Kingdom of Balhara

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Balhara according to Acad. Suren T. Eremian’s reconstruction of the original map of Central Asia from the Armenian geographical atlas ‘Ashharatsuyts’.
Balhara according to Acad. Suren T. Eremian’s reconstruction of the original map of Central Asia from the Armenian geographical atlas ‘Ashharatsuyts’.

Kingdom of Balhara was a state[citation needed] situated in the upper course of Oxus River (present Amu Darya), and the foothills and valleys of Hindu Kush (killer of hindu mountains) and Pamir Mountains (ancient Mount Imeon). Established ca. seventh century BC.[citation needed]

The inhabitants of Balhara were called Bulh in the fifth-seventh century AD Armenian geographical atlas ‘Ashharatsuyts’. The atlas describes them as an old settled, artisan and trading nation rather than nomadic tribe, inhabiting the area centered around the ancient major city of Balh (Balkh) that comprised roughly present northern Afghanistan, Pakistan and most of Tajikistan. According to Bulgarian historian Georgi Bakalov, Bulhi was probably the Armenian name of the ancient Bulgars. Historiographers in late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages such as Agathias of Myrina, Theophylact Simocatta, and Michael the Syrian also identify Mount Imeon as an early homeland of the ancient Bulgars.[citation needed]

The Bulhi contributed to the ethnogenesis of the present Tajiks in both Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan[citation needed], and possibly the homonymous ethnic group of Balhara in India. Some of them migrated to Europe already BC.[citation needed]

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Bakalov cites Byzantine historian Zacharias Rhetor as saying that the Burgars (presumably also identical to the Bulgars), had towns in the valleys of Northern Caucasus. They had also the territory along the north coast of Black Sea east of Axiacus River (Southern Bug) (Latin: Bulensii)[citation needed]. He concludes that they had migrated to that region from Balhara. In Bakalov's view, the Bulgars established their first state there in 165 AD, a date he arrives at by summing the years of life or reign of all rulers listed in the Nominalia of the Bulgarian khans. The Nominalia claims that the first two rulers lived for 300 and 150 years respectively, which has led earlier historians to ignore these figures. Bakalov, however, is of the opinion that their legendary names should be interpreted as referring to entire dynasties, but the dates themselves are accurate. The Kingdom of Old Great Bulgaria is known to have been established in that area in 632 AD. Among the successors of the latter are the medieval Bulgarian Empire and Volga Bulgaria, and present Bulgaria, Tatarstan, and Chuvashia.

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