Turkic Kingdoms: Political History and Notable FIgures

600 - 969 - Khazar Khaganate (All Facts)

• Empire that stretched between the Volga River and Don River

• Empire that successfully defended itself against the Arab-Muslims, the Magyars, and the Vikings

  • This was until the 850s, when Oleg and the Kievan Rus took Kiev from them and made it the capital of their own state

• Empire that was allied with the Byzantine Empire until its collapse

681 - 1018 - First Bulgarian Empire (All Facts)

• Established upon defeat of the Byzantine army in the namesake region

681 - 701 - Asparuh (All Facts)

• Bulgar Khan who founded the First Bulgarian Empire

• He led the Bulgars into Byzantine territory on raiding parties for booty which triggered Constantine IV of the Byzantine Empire to fight against them, but he was defeated and returned to Constantinople as a result

700 - 721 - Tervel (All Facts)

• Bulgar Khan and 2nd Emperor of the First Bulgarian Empire

• He attacked Constantinople in support of the exiled Justinian II, who he had helped regain the throne as Byzantine Emperor and received the title of Caesar in return

744 - 840 - Uyghur Khaganate (All Facts)

• Turkic Empire founded by Qutlug Bilge Khagan

• Collapsed suddenly under attack from the Kyrgyz Turks in the West

768 - 777 - Telerig (All Facts)

• Bulgar Khan

• He was baptized and became an ally of the Byzantine Empire

780 - 789 - Alp Qutlugh Bilge Qaghan (All Facts)

• Fourth leader of the Uyghur Khaganate

• Adopted Manichaeism as the official state religion

  • Opened up the country to Sino-Persian influence

814 - 831 - Omurtag (All Facts)

• Bulgar Khan

  • He was nicknamed “The Builder”

• He signed a favorable 30-year peace treaty with the Byzantines, in which he gained further territory in the Balkans

831 - 836 - Malomir (All Facts)

• Bulgar Khan

• Oversaw a pro-Frankish pforeign policy

852 - 889 - Boris / St. Boris (All Facts)

• Bulgar Khan / Czar

• He was the first Bulgar Khan to convert to Christianity

• He reaffirmed his allegiance to Louis the Pious and the Frankish Carolingian Empire

• Under his reign, the Bulgarian Empire posed a threat to the Byzantine Empire

  • In 864, he was pressured by Emperor Michael III of the Byzantine Empire who had sent a Byzantine army to the frontiers of his own empire to renounce his alliance with the Franks and be baptized by a Byzantine bishop

• It remained unclear initially whether he was loyal to the Christian authorities of Rome and the Western Church or those in Constantinople and the Eastern Church of the byzantine Empire

  • Eventually, he came to correspond with the pope and side with the Western Church in Rome, emphasizing his independence from Constantinople and the Eastern Church in the Byzantine Empire

• He brutally suppressed a pagan revolt by the old Bulgar clans and executed its ringleaders

840 - 925 - Kyrgyz Khaganate (All Facts)

• Successor State to the Uyghur Khaganate

• Ruled over southern Siberia

893 - 927 - Simeon the Great (All Facts)

• Bulgar Khan / Czar

  • Master of the Balkans

  • Inspiration of Bulgarian power

  • His power rivalled and sometimes surpassed the that of the Byzantines

• He created an empire stretching from the Ionian Sea to the Black Sea

• His military efforts include his and his empire’s having

  • Invaded Thrace, but attacked by the Magyars in their rear by the Byzantines, who appealed to the Magyars for help against him and his forces; and so he made peace with them initially

    • However, he allied with the nomadic Pechenegs afterwards and they forced the Magyars across the Danube River, getting them out of the way and being able to defeat the Byzantines decisively and exact tribute from them

  • Invaded the Byzantine Empire but was stopped at the walls of Constantinople, provoked by the Byzantines' failure to pay their annual tribute via their Emperor Alexander

    • There, he obtained major concessions from Nikolas Mystikos, the Patriarch of Constantinople at the time

  • Invaded the Byzantine Empire a second time and was halted again by the walls of Constantinople

  • Defeated the Serbs, allies of the Byzantine Empire

  • Been defeated by the Croats, also allies of the Byzantine Empire

  • Played Constantinople at its own game in order to establish Bulgaria’s importance, mixing

    • Military might

    • Diplomatic intrigue

    • Expanding a commercial empire

• He established a new capital for the Bulgarian Empire at Great Preslav, which was known for imitating Byzantine pomp

• He established the Bulgarian Orthodox Church after abandoning the Western (Roman Catholic) Church

• He was quite cultured, having encouraged both Greek and home-grown Slavonic literature

• He died of a heart attack

  • His death marked the end of the Byzantine-Bulgarian War

927 - 969 - Peter (All Facts)

• Bulgar Khan / Czar

• Signed a peace treaty with the Byzantine Empire, ending the Byzantine-Bulgarian War

962 - 963 - Alp-Tegin (All Facts)

• Turkic Commander under the Samanid Empire, he achieved independence from the Samanid Empire and made his new state of Ghazna as a result

971 - 977 - John (All Facts)

• Emperor of Bulgaria who

  • Drove Sviatoslav and the Kievan Rus out of Bulgaria

  • Restored trading relations with the Kievan Rus (Russians)

  • Annexed much of Bulgaria

997 - 1014 - Samuel (All Facts)

• Emperor of Bulgaria

• He revived Bulgarian power from his base in Macedonia since John Tzimiskes’s death by defeating Basil II’s counter-offensive and rebuilding his empire

• He raided the Byzantine possessions in Greece but was defeated and severely wounded

  • However, he continued to fight with Emperor Basil II and the Byzantine Empire over the Balkans