Editing Bulgars (section)

=== Religion ===
Very little is known about the religion of the Bulgars,{{sfn|Golden|1992|p=250}}{{sfn|Fiedler|2008|p=207}} but it is believed to have been [[monotheism|monotheistic]].

In Danube Bulgaria, Bulgar monarchs described themselves as a "ruler from God",<ref name="Bury" />{{sfn|Curta|2006|pp=161–162}}{{sfn|Sophoulis|2011|pp=84–86}} indicating authority from a singular divine origin,{{sfn|Sedlar|2011|p=141}} and making appeals to the deity's [[omniscience]].{{sfn|Maenchen-Helfen|1973|p=273}} [[Presian of Bulgaria|Presian]]'s inscription from [[Philippi]] (837) states:{{sfn|Petkov|2008|pp=12–13}}{{Blockquote|When someone seeks the truth, God sees. And when someone lies, God sees that too. The Bulgars did many favors to the Christians (Byzantines), but the Christians forgot them. But God sees.}}

It is traditionally assumed that the God in question was the Turkic supreme sky deity, [[Tengri]].{{sfn|Sophoulis|2011|p=84}}{{sfn|Curta|2006|pp=161–162}} In the Chinese transcription as ''zhenli'', and Turkic as ''Tangara'' and ''Tengeri'', it represents the oldest known Turco-Mongolian word.<ref name="Tengri" /> Tengri may have originated in the Xiongnu confederacy, which settled on the frontiers of China in the 2nd century BC. The confederacy probably had both pre-Turkic and pre-Mongolian ethnic elements.<ref name="Tengri">{{cite book |first1=Yves |last1=Bonnefoy |author-link1=Yves Bonnefoy |first2=Wendy |last2=Doniger |author-link2=Wendy Doniger |date=1993 |title=Asian Mythologies |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r4I-FsZCzJEC |publisher=University of Chicago Press |pages=315, 331 |isbn=9780226064567}}</ref> In modern Turkish, the word for god, ''Tanrı'', derives from the same root.<ref name="Mercia">{{Cite book |last=MacDermott |first=Mercia |author-link=Mercia MacDermott |date=1998 |title=Bulgarian Folk Customs |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gh4IE6toGJMC |publisher=[[Jessica Kingsley Publishers]] |pages=21–22 |isbn=9781853024856}}</ref>

[[Tengrism]] apparently engaged various shamanic practices.{{sfn|Golden|1992|p=250}} According to [[Mercia MacDermott]], Tangra was the male deity connected with sky, light and the Sun.<ref name="Mercia" /> The cult incorporated Tangra's female equivalent and principle goddess, [[Umay]], the deity of fertility.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Zhivkov |first=Boris |date=2015 |title=Khazaria in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7Du2CAAAQBAJ |publisher=Brill |pages=78, 80, 112 |isbn=9789004294486}}</ref> Their [[tamgha]] 
[[File:Khans Dulo of Bulgaria.jpg|20px]], which can be frequently found in early medieval Bulgaria is associated with deity Tangra. However, its exact meaning and use remains unknown.{{sfn|Fiedler|2008|p=207}} The most sacred creatures to Tangra were horses and eagles, particularly white horses.<ref name="Mercia" /> Bronze amulets with representations of the Sun, horses and other animals were found at Bulgar archeological sites.<ref name="Mercia" />{{sfn|Sophoulis|2011|p=88}}{{sfn|Fiedler|2008|p=208}} This could explain the variety of Bulgars taboos, including those about animals.{{sfn|Golden|1992|p=250}}

Ravil Bukharaev believed that such an autocratic and monotheistic religion{{mdash}}[[henotheism]],{{sfn|Sophoulis|2011|pp=83–84, 86}} as seen in the report by [[Ahmad ibn Fadlan]] (10th century) about the [[Oghuz Turks]], kindred to the Bulgars,<ref name="Islam">{{Cite book |last=Bukharaev |first=Ravil |date=2014 |title=Islam in Russia: The Four Seasons |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vIy3AwAAQBAJ |publisher=Routledge |pages=80–82, 83 |isbn=9781136807930}}</ref> made the acceptance of Islam  more natural and easier in Volga Bulgaria:<ref name="Islam" />{{sfn|Shnirelʹman|1996|pp=30–31}}

{{Blockquote|If someone trouble befalls any of them or there happens any unlucky incident, they look out into the sky and summon: "Ber Tengre!". In the Turkish language, that means, "by the One and Only God!".}} Another mention of Tengri is on the severely damaged Greek inscription found on a presumed [[altar]] stone near Madara,{{sfn|Sophoulis|2011|p=84}} tentatively deciphered as "Khan ''sybigi'' Omurtag, ruler from god...was...and made sacrifice to god Tangra...''itchurgu boila''...gold".{{sfn|Petkov|2008|p=11}} An Ottoman manuscript recorded that the name of God, in Bulgarian, was "Tängri".{{sfn|Sophoulis|2011|p=84}}
[[File:Rosette_from_Pliska.svg|alt=A rosette|thumb|The [[Pliska rosette]] dated from the [[Tengrism|Tengristic]] period has seven fingers representing the [[Classical planet]]s]]
A piece of ethnographic evidence which has been invoked to support the belief that the Bulgars worshipped Tengri/Tangra is the relative similarity of the name "Tengri" to "Tură", the name of the supreme deity of the traditional religion of the [[Chuvash people]], who are traditionally regarded as descendants of the Volga Bulgars.{{sfn|Tokarev|1980}} Nevertheless, the Chuvash religion today is markedly different from Tengrism and can be described as a local form of [[polytheism]], due to pagan beliefs of the [[Volga Finns]], forest dwellers of [[Finno-Ugric peoples|Finno-Ugric]] origin who lived in their vicinity, with some elements borrowed from Islam.<ref name="Islam" />

[[Paganism]] was closely connected with the old clan system,{{sfn|Golden|1992|p=141}} and the remains of [[totemism]] and [[shamanism]] were preserved even after the crossing of Danube.<ref name="Mercia"/>{{sfn|Sophoulis|2011|pp=86–89}} The [[Shumen Province|Shumen]] plate in the archaeological literature is often associated with shamanism.{{sfn|Fiedler|2008|p=208}} In the 9th century, it was recorded that before a battle the Bulgars "''used to practice enchantments and jests and charms and certain auguries''".{{sfn|Maenchen-Helfen|1973|p=268}}{{sfn|Sophoulis|2011|p=82}} [[Liutprand of Cremona]] reported that Baian, son of [[Simeon I of Bulgaria|Simeon I]] (893–927), could through ''magicam'' transform into a wolf.{{sfn|Sophoulis|2011|p=88}} [[Clement of Ohrid]] reported the worship of fire and water by the Bulgars,{{sfn|Sophoulis|2011|p=83}} while in the 11th century [[Theophylact of Ohrid]] remembered that before the Christianization the Bulgars respected the Sun, Moon and the stars, and sacrificed dogs to them.{{sfn|Sophoulis|2011|p=80}}

Allegedly, the Dulo clan had the dog as its sacred animal. To this today Bulgarians still use the expression "he kills the dog" to mean "he gives the orders", a relic of the time when the Dulo Khan sacrificed a dog to the deity Tangra.<ref name="Mercia"/> Remains of dog and deer have been found in Bulgars graves, and it seems the [[Wolves in folklore, religion and mythology#Mongolian|wolf]] also had a special mythological significance.<ref name="Mercia"/><ref name="Kim"/> The Bulgars were bi-ritual,{{sfn|Sophoulis|2011|p=66}} either cremating or burying their dead,{{sfn|Sophoulis|2011|p=67}}{{sfn|Fiedler|2008|p=157}} and often interred them with personal objects (pottery, rarely weapons or dress{{sfn|Fiedler|2008|p=157}}), food, and sacred animals.<ref name="Mercia"/>{{sfn|Sophoulis|2011|p=67}}{{sfn|Fiedler|2008|p=157}}

Because of the cult of the Sun, the Bulgars had a preference for the south. Their main buildings and shrines faced south, as well their [[yurt]]s, which were usually entered from the south, although less often from the east. Excavations showed that Bulgars buried their dead on a north–south axis,{{sfn|Fiedler|2008|p=157}} with their heads to the north so that the deceased "faced" south.<ref name="Mercia" /> The Slavs practiced only cremation, the remains were placed in urns, and like the Bulgars, with the conversion to Christianity [[inhumation|inhumed]] the dead on west–east axis.{{sfn|Fiedler|2008|p=158}} The only example of a mixed Bulgar-Slavic cemetery is in [[Istria, Constanța|Istria]] near ancient [[Histria (ancient city)|Histria]], on the coast of the Black Sea.{{sfn|Fiedler|2008|p=159}}

D. Dimitrov has argued that the Kuban Bulgars also adopted elements of Iranian religious beliefs. He noticed Iranian influences on the cult of the former Caucasian Huns capital Varachan ([[Balanjar]]), making a religious syncretism between the principal Turkic deity Tengri and the Iranian sun god [[Hvare-khshaeta|Hvare]].<ref name="Dimitrov">{{cite book |author=D. Dimitrov |date=1987 |chapter=The Proto-Bulgarians east of the Sea of Azov in the VIII–IX cc. |title=Prabylgarite po severnoto i zapadnoto Chernomorie |chapter-url=http://www.kroraina.com/p_bulgar/p_bulg7.htm |place=Varna}}</ref> Dimitrov cited the work by V.A. Kuznetsov, who considered the resemblance between the layout of the [[Zoroastrianism|Zoroastrian]] temples of fire and the Kuban Bulgar centre, Humarin citadel, situated 11&nbsp;km to the north of the town [[Karachayevsk]], where the pottery belonged to the [[Saltovo-Mayaki]] culture.<ref name="Dimitrov"/>

Kuznecov also found a connection in the plan of the Danube Bulgars sanctuaries at [[Pliska]], [[Veliki Preslav]], and [[Madara (village)|Madara]].<ref name="Dimitrov" /> The architectural similarities include two squares of [[ashlar]]s inserted one into another, oriented towards the summer sunrise.<ref name="Dimitrov" /> One of these sites was transformed into a Christian church, which is taken as evidence that they served a religious function.<ref name="Dimitrov" />

The view of the [[Parthian Empire|Parthian]] and [[Sasanian Empire|Sasanian]] influence, which [[Franz Altheim]] also argued, is considered debatable, showing the cultural impact of the Iranian world on communities in the Pontic–Caspian steppe.<ref name="Kim"/> Many scholars believe that the square shape, with the north–south and east–west axis of the Bulgar sacral monuments is very similar to those of Turkic khagans in Mongolia.{{sfn|Curta|2006|p=160}} However, that the Bulgar residence in Pliska and [[Palace of Omurtag]] were inspired by the Byzantine architecture is considered indisputable.{{sfn|Fiedler|2008|p=196}}

[[Christianity]] had already begun to penetrate, probably via their Slavic subjects,{{sfn|Golden|1992|p=250}} when it  was adopted in the First Bulgarian Empire by [[Knyaz]] [[Boris I]] in 865 as a state religion.{{sfn|Golden|1992|p=252}} There was interest in [[Islam]] as well, seen in the book ''Answers to the Questions of the King of the Burgar addressed to him about Islam and Unity'' by the [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasid]] caliph [[Al-Ma'mun]] (813–833) for the Pontic/Bosporan Bulgars,{{sfn|Golden|1992|p=250}} while it was officially adopted in Volga Bulgaria as a state religion in 922.<ref name="Islam"/><ref>{{cite journal |first=Gerald |last=Mako |date=2011 |title=The Islamization of the Volga Bulghars: A Question Reconsidered |journal=Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi |issue=18 |pages=199–223}}</ref>