56 chapter onethe Turkic Khazars—their military fl ags were decorated on the top
with wolf’s heads made of gold (compare the yellow/golden color
which was reserved for the Chinese emperor!) and the khagan’s per-
sonal guards were called “wolves” (‘böri’ in Turkic; ‘fuli’ in Chinese).^159
Th erefore, the wolf and the wolf ’s behavior are signs of the Turkness,
although from a typological point of view they are typical not only
for the Turks, but for a number of Indo-European people as well (cf.
the myth about the she-wolf, Romulus and Remus).^160 Th e important
thing here is that the Turks considered them as theirs (i.e., as their own
sign and own behavior).
Th e Madara horseman in Bulgaria also has a high symbolic value,
once again signifying the own.^161 Th e relief is located at a place of the
highest level of sacredness—on the Madara rocks, the main place of
cult in pagan Bulgaria. Th e cult assemblage consists of a cave, a huge
piece of stone, a pagan temple and a relief (the latter is unique for all of
Europe) and is our/own place par excellence. Th e relief representing a
triumphant horseman trampling down a lion and followed by a hound
contains at least three semantic levels: the god of Heaven and Sun, the
cultural hero, and the Bulgar ruler (in general). Here the signs of the
Other are absent, but his mental image and his name are rather obvi-
ous: three inscriptions in Greek surround the image and all three point
to one and the same ‘partner’ of the Bulgars—the Byzantine Empire.
All these inscriptions describe the help provided by the Bulgars to the
Byzantines in crucial moments for the Byzantine state, or the Bulgar
reactions to the Byzantine breaking of peace treaties with the Bulgars.
Indeed, it was the Byzantine Empire and its heart, Constantinople,
that was the important Other for the Bulgars. It seems that neither the
relations with the Khazars, nor the ones with the Avars and the Franks
were vital or symbolically meaningful for the Bulgars;^162 it was only
relations with the Byzantine Empire that mattered, especially when
(^159) Kliashtornyi and Livshtits 1971b, 126; also see, Clauson 1964, 3–22.
(^160) For the comparative perspective in this aspect see, Kardini [Cardini] 1987
(Pt. 1). Also see, Clauson 1964, 3–22. 161
Th ere are many studies dealing with diff erent problems referring to Madara and
the rock relief. For instance see, Madarskiiat konnik 1956; Aladzhov 1983, 76–86;
Minaeva 1990; Stanilov 1996, 270–279; Rashev 1998, 192–204; Stepanov 1999, 150–
155; Grigoriou-Ioannidou 1997. 162
It should be noted that, if we are to leave aside some examples (see Beshevliev
1992, N N 59, 60), all of the inscriptions left on stone and made by the chancellery
of the Bulgar khans referred to the Byzantines (!) and very rarely—some of the Slavs
who were living in the frontier regions of Bulgaria.