>(and note especially the music) is very different from what you
>usually associate with Slavic or European. The irregular rhythmic
>patterns of our folk music (which is also very chromatic) make
>every outsider stumble.
Exactly. It is so to speak thoroughly "Balkanic" and, thus,
quite different from the Turkish-Turkic music --
from everywhere between Turkey and Manchuria (including
that exotic "Kehlgesang", Chöömi, which is so characteristic
to East-Turkistan, Tuva and Mongolia). But Bulgarian
folklore is very close to the neighbours' music and dances
(up to the Northern slopes of the Carpathians).
>I deeply believe this is not Slavic and not Turkic. So what is it?
>Don't say Greek.
Alex will tell you! ;-)
>That's clear. Now the argument is that the Protobulgarians were
>actually numerous.
Perhaps they were as numerous as the Hungarians (Magyars as
well as tribes of Turkic and Iranic languages, accompanied by
Slavic emigrants), as these arrived Pannonia around 896 (after
having left Ukraine). BTW, the Bulghar ruling house might have
been related to the ruling house of the Hungarians (the Arpadians).
Sources considered these also to have been Turks (at least the
upper class).
>This is not an unsupported argument. It is
>reflected in historical sources and confirmed by logical
>considerations. A Jewish friend of mine, who cannot be accused of
>too much patriotism, once said she also wondered how the Bulgars,
>being so very few, managed to rip off this territory from Byzantium
Thanks to... armed forces. Territories have always been
conquered by warriors (soldiers=). And the mounted forces of
the "Scythic-Turanic" kind were a real military menace to Europe in
the time span between, say, Atilla and Temüdjin-Dhinghis's
sons and nephews.
>Note that the
>Bulgars are described as a nomadic tribe, underdeveloped culturally
>(huh? Gesa Fecher rejected this theory based on archeological
Actually the Bulgars in general, those initially all living in "Great
Bulgaria", between Kama and Volga and the Urals, are meant.
An image based on accounts by ibn Fadlan (cf. his journey to
the Khazar khanate and the northern Bulghars), ibn Rusta, Masudi
& al. sources approx 1000 years ago.
E.g.:
"There is nothing mysterious about the cruel treatment meted out by the
Bulgars to people who were overly clever. It was based on the simple, sober
reasoning of the average citizens who wanted only to lead what they
considered to be a normal life, and to avoid any risk or adventure into
which the "genius" might lead them."
Ibn Fadlan describes not the simple murder of too-clever people, but one of
their pagan customs: human sacrifice, by which the most excellent among men
were offered as sacrifice to God. This ceremony was probably not carried
out by common Bulgars, but by their Tabibs, or medicine men, i.e. their
shamans, whose equivalents among the Bulgars and the Rus also wielded power
of life and death over the people, in the name of their cult. According to
Ibn Rusta, the medicine men of the Rus could put a rope round the neck of
anybody and hang him on a tree to invoke the mercy of God. When this was
done, they said: "This is an offering to God."
by Ahmed Zeki Validi Togan (a Bashkir turkologist, who also taught in Austria
and Germany), as quoted in Art Köstler's book "The 13th tribe"
>And how, in addition to
>that, did the Bulgars manage to organize the Slavs, rule them, give
>them much of their culture of governance and military skill (the
>latter according to Fecher), etc.
Much as their cousins, Khazars and Hungarians respectively
did. :)
>Yet we call ourselves Bulgarians and our culture is still
>very Bulgarian
The wording makes a difference though: the Bulgars, and the
Bulgarians.
>I just think no side should be ignored and denied proper
>research.
There has been a lot of research though on Bulgars who
once inhabited what's today Bashkiria, i.e. territories
North-East of Khazaria. And only a branch of them migrated
to what's today Bulgaria and Hungary, others stayed put
(and were the ancestors of today's Chuvashes and Bashkirs).
>I never studied anything of the kind, sincerely. Source?
Methinks he means Asen bros. (Ivan, Peter and Yannis "the
Handsome").
>Eva
George