"The History of Karaman" ("Karaman Tarihi") or "History of the Karaman Dynasty" ("Tavarih-e al-e Karaman") is a chronicle of the Karamans and the Karaman dynasty in Asia Minor. The Karaman principality is the strongest and most serious rival of the Ottomans in Anatolia. Perhaps because of his power, the Ottomans were forced to initially focus their conquests not on Asia Minor but on the Balkan Peninsula. In the 13th and 14th centuries it was stronger than the Ottoman principality. In the 15th century it began to lose strength, to be gradually absorbed by the Ottoman state at the end of the 15th century and to cease to exist completely around the beginning of the 16th century.
At the same time, "Karaman Tarihi" - The History of Karaman "is a story about a compact Bulgarian population that lived on and around Bulgar Dag (Bulgar Mountain, Bulgarian Mountain) in the Toros Mountains.Bulgar Dagh - Today renamed by the Turkish authorities in Bolkar Daglari ("mountain with abundant snow"). Due to this purely political "interpretation", the name of the Bulgarian mountain in Anatolia can be found in several forms - Bulgar, Bolkar, Bolgar ...
A branch of it also settled around Baishhir. It took part in campaigns, wars, battles, sieges and conquests of cities and fortresses, mainly in South and Central Asia Minor, but also in other parts of the peninsula, and to Syria. The fate and actions of the Bulgarians were intertwined with the fate and actions of the Karamans in the rule of all their rulers and deputies according to our chronological specifications, 1227 to 1517. continuously. These Bulgarians had their own army of 10,000, their own beys and rulers, even a queen. They also had their own territory, the Bulgarian state. They inhabited the lands around and in the high, steep and inaccessible Bulgarian mountain (Bulgar Dag), whose peaks exceed 3000 m. altitude, between the cities of Eregli, Nigde, Yurgub, Adana and Tarsus, Erdemli, Mut and Karaman, in the area of ​​the city of Tarsus itself, and also the surroundings of Beyşehir to Konya. In its various versions, the chronicle occupies up to 300 text equated to typewritten pages. In this volume he provides us with more than 150 information, which directly mentions Bulgar Ta'ifesi-Bulgarians-Askeri-Bulgarian army, Bulgar Eleri-Bulgarian fighters, Bulgar Bayleri-Bulgarian Beys, Bulgar Dag-Mountain Bulgar, as well as the names of the rulers of the Bulgarians Yahshi Khan, Ayden Bey and Queen Catherine. It is probable that it is of Bulgarian origin and Autumn (Assen). Apart from these 150 direct mentions of Bulgarians, at least another 150 passages in the chronicle refer to the Bulgarians, but they do not directly mention the ethnonym Bulgarian-Bulgarian, Bulgarian.
There are three authors of The Karaman Story. The chronicle began in verse in Persian in the form of a shahnameh by Hodja Dehhani (SKOT - 1946, 8 and 9). Shahnameh is a literary genre that describes in poetic form in the couplets the life of the eastern rulers and the history of the countries and peoples they ruled. Dehhani lived in the court of the Seljuk ruler Alaeddin Keikobad III, whose first reign began in 1284. AD (Bosworth, MD, 1971, 179). Dehhani sang 600 couplets for the Karamans and the Bulgarians, describing the events of the 13th century, but he died (SKOT-1946, 8 and 9).
The Karaman ruler Alaeddin Keikobad III, who ruled from about 1352 to 1398, ordered the poet Yarijani to continue the story in verse in Persian (SKOT-1946, 8 and 9). Yarijani presented the events of the 14th century, again dotted with information about the Bulgarians.
And at the beginning of the 14th century, or later in the same century, at or after the decline of the Karaman dynasty, Ahmet Bey, nicknamed Shikyari (The Hunter, the Lover of Hunting), translated Karaman's History from Persian verses into prose by Middle Turkish and continued the exhibition until 1517. (SKOT-1946,8 and 9). During the last military actions described in the chronicle in 1516 and 1517. the Bulgarians again took part in battles against the army of the Ottoman Sultan Selim I.
Studies show that in the part for XIIIc. from "The Story of Karaman", written by Dehhani, the description of the events is brought to 1286. сл..Хр. Therefore, it is believed that either the author Dehhani died around 1286, or the successors or copyists of the chronicle had some significant reason to omit the description of the rule of the Karaman rulers Guneri Bay (1277-1299) and Yahshi Khan (1308-1315). (Tez 1622,132, Zeyl I). It is possible that it was at this time, when the story of the two Karaman rulers is missing, that a kinship relationship arose between the Bulgarian ruling dynasty in Southern Anatolia and the Karaman dynasty. We cannot ignore the fact that the name of the Bulgarian dynasty in Bulgardag and Tarsus was Yahshi Khan, and the name of the Karaman ruler whose rule was omitted was also Yahshi Khan.
The three variants - Persian, short and extended Turkish - come from one source.
A significant difference of the detailed from the short version in this section (1495-1517) is the story of the reign of the Queen of the Bulgarians Catherine in Mount Erenkolov, around Beishehir and between Beishehir and Konya and their defeat by Selim's troops before his march to Egypt and Arabia. . These events are described only in the extended Turkish version (see C2-2116-9-21510).
In all three variants there is a significant number of reports about Bulgarians and if one or several specific information about Bulgarians is omitted in one of the manuscripts-transcripts, then the same (same) information is available in several other manuscripts and in the edition. Conversely, if the publication lacks any information about the Bulgarians, it is present in one of the manuscript transcripts. These differences are due to copyists and editors.
Professor of History of Turkish Language and History of Turkey at Istanbul University Nejip Assam has the merit, courage and valor to be the first to publish a significant amount of information about Bulgarians from the expanded Turkish version of Karaman's History in two articles in the Constantinople newspaper Ikdam. The first is entitled "ANATULUDA BULGARLAR-1" (The Bulgarians in Anatolia-1) and was printed in issue 8842 (p. 4) in the Constantinople newspaper "Ikdam" in Arabic on the 27th of Tashrin I 1337. (October 27, 1921). In this publication Assam brings from the manuscript of the extended version of the chronicle some data about the Bulgarians for the XIII century; for the first one-year war of the Bulgarians, led by Yahshi Khan and his son Ayden, near the fortress Mare (now Magara) in the Bulgarian mountains with a combined Karaman army of Nureddin, father of Karaman (in 1227-1228 AD) .); for the participation of Bey Aidan with 4 thousand Bulgarian soldiers around 1243. AD in the battle against the infidels of Gorkes and Silifke; for the participation of 4000 Bulgarians around 1273 on the side of the Karaman ruler Mehmed, at the Charshamba Suyu River (between Larende and Konya) in the battles between the Seljuk and Karaman armies.
Here, Hedip Assam gives a readable Arabic text of the appendix, which he said was later added to the expanded Turkish version of Karaman's History. It is about a branch of the Bulgarian tribe, which from the time of the Seljuks and Karamans, after the Mongols (therefore after 1243 AD) lived in the area of ​​Beyşehir in the intrepid mountain Erenkolof. is the mountain Erenler with a height of 2319 m., which is located northeast of Beishehir, note KV). Towards the end of the XV and the beginning of the XVI b. these Bulgarians chose for their queen a maiden named Catherine, who had 10,000 men armed with rifles.
When the Karamans, threatened by the Ottomans, withdrew to the Bulgarian Mountains (ver. After 1487, note KV), the peasants from the borders of Konya to the borders of Beyshehir remained under the rule of Katerina.
Catherine's Bulgarians and she herself were defeated by Selim's army before his campaign in Egypt and Arabia (1516. Cf. C2-II0 42 / II-2159-10-14).
The notes of Nejip Assam in the second half of the article on the language, religion and origin of these Bulgarians are especially valuable. He notes that "it can be reasonably thought that the orthodox people who are today in those places (from Beyşehir to Konya, KV) and speak Turkish are remnants, a continuation of those Bulgarians.
Assam emphasizes something very important that has not been written by other researchers, nor is it clear from the text of Karaman's History, excluding the name of the Queen of the Bulgarians from Beyşehir to Konya, Katerina, in the appendix to the extended Turkish version of the chronicle, which speaks of Christian origin: the language of these Bulgarians is Slavic, and their religion - Christian. This shows that they are from the Balkan Bulgarians.
Prof. Assam states that in the documents at his disposal it is noted that these Bulgarians (from Beyshehir to Konya, note KV) and the Bulgarians in Tash or (around the Bulgarian Mountains, note KV). ) have been here since the time of the Seljuks (hence probably since the 11th century, note KV) and that in the Selcuknametas (poetic stories of the Seljuks) it is written that in the Seljuk army there were Bulgarians and Levantines - Europeans, born in the east.
The description of Karaman's father's march, Nureddin, to Ermenak precedes the first information about Bulgarians in the chronicle. Nejip Assam, and from him Dorosiev note that Ermenak, before being conquered by the Karamans, was in the hands of the Bulgarians. Sources and research, however, indicate that Ermenak was ruled by "Armenian infidels" at the time (see Tekindag, 1948, 316-317). We do not rule out the possibility that Bulgarians lived in Ermenak approx. 1227, when the described events take place. But it seems that at that time they did not master it.
At the same time, Dorosiev correctly indicated some of the places where the Bulgarians lived and worked. It is noted that "these Bulgarians ... lived in a part of the Konyansky and Adansky vilayets in the vicinity of Mount Toros (Taurus), mainly in and around Mount Bulgar Dag (Bulgarian Mountain), which is one of its be. KV) branches. "
The statement that we had Bulgarian settlers there as early as the 12th century is also true (Dorosiev, 184). Sources and research point to Bulgarian migrations there at least from the VIII century, if not earlier. (See here the Bulgarians up to the 13th century.) It is true that these Bulgarians were a compact mass, and that the chronicle indicates some of the elements of statehood among these Bulgarians (cf. Venedikova, May 1981, 1982, 57-69)
P. Koledarov also cites Hindalov's reports about the Bulgarians from Bulgardag after the battle of Kosovo until 1402, derived from "History of Karaman".
His excerpts from N. Oreshkov's "Notes on my teaching in Asia Minor" arouse interest. The legend of the "Monen Fortress" of "Mano, Bulgarian voivode of the long-displaced Bulgarians with thousands in the time of the Bulgarian kings" connects the Mennan fortress with the Bulgarian presence.
A fortress with such a name is located in the vicinity of Ermenak in Southern Anatolia. It often housed the Karaman rulers. The Karaman ruler Pir Ahmed threw himself from the fortress walls of Mennan when Gedik Ahmed Pasha entered Larende, conquered Ermenak and captured it (Bel. KV Sr. Tekindag, ACT 1967, 61 and 62 and Konyali, ACCT, 1967, 724 ).
But not far from Lake Manyas in Northwestern Asia Minor, around 1872, the ruins of another "Manyan fortress connected with the Bulgarian voivode Mano" still protruded (see Dorosiev, 88).
The Bulgarians of Asia Minor also claimed that the Karamanli were Turkic Bulgarians.
The article "Names related to Bulgarians in Asia Minor, a literary monument" (Venedikova, 1981, 173 - 182) examines a short excerpt from "Danishmendname", which contains the name Bulgar, extracted and translated from the critical edition of Irene Melikoff . Comparing it with information about Bulgarians from "History of Karaman", the author finds that the geographical concept Bulgar Dag, Bulgarian mountain, is mentioned in "Danishmendname" in connection with the events of 1098 AD. and that at the same time the concept of the Bulgarian border (булгар хаддъ- bulgar haddi) existed and this border stretched at the foot of the Bulgarian mountain. Therefore, as early as the end of the 11th century, the Bulgarians in Southern Anatolia were united on a territorial basis.
In the report "On the question of the Bulgarian tribes and state formations in Asia Minor in the XI - XV century", presented at the III Congress of BID, October 3-5, 1981, Ibrahim Tatarli (Tatarl, 1982, 385-396), referring on the verses of J. Rumi, notes that the Bulgarians during this era (XIII century. KV) were popular in Central, East and South Asia Minor (p.389), that the Bulgarian tribes were organized into a state and during a certain period some Asia Minor countries were obliged to pay tax to the Bulgarian state (p. 389).
Tatarli correctly registered that according to the "History of Karaman" from the beginning of the XIII to the beginning of the XVI century the Bulgarians took an active part in most events in large areas of Asia Minor and part of the Middle East (p.390), that the Bulgarian tribes inhabited the foothills. and the districts of Bulgardag - a name covering in the Middle Ages almost the entire Taurus Massif; that the ruins of a large medieval town on the road between Konya and Goksu, near the town of Bozkar, known among the population as Bulgar (p.391), are still preserved.
Tatarli adds that epic, literary, chronicle and documentary sources tell about the Bulgarians (p. 394). The Bulgarian-Asian state of Asia Minor included Christian Slavicized Bulgarians from the Balkan Peninsula, Turkic-speaking Bulgarians, Kupchaks, Kumans and others. Unfortunately, the author does not everywhere indicate the sources for the information he gives, and for his conclusions (such as for the city of Bulgar and for the Slavicized Bulgarians) it is not stated where the data come from.
Tatarli suggests that it is possible that some of the Bulgarians around Bulgardah moved to Western Asia Minor and laid the foundations of the Aydın principality. Another part remained in South Asia Minor and settled in the neighboring Chukurova and the plain of Konya and gradually assimilated. Probably others continued to exist as the so-called. Karamanli, speaking Turkic and professing the Christian religion (p. 394).
According to Hodja Dehhani, when the ancestors of the Karamans came to Asia Minor from Shirvan and settled in the southern part of the peninsula (according to our chronological specifications around 1217 - 1228 AD), they found the Bulgarians in and around the Bulgarian mountains and even one year fight with them (see here the Bulgarians in the XIII century, SKOT - 1946 -15 / 10-22 and 15/32 16 / 1-2). Then Karamans and Bulgarians entered into allied and perhaps vassal relations and carried out joint military operations continuously from the 13th to the first quarter of the 16th century. The subject of a separate study may be the question whether earlier the ancestors of these Bulgarians were not neighbors with the ancestors of the Karamans in Shirvan and around Elbrus.
Some authors have paid attention in their research to the Bulgarian Mountain, which is often an arena of action in the "History of Karaman" and in other sources. In recent decades in Turkey, some tend to derive its name not from the Bulgarians who inhabited it, but to give other etymologies such as Bol kar dagi (Mountain with abundant snow) or Boga dagi - Boga dagi - Bull Mountain, boga means bull). Even these new mountain names are read on the latest maps of Turkey (cf. Turcja, 1986; Eremeev, 1973; Turkey, 1981), in contrast to the older ones (see Justus Perthes, 1905, N 59. Klein Asien, where not only the mountain is marked as Bulgar dagi - Bulgarian mountain, but is also registered Bulgar madeni - the Bulgarian mine), etc.
Some believe that Bulgar dagi is only that part of the Adan Toros Mountains which lies west of the Külek Pass (see Bulgar Dagi, Bulgar Madeni, IA. C. II, 1949, 796, N 124 and 125).
The Taurus Mountains are one of the most important mountain ranges in Turkey. They extend in southern and eastern Anatolia along the Mediterranean Sea. They are divided into three branches:
- The western Torosa Mountains are located on both sides of the Gulf of Antalya. They reach the slopes of the lakes. They form the Teke area and the Ichel mountain.
- The middle Toros Mountains stretch between the Tasheli Plateau (just opposite the island of Cyprus) and the Uzun Yayla Plateau (northeast of the city of Kayseri). Their highest peaks are Bulgar Dag (3585 m) and Aladag (3734 m), northeast of the Bulgarian mountains.
- The Eastern Toros Mountains are a massif that rises after Uzun Yayla. The outermost row is formed by the Amanos Mountains, in the vicinity of Iskenderun Bay. The easternmost Taurus Mountains surround Eastern Anatolia like a bow. Their highest point is in the Hakkari area - Gilo (4168 m.), South of the eastern part of Lake Van, near the border with Iraq and Iran (see KA, 1968, 1118).
"History of Karaman" describes the battles and actions of the Bulgarians in all three branches of the Toros Mountains.
Tatarli believes that in medieval Turkic literature the name Bulgardag has a broader meaning than it does now. It applies almost to the entire Taurus Mountains. (See Tatarlı, 1982, 390).
On the occasion of the mention of the Bulgarian mountain in "Danishmendname" Osman Turan writes that in this source and in the first Ottoman works the mountains south of Trabzon are called Bulgar or Bulgar Dag. And in the Seljuk springs in the Toros Mountains there is a Bulgarian mountain (Bulgar Dag) mentioned with its present name. It is probably related to Turkic or Slavic Bulgarians. But the Bulgarian mountain south of Trabzon seems to be more associated with its ancient name Parkhar than with the name Bulgar. Before Parhar, these mountains were called Paryadres (Turan, 1971, 125, 134). They stretched along the left bank of the Chorokh River from the Trabzondokum Artvin (see Die Welt der Antike, 1958, 7H2, p.48).
Considering that Eremeev and Iyanch point as early as 530 AD. Bulgarian settlers in the region of Trabzon, the Chorokh River and the Upper Euphrates (Evemeev, 1971, 54-57; Yinanc, 1944, 167) and the mention of the Bulgarian mountain there in Neshri, Ashuk Pashazade and other authors, it is permissible to think that mountain is associated with the name of the Bulgarians at least from VI to XV century continuously.
Some scientists have paid attention in their research to the Bulgarian mine (Bulgar madeni), which is located in the Bulgarian mountains. The Bulgarian mine (Bulgar madeni) or the mine in the Bulgarian mountains (Bulgar dagi madeni) is noted to be "a famous lead-silver mine on the northern slope of Bulgar dagi, south of the main caravan route from Konya Ereklisi to the Kulek pass, southeast from Uli Kashla ". It was developed intermittently from 1825 until the First World War. As early as the Middle Ages, Ibn Fazl Allah spoke of a silver mine in the vicinity of the [Slavic fortress of Lulua] and this is the same Bulgar Madeni (see Bulgar Dagi, Bulgar Madeni, IA. C. II, 1949, 796.)
The Turkish scientist Prof. Dr. Zeki Veledi Togan mentions the movements of tribes related to the Proto-Bulgarians from the North Caucasus to Anatolia in the time long before the new era. He presents the following interesting thoughts:
"When the Scythians (Sakalar) came to Eastern Europe, they drove the Cimmerians (Kimmerler), who lived in the North Caucasus, to the southern Caucasus and to Asia Minor. The Greek author Procopius portrayed these Cimmerians as grandfathers. similarly, the Iranian-Khazar tradition speaks of the Kimarilers as the ancestors of the Bulgarians, but there is no other evidence to confirm this ... "(Togan, 1970, I, 34).
M.I. Artamanov (1974, 23) notes: "It is known from ancient Eastern sources that the Cimmerians appeared in Asia Minor in the 1920s." In that case, perhaps we should attribute this first appearance of the ancestors of the later Bulgarians in Anatolia around that time.


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More than once, descendants of Bulgarian rulers have played an important role in Anatolia. In 1045, Armenian sources say that Aron Bulgar, son of the Bulgarian Tsar Ivan Vladislav, was one of the first governors of the former capital of Armenia - Ani (Hovnanyan, 1969, 21-22). In 1048, one of the three Byzantine armies fighting the Seljuk Turks was commanded by Aaron, the son of a Bulgarian who ruled the Vaspurakan region (Aristakes Lastivertzi, quoted in Hovnanyan, 1968, 21).


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And sources for the twelfth century register a Slavic and Bulgarian presence in Asia Minor. In the chronicle of Abu Mansur al-Khazini "The Remarkable Days of the Seljuk State", in a chronicle of Sanjar, who ruled from 1117 to 1157, mentions "the Slavic countries Suvar, Bulgar and Ankara ..." (quote from Tatarla, 1982, 387).


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In the Ottoman registers Ankara is mentioned as one of the places where Bulgarian jamaats - Yuruts spend their summers and winters (Eroz, 1983, 21 and 22).









Throughout the Middle Ages and until the 20th century, Bulgarians settled in Asia Minor - exiled there by Byzantines and Turks or voluntary settlers fleeing Turkish unrest in the Balkan Bulgarian lands.
In the 7th century, Emperor Justinian settled 30,000 captured Bulgarians from Macedonia in Cilicia to fight the Arabs.
208 thousand Bulgarian refugees during Taurus were settled by the Byzantines in Bithynia (Brusensko). Such slaves were abducted in Asia Minor for centuries to come. The folk singer sings about the many "chain slaves". Thousands of Bulgarian children taken as janissaries since the 15th century were sent against Tamerlane and on the fronts in Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt. Then these "warriors" passed in the convoy and became shepherds and horsemen of the sultan's and vizier's flocks and herdsmen.
Relations with Bulgaria were constant - in Asia Minor constantly circulated Bulgarian trade caravans of camels and sold goods to Bulgarian craftsmen who were one of the most famous in the Ottoman Empire - abi, shayatsi, rugs, braids from Gabrovo, Samokov, Ustovo, Dimotika. Many Balkan and Rhodope guilds, in addition to trade, also settled in Asia Minor.
The latest Bulgarian settlers in Asia Minor were refugees. The high gate, like Byzantium, in order to weaken Bulgaria, began to settle in Dobrudja, Deliormana and elsewhere Seljuks and other Turks. In Bulgaria it became insecure because of Kurdzhali, Janissaries and other bandits. Many Bulgarians were forced to seek a quiet life closer to the central Ottoman government. Thus appeared the newest Bulgarian rural and urban neighborhoods in Asia Minor - from 17 to 19 century. They have preserved the Bulgarian language, customs, costumes, personal and family names, songs and customs. Many Bulgarians remain in Asia Minor, who lose their self-consciousness. They became Turks, and elsewhere, as in the village of Kuz-Dervent, they became Greeks. Bulgarians from Asia Minor were also part of the "Greek refugees from Asia Minor", about whom the Greek newspapers then wrote that they spoke Bulgarian better than Greek. In the towns of Bandarma, Brusa (one of the neighborhoods there is still called "Bulgar Mahle" / around 1940, /