Khan Kubrat (632-651)
The name of Khan Kubrat first
appeared in Byzantine chronicles in about 632 when his
tribe, the Unogonduri, threw off the Turkic oppression.
He succeeded in uniting the Bulgar tribes in the lands north of
the Caucasus, between the Kuban, the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.
For about three centuries the Bulgars roamed the steppes of today's
Romania fighting with the neighbouring nomadic tribes.
Huns, Khazars, and Turkic peoples invaded the lands of the
Bulgars. And the Bulgar flag, a horsetail on a spear, was often seen
cutting into enemy ranks during their raids into Byzantium in the
Khan Kubrat was the first to put a stop to the carefree
pillaging of barbarian raids. This Bulgar chief from the House of
Dub felt vaguely that in such crucial times the Bulgars were in need
With foresight, patience and a statesman's will he laid the
foundations of a military and tribal alliance. Its capital was
Phanagoria on the Taman Peninsula. Byzantine chroniclers referred to
it as Great Bulgaria. In this prototype of a medieval state Khan
Kubrat tied kinship and tribal chiefs' ambitions into an involved
but historically justified knot, creating the conditions for
development and growth.
With time the nobles came to understand the Khan's insight: only
a state system similar to that of Byzantium might unite the Bulgar
tribes. Kubrat made peace with the mighty empire and was awarded the
title of patrician by Emperor Heraclius.
With the title, accompanied by generous gifts, the basileus was
hoping to keep the powerful Bulgarian ruler on his side.
Peaceful relations with Byzantium allowed the Khan to defend the
independence of Great Bulgaria against continual Khazar attacks. The
state of Khan Kubrat, who is also mentioned as Kurt in the Name
List of Bulgarian Khans, spread from the Kuban in the east to
the rivers Donets and Dnieper in the north and west and to the Sea
of Azov and the Black Sea in the south.
There is a legend saying that as the Khan was dying, he ordered
his sons to fetch a bundle of sticks and told them to break the
bundle in two. When none of the sons managed to break the bundle,
the Khan took the sticks and broke them one by one with his feeble
The sons understood their father's message: their strength
depended on their unity. The Byzantine chroniclers Theophanes and
Nicephorus wrote that Kubrat's bequest to his sons was to preserve
the unity, "so that they would dominate everywhere and never become
other peoples' slaves".
The Khan died some time after 651 as a powerful and respected
ruler. The five sons, however, went their separate ways and Great
Bulgaria gradually fell apart.
The firstborn son, Batbayan (Bayan), stayed in his native land
and was soon subdued by the Khazars. The second son, Kotrag, founded
a state in the confluence of the Volga and the Kam, which survived
until the beginning of the thirteen century. Kuber led part of the
Bulgars to Pannonia and settled in Macedonia. Altsek and his group
of Bulgars reached Italy.
The fifth son, Asparukh (or Isperikh), was elected to further
the work of his father. He led one of the Bulgar tribes west to the
Danubian delta where he laid the foundations of the Bulgarian state,
which was to survive for thirteen centuries.
By so doing, Asparukh fulfilled the bequest of his father.