. They preserved military titles, organization and customs of Eurasian steppes, as well as pagan shamanism and belief in the sky deity Tangra. The Bulgars became semi-sedentary during the 7th century in the Pontic-Caspian steppe, establishing the polity of Old Great Bulgaria c. 635, which was absorbed by the Khazar Empire in 668. In c. 679 Khan Asparukh conquered Scythia Minor, opening access to Moesia, and established the First Bulgarian Empire, which was Slavicized, thus forming modern Bulgarians. The remaining Pontic Bulgars migrated in the 7th century to the Volga River, where they founded the Volga Bulgaria; they preserved their identity well into the 13th century. The Volga Tatars and Chuvash people claim to be originated from the Volga Bulgars. The etymology of the ethnonym Bulgar is not completely understood and difficult to trace back earlier than the 4th century AD. It is generally believed to derive from the Turkic bulğha (to stir, mix, disturb, confuse). From the time of Wilhelm Tomaschek (1873), it was considered Common Turkic bulga- or bulya (to mix, to become mixed) and consonant suffix -r (mixed). Talat Tekin interpreted bulgar to mean "mixing" rather than "mixed". Both Gyula Németh and Peter Benjamin Golden initially advocated the "mixed race" theory, but later, like Paul Pelliot, considered that "to incite", "rebel", or "to produce a state of disorder", i.e. the "disturbers", would be a suitable name for the nomads. Among the many other theories, D. Detschev supported a Germanic interpretation meaning combative people, attributed by the Gepids and Ostrogoths to the descendants of the European Huns, and G. A. Keramopulos associated the burgi with the Roman limes. Theorists also speculated that the ethnonym is related to the city name of Balkh in Bactria, and the river Volga (yiylga, "moisture"), while Zeki Velidi Togan considered the unattested form bel-gur or bil-gur to be from balağur (five Oğhur). Németh identified, through oğur, an etymological association between the Kutrigurs (Kuturgur Quturğur *Toqur(o)ğur toqur; "nine" in Proto-Bulgaric; toquz in Common Turkic) and Utigurs (Uturgur Uturğur utur/otur; "thirty" in Proto-Bulgaric; otuz in Common Turkic) as Oğuric tribes, with the ethnonym Bulgar as their spreading adjective. Karatay interpreted gur/gor as "country", and noted the Tekin derivation of gur from the Altaic suffix -gir, which is related to the word yir, meaning "earth, place". Generally, modern scholars consider the tribal terms oğuz or oğur to be derived from Turkic *og/uq, meaning "kinship or being akin to". The terms initially were not the same, as oq/ogsiz meant "arrow", while oğul meant "offspring, child, son", oğuš/uğuš was "tribe, clan", and the verb oğša-/oqša meant "to be like, resemble". Karatay considered the Kutrigurs and Utigurs to be two related, ancestral people, and prominent tribes later in the Bulgaric union, but different from the Bulgars. Golden considered the origin of the Kutrigurs and Utigurs obscure and their relationship to the Onoğurs and Bulgars who lived in the same region, or in its vicinity, as unclear. He noted the assumption of the two tribes being related to the Šarağurs (Oğhur. šara, "White Oğhurs"), and that according to Procopius they were two Hunnic tribal unions of Cimmerians descent. The reason later Byzantine sources frequently linked the names Onoğurs and Bulgars is also unclear.

• published: 11 Sep 2015
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