Presian I of Bulgaria

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Presian I (Bulgarian: Пресиян) was the ruler of Bulgaria 836–852.

The composite picture of the Byzantine sources indicates that Presian I was the son of Zvinica (Zbēnitzēs), who was a son of Omurtag. (In several older studies Presian I is identified with his short-lived predecessor Malamir and it is assumed that this single character survived until the 850s as the direct predecessor of Boris I. This is very unlikely, as Malamir is attested as having been succeeded by his nephew (the son of his brother Zvinica), while Boris I was preceded by his father Presian I. Zlatarski resolved the problems in the fragmentary sources by determining that Malamir's unnamed nephew and successor was in fact Presian I, and Boris I was the latter's son.)

Presian may have been young and inexperienced at the time of his accession, and state affairs may have been dominated by the minister (kaukhanos) Isbul, as under Presian's uncle Malamir. Soon after Presian's accession the Slavs in the vicinity of Thessalonica rebelled against the Byzantine Empire in 837. Emperor Theophilos sought Bulgarian support in putting down the rebellion, but simultaneously arranged for his fleet to sail through the Danube delta and undertake a clandestine evacuation of some of the Byzantine captives settled in trans-Danubian Bulgaria by Krum and Omurtag. In retaliation Isbul campaigned along the Aegean coasts of Thrace and Macedonia and captured the city of Philippi, where he set up a surviving memorial inscription set up in a local church. Isbul's campaign may have resulted in the establishment of Bulgarian suzerainty over the Slavic tribe of the Smoljani.

Presian's reign apparently coincides with the extension of Bulgarian control over the Slavic tribes in and around Macedonia. However, Presian's campaigns against the Serbs in about 839–842 failed miserably. By the end of Presian's reign Serbia and Bulgaria lived in an uneasy peace.

The 17th century Volga Bulgar compilation Ja'far Tarikh (a work of disputed authenticity) represents Birdžihan (i.e., Presian I) as the son of Sabanša (i.e., Zvinica), which may lend support to the interpretation of his origins now dominant in Bulgarian historiography.

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Jordan Andreev, Ivan Lazarov, Plamen Pavlov, Koj koj e v srednovekovna Bălgarija, Sofia 1999.
Vasil Zlatarski, Istorija na bălgarskata dăržava, 1:1, Sofia, 1918.
(primary source), Bahši Iman, Džagfar Tarihy, vol. III, Orenburg 1997.