Bolghar

Bolghar

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Official name	Bolgar Historical and Archaeological Complex
Location	Tatarstan, Russia
Criteria	Cultural: (ii), (vi)
Reference	981rev
Inscription	2014 (38th Session)
Area	424 ha (1.64 sq mi)
Buffer zone	12,101 ha (46.72 sq mi)
Coordinates	54°58′44″N 49°03′23″E / 54.97889°N 49.05639°E / 54.97889; 49.05639
Location of Bolghar in Russia

Bolghar (

History

The city is supposed to have been the capital of Volga Bulgaria from as early as the 10th century. Regular Kievan Rus' incursions along the Volga, and internecine fights, forced the Volga Bulgar kings (khagans) to intermittently move their capital to Bilyar.^{[citation needed]}

During the Mongol invasion of Volga Bulgaria in the 13th century, the Golden Horde conquered the realm. After a destruction of Bilyar during the Mongol invasion, the older capital became a centre of a separate province (or duchy) within the Golden Horde.^{[citation needed]} It lay outside the ulus itself, but had direct Mongol presence.^[2] The Mongols eliminated the existing socio-political structure of the Volga Bolgars.^[2] During the period of Mongol domination Bolgar acquired immense wealth and many imposing buildings and grew tenfold in size.^{[citation needed]} The taxation of regions such as Bolgar, Khwarizm, Crimea and Azerbaijan filled the Golden Horde's coffers with great wealth, and the Mongols replaced the sitting rulers of Bolgar and Khwarizm with their own, while the Rus' principalities in the west brought them comparatively little revenue, and they left the local princes in Rus', Armenia and Georgia in charge.^[2]

The late 14th century saw a marked decline in its fortunes. It was sacked by

During Tsarist rule the site of the ancient town was settled by Russian commoners. Tsar Peter the Great issued a special ukase to preserve the surviving ruins, which was the first Russian law aimed at preserving historical heritage.^{[citation needed]}

Little pilgrimage

During the Soviet period, Bolgar was a center of a local Islamic movement known as The Little Hajj; Muslims from Tatarstan and other parts of the Soviet Union could not participate in the hajj to Mecca, so they travelled instead to Bolgar.^{[citation needed]}

Monuments and temples

• 
  Eastern mausoleum
• 
  Khans' mausoleum
• 
  Northern mausoleum
• 
  Black Chamber
• 
  White Chamber
• 
  Big manara
• 
  Small manara
• 
  New Bolghar White Mosque

Importance

The Tatars refer to the medieval capital of Volga Bolgaria as Shahri Bolghar (Tatar: Шәһри Болгар), that is Persian for "the City of Bolghar". The town is part of their cultural heritage, because Volga Bulgaria is the predecessor state of the Khanate of Kazan, which in turn is in a way the predecessor of today's Russian republic of Tatarstan.^{[citation needed]}

Today, the capital of Tatarstan is Kazan, but many Tatars consider Bolghar to be their ancient and religious capital and to allow a glimpse of Muslim Bulgar life before the Mongol invasion of Volga Bulgaria.^{[citation needed]}

References

• Edward Tracy Turnerelli, Kazan, the Ancient Capital of the Tartar Khans, 1854, pp 196–261
• Halperin, Charles J. (1987). Russia and the Golden Horde: The Mongol Impact on Medieval Russian History. p. 222.
  ISBN 9781850430575
  . (e-book).

External links

• Media related to Bolghar ancient settlement at Wikimedia Commons