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Bulgarian conquered Philipi

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Kan Presian confirmed reaching the Aegean Sea to the south. In 837, the Bulgarian ruler conquered Philipi, which lay above the sea. Simeon the Great (893 927) maintained deliberately the actions in the southeast Black Sea direction. Right after his enthronement, in 894, during the First War against Byzantium, he took the Black Sea towns to the south of the Balkan Range. In 904, the border with the

Byzantines was marked by the Black Sea fortress port of Midia (the ancient Salmidesos) on the south slopes of Mount Strandzha, which was then taken by the Bulgarian Tsar. In fact, it is worth mentioning that it was the last strong fortress and the last safe port for ships along the whole Black Sea coastal line to the south all the 1 way to the Bosporus.

However, to the south    west, Simeon carried out a focused policy me of dominating important ports, starting in 896 and continuing for a number of years. He captured over 30 towns and forts on the Adriatic coast. Thus, Bulgaria obtained a new sea opening to the west on the Adriatic. In 904, Simeon could not take Salonika (Thessaloniki). The border with Byzantium was only 20 kilometers to the north of the town.

According to experts on ships and shipbuilding, the Bulgarians built special transport and military vessels with oars and sails, which were capable of sailing in both rivers and seas. They did not run very deep but had good seaworthiness. The ships were reinforced with boards. This fact indicates that the Bulgarian masters were very familiar with the method of shipbuilding by making a skeleton and covering it with boards, typical of the epoch.

Yoan Exarch Bulgarian

The great translator and writer of the 10th century, Yoan Exarch Bulgarian, describes the Bulgarians` knowledge and skills in shipbuilding excellently in his Hexaemeron:

“The sea unites all that is distant, which sails in it; it comes and even if it is not so close it takes it away in the distance. For those who have nothing, it makes it possible for everything to be common. What is grown in foreign lands, be it wheat or fruits, or gold, or silver, or clothes, or something else, it can, by navigating, take it to the ones in need…

Without wood [it is out of the question], we bake bread, boil cereals and make ships of it; with them we sail the rivers and the great sea space. We buy what we need and we give it to those who need it at a flat price.”

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Bulgarians first contact Balkan

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The Bulgarians` first contact with the Balkan Peninsula is dated to the end of the fifth and the beginning of the 6th centuries. They settled gradually in the regions of the former Roman provinces of Moesia, Dacia and Macedonia. The territories had suffered invasions of the Barbarians in the 3rd—5th centuries but the Bulgarians revived them, bringing economic, political and cultural prosperity. The following expressive statement refers to such a prospering country:

“They say that the land of Alexandaros Ogal Sosmanoz [Tsar Yoan Shishman (1371—1395)], son of Alexandar [Tsar Yoan Alexandar (1331—1371)], is on the bank of the river Tuna [Danube] and belongs to the region of Edirne [Odrin]…

It [the land of the Bulgarians] was a very fertile region. It exported honey, butter and sheep across the world. In general, there were all kinds of goods in it, more than in other regions.”

From Book of Description of the World by Mehmed Neshri. Translated by I. Tataria. Kitab-i Gihannuma, Mehmed Nesri, Ankara, 1949.

Medieval Bulgarian state

The medieval Bulgarian state in Southeastern Europe occupied the lands to the south of the Balkan Mountains in the direction of Constantinople. The dream of conquering the Byzantine metropolis was alive until the death of Tsar Simeon the Great (893 927). The policy of inhabiting the lands in the south-southwest turned out however to be more productive.

The territories south of the Rhodope Mountains to the Aegean Sea and in the west to Morava River, present day Macedonia and parts of Northern Thessaly, Albania, Kosovo were joined at the time of Kan Presian (836 852). These regions and the whole of Moesia and Thrace formed the historical ethnic cultural space of the Bulgarians in Southeastern Europe in the middle Ages.

Most European states

The territories of most European states, including Bulgaria, took shape in the early Middle Age Period. Only the lands of modem Italy and Germany are an exception; they became state territories in the second half of the 19th century.

In most cases, the causes of wars were the defense of territories already possessed, rather than the taking control of new ones with a foreign population. Medieval Bulgarians lived under the impression of occupying vast territories, which they usually referred to as “Upper Land” (Moesia with the lower flows of the rivers Timok and Bulgarian Morava, as well as the plains up to the Carpathian Mountains) and “Lower Land” (Thrace, the Aegean coast and present-day Macedonia). In the period 7- 14th centuries, the Bulgarians who were the most numerous people in the Balkan Peninsula, settled permanently in their ethnic lands.

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Bulgarian Kans

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The horoscope group is complete in its ancient Iranian religious characteristics and Bulgarian foundations. The symbol of the Sun is realized in the equestrian; the lion denotes the Regales star; the dog stands for the Moon.

The date, which has been pointed out by computer analysis as the event of the horoscope logic and composition of Madera Relief, is 24 August 165 AD and the time is 1 to 6 pm. In other words, the rock monument encodes the sacred initiation of the statehood as high virtue, marking the same year, as does the Name-List of Bulgarian Kans.

Nevertheless, the pre-Christian epoch left fewer traces in Bulgarian civilization. Not I only because of their natural or deliberate deletion, but also because of the relatively limited repertoire of themes and subjects.

It is not by chance that the so-called “Golden § Age” of Bulgarian spirituality developed in I that period. It is the time of Christianization I in the middle of the 9th century until the end I of the rule of Tsar Petar in the 60s of the 10th century. What was created astonishes with its scope and genre diversity. In the 10th century, the educated Bulgarian knew, by means of translations from Greek, the most important works of Antiquity.

Occupation by Byzantium

In the works less abundant in themes and volume, after the occupation by Byzantium, the memories of the former independence predominate. Immediately after the reconstruction of the state at the end of the 12th century, the traditions of translated literature and authors` compositions were revived. The self-awareness of belonging to the world of Orthodoxy and the self-confidence of its preservation in fast changing circumstances of the 13th-! – » centuries was the background to many lite; fray works of the so-called prophetic cycle the foretelling of the “end of the world”

I was dictated by the troubled time and the intuitively perceived approach of the end of the Balkan Christian states. In the numerous prophesies of Daniel, Isaiah, Sibil, Pandeh and others, the Bulgarians were pointed out as a people, who had defended and kept the truths of Christianity and who had not had to compromise as the Byzantines had.

The data on the law enforcing practices of the early state structures contain valuable information about the public regulatory mechanisms and principles as reflections of a particular type of value system. We have little information on the legal system of the Volga Bulgarians until the 10th century when they officially adopted Islam and were discovered by the Arabic geographers and travelers.

It seems that their juridical culture was based on common law traditions and on syncretism. Indirect data are found in Tractate (Risala) of the Arab diplomat and specialist of Islam law, Ibn Fadlan, who visited Volga Bulgaria in the 10th century. In me, 922, the Caliph of Bagdad, at the request of the Bulgarian ruler, Almush, sent him.

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