the ‘outside’ other 37
tions situated to the south, accepting certain elements typical for their
otherness, which were not regarded as a ‘foreign’ threat.
Th e Bulgar–Byzantine border case is a diff erent one. Byzantine doc-
trine regarded the Balkan territories temporarily ceded to the Bulgars^78
(cf. the nine campaigns of Constantine V in the period between 756
and 775 A.D.) and the Bulgars felt strong enough aft er the early ninth
century to abandon the real barrier, the Haemus Mountains, and to
begin organizing the already conquered Byzantine territories to the
south of the mountains seeking a balance between Byzantine and Bul-
gar. Th eir activities related to the organization of these territories aft er
the beginning of the ninth century were quite indicative. Th e Bulgar
ruler Krum (803–814) divided the conquered territories in Eastern
Th race according to the typical steppe three-partite pattern—a couple
of fl anks and a center, led by his brother (the center), by the “kaukhan”
(the eastern fl ank, e.g. toward the Black Sea) and by the “ichirgü-boila”
(the western fl ank). However, the khan had chosen Byzantine strategoi
who moved to Bulgar service aft er 809 A.D. for their substitutes (e.g.
Vardanes, Yanis, Grigoras, and Kordiles).^79 Together, with this divi-
sion, the traditional one continued to exist—the country was divided
into an ‘internal’ area (where the ‘tsar’’s people/tribes lived) and an
‘external’ one.
Another system of administrative division was probably introduced
in Bulgaria as early as the time of Omurtag’s reign (maybe aft er 824
A.D.?)—the so-called comitates, i.e. territories bearing the name of the
comes/comitates, well known from the Roman period and the West
European “barbarian” kingdoms.^80 Th is fact again points to the estab-
lishment, in the ninth century, of a contact zone on the Balkan Penin-
sula, initially in the territories to the south of the Haemus Mountains^81
(^78) Bozhilov 1995, 24–25, 46.
(^79) Beshevliev 1992, 186–187, N 47. Also see, Rashev 2004, 155–156.
(^80) Th is evidence, beyond any doubt, is mentioned for the time of knyaz Boris-
Michael (852–889) but it is almost taken at face value that this change had already
begun in the time of Omurtag, when in Bulgaria there were many signs for the begin-
ning of ‘modernization’ and centralization processes’. See Annales Bertiniani 1960,
287 (s.a. 866); Venedikov 1979; Stepanov 1999, 65–72. 81
Nikolova 1997, 33, speaks about the existence of a second contact zone in the
places where the Bulgar khans settled captives-Christians from the territories of Byz-
antium, or, in the places that were very close to the Bulgar lands where the Byzantine
emperors used to settle Christians. In my opinion, as regards “Bulgaria beyond the
Danube River”, we can speak about zones of contacts only, and not about contact
zones, because that period, during which the Krum’s Byzantine captives from Eastern