The Ideology Of The Ninth And Tenth Centuries 39
and asked the Byzantine emperor for land to settle in, which he received. The
rest travelled to the land of the Alans, called Barsilia,89 and later its population
took on the name of the elder brother Khazar.
This source is cited in almost every work on the origin of the Bulgars and
Khazars. It raises several questions. According to D. Dunlop, Michael the
Syrian indicates the time of the Khazars’ arrival in Europe (the end of the sixth
century).90 This cannot be accepted because of the mention of Bolgar and as
for the Bulgars, the end of the sixth century is too late a date. From the view-
point of Bulgarian history, there are several possibilities. In R. Rashev’s opin-
ion, the text depicts the migrations of the Bulgars of Khan Asparukh and their
settlement south of the Danube. The text is pervaded by the political vision of
Byzantium, which distorts historical facts.91
If R. Rashev is correct, this hardly means that Michael the Syrian invented
the legend of the three brothers. More likely, it reflects notions that existed
in the twelfth century and that indicate the kinship between the Bulgars and
the Khazars and the place they came from. But “whether the aforementioned
account of Michael the Syrian actually depicts one of the last westward migra-
tions of the Proto-Bulgarian tribes, or it can be seen as a concise version of the
vast spaces our ancient forefathers had to cross to come to Europe, it is diffi-
cult to say today”.92 Some scholars assume that the name of the third brother
could have been Barsil. They base their assumption on the account of Al-Kalbi,
according to whom Barsil was the brother of Khazar.93 While Al-Kalbi’s account
implies a kinship between the Khazars and the Barsils, it is the account of
Michael the Syrian that does not permit such a conclusion, because the other
two brothers settled in a land that already bore the name Barsilia and belonged
to the Alans. Further on, however, the text begins to sound somewhat con-
tradictory: “Furthermore, the Bulgars and Puguraye [who inhabited Misia and
Dacia] that formed the inhabitants [of Berzilia’s cities] became Christians, in
good time. When the foreign people took over that land [Berzilia], they named
themselves Khazars from the name of the elder brother”.94 The text does not
refer to the Alans but to an ethnic group that could be close to the Bulgars;
89 There are also different views regarding the location of Barsilia. See for instance
Artamonov 1962, 130; Dimitrov 1987, 39; Golden 1980, 143–147; Novosel’tsev 1990, 79;
Zuckerman 2001, 327–328; Magomedov 1994, 24ff.
90 Dunlop 1967, 5.
91 Rashev 2003b, 373–383 and 2007a, 17–25.
92 Stepanov 1999a, 26.
93 Pletneva 1976, 15; Artamonov 1962, 132; Magomedov 1994, 50.
94 Quoted from Rashev 2003b, 374.