History of the Balkans: Encyclopedia II - History of the Balkans - The Dark Ages and the Great Migrations

History of the Balkans - The Dark Ages and the Great Migrations

History of the Balkans - Nomadic peoples

Western Huns empire stretched in 434 AD from Central Europe to the Black Sea and from the Danube river to the Baltic. The Hunnish-Bulgar association existed throughout the period between 377-453 AD - the time of the Hunnish hegemony in Central Europe.

Other transient incursions were made by Goths, Gepids, Onogur, Avars. At one point the Ostrogoths and the Visigoths were Christians, but Arians. Ulfilas was the apostle to the Goths and he translated the Bible from Greek into the Gothic language, fragments have survived and are known as the Codex Argenteus. One hypothesis is that together with the above christianised people, the romanic population was also christianised. The creed of Ulfilas, as appended to a letter praising him written by his foster-son and pupil the Scythian Auxentius of Durostorum (modern Silistra) on the Danube, who became bishop of Milan, was a clear statement of central Arian tenets. It is very possible that the Gothic Alphabet of Wulfila to be basis for the creation of the Cyrillic Alphabet. (On May, 24th-26th 2003 the Balkan Media Academy organized in the Wulfila-House in Simeonovo, near Sofia an international seminar "The Gothic Alphabet of Wulfila (Ulphilas) - basis for the creation of the Cyrillic Alphabet" Main lecturers: Acad. Dr. Rossen Milev, Dr. Valentin Hristov) Goths history in Balkans is subject of controversy. Some consider that Getae are the same with goths. Jacob Grimm stoutly maintained that Getae and Daci (Dacians) were identical with Goths and Danes "Spread over the plentiful space from the Danube to the neighborhood of the Scythian Black Sea, do there inhabit fierce and barbarous nations, which are said to have burst forth in manifold variety like a swarm of bees from a honeycomb or a sword from a sheath, as is the barbarian custom, from the island of Scania, surrounded in different directions by the ocean. For indeed there is there a tract for the very many people of Alania, and the extremely well-supplied region of Dacia, and the very extensive passage of Greece. Dacia is the middle-most of these. Protected by very high alps in the manner of a crown and after the fashion of a city. With Mars' forewarning, raging warlike peoples inhabit those tortuous bends of extensive size, namely the Getae, also known as Goths" - [From chapter 2, second paragraph in Gesta Normannorum by the chronicler Dudo of St.Quentin's] The most known book regarding the Goths is an ancient book: Jordanes, The Origin and Deeds of the Goths, XI, 69.

The whole of Patzinakia is divided into eight provinces with the same number of great princes. The provinces are these: the name of the first province is Irtim; of the second, Tzour; of the third, Gyla; of the fourth, Koulpei; of the fifth, Charaboi; of the sixth, Talmat; of the seventh, Chopon; of the eighth, Tzopon. At the time at which the Pechenegs were expelled from their country, their princes were, in the province of Irtim, Baitzas; in Tzour, Konel; in Gyla, Kourkoutai; in Koulpei, Ipaos; in Charaboi, Kaidoum; in the province of Talmat, Kostas; in Chopon, Giazis; in the province of Tzopon, Batas." (Constantine Porphyrogenitus, De Administrando Imperio, c. 950, translation by R. J. H. Jenkins)

the Visigoths left traces primarily of their material culture, such as the great find at Sîntana de Mures in central Transylvania and the burial grounds at Spantov and Tîrgsor, south of the Carpathians on the Muntenian plain

• Vestiges of thе Goths in Bulgaria:

Beroe (today Stara Zagora) - the monastery "St.Athanasius" near Zlatna Livada, region of Chirpan - Kireka - Madara - Pliska - Preslav - Shumen - the early Christian centre near Chan Krum - Veliko Tarnovo - Nicopolis ad Istrum - Storgosia ( today Pleven) - the fortress of Sadovez. The Goths lived in Transylvania for about a century (from the end of the 3rd to the end of the 4th century;) the Gepidae, another Old-Germanic people, for more than two centuries (from the early 5th century to the end of the 7th).

Inscriptions on a sword belonging to the goths in today Bulgaria ‘I do not wait Time, I am Time itself ‘

The Avars subjugate the Slavs in the 6th century from the area spanning modern-day southern Poland. During 6th and 7th centuries together with the Slavs invaded the Eastern Roman Empire, settling in what is now Bosnia, Herzegovina, and the surrounding lands.

History of the Balkans - Slavs

The Slavs, who had originated in areas spanning modern-day southern Poland, were subjugated by the Turkic Avars and together they invaded the Eastern Roman Empire in the 6th and 7th centuries. Split into various tribal divisions, the influence of this first wave can chiefly be seen in the geographic terms bearing their name. The Serbs and Croats came in a second wave, invited by Emperor Heraclius to drive the Avars from Dalmatia.

Two major historical theories address the issue of the original homeland of Slavs:

1. the autochthonic theory assumes that Slavs had lived north of the Carpathian Mountains since 1000 BC.
2. the allochthonic theory assumes that the Slavs came there in the 5th or 6th century AD.

At the time of the Slavic migration, the western, south-western region of the Balkan peninsula (Dalmatia, Illyria) was occupied mostly by Romanized Illyrians, with unromanized groups perhaps remaining in the interior. Slavic mythology

The Slavic tribes called the Croats and the Serbs are recorded to have migrated southwards from areas of today's southeastern Poland into the Dinaric Alps between 610 and 641.

The names "Croat" and "Serb" are not of Slavic origin. Similar names have been found along the path of the migration of the Alans, a tribe of Iranian origin. According to various modern theories based mainly on philological and etymological evidence, these nomadic warriors probably subdued groups of Slavs and became their ruling caste or merged into them, with the resulting group retaining the Iranian name. During the Hunnic invasion in 375 AD, a group calling themselves the "White Croats" (as opposed to the Red Croats, who remained on the Don) retreated northwest over the Carpathians. There the White Croats intermingled with the Slavs of the central Slavic regions and adopted their language.

The migration of these tribes was triggered by the call from the Byzantine empire to drive away the Avars. The Croats and Serbs accepted the call and attacked the Avars, they where promised the land they are at today by the Byzantines for this favor. The Avars had started to aproach Konstantinople so Byzantine needed help driving them off. After the decline of Avar power (after 627) the coastal city-states were nominally under Byzantine suzerainty, while the hinterland was ruled by the Croats in the northwest and the Serbs in the southeast.

In the 10th century, several Croatian dukes rose in prominence, forming the medieval Croatian state. They conquered surrounding districts, including Dalmatia; this fact was attested by Venetian contestation. In 1091, the Croatian ruling dynasty lost its last descendant, and after a decade of instability, Ladislaus I of Hungary and Coloman of Hungary occupied the whole of Croatia.

In the 12th century, Serbian dukes, starting with Stefan Nemanja, established control over several southern districts. The Serbian state expanded to the north and the south, reaching a peak under Stefan Dušan in the 14th century, when it was extended even further southward, into Epirus and Thessaly.

In the meantime, the dukes of Bosnia started building up their state in the 13th century, as did the dukes of Herzegovina. They developed independently from the Catholic Croats and Magyars to the northwest and the Orthodox Serbs to the southeast, even supporting their own Bosnian Church. The strongest Bosnian monarch was Tvrtko Kotromanić at the turn of the 14th century, who expanded his state westward to include all of Herzegovina and most of the Dalmatian coast.

Serbia eventually succumbed to the Ottoman Empire following a defeat in the Battle of Kosovo. Bosnia and Herzegovina followed half a century later, and another century later, most of Croatia was occupied by Turkish forces as well.

The Croats, Serbs and other southern Slavs speak South Slavic languages. There is particular controversy with regard to their modern-day languages where there is fragmentation that conflicts with genetic linguistics. See Serbo-Croatian language and differences in official languages in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia for details.

History of the Balkans - Magyars

The Magyar leader Árpád is believed to have led the Hungarians into the Carpathian Basin (and the Pannonian plain) in 896. When entering the Carpathian basin, the Magyars found a largely Slavic population there, such as the Bulgarians, Slovaks, Slovenians, Croats, etc., and minor remnants of the Avars (in the southwest).

The Bulgars and Magyars shared a long-lasting relationship in Khazaria, either by alliance or rivalry.

There is some controversy about Szeklers (in English, Secui in Romanian). There is a theory about two Magyar migrations, one before Árpád and one which resulted in Szeklers and Arpad migration. There are theories suggesting Avar, Gepid, Scythian, or Hunnish ancestry.

History of the Balkans - Bulgars and Bulgarians

The Bulgars (also Bolgars or proto-Bulgarians), a people of Central Asia, probably originally Pamirian, came to Europe in two waves, the first of which in the middle 5th century as a part of the Hunnish-Bulgar alliance. After the disintegration of the Hunnish empire the Bulgars dispersed mostly to Eastern Europe. At the end of the 5th century (probably in the years 480, 486, 488) they fought against the Ostgoths as allies of the Byzantine emperor Zenon. From 493 they started frequent attacks over the Balkan territories of the Eastern Roman Empire until the middle of the 6th century, when the two main Bulgar tribes (Kutriguri and Utiguri) started an internal war. In the end of the 6th century the Utiguri were conquered by the Avars, while the Kutriguri allied with them. At that time the second Bulgar wave commenced with the arrival of Asparuh's Bulgars. They had occupied the fertile planes of Ukraine for several centuries until the Khazars swept their confederation in the 660s and triggered their further migration. One part of them — under the leadership of Asparuh — headed southwest and settled in the 670s in present-day Bessarabia. In 680 AD they invaded Moesia and Dobrudja and formed a confederation with the local Slavic tribes who had migrated there a century earlier. After suffering a defeat at the hands of Bulgars and Slavs, the Byzantine Empire recognised the sovereignty of Asparuh's Khanate in a subsequent treaty signed in 681 AD. The same year is usually regarded as the year of the establishment of Bulgaria (see History of Bulgaria). A smaller group of Bulgars under Khan Kouber settled almost simultaneously in the Pelagonian plain in western Macedonia after spending some time in Panonia.

As from the beginning of the 9th century, the fledgling Bulgarian state started to play a more and more important role in the European Southeast. After defeating the Avars in 804, Khan Krum added to Bulgaria Transylvania, eastern Panonia, Bačka and Srem. His descendants, Omurtag, Malamir and Presian, continued the Bulgarian territorial expansion southward conquering the inland parts of Thrace and Macedonia. The addition of these territories strengthened additionally the Slavic element in the Bulgar state and helped the assimilation of the Bulgars by the Slavs. By the middle of the 9th century, the Bulgars and the Slavs had already to a large extent coalesced to one people — the Bulgarians — through mixed marriages (even in the royal dynasty, Omurtag was not already married to a Slavic woman but also gave two of his sons Slavic names) and as a result of the laws of Khan Krum and the abolition of the autonomy of the Slavic tribes undertaken by Omurtag. The process of coalescence was additionally strengthened by the en masse conversion to Christianity under Boris I Michael (864). At the end of the 9th century Bulgars and Slavs lived as Bulgarians in most of Moesia, Thrace and Macedonia and spoke a Slavic language with a minor admixture of Bulgar words.

In 893 the vernacular of the Bulgarian Slavs was adopted as the official language of the Bulgarian state and church. The following years saw the brilliant military victories of Simeon the Great against the Byzantines which resulted in an additional territorial expansion and the recognition of the autocephaly of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and of the title of Tsar for Simeon's successor, Peter I. The state got weakened, however, in the middle of the 9th century as a result of barbaric raids from the north and the Bogomil heresy. After an assault by the Rus' in 969, eastern Bulgaria and the capital of Preslav became subdued by Byzantine Emperor John Tzimisces in 972. The Bulgarians managed to maintain an independent state in the west for some time due to the efforts of Samuil who even managed to recover eastern Bulgaria and conquer Serbia in the 990s. A defeat at Kleidion in 1014, however, precipateted the fall of the whole of Bulgaria under Byzantine rule in 1018. The Bulgarian state was restored by a revolt of the Asenides in Moesia in 1185. Thrace and Macedonia were reconquered by Kaloyan and Ivan Asen II and throughout the first half of the 13th century Bulgaria was again the most powerful state in Southeastern Europe. The Tatar raids and the series of mediocre rulers after Ivan Asen II, however, reduced Bulgaria to a narrow strip of land between the Balkan mountains and the Danube at the end of the 13th century. The royal dynasties of Terter and Shishman managed to restore some of the former might of the Bulgarians in the first half of the 14th century. The raids of the Ottoman Turks since the 1350s cut, however, short the Bulgarian territorial expansion; by 1396 the whole of Bulgaria was overrun by the Ottomans.

History of the Balkans - Vlachs Romanians Aromanians Morlachs Istro-Romanians

"Vlach", "Wallach", "Vlakh" and other variations of the term date back in time nearly 2,000 years and refer to a variety of Latin-speaking peoples whose origin is ultimately the Roman Empire.

The maximum extent of the Roman Empire in southeastern Europe occurred after 106 AD when conquest of the Dacians extended the empire from modern Greece to Romania. By all accounts, the Latin-speaking people of the Roman Empire represented both a variety of indigenous people as well as colonists who came into the region. Under barbarian pressure, the Roman Legions retreated from Dacia (modern Romania) in 271-275. According to Romanian historians, Roman colonists and the Latinized Dacians retreated into the Carpathian Mountains of Transylvania after the Roman Legions withdrew from the area. This view is supported to the extent that archeological evidence does indicate the presence of a Romanised population in Transylvania by at least the 8th Century.

By the late 4th Century the Roman Empire was plagued by internal problems and by the incursions of various barbarian tribes. By the 7th and 8th Centuries, the Roman Empire existed only south of the Danube River in the form of the Byzantine Empire, with its capital at Constantinople. In this ethnically diverse closing area of the Roman Empire, Vlachs were recognized as those who spoke Latin, the official language of the Byzantine Empire used only in official documents, until the 6th Century when it was changed to the more popular Greek. These original Vlachs probably consisted of a variety of ethnic groups (most notably the Thracians and Macedonians) who shared the commonality of having been assimilated in language and culture of the Eastern Roman, later Byzantine Empire.

see also: Romanian language Paleo-Balkan languages Romania in the Dark Ages External link:

• The Vlach Connection and Further Reflections on Roman History

History of the Balkans - Balkan linguistic union

Balkan linguistic union or Balkan sprachbund is a name given to the similarities in grammar, syntax, vocabulary and phonology found in the languages of the Balkans.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The Dark Ages and the Great Migrations", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki