ORIGINS AND FIRST LAND OF THE BULGARIANS

For a very long time the oldest cradle of the Bulgarian tribe remained hidden for the scrutiny of science. Some looked for it in Altai and Mongolia, others, like D. Susulov, N. Stanishev, in Tarim, to the East of Pamir. There were others who looked to the North, in the Caucasus,and still others considered Bulgarians to be Europeans, akin to the Thracians. It is only in the last years that we found some guiding lights in thiscomplex mazeway of hypotheses. The most important one relates to the newly found inscriptions, written in the language of the Bulgarian rulers KUBRAT and ASPARUH. In their form those inscriptions remind very much of the East Pamir languages(Vakhan (Vahi), Ishkashim , Mundjan , Sarikoli and Darwaz), which is an indicating that the landof origin of the ancient Bulgarians was not Europe, neither was it Mongolia or Turkestan It was somewhere in PAMIR and HINDUKUSH . We get the same evidence from the peculiar words KAVHAN, TARKAN, ZHOPAN, ZERA, KALU, SETIT, and others, which can be found in the old Bulgarian inscription in Greek. Such concepts are unknown to the Mongols and the Turkic people, but they are well known to the people of Pamir. Anthropological research also shows that ancient Bulgarians have lived some time in the past in Pamir. In their physical appearance the old Bulgarians resembled very much the Pamir-Fergan racial type, that originated in the southern and the most civilized part of Central Asia. According to the oldest Armenian geography "the Bulgarians were among the 15 peoples "who inhabited once the land between Turkestan and the Areans in the foots of the mountain Imai" (Imeon is today Pamir and Hindukush).Since the name Turkestan was used before 6-7th century for the land beyond Sur-Darya, and the word "areans" was the name for the people in the Afghan region of Area, this description indicates that the Bulgarians have lived at some period to the East of Persia and to the West of Sur-Darya - the mountains of Pamir and Hindukush. On the geographic map, appended to "Ashharatsuits", recently published by academician S. Eremyan, the name of the Bulgarians is located exactly at the point where the western ranges of the Imeon mountains meet it snorthern ranges - the Zervansh crest of Pamir. In the well known Latin anonymous Chronograph of 345, the name of the ancient Bulgarians is used as a replacement of the old Baktrinians, who inhabited the lands near the Pamir and the Hindukush. This is to show that for the compilers of this early historical source the Bulgarians were a part of the peoples inhabiting the region between Persia and Turkestan. Two more facts deserve attention. In the northern parts of the Pamir there was a state, called by the Sogdinians BLGAR, by the Arabs -BURGAR, and by the Tadziks - FALGAR. And to the West of the Pamir Indian sources (MAHABHARATA and the PURANAS) mention people of the name of BOLHI , BAHLIKA or BOLHIKI, ruled by the ancient king KARDAMA, and the Arab sources mention the ancient land of BALHARA. Some more details, suggested about a century ago by Prof. Vassil Zlatarski, are also of importance: round the mountain of Imeon there were, according to the Byzantine historian Agatius, the lands of the Kutrigurs, Utigurs and Vurugunds (presumably the Unogondurs). In the same region was situated the Onogur town of Bakat, according to Simokata. And lastly, the same region is the land of origin of the tribe of Kozagirs in whom Zlatarski, reasonably, sees the predecessors of the well known Bulgarian division "Kuchi-bulgar" like today's Afghan Kuchis. All scholarly evidence of the lands of origin of ancient Bulgarians focuses on one and the same geographic region - the Pamir and the Hindukush. Attempts to look for the oldest lands of the Bulgarians fareast - in Turkestan and Mongolia, where lived the tribes PU-KU and BAIEGU, mentioned in Chinese sources, or near the Mongolian river Tolaand the lake Balhash, have failed. For behind the Chinese words Pu-Kuand Baiegu are hidden the Kirgiz tribes BUGU and MAIIRKU, who have nothing in common with the ancient Bulgarians. The name Tola in the eastern Altai languages means deep-water river , and Balhash in Tuvinian means literally "swamp, moor". Fortunately there is a chronicle that has survived and it describes directly the land of origin of the Bulgarians in Europe. It was left by Mikhail the Syrian - Patriarch of Antiohia, called for his scholarly distinctionand erudition Mar Mikhail the Great. Here is what he says: "At those times there came from internal Skitia (Central Asia) three brothers,wholead with them 30 000 Skitians, and took the road of 60 days to the gorges of Imeon (Pamir and Hindukush) to the river Tanais (the Don),which flows into the lake of Meotida. Those people were named by the Romans Bulgars." This short description, discovered by Vassil Zlatarski, shows that the lands of ancient Bulgarians were in the valleys of the Pamir and the Hindukush. Starting from there, in about 60 days they reached the river Don and the Azov sea. If we start in the opposite direction from the Don to the east, we can easily confirm the correctness of this short story. For it is true that in about 60 days one can reach on foot from the Don to the northern foots of the Pamir, where the old lands of BALGAR were, called even today by the local Tadziks PALGAR. After almost two centuries of research and the endeavors of many scholars the sacred fatherland of the Bulgarians was discovered. This land, so dear to us, was situated in the foots of the Pamir and the Hindukush, where since ancient times existed the states of BALGAR and BALHARA.