The Pechenegs In Khazar History 139
the area where the lands of Black Cumania were situated.60 It is possible to
seek here a connection to the legacy of the Black Bulgars. At this stage of sci-
entific development, however, the assumptions that lead in this direction are
uncertain.
Several of the few examined Bulgar settlements from the Severski Donets
region existed up till the Mongol invasion of the 1220s. They demonstrate the
ethnic continuity between the Saltovo (Bulgar) population and the population
from the subsequent period (the ninth to thirteenth centuries).61 V. Stoianov
cautiously mentions the possible link between the Cuman subdivision of
Burchevichi (a part of Black Cumania) and the commonly used in Eastern lit-
erature name Burjan in reference to the Bulgars.62 As will be shown further
on, in some of these accounts Burjan refers to the Inner (Black) Bulgars. And
finally, the Terteroba, with whom the subsequent Bulgarian royal dynasty of
the Terterids is associated, were also part of Black Cumania.63
The Bulgar population of the Khazar lands was most dense in the Crimean
and the Taman Peninsulas, along the northern coast of the Sea of Azov and the
lower reaches of the Don River, as well as along the lower and middle reaches of
the Severski Donets.64 This is a vast territory which could hardly have been pop-
ulated by one Bulgar tribe alone. For now, it can be stated with certainty that a
Christian Bulgar community existed in the Crimea, and a pagan one inhabited
the area along the Don and the Severski Donets. According to Al-Balkhi and
Al-Istakhri, the Inner Bulgars were Christians. Only Ibn Hawqal describes the
Inner Bulgars as both Christians and Muslims,65 although he probably associ-
ated Islam with accounts of the Volga Bulgars. On the other hand, archaeologi-
cal finds support the possibility that the Bulgar community that inhabited the
area around the Severski Donets consisted of both Christians and Muslims.66
Constantine Porphyrogenitus does not comment on the religious affilia-
tion of the Black Bulgars. Would he have done so, had they been Christians?
If the Black Bulgars were mostly pagans, it is unlikely that they inhabited the
60 Golden 1982, 68 and 2003, no. 10, 297–298; Stoianov 2006a, 131 and 137–139.
61 For instance, the studies of Kravchenko 2004, 260 show that between the ninth and the
thirteenth centuries, an unfortified settlement existed on the site of the Sidorovo com-
plex; its population was ethnically the same as in the tenth century, i.e. Bulgar.
62 Stoianov 2006a, 15 and 145; see also Golden 2003, no. 10, 298.
63 Stoianov 2006a, 139–140.
64 The settlement of Bulgars in Khazaria is examined in more detail in chapter 5.3.
65 Garkavi 1870, 193, 218, and 277.
66 Aksenov 2004, 136–144; Krasil’nikov 2007, 87–88.