22 CHAPTER 1
1.1 The Turko-Iranian Symbiosis and the Cultural Identity of the
Khazars, Bulgars and Alans
The next paragraphs will examine the Khazars, Bulgars and Alans as a part of
a community that genetically and culturally brings us back to the steppe tribes
from the second millennium BC. The ties between them can be traced through
archaeological artifacts and are visible in their worldview, ideology and the var-
ious forms of state systems. Several centers can be distinguished, which influ-
enced the development of the steppe ethnic groups for an extended period of
time. It is also important to bear in mind that in the steppe and its adjacent
territories, the difference in the ideology of nomads and sedentary peoples is
often hardly perceptible. Therefore, the main objective here is not to seek the
places of origin of the various ethnic groups or their differentiation, but the
common traits they shared, which can also be defined as a cultural identity.
By the end of the second millennium BC, the steppe territories to the east,
including Western Mongolia, were inhabited by Indo-European tribes. In this
remote region, the Indo-Europeans lived near or alongside Mongoloids. For
more than a millennium, they used common pastures and participated in the
same state or tribal alliances. This interaction continued also in the empire
of the Huns (third century BC—second century AD), on the vast territory
of which tribes that differed in race and language migrated, intermixed and
influenced each other.17 Not surprisingly, although most scholars perceive the
Huns as Turkic-speaking, the question of their linguistic identity cannot yet be
determined with certainty.18
The Huns became the cause for the first major migrations (for which there
is evidence in the sources) of Europoid tribes westward from the Western
Mongolia region. During the second century BC, the Huns forced the Yuezhi
people (who previously dominated the steppes of Western and Central
Mongolia—the Hun Chanyu Modun was previously held hostage by them)
to migrate westward to Middle Asia. According to historians, the Yuezhi are
either Tocharians or Iranians. Regardless of the Yuezhi’s ethnicity, the pres-
ence of Tocharians in the steppes indicates not only that an Indo-European
population had reached so far east, but also a cultural influence, different from
the Iranian one. In their migration westwards, the Yuezhi also dragged along
some of the Iranian tribes of the Wusuns (between the second century BC and
17 Alekseev 1972, 230–244; Kliashtornyi and Sultanov 2000, 15 and 47–48; Stoianov 2003,
40–42; Stoianov 2004a, 9; Stoianov 2006a, 67–70 and 74; Golden 2006, 18.
18 Di Cosmo 2004, 163–166; Kliashtornyi and Sultanov 2000, 67; Stepanov 1999a, 21; see also
Maenhcen-Helfen 1973, 376ff regarding the European Huns.