Who were the Kutrigurs?
Ron Richards
were? I know that they are mentioned as early as the 5th century, and
that they are said to have mixed with Slavs coming into the Carpathian
Basin at that time. Are they actually fro the area known today as
Bulgarian? And does anyone know if "Kutrigurs" is the correct ethnonym
for them in English? My reference is from the German "Die Kutriguren".
Many thanks,
Ron R.
--
Current e-mail address is the exact reverse of the following: ude.alcu@rnor
Galina Schneider
Daniel Nikovski
It is hard to know anything for certain about tribes who lived 1500
years ago, but still something is known about the Kutrigurs
(a.k.a. Kutigurs). The legend has it that Attila's youngest son Irnik
(Ernah) led two Hunnic tribes, the Utigurs and the Kutigurs out of
Pannonia after his father's death. They settled in Moesia (present-day
Bulgaria), and later on moved on to the north of the Black Sea. The
Kutrigurs settled between the rivers Donets and Dnieper. Menander
Protector mentions that the Byzantine emperor Justinian tried to
convince his ally Sandilh, the leader of the Utigurs, to start a war
against Zabergan, the leader of the Kutrigurs, but Sandilh refused on
the basis that the two tribes were of the same language and
ethnicity. Finally the war broke out, and the Kutrigurs were hurt
badly. However, they recovered, and in 558-559 AD they attacked
Byzantium, devastating all of its European possessions.
Around 630 AD Khan Kubrat, originally leader of the Onogondurs,
created Old Great Bulgaria, unfiying the Utigurs, Kutigurs,
Onogondurs, and probably other smaller tribes. Before that the
Kutrigurs were under Avar rule, and Patriarch Nicephorus states that
Kubrat defeated the Avars in 632 AD. Since that time the Kutrigurs
were known as Bulgars. Theophanis writes that at the time of his
death, Kubrat was the ruler of the Kutrigurs. Kubrat's five sons each
took a part of the Bulgar people and headed in different
directions. Khan Asparukh led the onogondurs to present-day Bulgaria
and we are their descendants. Khan Kotrag led the Kutrigurs to the
rivers Volga and Kama and created Volga Bulgaria - Russian chronists
call these people Silver Bulgars. This state adopted the Islam and
existed until the 13th century, when it fell under the Tartars.
Presently, these people live in the Chuvash region of Russia and have
preserved their original Bulgar language.
This is pretty much what is known about the Kutrigurs - much of it
might be imprecise, but still the general movement of that tribe is
known.
Cheers,
--daniel
Stephan
news:reverseof_ude.alc...@ts18-170.wla.ts.ucla.edu...
> Would anyone o this newsgroup know who exactly the Bulgarian Kutrigurs
> were? I know that they are mentioned as early as the 5th century, and
> that they are said to have mixed with Slavs coming into the Carpathian
> Basin at that time. Are they actually fro the area known today as
> Bulgarian? And does anyone know if "Kutrigurs" is the correct ethnonym
> for them in English? My reference is from the German "Die Kutriguren".
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Ron R.
The Supplement to 'Ecclesiastical History' of Pseudo-Zachariah Rhetor,
compiled in Syrian c. 555 and based on Middle Persian version of a now lost
Greek original gives a list of the peoples inhabiting the lands north of
the Derbend pass (Caspian gates) and mentions the following tribes: ...
"*wngwr (Onogur) are people, who live in tents. *wgr (Ogurs), sbr (Sabirs),
bwrgr (Burgar = Bulgar), *ln (Alans), kwrtrgr (Kutrigur), *br (Abar), ksr
(Kasar = Akatzir?), dyrmr (known from Priskos as Itimaroi - Greek), srwrgwr
(Sarurgur = Sharagurs), b*grsyq (???), kwls (Hwalis), *bdl (Abdel =
Hephtalites) and *ftlyt (Hephtalites) are thirteen peoples, who live in
tents, earn their living on the meat of livestock and fish, of wild animals
and by their weapons (plunder)." [Note in phonetics * = open sound between A
and O].
It must be noted that "The Ecclesiastical History" does not necessarily
refer exclusively to the first half of the 6-th century, as many scholars
would have it, but some of the data there might have been known already to
Priskos (a century earlier).
As one can clearly see, Kutrigurs are listed as a separate tribe from the
Bulgars. Most probably, however, they belonged to the Ogur tribes who spoke
a form of Turkic that was substantially different from the Turkic dialect as
attested in the runic inscriptions in Siberia. Further, the Kutrigurs appear
as Koutrigouroi and Kotrigouroi in Agathias, Menander and Prokopios (mid 6th
c.), while Theophylact Simocatta's (end of 6th c.) Kotzagiroi might be
anything really.
Prokopios writes that "the two Hunnic tribes, Kutrigurs who occupied the
western part of the Don-Azov steppe area and Ut(r)igurs, who were to the
East, were of common origin.
It is clear that Bulgars, Ut(r)igurs and Kutrigurs lived together for at
least a century but the relationship between the tree peoples is unclear.
SN