The Nominalia of the Bulgarian khans (Bulgarian: Именник на българските ханове) is a short manuscript containing the names of some early Bulgarian rulers, their clans, the year of their ascending to the throne and the length of their rule, including the times of joint rule and civil war. A manuscript (Latin manu scriptus, written by hand), strictly speaking, is any written document that is put down by hand, in contrast to being printed or reproduced some other way. ... For other uses, see Clan (disambiguation). ... A civil war is a war in which parties within the same culture, society or nationality fight against each other for the control of political power. ...

The Nominalia was found by the Russian scholar Alexander Popov, during his research on Russian chronographers. So far, three Russian copies of the document have been found. The earliest of them, the "Uvarov transcript"[1], dates from the 15th century and the other two, the Pogodin and Moscow transcripts, from the 16th century. There are certain differences in the names' spellings in the manuscripts. Despite the commonly accepted name of the nominalia, none of them uses the Central Asian title khan. Only Asparuh (the founder of Danube Bulgaria) and his five predecessors are assigned a title, and that is the Slavonic title knyaz. There are several famous people named Alexander Popov Alexander Stepanovitch Popov, physicist, 1859-1905 Alexander Popov, swimmer, born 1971 Alexander Popov, biathlete This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Uvarovs portrait by Orest Kiprensky, 1815. ... (14th century - 15th century - 16th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 15th century was that century which lasted from 1401 to 1500. ... Mikhail Petrovich Pogodin (Russian: , 1800-1875) was a Russian historian and journalist who dominated the national historiography between the death of Nikolay Karamzin in 1826 and the rise of Sergey Solovyov in the 1850s. ... For other uses, see Moscow (disambiguation). ... (15th century - 16th century - 17th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century was that century which lasted from 1501 to 1600. ... Map of Central Asia showing three sets of possible boundaries for the region Central Asia located as a region of the world Central Asia is a vast landlocked region of Asia. ... This article is about the title. ... Khan Asparukh or Khan Asparoukh (d. ... This article is about the Danube River. ... The Slavic peoples are the most numerous ethnic and linguistic body of peoples in Europe. ... Kniaz’ or knyaz is a word found in some Slavic languages, denoting a nobility rank. ...

The "Uvarov transcript" text

Авитохолъ житъ лет. ~т. род ему Дуло. а лет ему диломъ твирем. Ирник. житъ лет. ~(ри). род ему Дуло. а лет ему дилом твeримь. Гостунъ наместникь сьï два лета. род ему. Ерми. а лет ему дохсъ. втиремь. Курт: 60 лет дръжа. род ему Дуло. а лет ему шегоръ вечемь. Безмеръ ~г. лет. а род ему Дуло. а лет ему шегоръ вемь. сii ~е княз. дръжаше княженïе обону страну Дуная. летъ. ~ф. ~(еi). остриженами главами. И потом прiиде на страну Дунаа. Исперих княз тожде и доселе. Есперих княз. 61 лет. род Дуло. а лет ему верени алем. Тервен. -к~а. лето. род ему Дуло. а лет ему текучитем. твирем. ~(ки). лет. род ему Дуло. а род ему дваншехтем. Севаръ. ~(еl). лет. род ему Дуло. а лет ему тохалтом. Кормисошь. ~(зi). лет. род ему Вокиль. а лет ему шегоръ твиремь. Сiи же княз измени род Дулов. рекше Вихтунь. Винех. ~з. лет. а род ему Оукиль. а летъ ему имаше Горалемь. Телець. ~г. лета. род Оугаинь. а лет ему соморъ. алтемь. И сïй иного рад. Оуморъ. ~м. днïи. род ему Оукиль а ему дилом тоутом.

Translation

• Avitohol lived 300 years. His clan was Dulo and his year (of ascending to the throne) dilom tvirem.
• Irnik lived 150 years. His clan Dulo and his year dilom tverim.
• Gostun, the regent, 2 years. His clan Ermi and his year dokhs tvirem.
• Kurt ruled 60 years. His clan Dulo and his year shegor vechem.
• Bezmer 3 years and his clan Dulo and his year shegor vem (vechem).

These five princes ruled the kingdom over the other side of the Danube for 515 years with shaven heads and after that came to this side of the Danube Asparuh knyaz and until now (rules). Avitohol ( ?153-453? ) is the first name in the Nominalia of the Bulgarian khans. ... The Dulo Clan or the House of Dulo was the name of the ruling dynasty of the early Bulgars. ... Ernakh or Ernac (Priscus: Ήρνάχ Hernach) was the 3rd son of Attila. ... Gostun was khan of the Bulgar Kutrigurs appointed by Bayan (Avar Khagan) and was from the Clan of Ermi between 582 and 584. ... Kubrats Great Bulgaria and adjacent regions, c. ... Khan Asparoukh (681 - 700) THEN CAME ACROSS THE DANUBE Isperukh Khan. ... This article is about the Danube River. ... Kniaz’ or knyaz is a word found in some Slavic languages, denoting a nobility rank. ...

• Asparuh knyaz 61 years (ruled). His clan Dulo and his year vereni alem.
• Tervel 21 years. His clan Dulo and his year tekuchitem tvirem.

(An additional ruler is sometimes inserted here, depending on the reading.) Khan Asparukh or Khan Asparoukh (d. ... Kniaz’ or knyaz is a word found in some Slavic languages, denoting a nobility rank. ... Khan Tervel or Tarvel, or Terval, or Terbelis in some Byzantine sources, was the khan of the Bulgars from 700 or 701-718. ...

• Sevar 15 years. His clan Dulo and his year toh altom.
• Kormisosh 17 years. His clan Vokil and his year shegor tvirem.
• Vinekh 7 years. His clan Ukil. And his year (imen)shegor alem.
• Telets 3 years. His clan Ugain and his year somor altem.
• Umor (ruled) 40 days. His clan Ukil and his year dilom tutom.

The italicized words are in the Bulgar language as given in the original manuscript and represent the year and month of ascending to the throne of each ruler according to the Bulgar calendar. Their translation is uncertain, but there appears to be a consensus that they are based on a system similar to the Chinese calendar (which was also adopted by many Turkic peoples and by the Mongols), with a cycle of 12 years, each bearing the name of an animal. The first word in each date is the name of the year, the second is an ordinal number designating the month. Sevar was a Bulgarian khan from ca. ... Kormisosh was Khan of Bulgaria between 753 and 756. ... Vinekh Khan of Bulgaria in the eight century Vinekh had his chance after Kormisosh’s defeat in the hands of Constantine V Copronymus. ... Telets was Khan of Bulgaria between 762 and 765 Telets was from the Ugain clan. ... Umor was Khan of Bulgaria in the eight century. ... Bulgar (also BolÄŸar), also Proto-Bulgarian is the language of the Bulgars, now extinct, whose classification is unclear. ... The Chinese calendar is a lunisolar calendar, incorporating elements of a lunar calendar with those of a solar calendar. ... This article is about the various peoples speaking one of the Turkic languages. ... For other uses, see Mongols (disambiguation). ... In set theory, ordinal, ordinal number, and transfinite ordinal number refer to a type of number introduced by Georg Cantor in 1897, to accommodate infinite sequences and to classify sets with certain kinds of order structures on them. ...

There are widely diverging translations of the nominalia and especially of the Bulgar dates. This is partly due to the difficulty in identifying word boundaries, but the greatest differences today are due to the contrast between the traditional analysis of Bulgar as a Turkic language and Petar Dobrev's recently advanced proposal that it was an Iranian, more specifically Pamiri language. The "Turkic" reading, along with the "cyclic calendar" interpretation itself, was originally proposed by Finnish Slavist Jooseppi Julius Mikkola in 1913. Later, there have been various modifications and elaborations during the 20th century by scholars such as Géza Fehér, Omeljan Pritsak, and Mosko Moskov. Dobrev's "Iranian" reading actually preserves all but one of the previous translations of the year names, arguing that the Turkic names of the animals, far from proving that the Bulgars were Turkic, show that the Turkic peoples had borrowed these words from the Bulgars. He does change the numbers of the months. The Turkic languages are a group of closely related languages that are spoken by a variety of people distributed across a vast area from Eastern Europe to Siberia and Western China. ... The Pamir languages are a subgroup of the Iranian languages, spoken in the Pamir Mountains, primarily along the Panj River and its tributaries in the southern Gorno-Badakhshan region of Tajikistan around the administrative center Khorog (), and the neighboring Badakhshan province and is in Pamir Area Afghanistan. ... Slavistics is the study of Slavic languages, Slavic literature and Slavic culture. ... Omeljan Pritsak (b. ...

The following table shows two interpretations - one of the earliest versions of the "classical" Turkic one by Zlatarski (1918, adhering closely to Mikkola) and the "Iranian" one by Dobrev (1994).

References