Home
Back
In Russian
Sources
Roots
Tamgas
Alphabet
Writing
Language
Genetics
Geography
Archeology
Religion
Coins
Wikipedia
Overview of Sarmatian chronology
Saltovo-Mayak Culture
Ogur and Oguz
Scythians
Alans
Kipchaks
M.Bashtu "Shan Kyzy Dastany"
Kul Gali "Book of Huns"
Kul Gali "Tale of Joseph"
Kul Ashraf "Letter to Turkish Sultan"
Alan Dateline
Avar Dateline
Besenyo Dateline
Bulgar Dateline
Huns Dateline
Karluk Dateline
Khazar Dateline
Kimak Dateline
Kipchak Dateline
Kyrgyz Dateline
Sabir Dateline
Seyanto Dateline

Djagfar Tarihi Contents · Djagfar Tarihi Preface · Chapters 1-5 · Chapters 6-10 · Chapters 11-15 · Chapters 16-20 · Chapters 21-25 and Ghazi-Baradj · Appendix

Bakhshi Iman
DJAGFAR TARIHI
(THE ANNALS OF DJAGFAR)

 GHAZI-BARADJ TARIHI
 (THE ANNALS OF GHAZI-BARADJ)
 1229-1246 AD
Chapters 6 - 10

<= Previous

Next =>

Translator's Notes

The offered copy of the printed edition has not been properly proofread, and may contain typos and misspellings.

Page numbers, where shown, indicate pages in the book publication.

The "mouse over" explanations basically follow the definitions found in the Annals and represent the views of its writers, which may be different from the known or accepted conditions of the present time. They are the best guess and some of them may be incorrect because of incorrect interpretation of the text  by the translator. The translator of the Annals to Russian left a multitude of the Türkisms in his translation, and they are preserved in the English translation, with the" mouse over" explanations where available. The dates in the chapter headings are added during translation and are imprecise indicators of the period covered.

GHAZI-BARADJ TARIHI

Chapter 6. Reign of Bat-Ugyr  (882 - 895 AD)

In 882 AD the son of Erek, Salahbi, set out from the Galidj to Bashtu, and Alabuga with troops of Sabans and Badjinaks set out from Bolgar, aspiring for a revenge for the attack by the Kara-Bulgarian Modjars led by Lachyn. Kan Gabdulla died before the start of the campaign, and to the Bulgarian throne was raised his son Bat-Ugyr Mumin, who did not rescind the orders of his father. The mullah Michael at that time completed his dastan ”Shan kyzy dastany” and dedicated it to his new Kan...

Alabuga barely came near the Khorysdan as from Karadjar came Almysh with the Baryns and the Anchian militia of Djun. The senior son of Almysh, Arbat, who was in the service of the Baltavar Lachyn, advanced towards Alabuga with his Bashkorts, but was completely defeated and hid in Batavyl. The Khazars who were in Batavyl, prepared for the defense of the fortress, but the astute Arbat preferred to open one of two gates of Khorysdan and come out to his father with remorse. After this the Djun’s Anchis broke through this gate into city and took it with a terrible slaughter. Almysh personally rode to the Baltavar yurt and threw the uncle, shaked with fear, out of it, as a puppy. Fortunately, he had enough nobility and magnanimity to not execute the brother of his father and to let him out to Khazaria. Lachyn, crying from a humiliation, left for Itil with his two wives and there he soon died of the shame, and Almysh kept his son Ugyr from a Bashkortian wife...

During Lachyn time, the Urus Beilyk was in his domain, therefore Almysh advanced to Bashtu with the intention to force As-Khalib to submit to him.

Near the city he joined with Salahbi who came a little earlier and in the beginning reached an agreement that he will reign in city as a tributor of the Baltavar. But then Djun suggested that Salahbi should be in Bashtu as a co-ruler of the Lachyn son Ugyr, and after reflecting on it, the biys agreed with the Anchian leader. Salahbi, showed to the Bashtu boyars the Bek Ugyr Lachyni, announced his desire to reign in Urus Beylik as a vizier to the Bek and warned, that if they resist, Bulat will be killed and the there would be a severe Bulgarian storm. The boyars agreed to make an agreement with Salahbi, being afraid of revenge for the pogrom of the Moslems. However, As-Khalib refused to submit to the decision of the boyars, and then they brought him to Salahbi by force. When Salahbi came nearer to him, he suddenly and with a cry: ”You the damned slave, you betrayed your master, and you should die!” bared his sword and wanted kill Salahbi. But Djun was on guard and killed As-Khalib with a spear which he snatched from a nearby Anchian, and Alabuga killed Bulat who rushed to the aid of his father. The last son of As-Khalib, Hot, learning about the death of the father and brother, secretly fled from Bashtu to the Khakan...

Salahbi entered Bashtu together with Djun and Ugyr and as the first tribute to Almysh handed the property of Jewish merchants to the Baltavar. Djun, who became the first boyar and the head of all the Anchians, and they called him in Bulgarian "Bata", properly punished the murderers of his father and the Moslems. Pleased with outcome of the endeavor, Almysh returned to Khorysdan , and Alabuga went back to the Bolgar. Here the biy asked Michael, what is better to spend his part of spoils on, and on the advice of the mullah built of a wooden caravan-sarai with a mosque in the town Bulyar. And to this place, located on the border junction of the three Bulgar provinces, Bolgarian, Bershudian and Esegelian, once used to gather for the conference their biys, hence it received the name Bulyar or Bilyar.

But Almysh’s joy was short. In the 885 AD the Khakan secretly persuaded Arbat to overthrow his father, promising for it his throne and the end of the war. The Kaubuyian and Modjarian biys who carried the main weight of this war and were unhappy with the new tax, the djizya, of the Baltavar on the pagans, backed up Arbat and on his signal kicked out Djafar from Khorysdan to Karadjar . But Almysh also did not find a respite there, for Arbat went after him, and a scared Anchian head began to beg the Baltavar to leave the city to prevent the enemy attack. Seeing, that it will not be possible to sit things out in Karadjar this time, Djafar with his Baryns went to the loyal Salahbi in Bashtu and was jubilantly met by him. In the city quarter given him Almysh built his court, which eclipsed all others in luxury. The Bashtu Bulgars and the Anchians still considered him the Baltavar, and had came to him to adjudicate their lawsuits, and the Balynian and Sadimians sued at the Salahbi's court...

In same to year the son of Chinavyz, Bek Arslan, who has stolen up to the Khazarian throne under a mask of the friend of the Khakan, but actually only a friend of himself, persuaded the featherbrained Iskhak to start a war with Badjanaks with the idea of leaving Bulgars without their main ally. Under an order of Àêñak-Temer, Arbat with his Modjars and Kaubuys attacked the Badjanaks’ pastures, but the Hins, with the help of the Nur-Suvarian Bek Mardan, the son of Djilki, overturned the attackers and devastated the Burtas. This victory strengthened Mardan, who took in honor of it a second name of the bogatyr the Ar-Buga, and all his subordinated lands, the Archa, Northern Burtas, Nur-Suvar and Esegel declared the Esegel Kanate. Biys felt very uncertain and vacillated between the two rulers. And Arslan, presenting this to the Khakan as a success of his politics, received from him a sanction to hire Oguzes or Türkmen for a decisive strike on the weakened Badjanaks. He himself crossed the Bulgarian sea and in the area Men-Kyshlak hired to the Khazarian service the corps of the Kuk-Oguzian Bek Salar. The Men-Kyshlak was once a blossoming and populous place and therefore it was called ”A Thousand Settlements”, but then a change of the channel of the river Binedje and the drought caused by it gradually brought its well-being to nothing, and by that time the local Türkmens began to starve. However the Khorasanian emirs, to whom they subordinated, continued to collect the same taxes from the thinned people as if they did not wish to see the disaster...

It came to that in one aul there was only one Türkmen. When the raiding officials asked him who is in the aul, he answered: "Men". The angry collectors asked him: ”And who will pay the taxes for everybody?” And the Türkmen again answered him: "Men". The bilemchies searched his yurt and, not finding anything, finally got angry and exclaimed: ”And who will answer to us for non-payment of taxes?” And the Türkmen again said: "Men". Then the collectors seized him and rode to Khorasan, but on the way he fled away and agitated the people who were still staying in the territory. The Khorasanians nicknamed "Mens" these Kuk-Oguzes, for the leader of the rebels was saying this word constantly. And he was called Salar. The founder of his clan was Alyp, who once served to Gazan. He went to the possessions of his brother, and together with him began to battle the Khwaresmian Türkmens, who lived better and therefore submitted to the Samanid emirs. Soon they were joined by the Kypchak tribe Kara-Koenly, who also started to call themselves "Mins". A few times they left Men-Kyshlak under a pressure from the southern Oguzes-Sarytekens and came back again, until, at last, Arslan came to them.

By then the brother of Salar was killed, and all Mens submitted to him. The wives of his brother became his wives, and his brother children became his children, for it was the Türkmenian custom that did not allow them to leave the people of the tribe to the mercy of a fate. And Kuk-Oguzes were the most beautiful tribe of the Türks, and many of them, like the Sinds, were tall, had golden hair color and blue eyes. Mens themselves explained that being easy for movement, during the old times, they were the first of the Türks to follow the Sinds and in the territory of Samar and of the present Rum they settled beside the Sinds and intermixed with them. Then, when the Samara Khan Alamir-Sultan, called Iskander by the Persians, before the flood retreated to the East from these places, the Mens left together with him...

Under an order of Arslan the Mens attacked Badjinaks and, cutting them off from the Khwarezm sea, joined with the eastern Bashkorts. The Modjars enthusiastically agreed to a war with Badjanaks, because they for long and greedily glanced at their lands. In 891 AD they, together with the Modjars of Arbat, undertook the first campaign on Badjinaks , but were beaten off. The success of Badjinaks is again explained by the help of the Mardjan. Mardjan, proclaiming himself a Kan, unexpectedly became one of the Badjinaks’ tributors. When the prince complained about it to the Badjanak Bek Illak, he explained with a kind smile: ”Before you were not an independent ruler, and I did not take a tribute from you. Now you became the Kan, and I began to take from you the same as from the others, and precisely not any more. What are you dissatisfied with, then?” Helping Illak, Mardjan hoped that he would get rid of the tribute, but the Badjanaks did not even think to thank the Kan. Therefore in 894 AD, when Mens again attacked Badjinaks , the disappointed Mardjan did not help them. Illak was completely defeated. Half of his people in horror subordinated to the conquerors, and he with the other half of Badjinaks preferred to move to the west.

On the way Illak fiercely destroyed all Khazarian areas, blaming them for the origination of his misfortune. Arbat at the time was not in the Kara-Bulgar, for he, under an order of Arslan, was on the side of Rum in the war against the Burdjan Kandom. That the Bek sent the Baltavar to the aid of the Rum when he was needed on Djaik, confirms Abdallah information about his secret union with the Rumian Khan...

The Modjar pastures, remaining without men, were completely ravaged by the Badjanaks who did not know a pity to their chronic enemies. After that the Kara-Bulgars was flushed with horror. Kaubuys fled with their families to Khazaria and were placed on the river Kuba, and 5 thousand Baryns came to Bashtu and asked Almysh to escort them to Bulgar. Almysh was annoyed with the leisure life in Bashtu, and he decided to not miss this last, perhaps, opportunity to become a ruler, even in the far northern Bulgar. Giving a warm farewell to Salahbi and Djun and promising them a support in case of his success, the Baltavar set off with Baryns. Covering by the river Seber-su, Djafar passed the Karadjar and... reached the limis of the Murdas tribe. The Murdases owned both banks of the river which Kara-Bulgars called " Aka", Murdases called "Sain", and the Bolgars called " Sain-Idel". Moving along the bank of this river to the city Kan-Murdas, Baltavar wanted to go from there to Bolgar at once, but first mused, and after reflection chose to send a messenger first. The Murdases, desiring a prompt departure of the terrible for them Bulgars, quickly delivered the messenger to Bolgar on a ship. Bat-Ugyr was delighted by the arrival of his senior brother and, deciding to use him against Mardjan, placed him to settle on the Dyau-Shir. The Baryns barely settled there as came the Mins of Salar, let through by Mardjan to Bolgar. Almysh, without hesitation, set off towards the Türkmens. On seeing it, Salar, who broke up to the front, figured it best to retreat. The Mins took it for a retreat of the Bek and turned to run. Only beyond the Esegelian city Sulcha Salar managed to stop the retreat of his troops and move again to the Bolgar, but Almysh already managed to occupy Sulcha before that, and from its wall offered to the arriving Mins an armistice. Salar decided not to test the fate again and said to the biys: ”You saw that it was not the Bulgars, but the Tangra that turned us back, thus pointing the limits of our claims. So we shall obey him”. All agreed with him, and Khan invited Almysh to negotiations. At the tabyn in the field yurt both rulers agreed upon a marriage of Almysh on the daughter of Salar and about a wedding of the yet unborn children...

Besides, Djafar promised Salar to convince Bat-Ugyr to begin paying the tribute to the Khan in the amount of the former Badjanak tribute, and the Khan promised for it his support. With this agreement they parted...

When the Mardjan people approached Sulcha and demanded that Almysh hand over the city, Djafar refused and answered: ”You should have held better the fortress. I took it not from you, but from the Türkmen, and consequently should not hand it over to you! And tell the Kan: “If he wants to take Sulcha away from me by force, let him first think well of the consequences!” Mardjan thought of it, and decided to concede Sulcha, for he was afraid to face two brothers at once...

But Almysh failed to persuade Bat-Ugyr, he flatly refused to pay Oguzes a tribute. Then the Baltavar during the djien of 895 AD invited to Bulyar (where the biys of the Bolgar, Bershud and Esegel have for long gathered) the biys Alabuga, Bel-Ümart, the son of Kush Askal, and directly asked them: ”Great biys! Both of us, I and Bat-Ugyr, are the sons of Kan Djilki. But Kan Bat-Ugyr refuses to conclude a treaty with Türkmens and is going to cast the country into a disastrous war, and I concluded a beneficial peace. So say: whom do you want to submit to?” Biys deliberated not for long and unanimously decided to raise Almysh to the throne.

Directly from Bulyar they went to Bolgar with the intention to finish the deal without blood. But the quick-tempered Bat-Ugyr locked up in the Bolgar citadel, which he himself built and which had the name "Mumin". During this critical instant Michael Bashtu again showed a rare skill to keep people from quarrels and bloodsheds. He came to the Kan and told him: ”Oh, the Great Kan! I nursed you in the childhood, therefore I shall allow myself to ask a question. Answer me, what is better, to live a mere mortal among the friends or to reign surrounded by the enemies?” And Mumin, who just was ready to meet the enemies with a sword, suddenly began to cry and ordered to open the gate of city...

Chapter 7. Beginning of the Almysh reign (895 - 922 AD)

Almysh, before being raised to the throne, prayed in Marduan mosque,by the custom set by Djilki, and then rode into the capital and was raised to the throne by the son of Alabuga Djulut, Bel-Ümart, Askal and Abdallah, the son of Michael Bashtu...

Becoming the Kan of Bulgar, Djafar immediately sent Abdallah to Salar, and he returned with the daughter of Khan, Nushabi and with the Khan promises of friendship. Almysh decided to celebrate the wedding in the city of Mardjan, Nur-Suvar. The Mardjan initially was apprehensive about his brother, and initially refused to recognize him as his Kan, but the arrival of Djafar with the bride thawed the ice of mistrust in his heart...

From Nushabi Almysh had two sons, Yalkau and Mal, and a daughter Zuhra...

That year the Michael carried out a census of the population in the Bulgar and found out that in the country are 190 thousand persons speaking in the Kirghiz and Badjanak dialects of the Sabans, 180 thousand speaking in Arian, 170 thousand speaking in Modjar or Bashkort, and 10 thousand speaking in Hons’ dialects, Burdjan and Serbiy. All speaking in Saban and Burdjan dialects made the quantity of Bulgars... In 14 years a new census revealed already 320 thousand Bulgars...

The only thing that was upsetting to the Kan was the situation in the Kara-Bulgar. Arbat, having learned about the Badjanak intrusion, turned back, but the Hins had already occupied the Saklanian steppe between Sula and Shir and did not let him him to the Kara-Bulgar. Then Arbat with his army seized the Duloba or Avaria, where the Bashkorts, under the oppression of Farangs met him as a liberator, and proclaimed him the Kan. The soldiers of Arbat, who had already thoroughly forgotten or at never know the Modjarian language, married the Avarian Bashkorts, and their children began again speaking in the Modjarian language...

The Bek Arslan, aspiring to the unlimited the power, declared, that it is the Khakan, instead of himself, who is secretly serving the Rum and left the Kara-Bulgar without any soldiers before the invasion of the Badjinaks. The Khazars-pagans, indignant of him, with the support of Burdjans and Kaubuys crushed Iskhak’s encampment and killed Aksak-Timer together with his Jewish mentors. At the same time the Bek had enough brains to not take the Khakan’s throne, and to raise to it, for the calm of the close to the Kalgi clan and influential Kumanian biys, the Ishak’s son Bakchuar. He was declared to be a ruler not in accordance with the Türkic customs and, right after it, Arslan reliably hid him from the extraneous eyes, so nobody did not even know, what was the faith of the new Khakan. This helped the Bek to present himself a friend toward the Moslems, or Christians, or pagans or Jews, depending on the circumstances, and made his position and his possession steadier. With the help of the Rumian gold he managed to bend Badjinaks to the peace with Khazaria, due to what a part of the Kara-Bulgars could return to the Kara-Bulgar and proclaim as the Baltavar the protege of Arslan, biy Ryshtau...

At the same time the mullah Michael also labored to strengthen Bulgar, but with entirely other means. He tirelessly spread the light of the true faith in the most remote corners of the state, and was organizing schools at the mosques. During the Djilki time he founded 42 mektebs, and later he founded 180 more. In the last years of his life he was also engaged in the organization of the Bulgarian monetary court and in the search of the deposits of iron, gold, silver, copper, coal and jewels in the Ural. Abdallah writes, that Michael not once sailed in Chulman and its tributary river Djoz-Uba (“Hundred Rocks”), and even reached the sources of the Djaik and Agidel. In 900 AD Michael Bashtu, who called himself in his dastan ”Shamsi Bashtu”, went on his last trip to Ural, and during a night storm drowned in Agidel near Yar Chally. The local pagans under an order of their leader pulled the body of Michael from the water and hanged him up on a high tree, then the biy addressed him with such words: “Oh, the great shaman Bashtu Tintyau! We are hanging you up on a tree so that you reach faster the heavenly Kan Tangra and reincarnate again in our land!”

Suddenly the body of the mullah shuddered, and the pagans heard his voice: ”I go to the court of Tangra and if you will live piously and in friendship, I shall be your intercessor before Him and I shall come back to the land as blessings of the Almighty to those believing in him. But if you will live unjustly and vainly be enemies and kill each other, I shall come to you again as heavy penalty by Tangra. Then the black clouds will cover the sky also hide the sun, the thunder will reverberate, and lightnings will sparkle, the land will shudder and crack, the fields will dry up and become covered with dust, the rivers will mire and turn into bogs, and there will be no joy to you in this, and no pardons in the next world!”

The pagans shocked by this vision immediately accepted Islam, and the clan Tamta was called in the memory of it Tintyau...

Sent on a search of Michael the son Bel-Ümart Byrak removed the body of the mullah from the tree and brought it to Bolgar, and Abdallah buried his father in the established by him khanaka Deber on the river Deber-su. This khanaka was supported by six villages, that’s why this district received the name "Altysh". Abdallah assumed functions of the father, and he also was tireless in the field of the state affairs...

From Michael remained the book ”Shan kyzy dastany”, presented to Bath - Ugyr by him at the time of raising to a throne. I read it. In it the words of the old Bulgar dastan about the feats of the three befrated elbirs are intertwined with the compositions of Michael himself. Seid Ahmed Bakir found it obscene and forbade it. However my father kept a copy of the mullah’s book, a gift of Bek Guzy. Mullah Hasan ibn Iskhak, known for his book ”Collection of surprising stories - delight for the reader and the listener”, took one of the few copies of the dastan to Khorysdan . From Khorysdan he went to Kashan, where he saw the mullah Mahmud and sang and retold to him the Michael dastan ... And it was written in a simple language, that’s why seid Ahmed called Michael "half-educated” person...

The son of Hasan, Sheikh-Ar, left with his uncle Hadji-Ar for education, also served after his father in the Khorysdan "Kyr-Kuba" mosque founded by Michael. In the Batavyl was born his son Hudja, with whom he, when his son was seven years old, went by his father’s way and reached Khorasan. There his son became a famous tabib and received a nickname Khyzyr. When the seid Yakub made a trip to Khorasan, he specially visited him. Together with him Khyzyr Hudja sent to Bulgar his son Mamli-Ar, whom Yakub began to reckon as his son... It is interesting, that this kadi did not mention at all the Michael dastan in his work ”History of Bulgar” and rationalized it so: ”I did not see with my eyes a copy of this dastan , and I can not believe the verbal stories”. Meanwhile, at least one script was brought by a Bandja merchant Kalgan from Khorysdan . He lived 90 years and died in 1120. When he became 85 years old he was asked: ”How did you manage to live to this respectable age?” Kalgan answered: ”Because I never sat in one place”.

Really, he spent all his life on the road, on the trips for the trading affairs to Khorysdan, Karadjar, Bashtu, Saklan, Djalda, Djurash, Azerbaijan... It was told that only time for all his life he did not set out in a due time, because of the illness of his favourite grandson Asan, and this delay was fateful for him. At that time he was in his home in Bolgar and decided to remain for one more day near the child. As Asan was short of breath, he took him to the garden. The next morning the external baliks of Bolgar were suddenly attacked by the soldiers of Djurgi, and the old man went towards them. He was not afraid of Uruses because he traded with them and expected to prevent a bloodshed. However it were not the Anchian Uruses, but the Balynian and Galidjians, and they without any pity hacked Kalgan to pieces... Friends of the old man, the Anchian merchants loved him for kindness and honesty, and on their own collected donations and indemnified his son Burhanu from the rogue attack of the Balynian. In his turn the grandson Asan, Barys, donated a lot for the benefit of the Anchian masters and merchants incidentally hurt of the vain attack of Bek Insan on Ryam-Ufa... Asan as though in the memory of his healing, became a known tabib.

The clan of Kalgan, Buharay, traded in honey, wax, furs and slaves. For the merchant Appak, the the son of the pious master Abu-Bakr, Kalgan was buying from Kypchaks and Uruses the juvenile captive girls, and he grew them in very good conditions and gave them a fine education, and then sold the charming pupils for huge money to rich clients in the Islamic countries. All girls were called with the owner’s name Appak...
The Buharays were in medicine as a family tradition. So, the son of Balus Subash was a well-known tabib and earned a nickname Otchy though at the same time he was the richest merchant who gave money for the construction of the Bulyar. In 925 AD right in the citadel of that city he built a hospital with a drugstore, this is why one gate and the passage from them to the citadel received the name "Otchy"...
In Bashtu he undertook to cure the fatally sick Barys, the son of Ugyr Lachyni, who before was unsuccessfully treated by the Balynian and Rumian doctors. When the mother of Barys, the Anatyshian Uldjai, asked him why he was doing it, Subash answered: ”My father grew very rich from the sale of the Rumian things which he bought from Ugyr, and felt that he was obliged to him. Therefore I want to help his son”.
- ”What will be your conditions?” - asked bika with interest.

-” If I cure Barys, he should not accept Christianity”, said Otchy-Subash. He cured Barys and gave him a new name Audan..., and he did not accept Christianity... Reykhan received a fame, besides the other, for the ” Book of thousand grasses” which was a guide for many pharmacists of the Bulgar...

And the son of Asan Buharay, Teklimen, cured of a heavy illness the Bashtu Bek Bat-Aslap, the father of the Khin-Kubar, and for that... he gave a book of the Michael dastan to Appak, and in turn his son Dayr presented it to the Bek Guz for the return of his property stolen by the burlak (barge hauler - Translator’s Note) Vasyl…

The first ancestor of the Appak house was a master Masud who came to Bolgar from Bagdad together with Abdallah. His son was Bashir, his son was Musa, his son was Atrak, his son was Bashir, married to the daughter of Mohammed Baryn... As is known, the ancestor of Baryns was biy Alabuga. His son was Djulut, his son was Tatra Mohammed, his son was Djulut, his son was Mohammed, the father of Bashir wife. Bashir son was Djulut, his son was Al-Hamad, his son was Ahmed, his son was Abu-Bakr, his son was Appak, his son was Dayr, his son was Tetesh...
Appak justified his trade by the need in which the Masuds fell after the exile from Bulyar by Anbal of Abu-Bakr, and also that he was rescuing the unfortunate slave girls from perishing and poverty. Dayr gave one of them to the Bek of Djurash, and he gave her to the master Nizami from the Azerbaijani Khondjak, founded, as the Gurdjian, by the Hons in service to Persians. This Appak was famous for the wonderful performance of the ”Shan kyzy dastany”, and, certainly, it was she who inspired her husband on retelling the story of the foundation of the Bolgar in his dastan about Iskander...

Nizami was from the clan Gabas, one of its branches that grew poor. The father of the poet tried to separate from his rich relatives and begin an independent jeweler business in Khondjak, but only worsened the position of his family. Nizami tried to improve the business, fought for a long time, but did not succeed in it, and instead gained a great glory in another field, in poetry. Only his son from Appak, Mohammed, succeeded in trading in silk, carpets and ornaments and became respectful in own clan. When he was coming to Bulgar he always visited with us and stayed in Akbikül where the was the caravan-sarai. It was Mohammed who brought us the manuscript of the dastan of his father. He had a son Sadretdin who also visited with me...

And as the best performer of the Michael dastan was considered Bek Elaur from the Kaubuyian clan Ryshtau. He rode from Gabdulla Chelbir to Tabyl-Katau to install Lachyn Hisami to the Gurdjian throne and was present at his wedding with the local bika Samar. When the Gurdjian Beks began to sing their songs, Elaur could not hold back and in one breath sang the Michael dastan , making a shock in the souls of the present, And it should be said that only occasionally he helped his extraordinary beautiful voice by accompanying with a dombra, with which he never parted. And one of present Beks, Nurshad, the son of Visir Ablas from the Gurdjian Khondjak, in admiration be-fraternized with Elaur. Elaur took the name of Nurshad, and Nurshad took the name of his clan Ryshtau and began to be called "Ryshtauly". Later Nurshad wrote his dastan where he included much from the Michael dastan ...

And Almysh took the death of Michael very hard, because it was him who convinced Bat-Ugyr to concede the power to Djafar peacefully and to open the gate of Bolgar, and he also was his mentor. It was Shamsi Bashtu who pointed to the Kan that his Kanate will be so strong as would be his trade. And Djafar applied all his strengths to get in his hands... the Chulman tribes, rich with expensive northern goods, to destroy Khazaria, to capture the trade roads to all countries. A special attention he paid to the connections with the Bashtu. The Khazars from the city Murdas tried to hinder it, but Mardan soon seized the city, and Arslan, though reluctantly, left in peace the Khorysdan road from the Bolgar to the Bashtu. But he did not cease to make efforts to harm the Bulgar. So, in 911 AD the son of As-Khalib, a Khud loyal to the Khazars, captured Bashtu and released the son of Lachyn, Ugyr, who was detained under guards. Salahbi, loyal to the Bulgar, barely escaped to Djir, but the head of the Anchians Barys, the son of Djun, and Djakyn, the son of Arbat, were taken captives. Khud took Barys as a translator in his attack to Azerbaijan and Persia, and Djakyn was sold to the Khwaresmian merchants. During the fight Barys managed to run away from the Galidjians, and then he wandered for some time. Fortunately, the people of the Baghdad Bek Nasyr, who wanted to go to Almysh still in the 906 AD, and in the 911 AD was already appointed the head of the Sultan Great Embassy to the Bulgar, picked him up, because their ruler ordered them to help any Bulgar out of his sympathy to the Bulgar. Then they also found Djakyn...

After the barbaric raid on the Islamic territories Khud returned to Itil, but here fell under a sudden attack of the Oguzes and fled up the Idel... The Türkmens in the beginning were the allies of the Khakanate, and in the 912 AD, at the request of Arslan and together with Khazars, they attacked Bulgar. They managed to take Sulcha, or "Seldjuk" in the Oguzian, and to capture there the children of Almysh from Nushabi, the son Mal and daughter Zuhra. It came about by the fault of Gazan, the son of Djafar, sent with the army to the help of the city and intentionally held up on the way. However, when the Khan of Uzes Salar rushed to the Bolgar, leaving the captured under a guard of the Khazarian prince Jusuf, he was suddenly attacked by Byrak, the son of Bel-Ümart. Byrak flew down from the forest with a battle cry ”Urma!” and soon turned the enemies into a haphazardly running herd. The Türkmens outpoured back to Sulcha and there learned that the city fell under an attack of the Arbugains of the Mardjan. The cowardly Jusuf at the first sounds of the fight fled with all booty to Itil, and his twin brother Alan decided to fight and was taken prisoner. Salar also tried to change the course of the war, but was completely defeated. His son Alpamysh was taken prisoner by Byrak and Djulut and received in the memory of this a nickname "Seldjuk". Salar himself with the other son Tahir went to Itil and demanded Arslan to return Zuhra (for since before her birth she was engaged to Tahir) and Mal (for exchange for Alpamysh). The Bek refused, saying that it is necessary for him first to exchange the captured Alan, and then the Türkmens attacked Itil. Tahir managed to free Zuhra, but at a crossing of the Idel Khud killed him and captured the princess. Salar attacked the Galidjians, and those found for the better to go to Bashtu through Bolgar. The Khud Anatysh was very self-confident, for he had 5 thousand finely armed soldiers, but Salahbi with his ships already waited for him at Bolgar. Only one of Khud’s ship managed to break through to Djir, the others were either sunk, or berthed to the shore...

In total on bank stepped about 3 thousand Sadimians and the Galidjian Balynian, and ours had quite a hussle before all the enemies were stomped over, and the neck of the wounded Khud caught in the arkan of Byrak. Almysh extradited Khud to the Bershudian Bek, and Byrak hanged him on a tree near his quarters on the river Dyau-Shir with the words: ”Serve, the most brave, to our God Tangra and let him revive you anew but in our land!”
It Ugyrconsidered a great honor, for the Bulgars burned the unworthy opponents on the Hons’ custom... Byrak gave his son the name Anatysh in memory of Khud. Then the remains of the Sadimian Bek fell under the tree and began to be revered by the Chirmyshes, who were making sacrifices near them before setting out for the war. And the tree and this place received the name ”Khud Imen”...

Finishing at the Bolgar with the enemy, Salahbi immediately with the help of the Anchians seized Bashtu and took in the Anatyshian wife, the widow of Khud. At that time she asked: ”Where was killed my husband?” Salahbi answered, that it was in the Bulgarian ravine, where in the end were driven and shot with arrows the Khud’s troops. Really, with the Khud’s army was finished in the Bu-elga ravine, which was named still by Djilki in the memory about the Bashtu ravine Bu-chai behind which was located the zirat...

Arslan with the help of the Khinian Badjinaks knocked out Ryshtau from the Khorysdan and installed Ugyr in the head of the Kara-Bulgar Beylik. But Salahbi at once went to the Khorysdan with a part of the Kaubuys who joined him and kicked Ugyr out. Then the latter made a new encampment, east of Khorysdan , and called it Khursa . The Badjanaks called it "Kura"... Also here, in the Kara-Bulgarian batavyl Khorysdan , Salahbi celebrated a wedding with Uldjai, for he decided that the name of the local river Süüm-Idel was suitable for this purpose and that with it he would pay his respects to the Kan Almysh. So ended this war, called "Iron-Bannered", for it began with the plunder of the Bulgarian caravans by the Khazars on the road Khorys-yuly.

The forces of the Khazaria in this war were finally broken, and the sun of its might began to quickly droop to the sunset... But fate did not let Almysh to use the fruits of the victory. The disgrace of his ulans who run in fight with Khud, and also his attempt, contrary to the advice of Michael, to force the introduction of the true faith, have shaken the feeling of respect to him and the fear of him inside the state. Soon after the victories the biys, who have felt their strength and the vulnerability of the Kan, gathered in Bulyar and dictated to the Kan the following conditions:

- The Kan stops forcing the heathens to accept Islam;
- The Kan recognizes the hereditary rights of Byrak to the Bershud, Askal to the Esegel, Mardjan to the Àðbuga and Djulut to the Nur-Suvar;
- The Kan takes from these possession a strictly defined tribute and has no other rights on anything there;
- The Kan has no right to appear in these possession without a permission of their biys, alone or with an army, and confers with them through his ambassadors to them;
- Biys of the four possession do not give the Kan soldiers other than on their free will and, in case of a joint with the Kan or their own undertaking, have contractual shares of the spoils with him...

Almysh, though gnashed his teeth, was nevertheless compelled to accept these conditions for the sake of saving the State from disintegration. Later he admitted to Abdallah: ”When I, after the death of Michael, managed for the first time to replace without a flurry the biys in the Beyliks and to convince the significant part of the Bershudian Chirmyshes to accept the Islam, then I thought that my Kan’s power consolidated once and for all. However later the inaccuracy of this opinion came to light, and it was necessary to recall again the wise precepts of Bashtu”. Abdallah could not at the time to help the Kan with advice, for in no way he could pass from Khourasan to Bulgar. At last, he decided to sail across the Bulgarian sea to the mouth of Djaik and then reach the pastures of the Mardjanian Badjinaks . But Salar was already waiting in the delta, hoping to exchange Abdallah for Mal, and after that Mal for Alpamysh. The Türkmens seized the tebir and brought him to Itil to Arslan, who swore promising to make the exchange required by Khan. However, having received in his hands Abdallah, the Bek impudently refused to Salar. The fearlessness of Arslan was driven by him accepting the vassalage of the Samanids and expecting their help. And true, when angered Salar tried to assault Khazaria, his own pastures were attacked by the Khorasanian Türkmens. The Khan at once grew quieter, and when Almysh married Alpamysh to the daughter of an Arbuganian merchant Kutlug and released him from captivity without any conditions, he swore to give a life for the Kan of Bulgars. And Kutlug was the founder of the Bellakian trading house "Illak" engaged in the processing and sale of the best leather footwear and other leather merchandize. The raw material for the manufacture he had to obtain in Badjanakian, Türkmenian, Bashkortian and Kypchak pastures, and consequently he willingly accepted the Kan’s offer to give his daughter for the son of the Oguz Khan...

Almysh also could not help Mal, his favourite son and successor, from the captivity. Hasan, passionately desiring to seize the throne, wrote to Mal in Itil that his father wanted to execute him for the defeat in Sulcha, and the prince was frightened by this false news and refused to leave Khazaria, to the pleasure of Arslan. The Bek always tried to have at hand as many princes as possible for his cunning games. Abdallah asserts that he once summoned the young Alan and Jusuf and told them: ”you are twin brother, and I can replace you on the throne unnoticeably for everybody, and generally do with you whatever I like. So serve me loyally, or at the best you may decay alive in zindan”.

It is said that the Bek also thought about installing Mal to the Khazarian throne, but, obviously, the death or some other circumstances prevented him from carrying it out...

The main problem of Arslan after the "Iron-Bannered" war was ransoming Alan, whom the Bek did not want to exchange for the unreliable and treacherous Jusuf. In the 918 AD, when the position of Almysh became absolutely bad, the Kan exchanged Alan for the tebir Abdallah, whose advice he needed. The son of Michael in a few months improved the situation. He persuaded Djafar to give for Askal the younger daughter of Gülbi and to transfer Nur-Suvar to his son Michael, who was a favorite of Mardjan. Djulut, transferred with his people to Bolgar, received a nickname "Tursuz" and established there a new balik Baryndjar. The tebir coaxed this respected Baryn by giving him his daughter to marry his son Tatru. Blessed by Abdallah, they lived very happily, pleasing the parents, and called their son Michael in honor of the tebir father. With all this Shamsi Teberzi softened the position of the biys toward the Kan and forced to become obedient to the father one more and the most dangerous staborn character, Gazan Hasan. This prince was in close contact with Samanid (Samani) and in the struggle for the throne relied on their help...

Chapter 8. Arrival of the Great Embassy (922 AD)

Having calmed the country, Abdallah began to persuade Almysh to organize a new embassy to the Arabian Sultan. The Kan for some time refused, not hiding being insulted by the Sultanate for not sending the embassies previously, but suddenly he was stricken with a paralysis. Again everything started to whirl, and the biys began to gather for discussions about the future Khan. As the seid Sheikh Hasan, and also Byrak and Mardjan clearly supported the raising of Michael ibn Djafar and even openly called him Baltavar, the position of this prince became more preferable. However Almysh, scared by the illness, which Abdallah declared to be a penalty of the Almighty for the unwillingness of the Kan to send ambassadors to the Sultan, agreed to the trip of the tebir to Bagdad, and immediately felt better. The biys, obliged to the Kan and the tebir, immediately crowded again near the yurt of Almysh, and again all calmed down. Gazan, strongly scared by the possibility to lose the throne, agreed this time to write a letter to the Samanids with the request for a safe passage for the tebir Abdallah to the Bagdad through the Khurasan. Armed with the letters of the Kan and Hasan, the tebir left to the Sultan... This time the Bek Nasyr... achieved that the Sultan agreed to send to Almysh a Great Embassy with the letter containing the text of a pray about granting by the Allmighty of the well-being to the Bulgarian state and a victory to the Bulgarian army in the sacred war with the enemies. The outcome of the matter was decided, as Abdallah was telling, by the presentation by Nasyr to the Sultan of the proofs of the struggle of the Bulgar with infidels, the Khud’s armor and the sabre of the Khakan Alan, which the tebir brought on himself. They made such an impression on the Caliph which could not be made by any precious gifts...

In 922 AD Abdallah returned to Bulgar with the Great Embassy of the Caliph. The Chief Ambassador was Razi, and the secretary, Ahmed, the descendant...

With them arrived many mullahs, craftsmen and merchants, who wanted to study at the site the opportunities for their activity.

And a guide of the ambassadorial caravan was Balus Buharay. Kan met the embassy very triumphally and was especially delighted by the green banner of Islam sent by the Caliph. It was immediately attached to a staff with a half moon at the top, and from that time it was raised when the Kan was going on a sacred war with infidels... All participants of the embassy received generous gifts. Many of them remained in Bulgar and initiated prominent Bulgarian clans. Among them were Djakyn, Barys, Balus and Ahmed, courtiers of Almysh. The Kan appointed Ahmed as a Seid of Bulgar under a name menly Bakir, which caused a strong indignation of the former Seid, the respectable Sheikh Hasan. The mullah tried to find a support from Hasan, his pupil, but the prince already agreed secretly with the new Seid upon a mutual support. The offended Sheikh Hasan switched to the camp of the Emir Michael ibn Djafar supporters, who still in 921 AD, even before the arrival of embassy, were indignant of the law, promulgated by Almysh, about removal of the hats by non-Muslim biys in front of the Kan, and who resolved for a next attempt to raise to the throne the more tolerant Michael. Precisely at that time revolted the Khazaria Burtas and Kuman army, overthrew Arslan and installed the son of the Bek, Modjar. Modjar, whose mother was a Modjarian, already aspired for a long time to the superior power in Khazaria, and directly declared that to his adherents: ”Somehow my father (Arslan) stayed for too long on the throne. I am already an old man, and he still does not wish to yield me the reign”...

Choosing a moment when Arslan sent his loyal Ugyr Lachyni with the Karachais, Kasheks and Saklans against Salahbi, Modjar started a revolt and seized the Itil-city. Ugyr captured Bashtu from Salahbi, and Salahbi fled to Djir, but Arslan lost his power and fled to the Samandar, where he asppealed to the local Bulgars-Burdjans: ”Help me, since I am from the clan of Urus which never had... Jews and which always protected Moslems!” Samandarians decided to save the Bek, and when the Khazarian Kumans came to the city, they mounted a stern resistance. The Kumans nevertheless took the city, and killed Arslan, after which Modjar expelled the Djurash Burdjans to the deserted location of Kumyk. From this location from that time they started to be called Kumyks...

Ugyr, becoming a lord of the Bashtu, first of all married captured Uldjai (Helga, Olga of Rus annals - Translator's Note). Learning about the overthrow of his master and benefactor Arslan, he became strongly upset and declared himself an independent Urus Bek. When Modjar sent officials to him, he told them: ”Henceforth I, like Ak-Bulgars, shall pay to the Khazarian Beks a tribute only for protection of our border, and no more than that”. And Ugyr sent envoys to Bolgar with this message for Almysh: ”I’ve heard, my brother, that you are tormenting the adherents of our old Bulgarian faith, to which I belong also. Be careful, because I have already become an independent Urus Bek and I am in position to help my coreligionists!” [...] And should be said that after the route of the Khazars at Sulcha, Byrak, together with Mardjan, seized the city Kan-Murdas, and our people began collecting tribute from the whole area between Djir and the river Aka. And in that area had many bees, and accordingly it was called Kortdjak. Tribute was collected by merchant Sain, a descendant of the Bulgarian Bek Mar. The Anchian subashes, who in Bulgar received the right to pay to the state only a strictly defined and moderate tax for the occupation in the ship business, made for Sain a few vessels, and he sailed on them to the Kortdjak from the Bolgar.

And the head of the Bulgarian Anchians the artisan Karadjar , who, for move to the Bulgar together with Almysh, received from the Kan a honorable nickname Karadjura and was the founder of the Bulgarian house of Karadjurs, always sailed with Sain for the lumber and other needed goods. Only once, in the spring of the 922 AD, Karadjura did not go together with Sain, and Sain was treacherously killed by the Murdases in revolt. The daughter of Sain Gülasma set out together with Karadjar and severely punished the murderers. Kan ordered in the memory of Sain to rename the river Aka to Sain-Idel, and to transfer the Kortdjak to the possession of Gülasma. Therefore the river flowing in the middle of this area began to be called Gül-Asma. The Murdases from the tribe of the murderers were resettled on the small river Nerle, which out of contempt for them began to be called Sasy-Idel. This small river flows into the Gül-Asma, and on it the son of Karadjar, Balyk, set up his encampment which is now the city of Balyn. And Balyn married Gülasma and became the co-owner of her lands. They together began to be engaged in the shipbuilding, harvesting and sale of lumber, honey, wax, furs and made a united house of Karadjurs. Their son was Sain, so called in honor of the grandfather, and his son was Kulbak, so called in memory of Kulbakian origin of Karadjura. The son of Kulbak, Balta, founded in the 1003 AD for his business affairs the encampment Balta. At the same time he sailed together with the tebir Shahidulla to the Bek of Djir Barys with an offer for on a duty-free trade of the Bulgarian merchants in the Rus in exchange for a part of a Djir tribute. Barys warmly supported Shahidulla and himself went with him to the Bashtu to solicit the sanction of his father Bulymer to it. Bulymer willingly signed the document about the permit, for he was weighed down by the humiliating for him " Djir tribute"...

And the senior son of Balta bought the aul Archa in the land of Ars and took am alias Archamysh. After that the aul also began to be called Archamysh...

And in the 964 AD the Murdases offered the son of Ugyr Barys to help them to seize the Kan, for which they promised to render a tribute to the Bashtu. Barys took from ours the Djir, and then sailed to the Kan and seized it. Talib Mumin, wishing to involve Barys in the Khazarian war, ceded to him the western part of Kortdjak up to the Balyn, but the eastern Kortdjak from the Lok to the Sain-Idel remained for Bulgar till 1164...
That the house of Karadjurs did not remain at a loss, Talib transferred to him in exchange, instead of the Balyn, a part of the lands on the Kara-Idel and Nukrat-su. The son of Archamysh, Djurash by the nickname Urdjum founded there the aul Urdjum on the Nukrat-su... And the son of Djurash Asladj, who gave a lot of donations for the construction of the Uchel and was himself participating in that enterprise, perished in it at the age of 41 years during the attack of the Galidjians in 1111... His son Mar-Kaves carried Abu Hamid Garnati in 1135 on his ship when the mullah went through the Kan and Kisan to the Khorysdan ...

His son Tetesh by a nickname Balyk... His son Nuretdin... His son Taham... And daughter Tetesha... was the wife of artizan Dajra...

I remember, that Takham had a son Toraj with whom he sailed to the Sarai to me with the lumber and slaves for the construction of the capital of the Kypchak Horde. Once I told him per his request about the past of the Manguls, and he was very surprised that Manguls call the Kypchaks and Türkmen "Tatars".

- ”How is it so?, he asked, In fact, in their time the Tatars killed the father of the Great Khan, for which they were universally exterminated, therefore the throng of non-Mangul scroungers that Manguls used to hire were called Tatars, and now Batu orders to call the loyal to him Türks by this abusive for the Manguls word?”

I answered him that for Manguls the word "Tatar", after the destruction of the Tatars, began to mean a "condemned man", "victim", and that Chingiz-Khan, while conquering China, quite naturally enjoined to call with this word the non-Mangul mercenaries doomed to death in the fight. But at the splitting of the Kaganate of the Great Khan between his descendants, there were misunderstandings, and Batu, offended for the transfer to him of the poorest lands, to spite the other khans, ordered to call his subjects by the hated by Manguls word "Tatars". As for the Türks, for them the word "Tatar" means only "Mangul" or the ”mercenary of Mangul” and consequently...

On this Takham responded with a greatest irritation, that for these and those ishaks (donkeys - Translator’s Note) it is all inside out, and his small son laughed and began to repeat: "Inside out" (“at bash syer ayak”). And this laughter, and these words constantly sounded in my ears when I wrote my history. And when I recollected the greatness which the Bulgarian State once had, my tears poured, and I consoled myself only that everything came to pass at the will of the Almighty and that the Creator still dealt rather mercifully with the Bulgarian people. And I especially felt it while studying the events of that time, when this greatness only arose and came about only due to the intervention of the Almighty. Let’s say, when the message of Ugyr Lachyni reached the biys, they immediately rode to Bulyar and declared: ”Since Almysh makes us to remove hats at a meeting with him, we shall not go any more to his allodial, and we will elect for us a new Kan, Michael. And if the old Kan tries to bend us with force, we will directly ask the help from Ugyr”. The Biys summoned Michael and promised to him the throne in exchange for the preservation of their liberties, but the Emir cowed and did not come, for which he received a nickname Yalkau...

Almysh immediately declared the liquidation the old Beyliks Bershud, Esegel, Mardjan, and enjoined their biys, Byrak, Askal and Mardjan come to him for the new assignments. At the same time he appointed the son of Djulut biy Tatra the Ulugbek of the new Beylik (province) Tamta, located between the rivers Chishma and Uraltay. And in the middle of this area flows the river Tamtazaj, which gave the name to the province ( il, vilaet)... The Biys refused to submit to and began to wait for the raid on the Bulgar by the Bashkorts, hired by the Bek Modjar to raise with their help to the Bulgarian throne of the new protégé, Mardjan. In the heat of the "War of Biys” into the country drove the Great Embassy. The pre-warned Kan Balus managed to lead the ambassadorial caravan past the strongholds and patrols of the rebels and meet the Tatra detachment sent forward to them. When the embassy reached the Bolgar, Almysh embraced Abdallah and, sobbing, informed him about his desperate situation. The tebir immediately suggested to declare the area of the Mardjan a ”province Mardjan” and to leave it for the Emir. Kan immediately made it, and Mardjan came to him with the expression of fidelity. He informed that the Bek Modjar installed Jusuf as the Khakan, and put Alan in zindan. The unhappy with it the Burtasian biy.... decided to join with his province to the possessions of Mardjan. Kan consented to it, and the possessions of the Emir extended from Djigula (Jiguly) to Saratay. In Jiguly was built a fine city Bandja, which became, instead of Àðbuga, a center of the province, and the whole province began to be named either Mardjan, or Bellak, or the Mardjan-Bellak...

The arrival of Mardjan to the Bolgar shook the rebels. Then Salahbi sailed to the Bolgar from the Djir for the participation in the campaign against the Itil, conceived by the Kan. It strengthened the positions of Almysh, but he, as well as the tebir did not dare to resort to the weapons in the struggle against insurgents. And here Ahmed interfered in the conflict, this time as a Bulgarian seid. ”You are slow, although now you are stronger than the rebels, but they can surpass you”, he told Djafar.

-”But our laws forbid the fratricidal wars”, noted Almysh

-”When the question is a struggle for the faith, it is not taken into consideration”, objected the seid and attained a firman written announcing a sacred war against the infidel rebels. Abdallah persuaded Michael and Mardjan to take firman to the Bulyar, where the insurgents already raised a bulwark and fortified. The appearance at the Bulyar of both princes completely confused Askal, and he left ostensibly to gather new forces in Sulcha. Actually he decided come to the Kan with a guilt, which he soon did. Almysh, pleased with it, on the advice of Abdallah declared a revocation of the law on caps and a pardon of the rebels who would give up without a fight, which caused an unrest in the Bulyar camp. Seeing the shaking of their position, Byrak left from the Bulyar and surrendered to the Kan’s sardars, Djulut and his son Tatra. Afraid that Byrak would consider it to behumiliating for him to surrender to Tatra alone and would prefer to resist, Djulut himself came to the Bulyar.

The calculation turned out to be true: when the biy saw him and heard from him the sworn promise to spare the insurgents, he rode out from behind the rampart. The “War of Biys” has ended...

Almysh, in preparation for the war with the Khazars, forgave the rebels out of need of their troops. But what happened then upset all plans.

Chapter 9. About death of the Salahbi and about his descendants (922 - 945 AD)

Right before the campaign Salahbi decided to buy a horse and went from the Bulgarian balik Aka-Basar to balik Haldja, which is also called the Khwarezmian balik. There he zeroed in on a Türkmenian horse named Djilan. However while buying he dropped a coin under the legs of the horse and imprudently bent down to pick it. Djilan, trained to stamp down in fighting the foot soldiers, immediately struck him with a hoof and killed him on the spot. Almysh was shocked by the loss of his loyal djur and was personally present at the Salahbi's funeral. A part of Sadimians hired by Salahbi soon after the funeral went by Aikha-yuly road to their land, and the planned campaign did not proceed... Another part of the Sadimians went to Djir together with the Salahbi’s son Hum, appointed by Almysh as a new Bulgarian viceroy of Djir. When those who sailed to Sadum returned to Djir, they told Hum, that his grandfather Erek is still alive and that after the decimation of Khud he took to in memory of him the name Khud. In 925 AD Hum was kicked out from the Djir by Ugyr, but in the same year was reinstated by Almysh....

In 943 AD Hum was sent by Kan Yalkau to a raid against Gurgja, where again began the oppression of the local Hons or Sevars. Hum’s troops sailed in the ships to Itil, where Modjar in a self-confidence tried to stop him. Angry with shots from the shore, ours landed close to the palace of the Khakan and took it by storm. The Bek was killed, and his protege Jusuf fled to the Kumans. On the Khazarian throne sat, without special ceremonies, Alan, released by the Itil Burdjans from a dungeon. The new Khakan immediately let the passage of our group to the sea. Crossing the sea, Hum sailed up the Karachai river to the city Alaberda. Though it was a Moslem city, but they were strongly connected with the infidel Gurdjans and the Modjars, that’s why they met ours with extreme hostility and refused to let them pass to the Gurgja. For a few days Hum tried to appeal to the conscience of these people, who sold out the fellow tribesmen for the sake of a profit, and then at sunrise seized the Alaberda citadel and offered the Bek of the city to conclude with him a treaty about the free passage of the Bulgars to the Gurgja and back. But the vali of the city was even more self-confident than Modjar. He decided to become famous with a victory over the Bulgars and ordered the inhabitants to prepare the storm of the fortresses. When even the Gurgjians, frightened by the appearance of the Bulgars on their borders, released the leaders of the Sevars to the Bulgars in the Alaberda, the vali seized these biys and attacked the citadel. Not achieving any success, the Bek treacherously offered to Hum to leave the city in exchange for the release of the Sevars and a tribute. The Ulugbek of Djir agreed, but when he left the citadel, the vali attacked him. The ours broke through and returned, but Hum was fatally wounded. On the death bed, he regretted the skirmish with the Moslems forced upon him, and so bequeathed to his son Syp to donate all the spoils to the mosque. With these means in the Nur-Suvar was built a two-story mosque "Al-Hum", which beautiful building from the side reminded a kumgan, and the gallery on the south as its handle. The walls of the mosque were decorated with an amazing ornament and with images of the birds and animals. Around it was arranged a wonderful garden with a small lake in the center, and it became the main attraction of the city...

And Syp quite often sailed to Bashtu, transporting his ships from the Idel to the Shir by Bekhtash, and thus received a nickname Shambat. He was friends with Salman, who was sailing with his father to the Alaberda. And their possessions were next to each other, in the Ulem ulus... And other possessions of the descendants of Hum, which were called a house of Utar after their ancestor Khud-Erek, were by the rivers Chu-yl and Adidel. From this this house came a lot of great salchibashes, ferry owners and merchants, who were sailing to the native land of Ugar, the northernmost Sadum, the Urman... Once the ship of Syp-Shambat got in a terrible storm, and he in fear appealed to the mercy of the Almighty, promising in the case of the safe outcome to accept Islam. The Creator spared the sailor, and Syp-Shambat after the arrival in the Bulgar took a name Gusman... On his money he erected a fortress Gusman on the river Djuk which became the main one on the Hukrat way to the north. And this Yul began in the Bolgar. From the Bolgar they sailed on the Agidel and Nukrat-su, and then went to the fortress Gusman, where the roads from the Djir and Bolgar joined. And from the Gusman-Katau by the Djuk and Tun they came to the river Bishek, on it they reached the Biysu tributary Oshma and by the Oshma also were coming to the Biysu. The branch of the Hukrat road that went from the Bolgar by the Agidel and Chulman to the Biysu was called the Chulman road... And about the origin of the names for these rivers the seid Yakub wrote the following. Once the son of Aiha Mizan sailed from the Urman to Biysu and decided to shorten the way, not to go to the mouth of the Biysu, where was the city Ak-Artan, but to cut through a shorter way. He landed in the mouth of a river which began to be called by his name, and then by its tributary went to the Biysu. The Shudian biy pursued him and fatally wounded his fellow merchant, Bozay. Therefore the small river received his name. Then Mizan was fleeing from the pursuit, almost without resting, by the left tributary of the Biysu, and nicknamed it Yalitmé.

This name later turned into Djalna. Only at the Biysu, where were patrols of our Biysuan Ars, he could at last take a rest. From Biysu he, already in a complete safety and without a haste, went south by the river which he named Ashkyma, and in a due course this word became Ashmaì... The Mizans were engaged in trade, mainly of the northern goods, the canine teeth and horns of the water and field Ajdakhi, furs, honey and wax. At this, they were tireless in their travels. The son of Mizan was even was nicknamed Ülbat... To his son Bulan, the Kan Mohammed ordered to sell the right for the collection of the tribute from the Ars of the Ish district, that’s why he was nicknamed Ish-Bulan. Once to him, on the river Sudju, came the buyer of his goods from the Azerbaijan, Minas, and asked to tell him about the road to the north. ”What for do you know it?”, asked surprised Bulan.

-” The goods from the north are always sold at fabulous prices, and it is explained by the difficulty of the road to the north. I do not believe it and I want to buy these goods right there”, answered Minas. ”But it is truth, and only the extraordinary hardy person, knowing the environment and the customs of the peoples of the North can reach it and return, and even that with a greatest risk for his life”, objected Ish-Bulat, trying to stop the merchant. But he excited even more and accused Bulan of trickery. Then the son of Üulbat pointed to him the most safe of all the roads to the north, The Nukrat road, and suggested to accompany him, but Minas refused and went alone. To the preset date he did not return, and disquieted Bulan went to trace him. Near the mouth of the river Ot, the left tributary of the Nukrat-su, he found a block of ice with frozen in it Minas... As soon as the rivers opened, Ish-Bulan came again to this place and buried the merchant, and gave to his son his name. The river Ot after that began to be named Kilmes ("No Return")...

The son of Gusman was Kep, nicknamed Ker-Khum because he married a captured slave, a Rumian. Ordered by Talib, he and his father, participated in the campaign of the Bashtu Bek Barys against the Rum... The son of Ker-Khum was Tuki, his son was Kadyl, his son was Shuran, his son was Mishar, his son was Kukchi, his son was Kalga Shirdan, his son was Khalmysh, who has beaten off from the Ruses the Emir Azan, his son was Khair, his son was Gali, who ferried the Bek Gazan across Agidel and hid after that in Ashit...

[a sketchy extract from the manuscript of the collection: ”The son Gali was Kutlug, who was raiding Djuketun, his son was Asyl, who was fighting in 1278 at the ferries with Tatars and who then was hiding in his estate until 1293, his sin was Urus-Kuük, his son was Amat, who in 1323 resisted Bulüm-Orda (Bulüm-Ordy) and then was hiding in his estate up to the ..., his son was Buy...”]

And shortly before the death of Salahbi died his wife Gazaya, the Êwaresmian Musallah, and after her died Bat-Ugyr, who just returned from Khazaria...

Chapter 10. The departure of the Great Ambassador  (922 - 1035 AD)

In August the ambassador Razi decided to go back. Seid Ahmed Bakir and Gazan insisted on that Razi went by the Bukhara road, however the sheikh Hasan reminded of the fate of the merchant Musa è convinced the ambassador in the advantages of the Horys-yuly...

On the way back Razi started with a company of the Mardjan Emir, Sheikh Hasan, and his son Tadj from the daughter of Mardjan Tuybiki, and Balus... To the Arbuga they sailed on the ship of the senior son of Karadjury Salman. He was married to the daughter of Gazan Musallé and had from her... the son Saban, the founder of the Bellakian house of Saban. And the representatives of this house were engaged in the shipbuilding, sailing, mainly south of Bolgar, and in the trade in wood, salt, fish. Saban gave many donations for the construction of Bandja and its main mosque "Saban".

His son Saksin donated money for the construction of city Saksin-Bolgar. His son was Djegel, who founded the good wharf in Bandja, his son was Yashel Kaf Urus. He defeated the Rus fleet twice. First time it was in 1025. Then under the order of the Galidjian Bek Arslan the Sadimians and the Galidjians broke down the checkpoint Djunhé-Balik (in the Djunn balik), built by the order of Ibragim, the descendant of Buri-Bash..., and, coming to the Bolgar, helped Azgar to capture the capital. Yashel, who was then in the Tukhchi, did not take the humiliation of the Emir Baluk and decided to revenge. When the Rusians, renumerated by Azgar, set off home, Yashel with his fleet overtook them west of the mouth of Arsu, near the aul Naratlyk, and sank them all. Here lost their lives such well-known Beks of Sadimians as Burat, Urman and his son... In the memory of it the aul Naratlyk was renamed Yashel Naratlyk, and the place of the death of Burat was renamed Burat, and Bek Yashel received a honorable nickname Urus. In 1032 Yashel went from Bandja to the Timer-Kabak in the Djurash. Then Djurashian Emir was expelled from the city and asked Baluk for the help against the rebels. Under the order of Ashraf, Yashel returned the Timer-Kabak to the Emir Riza and received from the Kan the honorable nickname Kaf. Then his son Urman, so called in the honor of the defeated by him Sadumian Bek, married the daughter of Riza, and they had the son Riza, so called in honor of Emir. After that campaign Yashel also founded the aul Timer-Kabak in the mouth of the river Samar...

And the second time Kaf-Urus defeated Rusians in 1035, when the Bolgar was attacked, with the Galidjian fleet, by the Sadumian Bek Khin-Kubar.

Then Yashel sank a few ships of the enemies and forced the Galidjians to jump out on the bank where they were stomped on...

And the son of Riza was Bel by the nickname Imen. He gave money for the construction of the Sarychin, therefore this city was also called Belu-Imen. And it was by his ship that Abu Hamid al-Garnati arrived from the Saksin to Echke Bulgar... The son of Bel-Imen was Sakal, his son was Urman, his son was Azgar, his son was Asla, his son was Atrak, who was born in 1220... [a partial excerpt from the manuscript of the collection: ”Atrak, son of Asla or Ashla, was deprived of the fleet for ferrying the army of Gazan across Agidel, and, abandoning the trade, he became a kazanchi. The center of his possessions became the city of Karadjar or Karadjur, which later was called Atrach in honor of Atrak. And his clan received the name Atrach”.]

In Arbuga Mardjan told Razi about the demise of all Murdases from a terrible illness during which the person had cramps in the stomach, became red and then perished with inexpressible sufferings. The Sheikh Hasan then told people: ”Accept the Islam and Almighty will find a way to save you!” Everybody immediately accepted the true faith, a mosque in city of Burtas was built, and they survived, but the Murdases, who have remained heathen, all died. The Emir offered the ambassador to visit and consecrate with a pray this mosque, as the Burtas was on his way, and Razi, excited by what he have heard, agreed... After the prayer in the Burtasian mosque, which the ambassador named "Mardjan", people from the neighboring Bellakian fortresses Suba came to him and asked him to consecrate with a pray also the mosque they just built. Razi did not refuse here too, and went to the fortress, the mosque and a fortress of which the people named with his name in the memory of his visit...

After the departure of the Great Embassy Almysh finished the division of the countries into new provinces. In place of the Bolgar, Bershud and Esegel were formed provinces Suvar with the center in Nur-Suvar, Bolgar with the center in Bolgar, Martüba reporting to Bolgar, Baytüba with the center in Bulyar, Tamtà... and Kashan with the center in the city of Kashan, later subordinated to Bulyar. And the Kashan was founded by Djakyn, who married the daughter of Abdallah and had from her the son called in honor of the tebir Abdallah. Djakyn was entirely devoted to the son of Michael and even out of the respect for him accepted Islam from his hands and the name of his father, Michael. It helped the Djakyn clan to enter number of few of the elite. So, his son Abdallah was the governor of the Bulyar, Suvar and Bolgar. And the former province was Biysu was divided into three, Biysu with the center in Gusman-Katau, Ura with the center in aul Kargadan, and Baygul, reporting to Ura...

By the advice of Abdallah ibn Bashtu, Djafar made a reform of the tax system. As the igenchey-sabans muddied themselves by their participation in the ”War of Biys”, he forbade this name and ordered to call this category of the igencheys subashes, in memory of their support of the Kan. The Moslem Igencheys since then were called subashes, who were paying to the state only a minimal and strictly defined tax of money, cattle, furs or produce. This tax in case of a need could be replaced with other equivalent duties, like the construction of the roads, bridges, state buildings and others. The subashes were not taken to a war, and only in a case of an attack of an enemy on the Bulgar they formed a militia. The Igencheys who remained heathen were enlisted, if they wished, in either the Chirmyshes or Ak-Chirmyshes, or in Kara-Chirmyshes. The Chirmyshes paid the tax in the same size as subashes and besides were in the military service. During the war they received a part of the spoils. For the military call they had to come with full arms bought with their means. Any soldier could be executed on the spot in case of the detection of his lack of arms. He was also executed for the disrespect for the weapons.. The Kara-Chirmyshes paid a double subashes’ tax, the tax for the mosque and, besides, bore other duties in the amount of two subashes’ taxes. In addition to these categories of the state peasants, of which the subashes and chirmyshes were considered as junior knights, the bakhadirs, and could have the weapons, during Gazan time appeared a new category of the peasants, the kurmyshes. As the kurmyshes began to be named the kara-chirmyshes who were obligated to pay the tax to the madian and the upper knights, to the ulans or kazanchis. Later on some ulans for the special feats began to receive the lands of Kara-Chirmyshes in hereditary possession. The kurmysh could leave the kazanchi, but in that case he would loose the land...

Owners in cities made a knightly class of suvari, for this category was suggested by the Nur-Suvar merchants and artisans. The small owners, suvarchis, were equaled with bakhadirs, the median ones with the Beks, valis, centurions (head of a hundred - Translator’s Note) and inals, and the nobles were equaled with ulans... In case of an attack by the enemies they also had to form the militias of kaveses and, besides, to maintain bulek (detachments) of the hired soldiers and to serve as yaubashes (officers)...

In addition to it the Kan found that the country is rather unfortified and in addition is surrounded by enemies. Replacing a part of the taxes from igenchis by a duty to build and maintain fortifications, Djafar undertook a construction of the bulwarks and fortresses. The Kan charged Askal, married to the daughter of Almysh, with a direct control of this endevoir and Djafar sent Bek Djulut to assist him. These representatives went together with Kan, seid Bakir and tebir Abdallah along the country and planned the sites for the fortresses. From the encampment Shepshé at the Dyau-Shir on the small river which people also called Narat-Elga they went to the encampment Marduan on the Akhtay, from it to the encampment Urnash on the river Utig [a partial excerpt from the manuscript of the collection: ”And after the death of Kühri, the daughter of the Kan Mohammed-Alma, the city of Urnash began to be called by her name”], from there to the locality Takta between the Akhtay and Kichi-Chirmyshàn, near which Byrak attacked the Türkmen. The seid blessed the construction of fortresses in those places, and were built the cities of Shepshé, which began to be also called As-Kala, Mardan, Urnash and the Takta. And the artisans were the future founders of the notable houses: Chuti from Takta, Abrak-Khum and Ubar. All of them, the taktachy Chuti, and chulmekchi Abrak-Khum, and bakyrchi Ubar moved later to Bandja, and their descendants made the noble houses taktachys, chulmekchis, timerchis, altynchis and bakyrchis in the Bandja, and in the Bolgar, and in the Bulyar, and the Nur-Suvar...

And then were renovated the fortresses Torkoch (Terkech) in the Sulcha, in the Nur-Suvar, which was also called Baryntu in memory of the lodging there of the baryns of Alabuga, were built the fortresses in the Kermek, which was called in honor of the Askal son Kermek, in the Tersek on the Sulcha-su, in the Deber on the Züya- Idel. And Deber was the last fortress built during the Almysh time. Then, during the Gazan time, were built the fortresses Matak between Kichi-Chirmyshàn and Sulcha, Nukrat between Akhta and Kichi-Chirmyshàn, Bandja, Bulyar, Kamysh on the Kinel, Simbir, Gazan-Deber on the Züya, Kashan and Tukhcha on the Agidel, Tau-Kerman near the mouth of the Züya-Idel, Tash-Bolgar, Cubash-Simbir, Tash-Simbir and Karadjar on the Mountain side, Djilan on Chishma. By the Gazan time there already were a total of thirty cities, that’s why from that time survived the saying: ”Gazan patsha zamanynda utyz kala”...

In the 924 AD died the Emir Mardjan or Mardan, in memory of which the province Bellak began to be called also Mardan. Balus married his daughter Suzbi, and after the death of Mardan the Bellakians installed the Bek as the governor of the province. This right to elect their governors the Mardanians received from the Kan for supporting him during the time of the ”War of Biys”. In addition to it the governors of the Bellak received the title of Emirs, which had only the relatives of the Kan and a few of the noble Beks...

Though Mardan did not always agree with Almysh, the Kan took his death heavily.”Allmighty already took for his judgment of all my brothers, that means soon comes and my turn”, he told tebir Abdallah. Preparing to travel to the other world, Djafar speded up the completion of the reforms he started. He granted an autonomy to the inhabitants of the Bolgar, and then to the Nur-Suvar. In the Nur-Suvar later was built the mosque "El-Khum" at the medressé of which emerged a brotherhood "El-Khum". The members of this brotherhood were refusing the luxury and other worldly temptations, and tirelessly spread the light of the true faith in all the provinces of the State...

Balus, jealous of Suvars and Bolgars, also started construction of cities and fortifications. So, in 925 AD he erected a new capital of the Mardan, Bandja, which began to be called both the Bandja-Burtas, and Nusha-Bandja... That Bandjans gave with pleasure to their cathedral mosque the name "Saban", for it reminded them of their old privileges and their origin from the Sabanian clans... He also built a few taverns on the Idel, one of which was called, in honor of his wife, "Suz-Uryny". Balus always consulted with his wife before making any decision. And Suzbi had such respect by the people, that after the death of the father she ruled in Bellak for some time. However in the Mardan all major decisions were taken by the medjlises of the districts: on the right-bank by the Burtasian and Arbugian, and on the left-bank by the Badjanakian and Kinelian. Unlike the medjlises of the Bolgar, Suvar and Bulyar, the descendants of the biys who were called aksakals played a big role in them. In the right-bank districts prevailed the descendants of the Sabanian, Saklanian and Modjarian biys, and in the left-bank prevailed the descendants of the Kyr-Badjanakian biys. A lot of the Mardanian Badjinaks , at the times of the invasions of the Türkmen, Kypchak Türks and Manguls fled to the right-bank districts of the Bellak and to the Tamta-Bashkort. Under their influence the part the Modjarian Bulgars began to say "ts" instead of "ch", and Bashkortian Bulgars "h" instead of "s". So, for example...

The greatest incomes Mardan received from the trading duties, for all the ways from the Inner Bulgaria to the west and south went through the cities, taverns and menzels of the Bellak and because these roads were very well maintained. It was even happening that the merchants from the Bolgar preferred to reach the Kan not through Martüba, but by a longer, but better way, through Bellak. The Mardanians were very much proud of that even the great ambassador passed through their territory. Razi passed through the Arbuga, Burtas, Razi-Suba, the lands of the Mukhshian Bashkorts or the Modjars , subordinated to the Burtas, and left from the Bellak through the last Bulgarian station on the Khorysdan - yuly road, the Boryn, on the river Boryn-Inesh , a tributary of the Shir. Then the Boryn began to be also called Yauchy. Why the river was called so, the historians tell differently. One says that it received this name due to the location of the station on the áîðûí (a cape) in the bend of the river. Others say that the river in this place reached the nose of the first Bulgarian merchant who forwarded it, and he therefore called it Boryn-Inesh. And prior to that the great ambassador after the Razi-Suba rested at the stations Kuper or Kubar on the river Kubar, at the Burtas-Simbir near the river Karga, Yozek, Yshna on the river Yshna, Leybat or Aibat...
68

<= Previous

Next =>

Djagfar Tarihi Contents · Djagfar Tarihi Preface · Chapters 1-5 · Chapters 6-10 · Chapters 11-15 · Chapters 16-20 · Chapters 21-25 and Ghazi-Baradj · Appendix

Home
Back
In Russian
Sources
Roots
Tamgas
Alphabet
Writing
Language
Genetics
Geography
Archeology
Religion
Coins
Wikipedia
Overview of Sarmatian chronology
Saltovo-Mayak Culture
Ogur and Oguz
Scythians
Alans
Kipchaks
M.Bashtu "Shan Kyzy Dastany"
Kul Gali "Book of Huns"
Kul Gali "Tale of Joseph"
Kul Ashraf "Letter to Turkish Sultan"
Alan Dateline
Avar Dateline
Besenyo Dateline
Bulgar Dateline
Huns Dateline
Karluk Dateline
Khazar Dateline
Kimak Dateline
Kipchak Dateline
Kyrgyz Dateline
Sabir Dateline
Seyanto Dateline
©TurkicWorld 2003
11/02/2003
Ðåéòèíã@Mail.ru