Средновековна България

KUBER'S BULGARIANS AND THEIR DESCENDANTS

Many Bulgarian mediaevalists show scientific interest in Kuber's Bulgarians and study various aspects of their presence in the “Lower Land of Ohrid”. A number of foreign scholars also explore Kuber's Bulgarians in their research. In most cases, the records of foreign authors are fragmentary and do not fully depict the role of these Bulgarians in the Balkans. Of course, this is also due to the scarcity of sources, but there are some authors who underestimate the importance of Kuber's Bulgarians, distort the historical facts or conceal them.

Theophanes the Confessor and Patriarch Nikephoros write that after the disintegration of Old Great Bulgaria under the Khazars’ pressure, the fourth son of Khan Kubrat (605 - 665) travelled with his army to Avar Pannonia. According to some researchers, the “Ozora-Igar” culture serves as evidence for the Kuber Bulgarians who came to the Avar Khaganate, but this question remains unsettled. One could identify Kuber as Kubrat’s fourth son because in one of the inscriptions on the Madara rock relief, Khan Tervel (701 - 722) mentions his “uncles in Thessaloniki” Kuber was appointed by the Avar Hagan as the leader of the “Sermisians” - descendants of the Byzantines, abducted during the invasion of the Avars in Byzantium in 617 or 618 and resettled in the Srem region. The Bulgarian Chief, together with his Bulgarians and the “Sermisians”, revolted against the Avar Hagan and after five or six victorious battles entered Byzantine territory, settling in the Keramisian Plain. The most common opinion is that the Keramisian field is the Prilep field or tripartite plain of Prilep, Bitola and Lerin (Pelagonia field). The fact that the Pelagonia plain was one of the main centers of the Bulgarian resistance against the Byzantine invaders under Tsar Samuel (997 - 1014) and his successors supports this thesis. There are other hypotheses about the location of the Keramissian Plain - the area west of Thessaloniki, the area of Bregalnitsa, etc. Subsequently, Kuber's political formation expanded the territory under its control to include a part of present-day Albania to the west and some areas east of Thessaloniki.

Kuber realized that he could not conquer Thessaloniki by force and decides to try with trickery. One of his closest dignitaries - the Bulgarian Mauros, pretended to flee from him in the city. The alleged fugitive was well received and honored - he received the title “hypatos” (“consul”) and a flag, he was put in charge of a separate military unit composed of former subordinates of Kuber. Mauros planned to set the city on fire on Easter night and conquer it amid the resulting chaos. The Byzantines suspected this plan, and a powerful fleet was sent to Thessaloniki to thwart the plans of Kuber and Mauros. Apparently there was not enough evidence against Mauros, as he was just removed from the city and sent away to somewhere in the “Thracian areas”. He was given the higher title of “patrician” and was put in charge of his subordinate population of “Sermisians” and Bulgarians. The following inscription is on one of the seals of the Bulgarian chieftain: “[Belongs to] the patrician Mauros, archon of the Sermisians and the Bulgarians”. Mauros’s people probably also settled in some parts of the Rhodopes. It is possible that the “Scythians”, whom Emperor Justinian II (685 - 695; 705 - 711) placed in the Strimon gorge, are also part of the subjugated population of the Bulgarian chieftain. Mauros schemed to endanger the life of the Byzantine emperor himself, but the former’s son betrayed him. He was sent into exile in one of the suburbs of Constantinople, but after a while he was released and continued his career as a high Byzantine dignitary with at least two Basileis - Justinian II and Philippikos Bardanes (711 - 713).

In 688 - 689 Justinian II undertook a large campaign against “Sclavinia and Bulgaria” in the region of Thessaloniki, i.e. against Kuber's Bulgarians and their Slavic allies. The aim of the military campaign was to break the stronghold of enemy tribes around the city. The Byzantine army repelled the Bulgarians. A large number of Slavs were captured and taken to Opsikion, in North western Asia Minor. They formed a “defense army” of 30,000 men, led by the prominent chieftain Nebul, to be used against the Arabs, but 20,000 Slavs crossed over to the Arab side. Although Justinian II ordered the slaughter of the other (10,000?) soldiers, along with the women and children, a large Slavic population remained living in the Opsikion theme. Until the 10th century, it had some autonomy and took part in the Byzantine campaigns against the Arab-conquered island of Crete.

After repelling the Bulgarians and capturing many Slavs, Justinian II made his way to Thessaloniki and triumphantly entered the city. It looked like the success of the basileus was complete, but upon the return of the Byzantine army, the Bulgarians ambushed it in a gorge. Many of the Byzantines were killed or wounded, and in the chaos of defeat, the emperor barely managed to escape.

In 705, Justinian II appealed to both Khan Tervel and Kuber's Bulgarians for military aid to return to the throne, but Kuber's Bulgarians had not forgotten his brutal attack on them and refused to support him. In one of the Madara inscriptions of Khan Tervel it is reported: “My uncles in Thessaloniki did not believe to the nose-cut emperor and went to Kisinia ...”.

Theophanes the Confessor and Patriarch Nikephoros write that in 715 the Byzantine emperor Anastasios II (713 - 715) was dethroned by Theodosius III (715 - 717) and sent to a monastery near Thessaloniki. An Arabic work by an anonymous historian states that Bidus (Theodosius III) exiled Bastas (Anastasios II) to the “land of the Borjans”. Apparently, the “land of the Borjans” was located in the region of Thessaloniki, where the deposed basileus was sent to a monastery. However, Anastasios II did not want to spend his life in a monk cassock and in 718 he turned to the Bulgarians for help to return to the throne. It is controversial which Bulgarians, the Danubian or Kuber’s, took part in the conspiracy. Theophanes writes that the former emperor went to Khan Tervel, who provided him an army and fifty kentenaria of gold, while Patriarch Nikephoros noted that Anastasios II set out from Thessaloniki and reached as far as Heraclea (nowadays Eregli in Turkey). Probably both Bulgarian political formations in the Balkans were involved in the endeavours of the ex-emperor. The connections between the “two Bulgarians” date back to the organization of Khan Tervel's campaign in 705. Subsequently, the Bulgarians refused to help Anastasios II and handed him over to basileus Leo III the Syrian (717 - 741), who ordered the execution of the rebel.

During the reign of Leo III the Syrian, the Byzantines undertook a new campaign against Kuber's Bulgarians, seemingly in response to their attack. The treasures from Vrap and Erseke serve as evidence that the Bulgarians were forced to seek refuge in the mountains of present-day Albania. The lack of historical sources for Kuber’s Bulgaria after 718 shows that the Byzantines dealt a severe blow to it and it probably ceased to exist as a unified political formation. Apart from the treasures from Vrap and Erseke, other archeological findings (belt decorations, amulets, murals, runic signs, etc.) may also be material evidence of the presence of Kuber's Bulgarians in the southwestern lands. Perhaps some of their representatives joined the Byzantine aristocracy.

The accession of the “Lower Land of Ohrid” to Danube Bulgaria happened in several stages. As early as 774, Khan Telerig (768 - 777) made an unsuccessful attempt to march on the “Sclavinia” Berzitia in the historical-geographical region of Macedonia. In 789 the Bulgarians defeated the Byzantine army in the valley of the Struma River, and in 808 the Bulgarian army launched a new successful military campaign in the same area. Probably as early as during the reign of Khan Krum (796 - 814), part of the Struma region was placed under Bulgarian control. The Bulgarian rulers Malamir (831 - 836) and Persian (836 - 852) undertook victorious campaigns to Thessaloniki and the Aegean. Under Khan Boris I - Michael (852 - 889) the historical-geographical region of Macedonia and a large part of present-day Albania were firmly within the borders of Bulgaria. The southwestern lands were part of the general military-administrative structure of the Bulgarian state, governed by Kotokiy, Dometa, Theodore, Taridin, Drister. These lands played an important role in the politics of Khan Boris I and Tsar Symeon the Great (893 - 927) for the Christianization and education of the “tough and rebellious Bulgarian tribe”.

During the reign of Symeon the Great, the Bulgarian border was as far as 22 km north of Thessaloniki. Thus, at the beginning of the 10th century, almost all lands inhabited by the descendants of Kuber's Bulgarians were under Bulgarian rule. Around 930, “Scythian Bulgarians” from the Struma river region joined the revolt of Michael, brother of Tsar Peter (927 - 969). The unexpected death of their leader disrupted their offense. The insurgents found refuge on Byzantine territory and settled around the town of Nikopol in southern Epirus. They maintained their ethnic identity for a long time.

The attacks on monasteries, the brutal raids, the preservation of the pagan faith among some of them portray the “Bulgarian Slavs” in the region of Thessaloniki in the 10th - 11th century as militant, disobedient and devoted to tradition, ready to rely on the power of their weapons. Among them there were probably descendants of Kuber's Bulgarians, mixed with the local Slavs. Over time, they integrated into the Byzantine society and only the names of some of them (Voila, Kardam, etc.) suggest their Proto-Bulgarian origin.

The analysis of the political structure of Kuber’s Bulgaria shows that it shares similarities with the state system of Danubian Bulgaria - a strong central government, surrounded by close dignitaries, a strong military organization, Slavic federations or allies. There are also differences: Kuber's political formation occupied a smaller territory and had more limited military resources. It did not benefit from the geographical location of Asparukh’s Bulgaria, which allowed for an influx of military forces from the lands north of the Danube. Nevertheless, it has an important place in the history of the Balkans in the late 7th and early 8th centuries.