78 chapter onedid many good services to the Christians and the Christians have forgot-
ten about them; but the Lord sees.^246Th e events mentioned by the inscription happened in 837 A.D. when
emperor Th eophilos (829–842) took back from “Bulgaria beyond the
Danube River” the Byzantines captured by Krum in 813 A.D. Th eophi-
los did this by tricking Persian to send a great army against the rebel-
lious Smolyans and this way reduced the number of Bulgar soldiers in
the Northeastern parts of the Bulgar state. Apparently kaukhan Isboul
stayed long enough in Philippi situated close to the Aegean coast and
had time to make the above-mentioned inscription on behalf of the
Bulgar khan Persian. Remarkably, it was situated on the stylobate of
the local basilica, the so-called Basilica ‘B’. In light of the serious accu-
sations of the Byzantines being deceptive in dealing with the Bulgars it
is hard to believe that the kaukhan had accidently chosen a Christian
church as the site for the inscription. One could not think of a better
place for this type of propaganda.^247
One more inscription is explicitly related to Christians as well, i.e.
Byzantines—the so-called Syuleimanköy inscription (named aft er
the village of Syuleimanköy, now the Novi Pazar region in Bulgaria
where it was found). It presents separate articles of the 30-years-long
peace treaty signed between the Bulgar khan Omurtag and the Byz-
antine Empire and is dated to 815 A.D.^248 Unfortunately this part of
the inscription is very badly preserved and it is diffi cult to be used
as a source in this aspect. Consequently, we should also consider
the Byzantine sources^249 because they provide more details than the
inscription. Article Four is related to “the captured Christians and
the imprisoned.. ., and for the turmarchs, spatharii and comites: will
give.. ., and for the poor soldiers a soul for a soul”. Did Omurtag abide
the clauses of the treaty for returning the captured Christians? Th e
Byzantine information, other than the hagiographic tradition, pro-
vided for example by Zonaras (“Aft er the death of Krum another one
took the power, signed a treaty with the Byzantines and returned back
(^246) Beshevliev 1992, N 14. Regarding which God is mentioned, e.g. that of the
Christians or that of the Bulgars, there are diff erent opinions. For instance see, Rashev
1996, 39–44, with literature cited there, and also: Bozhilov 1995, 47; Beshevliev 1992,
85–86 and esp. N 14, 140–148; Nikolov 2000, 347.
(^247) Beshevliev 1992, 147 f.
(^248) Beshevliev 1992, N 41. For the treaty see details in, Zlatarski 1970, 384–391.
(^249) Details see in, Nikolova 1995, 190, with the sources mentioned there.