with Beastly Xianya. This phenomenon seemed miraculous to a resident of Central Asia, and southern fantasy made him see people fighting among themselves in the clouds. "When we asked the king about this, he said that his ancestors said that it was the fans and opponents of the devils of ancient times who fought and did it all the time. 1). "Thunderstorms happen there very often. If lightning strikes a house, then they (the Bulgarians) immediately leave it and leave it until the wind and weather completely destroy it, saying that' God" 2). For violation of chastity and for theft, the punishment was the same - death." 3). The custom of showering honored guests with silver coins is also interesting ^)
The beginning of the political history of the Bulgarians is lost to the darkness of antiquity. We can consider it reliable only from the time when the first works of our literature and Arab writers appeared about Bulgaria. We will begin our presentation of the external political life of the Bulgarian people from the first half of the 10th century. 5).
How the Bulgarian state was born, how the neighboring Greek tribes were subordinated to it, we do not know. We only have every right to think that neither from the north nor from the east the Boltars had to withstand a serious struggle and wait for any danger: the Eel people, with all their ancient culture, could not fight the Bulgarian sovereign. Danger could only threaten from the Utah, where the Bulgarians were the Khazars and the Aloch hordes, and from the west, where the TH art. a strong Russian state is being organized. Bulgaria was primarily a commercial and industrial state. The interests of a purely industrial character explain its entire internal history. The first time the Bulgarians took a small part in political events in the south was in 912-13, when the Rubes, after their predatory campaign to the east, were completely defeated in Khazarsh. Some of them rushed to Bulgaria, but they were all killed 5). For a period of peace necessary for the development of trade and industry
[fragment illegible in the scan of the first edition]
?) Pudesh, b. 576.
3) Puemt.
5) In order to give here only a brief outline of the political history of the Boltars, we refer for a more detailed presentation of the facts to the works of Korsakov, “Merya and the Rostov Principality” and Shpilevsky “Ancient Cities of the Bulgarian Kingdom”.:
°) Al-Masudi (Harqawi. “Told by Muslim writers,” p. 133).
laziness, ‘it became a mess. But in 968, the Bulgarians themselves had to test the botany of the daredevils. Previously, the Russians peacefully arrived in the Bulgar, lived there, traded, without bothering about any obstacles or obstacles '). But in this tolu they attacked the Bulgars, terribly robbed and ruined them. this?). This defeat was long remembered in the East, where news quickly spread about the misfortune that befell Bulgaria. Modern Arabic writers talk about this sad thing. fact, and those who even thought that the Bulgar after this turned into ruins °): But the Bulgar soon recovered. After the final fall of the Khazar Kaganate at the beginning of the XX century, there was, most likely, annexation of its northern parts to Bulgaria, since in the 13th century. The Bulgarian city is Saksin, located on the river. The Urals were previously included in the Kaganate "). (The nomadic peoples have now moved to the south, first the Pechenzgs, then the Torks and Polovtsians. The responsibility to protect eastern trade from these unsavory conditions now falls to the lot of the Bulgarian kingdom. We know nothing about the relations of the Bulgarians with the nomads, but, apparently, the Bulgarian government dealt harshly with these fellows. Thus, in 1117, several Polovtsian princes were poisoned to the Bulgar, it is unknown why the nomads came 5).
The attack on Bulgaria, made in 968 by Sovatovlav in passing on the way to Khazaro, could only weaken the trade movement along the Volga for some time. Trade, in fact, did not stop, part 10 is proven by the large treasures of oriental coins of the 10th century, found in the village of Rosai and in the west. Europe In this century, the subordination of the power of the princes of Cleves to the tribes living in the territory of the present Roedi, both Slavic and foreign, took place, and the search for someone else could impose tribute on. The Bulgar story is too familiar in Rus' so that the Kevek princes do not try to get tribute from the Bulgarian people. Such an attempt was made in 985 by Vladiztrom, but, apparently, it was unsuccessful, although the campaign was extinguished.
*) Ibn-Gaukal (1 4esh, p. 219). A
2) We cry.: