Khan Asparuh is the first ruler of the united Bulgarian kingdom. It’s rare in which Bulgarian city there is no street or square named after him. His story is a good example of how a common misfortune brought different tribes together and made people a nation of one state.
Early biography
The third son of the leader of the small Onogondur tribe could not expect great mercies from his parent. After the death of his father, Khan Kubrat, the whole Bulgarian people were divided between his sons into five parts. The third son inherited power over part of the Bulgarian horde, and was forced to constantly protect his people from nomads. The division of the Bulgarian Khanate made these people easy prey for quick and brutal Khazars, and in order to avoid bloody battles, Khan Asparuh took his tribe far beyond the Dnieper.
Khan Asparuh understood well that his manpower was not enough to become an independent and strong people. Therefore, he began to seek support from neighboring tribes. In those distant times, the neighbors of the Bulgarians were Slavs (Smolens, Severs, Draguvites) and Thracians (Serbs, Asthis, Mysians, Odrisses). It was these peoples who founded the first Bulgarian kingdom. Mixed with the Turkic tribes of the Bulgarians, they gave rise to a single Bulgarian people.
Clashes with the Byzantines
The rich southern Byzantium has always been a tidbit for neighboring tribes. Scythians and Rusichs went to her campaigns, and the Bulgarians ventured into this risky business in 680. A year later, after the Bulgarian seizure of wide estates between the Danube River and the Stara Planina mountain range, the emperor went to the world.
Anticipating further unsuccessful attempts to beat off the Bulgarians, Constantine VI was forced to make peace with the Bulgarians, and pay them an annual tribute. The treaty also provided for the demarcation of the borders of Byzantium and the Bulgarian Kingdom - so Byzantium became the first country that documented the existence of a Bulgarian country.
First capital
The ancient fortification of Plisk became the first capital of the Bulgarian kingdom. The city was in the center of the new state and was well fortified. The remains of stone walls, arches and barrier walls, with which Pliska met uninvited guests, are still preserved. After all, the First Bulgarian Kingdom expanded and strengthened its borders through regular aggressive raids typical of Turkic peoples. Therefore, any city in those days was obliged to be a well-defended and fortified center of the Bulgarian kingdom.
In his first years of rule, the ruler of the Bulgarians solves several important tasks of the domestic and foreign policy of the young state. He regulates relations with the tribes of the Slavs. Forcing them to move away from the center of the Bulgarian kingdom to the south and west - in order to protect the borders of the new country. This decision was made not in vain - the main ill-wishers of the Bulgarians remained Slavic tribes, who saw in the new country another source of possible production. The border settlements of the Slavic tribes friendly to the Bulgarians were to reduce the threat of invasion.
Khan undertakes new campaigns and strengthens the created borders. His efforts restored the old fortress of Drastur, built by the ancient Romans. There are also traces of the earthen rampart with which Khan Asparuh strengthened his southern borders - they can be traced near modern Constanta and in the village of Chrna water on the Danube.
Further successes of the khan only consolidated his glory as a serious military leader and a good ruler. He fought with more powerful opponents - Byzantium, the Khazar Khaganate and the Avar Khanate, and each of these countries was defeated twice. By the beginning of the 8th century AD e. The Bulgarian kingdom was one of the most powerful states of that time.
Khan's death
The leader of the Bulgarians fell in an unequal battle in the battle against the Khazars. It happened around the year 701. Perhaps the advanced detachment of the khan, in which the most notable and closest people were located, was ambushed. Khan Asparuh died, as befits a ruler and a warrior - with weapons in his hands.
The tomb of the first Bulgarian king was discovered in Zaporozhye. In 2007, the remains of the leader were solemnly reburied in the city of Veliko Tarnovo, which is the spiritual center of Bulgaria. On his grave there is an inscription carved in old Bulgarian letters - “Khan Asparuh”. The biography of the ruler was over - so the ancient khan returned to the country he created.