Its Latest Known Coin Is Of A.H. 818 (A.D. 1415-16).
A
history of Bolghar was written in the first half of the 12th century by
Yakub Ibn Noman, Kadhi of the city, but this is not known to be extant.
Fraehn shows ground for believing the people to have been a mixture of
Fins, Slavs, and Turks. Nicephorus Gregoras supposes that they took their
name from the great river on which they dwelt ([Greek: Boulga]).
["The ruins [of Bolghar]," says Bretschneider, in his Mediaeval
Researches, published in 1888, vol. ii. p. 82, "still exist, and have
been the subject of learned investigation by several Russian scholars.
These remains are found on the spot where now the village Uspenskoye,
called also Bolgarskoye (Bolgari), stands, in the district of Spask,
province of Kazan. This village is about 4 English miles distant from the
Volga, east of it, and 83 miles from Kazan." Part of the Bulgars removed
to the Balkans; others remained in their native country on the shores of
the Azov Sea, and were subjugated by the Khazars. At the beginning of the
9th century, they marched northwards to the Volga and the Kama, and
established the kingdom of Great Bulgaria. Their chief city, Bolghar, was
on the bank of the Volga, but the river runs now to the west; as the Kama
also underwent a change in its course, it is possible that formerly
Bolghar was built at the junction of the two rivers. (Cf. Reclus, Europe
russe, p. 761.) The Bulgars were converted to Islam in 922.
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