144 CHAPTER 2
Sarmatia (west of the Don) was inhabited by the Burjan, while Asian Sarmatia
(east of the Don) was home to the Alans.86 If the accounts about the Burjan
and the Inner Bulgars are referring to the same community, then records of
this Bulgar group date as far back as the period between the late eighth and the
early ninth century. They do not appear “suddenly” in sources from the tenth
century. The monuments of the Saltovo culture from the area of the Don and
the Severski Donets should most probably be linked to these Bulgars.87
Al-Masudi’s account may be helpful in examining the political events in the
Northern Black Sea region from the late 940s and early 950s, which remain
almost totally unknown to this day. As already mentioned, his account dates
from 956. It shows that at that time, the Rus’, the Pechenegs and the Byzantines
were all part of a coalition that existed in the Northern Black Sea region. It is
then only natural to presume that its actions were directed against Khazaria
and thus against the Black Bulgars. Even if the Black Bulgars were indepen-
dent from the Khazars during this period—a possibility that M. Artamonov
is willing to accept,88 they became a natural ally of Khazaria when faced with
the need to fight against the coalition. According to the scientist, “in their rela-
tions with Byzantium the Khazars could only act through the Black Bulgars
and indeed even with their forces, since the Bulgars were immediate neigh-
bors of the Crimean domains of the Empire. Therefore, the treaty between
the Greeks and Igor mentions the Black Bulgars and not the Khazars, which
however should not lead to the conclusion that the Bulgars had at that time
severed all relations with the Khazars and constituted a completely indepen-
dent political entity”.89
86 Kalinina 1988, 17 and 92–95.
87 Romashov 2004, 251–255 explicitly rejects the possibility that Black Bulgaria was situ-
ated in the Severski Donets area, but bases his opinion solely on the assumption that
the Pechenegs ravaged the Bulgar monuments there at the end of the ninth century.
According to him, Black Bulgaria was situated in the coastal area of the Sea of Azov
(more precisely, between the Don and Manich Rivers), in the place where Onoguria was
previously located. It obtained its independence from the Khazar Khaganate after the
Pecheneg invasion and became known as Black Bulgaria.
88 Artamonov 1962, 381–382.
89 Artamonov 1962, 382. The opinion of Spinei 2003, 121 is also of interest. According to him,
the fact that it was the Black Bulgars and not the Pechenegs who were mentioned as a
threat to Chersonesus in the treaty between Kievan Rus’ and Byzantium indicates the
possibility that the activity of the Pechenegs in the area north of the Black Sea could have
been limited by the Khazar Khaganate.