Bakhshi Iman
DJAGFAR TARIHI
(THE ANNALS OF DJAGFAR)
GHAZI-BARADJ TARIHI
(THE ANNALS OF GHAZI-BARADJ)
1229-1246 AD
Chapters 1 - 5

Translator's Notes
Page numbers, where shown, indicate pages in the book publication.
The offered copy of the printed edition has not been properly proofread, and contains typos and misspellings, for which I apologize and intend to correct them with time. Until then, the posting is representative of the general scope and the detail of the annals.
The "mouse over" explanations basically follow the definitions found in the Annals and represent the views of its writers, which may be different from the known or accepted conditions of the present time. They are the best guess and some of them may be incorrect because of incorrect interpretation of the text by the translator. The translator of the Annals to Russian left a multitude of the Türkisms in his translation, and they are preserved in the English translation, with the "mouse over" explanations where available. The dates in the chapter headings are added during translation and are imprecise indicators of the period covered.
Rendering of the terms. The Russian translation of the Türkic original added the Russian suffixes distorting the original terms, and the distortion is further complicated by the incompatibility between the Flexitive Russian and Agglutinative Türkic languages. An attempt was made to return to the original forms, and then Anglicize the words by adding English suffixes and endings to convey the semantics of the word. Where the Türkic suffix is already a part of the word, its original form was used with the understanding that an elementary acquaintance with Türkic word-forming rules is necessary for the comprehension of the context. Still, in some cases the selection used is not transparent, for example if the word in singular is Ulchi (an inhabitant of Ul), then the plural is Ulchies (the inhabitants of Ul), but not the reverse, i.e. from Ulchies (inhabitants of Ul) it could be either Ulchi or Ulchy (both for an inhabitant of Ul). To avoid a confusion of what the primary form is, the translation used the Anglicized formats Ulchian and Ulchians, which, without the English suffixes '-an' and '-ans', produce the initial word 'Ulchi'.
Spelling conventions. The specifics of the Türkic dialects in the Bulgarian Confederation found their reflections in the Arabic text and then in the Russian translation. A number of the common Türkic words are rendered in the dialectal pronunciation, like "Khan" - "Kan", "Khagan" - "Khakan", "subarchi" - "subarshi" etc., and some in both variations: 'Itil' - 'Idel'. Also, in the original translation to Russian appeared variations of the spelling, likely due to the absence of the formalized words in the Russian language, or due to the ambiguous grammatical conventions for some of the Russian conjugations, or due to the changes in the original language accumulated over the centuries. The translation generally passes on these variations without scrutinizing them.
In instances where there are accepted spellings, the accepted spelling is used with an understanding that in the 'Dj' and in the 'Ch' dialects the pronunciation is different, like for the Arabic name Jusuf (Joseph in English), the pronunciation, reflected in the Russian translation, could be 'Djusuf" and 'Jusuf' ('Djoo-soof' and 'Yoo-soof'). In cases with no universally accepted spelling, the letter 'd' shown in the Russian translation is also shown in the English translation, like in 'Karadjar' vs. the alternate 'Karadjar' with implied 'd' that can be articulated from very week to very strong.
Phonetic conventions:
y - after consonant in the middle and in the end of the word, like 'i' in 'sit', with a longer sound, corresponds to Russian 'ы': 'Bulymer ' for 'Boo-liih-mer', 'Ryshtauly' for 'Riish-tah-oo-liih'.
y - substitutes for 'i' in diphthongs, to indicate sound like Y in New York: 'biysu' for 'Bee-y-soo', instead of 'biisu', yorty for 'Yor-tii'.
yo - like 'yo' in 'yo-yo'
j - like 'z' in 'azure'
é - the accented last vowel 'e', like 'e' in 'protégé'
GHAZI-BARADJ TARIHI
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... There is no God except Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger!
... By the grace of God, by the resolve of seid Djagfar, I, his Bakhshi Iman, strang on a string of this narration the pearls of our Bulgarian historical stories, ”Ghazi-Baradj Tarihi“, written from the words of Kan and Emir Ghazi-Baradj by his Tebir Ghazi-Baba Hudja, ”Bu-Ürgan Kitaby“ by seid Mohammedjar, ”Sheikh-Gali Kitaby” by mullah Ish-Mohammed..., and also the words and documents of the Seid Djagfar archive..., to preserve the memory of the deeds of our great Bulgar people... I shall not be a judge for the described, for I did not see it and only God knows, had it been so or not.
Written by the Ghazi-Baba. Narrated by Ghazi-Baradj.
Chapter 1. Ancient history of Bulgars (ca.?? - 360 AD - 378 AD)
The beginning of our beginnings is in the tribes of Imen and Sind. Gabdulla ibn Michael Bashtu wrote that people of the Imen tribe lived by isolated families on both sides of the river Amul which was teeming with snakes, and engaged in fishery, hunting and gathering of fruits. Because of the fear of snakes, people did not dare to cross the river and fished off the banks. And only one of them, Boyan, run a ferry, and the snakes did not bother him. And as he alone was a link between the families of both sides, and excelled in bravery and honesty, people elected him as a leader. When Boyan grew old and, in addition fell ill, his sons abandoned him to a mercy of his fate. Then he began asking the Divine to give him a son for relief. The Creator cast ashore at his house, which was built on stilts, a huge fish, from whose left ear came out, wiggling like a snake, his younger son Idjik. After a death of Boyan, the women of the tribe began delivering stillborns, and Idjik, collecting the men, went at first with them to the possession of his brother Laish, and then to the Hon mountains. Here he became a ruler due to the bravery of Imens, who were excellent bow archers. The Kytai Türks, who subordinated to him, ate half-baked meat and never washed in water, for they were descendents of the wolf Chin, and they strove to have louses like him. If the louses were too annoying for the Kytais, they, like wolves, killed them with their teeth. The wives and girls of the Kytai Türks copulated freely with any men whenever possible. The Imens could not stand to see this kind of people. Taking from the Kytais several girls who did not get accustomed to the filth and fornication of their mothers, the Imens, led by Idjik, began roving from one Türkic settlement to another, in order not to be exposed for long periods to the vile life of Kytais. The mountains did not have any big rivers suitable for navigation, and the Imens were going by foot. But it was hard, and Idjik told his people to learn to ride horses, which the Kytai Türks had. Idjik ordered people to assemble and have food and tribute prepared before his arrival. During his stay he was making appointments, held court, and gave directions. These gathering were called djiens... To live among the Türks, the Imens had to know their language...
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When the girls grew up, the Imens, who brought them up in their own way, took them as wives and called themselves and their descendants Hons. They never grew close to the Kytais because of fastidiousness, and those paid them back with hatred. Afraid of the mutinies, Idjik took all Türkic arms makers, dressed his people and their horses in iron armor, and forbade the Kytais to have weaponry and to wear chain armors. He ordered to send the worst troublemakers of that tribe into raids against the Hin, so that they would attack Hins instead of Hons...
During the time of the Idjik’s heir Tigane, nicknamed Hin-Batyr for his numerous victories over the Hins, the oppressed Hinian Khan sent messengers to Kytai Türks with instructions to tell them: ”When your ancestors lived under our power, its burden was barely felt. Now you are ruled by a small tribe of the Hons, and instead of helping us against them you fight for them against us. Are you clever? Destroy the Hons, and return again under our kind power!” Heeding the appeal of the Hinian Khan, at night the Kytais attacked the stan of Hin-Batyr and killed all the Hons. The wife of Hin-Batyr, before being surrounded by the enemies, managed to throw a big cauldron with her son in it into the Dulo river. The enemies severed her hands and legs, and she died in great pains. Michael Bashtu, in "Shan Kyzy Dastany"”, "Shan Kyzy Dastany"”, tells that a deer, which came to the watering hole, caught the cauldron with his horns and took the boy to the Jeti-Su. There, Khan Mar of Masguts sheltered and raised him. He was named Gazan, married Mar’s daughter, and began to also call his Dulo clan "Marduan-Dulo". Meanwhile, the Hons in the other camp have already elected Khazar as a new Khan. Learning about it, Gazan, together with Masguts, whom he called Badjanaks, invaded the Khazar's kingdom. Hons immediately switched to the side of Gazan, and Khazar fled to the Kytai Türks and became their leader. Gazan repelled the Hins to beyond the river Kuban-su and posted there his banner, a felt red sphere with multi-colored ribbons on a spear. It was a Masgutian image of the Alp Elbegen, a winged dragon snake which Hons were worshipping. Masguts called Elbegen "Baradj". The Hons, who had their own image of Elbegen, did not like it, and demanded that Gazan replaced the Masgutian banner with the Idjik’s banner. The Khan did not agree and forbade even to talk about it. Hons suffered that humiliation for 400 years, and accumulated a hatred to the Masguts surrounding the clan Dulo. At last, during the Gazan's successor Djilki, the Hons’ patience had burst and most of them joined the Hazar’s descendant Dugar, supported by the Kytais and Türkmen (Russian-language publication uses here the spelling Türkmen instead of Turkmen - Translator’s Note). In addition, Dugar had a support of the Bashkorts, who were a mix of the Masguts and Urmians, and spoke an Urmian language. Their pastures were to the north of the Badjinaks and west of the Hon mountains. Between the Hon mountains and the Kuban desert, to the north from the Hin, the Kyrgyz followed the vegetation. When Dugar invaded the possessions of Djilki and defeated him, some Masguts fled to the Kyrgyz-Kangly. When Dugar subdued these Kyrgyzes, a part of them, led by Saban, left to the Badjanaks and there merged into the Saban or Badjinak people. The Sabans began to speak the Kirghiz language, but its more noble version, as it was affected by the language of the Masguts. The Kirghiz language, spoken by Kumans, Oimeks and other descendants of the Kyrgyzes, who are also called Kypchaks, after the Kirghiz leader Kypchak, the brother of Saban who submitted to Dugar, sounds rough because of the influence of the Kytai Türks’ speech. Later, the Sabans subordinated to Dugar, and took so much from the language of his Türkmen that some people began to count them as a Türkmen tribe. And the borrowing of the loanwords happened because of the entry to the Sabans of several Türkmen clans... The defeated Djilki also was forced to subordinate to Dugar. Very soon, however, not putting up with his humiliation, Djilki revolted, but was defeated again and killed. His son Bulümar fled, with loyal Hons and Masguts, to the west. No expression of a sympathy did he find anywhere, because who needs the defeated and deprived? Besides, nobody liked the claims for domination of the proud Bulümar. While passing the Jeti-Su, most of the Masguts fell behind the Hons ...
Bulümar wanted to remain in the Jeti-Su, but the Türkmen tribe objected to it. These Türkmens were the descendants of some Kyrgyzian and Türkish people who came with Saban to the Masguts' land, and gradually multiplied in numbers. They are very beautiful and speak a pleasant dialect. Türkmens are very caring and kind in a kinsmen's circle, but beyond it they are very proud and quick-tempered, and in their alliances they are rather not loyal. In addition, they did not care to submit to anybody, and did not respect their elected leaders too much. In Bulümar, they saw a threat to their independence, and consequently began to threaten him with a war. The Khan was forced to depart to the Bashkorts, who sheltered the Hons and they received the name ”Sebers” ("allies") from the Bashkorts. The Türks called the Bashkorts Ugyrs, they were as headstrong as the Türkmens. They worshipped Alp Baradj, but called him Madjar. In their beliefs, Madjar was a patron of the Life... Yakub son of Nugman (likely Yakub ibn Nugman - Translator’s Note) wrote that in the beginning, Baradj lived on the mountain Kaf and then, when the Alps blocked the land from the sun by a wall, he flew to the desert Kuman, and then went to the Bashkorts.
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Here he was hospitably met by the people and with hostility by Chirmysh, the leader of the Bashkorts, who considered the Swan (Türk. Kyi - Translator’s Note) to be his ancestor, and wanted Bashkorts to worship Swan. Eventually, the Biy treacherously wounded Baradj, and Baradj fled to the Kuman desert, and he cursed Chirmysh. Soon after that, Chirmysh died with terrible pains, and Bashkorts became convinced that the Snake was the Khan of the Life, Madjar…
When they sheltered Bulümar, Dugar treacherously tried to attack them under a cover of a night. However the cranes’ cries warned Bashkorts about the danger, and they left with their chattel to the West together with the Hons. But they followed Bulümar for not too long, and dropped behind him because they disliked the pretensions of the Khan for the power... Prominent among them were two clans, Ura and Baygul. From them the Hons acquired the habit to pronounce the word " Kan" as " Khakan"...
In the Idel country, by the river Agidel, the Hon’s movement paused for a while, for there was also the state of the Honish clan Bulyar... The last Utigian's ruler of Bulyar, Djoké-Utig, carelessly burnt the Baradj’s nest to please his wife, a Murdasian, who demanded him to erect in that place a city. All children of Baradj, except for one, died in the fire, and Baradj fled to another place, and before departing he said to Djoké-Utig: ”I was always a patron of the Hons, and I shall remain a patron. But you, for your malicious act, will die of a sting of my last son, and all your children will be killed”. But this Bek not only was not scared, but on the contrary, by a new advice of his wife started searching the tombs of the ancestors for the Hinian treasures. And when he opened one tomb, from the soil, instead of the human remains, surfaced horse bones. It was a warning sign of Tangra, but Djoké-Utig did not heed it and continued searching. Then from under the bones crept out a Snake, the son of Baradj, and bit the Bek, and he died immediately... His children began to fight among themselves, and then, not wishing to give the power to one of them, gave the Khanate to Bulümar... When the Kan moved on, they followed him and except for Baksu, all perished in battles. Baksu, afraid of the Baradj curse, took in thirty girls as wives and had seventy sons from them. But the Galidjians attacked him once in the Anchian lands, and killed him together with all his sons...
The famine forced Kan to relocate to the West. Being forced to leave the center of the Idel, or Old Turan state, Bulümar with his... crossed the river Agidel, called Atil by Bashkorts, in honor of the Masgutian hero Atillé or Atilkush. The local Kara-Masguts, also called Saklans, tried to prevent that, but were defeated and, led by their biy Boz-Urus, fled to Buri-chai. But the Bulgars, subjects of the Kara-Masguts, joined Bulümar, who raised the indigenous Baradj banner of the Ases, the red felt sphere with a bunch of multi-colored ribbons above it. And it should be said that seid Yakub told in the ”Kadi Kitaby”, based on the ”Khazar tarihi” of Abdallah bine Michael Bashtu, about the antiquity of the Bulgarian tribe: ”... The Kamyrs are a branch of the Sinds. They were nicknamed so because they believed in the tale about a creation, by the Almighty, of the pra-mother Kamir-Abi from the dough. Kamyrs esteemed her so much that they also were giving her name to the boys. They could not stand that the other Sinds began carving stone images of the Supreme Sindian deity, Tara or Tangra, as a blasphemous human, instead of the sharp tipped stone mountain of Samar with smooth flat slopes, and they returned from the Sind to their former place on the river Samar near the mountain Samar. Their area began to be called Turan... However, when one part of Turans began makinge Tara out of pure gold, and another from clay, a third part left them and settled in another district, called Samar in honor of their former habitat. They began to be called Samars, and all that were remaining were called Masguts...
The Sinds called "Samar" the most beautiful and high mountains from which the sun was rising.
Those who called the images "tarvil" went to the West. They also were called Ases or Armans.
On the way, the migrants grew weaker, and the others left them at the foothills of the Kaf mountains in Azerbaijan. Later, they were attacked by Masguts, who for a while subjugated them, turning them into slaves. A part of the forsaken Ases, not conceding to the oppression, fled north to the Saklanian steppes, where they received a name "Kols", i.e. "slaves". They were also called "Askols".
And the migrants from Idel, who made the farthest to the West, were called Bulgars...
In a new place, first of all, they erected a huge mountain in honor of Tara and called it and the country Samar. And this state of Kaf-Bulgars reached its blossom during the Khan Kamyr-Batyr. The description of his life in the book of menly Abdallah, resemble the biography of Jusuf... But after his death some of the Samars polluted water with sewage, forgetting that it also was considered sacred, because it was reflecting their deity Tara. The incensed Deity decided to flood all the land of Samara for that sin, but in the He beginning warned the people with a terrible voice. From that voice the land trembled, and all the leaves fell from the trees. A part of the Samars, frightened, left further to the West, and was called, in memory of the apparition, " Agathirs", that is "the people of the trees". They reached Misr, where they lived for some time also, and build many mountains, Samars or Djuketaus. Among the remaining was one clan of Samars which did not offend the water. The Almighty had mercy on him, and granted him a ship for a rescue, and then flooded all of the Samar. When the waters subsided again, by the will of Tangra, the ship remained on the top of the Samar mountain, and the saved clan, calling itself "Nau" ("New"), disembarked onto the firm ground. This clan gradually became numerous, and started worshipping both the mountain, and the ship. But once, some members of the clan became upset, and pulled down the ship, believing that nothing should be placed on the sacred Djuketau prayer-mountain.
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And inside of that and other Samar mountains they made caves, where they laid dead people. And if a husband died, his wife was immured alive in the cave with him, and if a wife, who won a wedding duel over her husband died, her husband was immured alive in the cave with her body.
When the ship was pulled down from mountain, the majority of Samars condemned the initiators of that act to exile. The condemned sailed by boat and, crossing the Saklan sea, settled in the Djalda and in the adjoining steppes. And a famous fighter Targiz or Tarsiz ruled over them...
The migrants were called " Kimmerians", a deformed form of "Kamyrs", they began worshipping him after his death. And in his memory, it is said, during the djien they jumped over the swords set in the ground with its blade upwards.
Then the Idelian Bulgars came there, and expelled a part, and subdued other Kimmerians for the past insults... A part of the Bulgars, together with the subjected to Idel Kypchaks, set out to pursue the fleeting Kimmerians and, finding Masguts there, began clobbering them too.
When they returned, the Bulgars learnt that those Kypchaks, who settled in the Saklan, intermixed with the Kimmerians and began worshipping Targiz.
Then they expelled them for that to the rivers Deber and Shir. And from those Bulgars who raided the Samar, came the Uruses, and from the Shir’s Targizians came the Murdases...
And the Agathirs were expelled from Misr by the Arabs and left to the Saklanian steppe ... But the Kols there met them quite unfriendly and made them their slaves... And the Ases who stayed in Samar under the name of As Bulgars also eventually left to Yana Idel, to the lake Kaban and to Azerbaijan where they reunited with the local Bulgarian Türks... Then the Persians moved one thousand Yana Idel Türks, a part of which was Armand, to Khorasan...
Then came from the Turan a part of Masguts, who departed from the others to the Tang-Alan (“Stone Field”) steppe and thus received the name "Alan" ("fields"). And we, despoiling "Tang" into "Sak", began to call them Saklans. And these Saklans, absorbing the Murdases and Agathirs, defeated their enemies, Kols, and seized the steppe of the defeated... And they also began to be called Kara-Masguts, in contrast to their relatives, the Ak-Masguts, who stayed in the Türkistan. And the Kypchak steppe, spread from the Sula to Agidel, began to be called Saklan..., and all descendants of the Ases living there were called Saklans or Alans...
Later the Almanians of the Galidj tribe came to the Buri-chai from the Sadum and pressed the Saklans, who were called "Uruses" by the name of their leader Urus. And they pressed because the Saklans started a war with the part of the Bulgars who moved from the Azerbaijan to the Burdjan... And when they crossed Idel, these Bulgars immediately joined the Hons ...
Urus tried to kick out the Sadumians from the banks of Buri-chai, but was defeated and killed. Then the Saklans-Uruses submitted to Hons and incited Bulümar to attack the Galidjians.
Chapter 2. Idel during the reign of Hons’ Khans (378 - 453 AD)
The son of the Hons’ Kan Alyp-bi with the corps of Bulgars and Hons defeated the Sadumians and forced them to flee to Altyn Bash and Rum. Then Alyp-bi with the Bulgars, who suffered many exertions from the Rumians in the Azerbaijan, crossed Sula and defeated the 80-thousand Rumian army near the city of Dere. The Rumian Kan Balyn fled to his palace, but was surrounded and burned by Hons who dealt with the leaders of enemies in this fashion. When the palace burned down, Alyp-bi rode through the ruins and found the imperial crown. He took it and brought it to his father, who called himself Kan, but during the feast in honor of the victory he suddenly died. Alyp-bi became the Kan of the Hon state formed in the Saklan, and in due time was buried on the mountain Kuyan-Tau or Kuk-Kuyan.
Before his death Kan Dere, as he was also called, ordered to put on his tomb a huge tamga of the clan Dulo, "Baltavar". And it looks like this: Ψ, where T is for axe, and W is for bow. These arms were the Bulgars’ symbols of the Khan power. The Uruses, who esteemed Kan- Dere for the defeat of the Sadumian enemies, settled at his burial place, and formed a settlement Askal. Bulgars also revered Alyp-bi because during his time they became a ruling tribe in the Hons’ state. Soon the Hon part integrated with the Bulgar tribe, with the name of Bulgars and the Türkic language of Hons. The main clans of the Bulgars were called Erdim, Bakil or Boyandur, Seber, Agathir, Kharka, Utig's, Kimmer...
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A grandson of Alyp-bi, a son of Aibat, Kan Atillé Aibat with a nickname Audan (Audon) Dulo, went against the Almans and Farangs because their Khan poisoned his wife, the sister of the Kan Atillé. Defeating the strongest Almanian tribe Galidj so that a part of it fled by the Kuk Dingez Sea to the Sadum islands and Galidj, at night Atillé besieged the capital of Farangs, the Altyn Bash. It received its name because of the golden domes of the houses. But in the morning the sun rose, and the shine of the golden roofs blinded Bulgars. The frightened Bulgars fled, not seeing the road, and after that their influence declined. The Ulchians called Atillé Myshdauly, he died in the land of the Almans during a retreat, and the country fell apart.
Three sons of Atillé, three brothers Illak, Tingiz and Bel-Kermek, together with Bulgars and Ulchians girded in the camp against the Farangs, but were defeated. Illak fell in the battle, but Tingiz and Bel-Kermek with their Bulgars were allowed a freedom to leave the camp. They went to the mouth of the Buri-chai, and on the way they lost Tingiz, killed in an ambush by the Galidjians. While breaking through this ambush, Bel-Kermek ordered for the first time to raise as a flag the red banner of Ases with a half moon on the staff. Bel-Kermek started the line of the Bulgarian Khans called either Kans or Baltavars, for the word "Baltavar" acquired a meaning of "leader".
Chapter 3. Time of Bulgarian Baltavars (453 - ca 683 AD)
Bel-Kermek called the place of the Bulgar's settlement between the mouth of Buri-chai and Djalda, where were the Rumian cities, Altynoba ("Golden Pasture" - Translator’s Note), in memory of the Altyn Bash's siege. The abandoned stan then became a city which the local Ulchians called Galidj, and the Bulgars called "Uchuly" (Uch-Ogly, “[City] of [ Atillé] Three Sons”).
After Bel-Kermek his son Djurash Masgut was the Baltavar of Bulgars, and after him his son Tatra, and after him his son Boyan-Chelbir, and after him his son Tubdjak, and after him his senior son Arbuga Ürgan, and after him his younger brother Alburi...
During Bel-Kermek time, Sabars, whom Bulgars in the Saklanian language called Sabans, invaded Saklan. From the Sabars came our language, which Persians incorrectly call Kypchak, for the Kypchaks took it from the Kyrgyzes, and in addition quite distorted it. Those Sabans who were remaining in the Turan began to be called usually Badjanaks. Their language, as I already wrote, gradually became similar to the language of the Uzes or Türkmen, and the Almighty inspired Michael to make this language our written language, along with the Arabic. The Kashans called it Bulgarian Türki, and the Türkmens called it ”Turan Tele”...
The Avars, the last splinter of the Hons still remaining in the Hin, expelled Sabars from the Jeti-Su, their native land. But in the Saklan these refugees did not act any better than their predesessors, and clobbered many of the Hons’ clans. They drove a part of the local Hons to the Kaf mountains, where they formed a Khondjak Beilyk. The other Sabars drove another part of the Hons to Djurash, where they had to conjoin Bulgars...
The Murdases, who hated Hons, allied with the Sabars and intended to finish off the Hons, and the Bulgars who accepted them, but Bel-Kermek became kindred with the Bek of Masguts, and because the Murdases were afraid of the Masguts, by that maneuver he saved his people from a destruction...
Bel-Kermek's son Djurash, with a nickname Masgut, from a daughter of the Masgutian Bek, served to one or another Sabarian Beks, and for that he received lands between the Sula and Djalda... Being naturally kind, he ransomed from the Sabars a hundred of the Hons’ biys and a multitude of their people, and added them to the Bulgars under a name of Sürbiys ( Serbiys)...
Masgut’s son Tatra became famous for his successful attacks on Rum, which he was doing with the help of his Ulchian subjects...
During the reign of Tatra’s son Boyan-Chelbir, the Avars, expelled by the Khazarian Türks, came to the Saklan. The Sabars, panic-stricken of them, quieted down, and our Bulgars, on the contrary, raised their heads... . Boyan-Chelbir be-fraternized with the Avarian Khakan Tubdjak and named his son Tubdjak, and the Khakan took his name Boyan. After Avars came their tormentors, the Khazarian Türks, but in a fierce battle the Bulgars, together with the Avars, repulsed them from the Sula and Buri-chai. The Türks retreated, but took a part of the Djalda Bulgars and allowed them to form a Burdjan Beilyk in Djurash, to protect their possessions from the south. In fact, since the time of Kan-Dere battle, the Bulgars were known as most skilful and brave soldiers in the world. These Bulgars, headed by the Boyan-Chelbir’s senior son Atras, therefore began to be called Burdjanians.
The western Bulgars of Boyan-Chelbir, remaining the subjects of Avarian Khakans, began to be called Kara-Bulgars, that is the western, instead of the “black” as the Türks normally use. In fact, the Bulgars called the West " Kara", the East - " Ak", the North - " Kuk", and the south - " Sara" or "Sary"...
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Boyan-Chelbir's son Tubdjak went to war with Rum and the Ulchians, who were subordinated to Rum, on the side of the the Avars. While the Avars were ruthlessly killing the Ulchians, the Bulgarian Baltavar was sparing them and moved up to two hundred thousand of them from the Rum to his possessions. These Bulgarian Ulchis began to be called Anchians (Anchylar), that is the "boundary", "frontier people", because they were settled on the the northern boundaries of the Kara-Bulgar Beilyk, in the Uchuly and by the Buri-chai. The Avarian Khakan the in the beginning viewed it with irritation, but when under Tubdjak order the Anchis built a few hundred boats and successfully fought on them with the Rums, he softened and left them alone...
In the 605 AD Tubdjak died, after ruling for 15 years, and left to his senior son Bu-Ürgan an extensive Beilyk from Uchuly to the river Ak-su and from Kuk-Kuyantau to Djalda. But very soon a misfortune visited the new Kara-Bulgar Baltavar. The Avarian Khakan besieged one Rumian city, and, as always, Anchians went in the first attack, and behind them were Bulgars. When the Khakan decided that the defenders' forces were crushed, he ordered Bulgars to let the Avars to go first. But Rums defeated the Avars, and Khakan in a fury accused Bu-Ürgan of the defeat, and ordered to raise Tubdjak's younger son, Alburi, to the Kara-Bulgar Baltavar throne. The dislodged Bu-Ürgan left, with a part of Bulgars, to the Rumian part of the Djalda, and enlisted into a service of the local Rums. He possessed such an unusual might that he was called Ar-Buga.
His stint in the Rumian service was short, for the the power of the Avar's Khakan weakened soon after his defeats, and Bu-Ürgan could return to his favorite Buga-Idel river. Baltavar was coaching between the rivers Burat and Buga-Idel, and had headquarters in the Kashan. Alburi’s senior son Kurbat was coaching between the Saklanian aul Askal by the Buri-chai, and the aul Kharka by the Ak-su and had his headquarters an the aul Baltavar...
In the 618 the growing insane Avarian Khakan summoned Alburi as if for the negotiations, and treacherously executed him in his encampment for the attack of the Anchians upon the Avars. In reality the Avars themselves attacked the Galidjian Ulchians and stole their cattle. Some Avars were killed by the Anchians resisting robbery, and that allowed the Avar's sardar to pretend to be a victim of the Ulchian attacks... Before the Alburi departure to the Khakan, in a dream Bu-Ürgan saw a piece of red cloth in which Ases were wrapping the diseased, and a tip of a spear.
Waking up with anxiety, he told his brother: ”Tangra made me a boyar and showed me in a dream signs of misfortune: a red funeral cloth and a tip of a spear with impaled heads of the dead. It means that a death awaits you in the Khakan camp. Do not go there!” Alburi did not listen to him and perished. And people recognized Bu-Ürgan as a boyar or askal, that is a prophet...
When the message about the murder reached Bulgars, Bu-Ürgan went to Rum and declared that Kara-Bulgars broke off all relations with the Avars and are ready to conclude an alliance with Rum against them. The pleased Rumian Kan immediately recognized the Bek as a Baltavar of independent Kara-Bulgar, and concluded a treaty with him... When Ar-Buga returned to his people, the biys wanted to raise him immediately to the Bulgarian throne. But Bu-Ürgan valued the status of the boyar more than the title of the Kan and said: ”people, certainly, are free to choose their rulers, but not from the boyars who are chosen by Tangri...” Following his advice Bulgars elected Kurbat, with a nickname Bashtu, the son of Alburi, as the Baltavar of Bulgars, and he immediately began preparations for a war with the Avars.
In the 620 under Kurbat’s order his younger brother Shambat erected on the mountains Kuyantau (Jack Rabbit mountain - Translator’s Note), in the place of the aul Askal, a city Bashtu, and in a head of a large unit of Bulgars, Anchians and Saklans- Ruses he set out from it against the enemy. He succeded in quickly defeating Avars and capture of their country. In that campain he was helped by the local Ulchians, and also by the Bashkorts, who called themselves "Honturchy" (Honturchies) and were unhappy with the reign of the Avar Khakan. But immediately after Shambat proclaimed himself an independent ruler, and named his state Duloba, that is” Pasture Dulo”. Kurbat, upon learning about it, ordered his brother to return to his service, but Shambat refused, and for that received from Bashtu a moniker " Kyi" ("Cut off", "Separated").
Shambat ruled in Duloba for thirty three years and became famous for his victories over Farangs and Almanes. Artes, and Bailaks, and Galidjians, and Avarian Ulchians, and Saklans, and Honturchies came to serve under his banners. But at the end he was defeated by Farangs and returned to the Kurbat service. The Baltavar ordered Shambat to take the old post of the governor of Bashtu...
The city dwellers loved him so much that they called the citadel of Bashtu by his name, "Shambat", and the whole city by his nickname "Kyi". And now the Anchians call Bashtu city "Kyi"...
While Shambat was fighting in the Duloba, Kurbat was tirelessly expanding the limits of Ak Bulgar Yorty. Taking advantage of the upheaval in the Turanian Horde, he purged the Khazarian Türks from the Djurash, and became the ruler of everything between the Sula and Idel. Aspiring to further humiliate the defeated Avarian and Turanian rulers, Kurbat, in addition to the title of Kan, also takes their title of Khakan... .
The Baltavar seasonal route was between the city of Bandja on the Azak sea and the encampment in the Khorysdan, which was also called Batavyl, which is the princely headquarters... On the return way the Khakan was always stopping by the campuses Tiganak and Baltavar, and the burial place of Bu-Ürgan, located in a day of travel from them. And the mother of this well-known boyar clan was from the Ürganian clan of the Hon tribe of Khots or Khotrag's. And in the antiquity this tribe was called Sohot, or, in the Serbiyan, Khol, but then the word changed the form to Khot or Khotrag. And from all the Hons’ tribes only the tribe of Utig's or Utyak could compete in strength and number with the Khotrags. And after the route of the Hons by the Chins, Türks and Serbiys, during the Kan Tigan with a nickname Hin-Batyr, the Khot and Utigs disperced in different directions. The Khots settled by the river Sob or Sobol (Subyl), by its right inflow Baigul and its left inflows Sasy-Idel and Tora-su. And the Sobol runs into the Chulman sea. The Kar Dingez and Kara Dingez are only the gulfs of that enormous sea. The name of the great river Sobol gave the descendants of Hots, who settled in its area and, led by biy Tuba, together with Kara-Oimeks, entered the State in the reign of Kolyn and his son Anbal. And as from there were brought the best martens in the world, they also received from us the name "Sobol".
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However, on the origin of the name for the sables, Abdallah biné Bashtu also told this history.
During the times of Baltavar Alyp-biy, the grandfather of Aibat, a Bulgarian merchant Toima with a nickname Tur went to the land of Bashkorts also called Sebers. Having visited there, he went further north and came to the country of Urs. And now the Urs live at the end of the Earth, on the coast of the Chulman sea, but long ago they lived in the province Tubdjak and in the south of the province Ur. And a part of Sebers occupied their lands and pushed them away to the north, but gave them a name "Ura", which is misleading to many. The Urs were very timid, for all their neighbors offended them, but their customs forbade them to spill human blood. Therefore all Urs during the trade left their goods under a sacred tree and hid in thickets, and the visitor merchants put their goods against theirs. If the Urs, after the departure of the merchants, took the imported things, the transaction was considered as done and the merchants could take the Urian goods... For the arrival of Tur-Toima the Urs could prepare only selected sables. The merchant, besides the goods necessary in the north, brought them magnificent Rumian and Persian clothes and utensils. The Urs took away all this and were so happy with the acquisition and were so afraid to offend the merchant with the poor goods, that their aksakal added some sables and bravely remained visible at some distance from the tree. But Toima remained very pleased with the sables and, driving off, waved the pelts and friendly shouted to the old man shivering from excitement: ”Sai byl!” The Urs thought that ”sai byl” or as they pronounced this word "sobol" or "tobol", in Bulgarian meant "sable" and from that time offered sables to the visitor merchants as the most valuable goods and called them "sobol". And we reportedly began to call sables by the word "Sobol", and through us the Ulchis, Almans, Frangs and Altyn Bashes. This story is very entertaining, but Abdallah tebir was known for his weakness of the tall stories and re-telling other's fantasies, and consequently we cannot trust his words completely.
But with all this, Abdallah also gave real facts. Like, a merchant Tuimas said that Toima was his real ancestor, who in his travels reached the place of the future auls Menhaz and Surhot. When Toima died, the Seber biy Eseg (Esek), in respect for the Hon Kan, ordered to bury him on the right bank of Agidel, opposite his northern encampment. And the small river on which the merchant was stricken by death, from that time began to be called Toima-su. Also in memory of him one of the Urian clans took the name Toima...
And the Utigs settled to the west of Hots, between the Idel and Agidel. Here they mixed up with the Murdases and learned from them the agricultural skills. The area and the river, flowing there, they called Hinel in memory of their former residence. And later the Hinel transformed into Kinel...
Soon after that settling, the former commander of Hin-Batyr, Kama-Tarkhan, became the Utig's Khan and subdued all neighboring Arian tribes and Hots. He called his state "Atil". His descendants ruled there for three hundred years, and when Bulümar or Bulümbar with their Hons came to the Bulyar, they gave him... their state... . Bulümbar called Atil "Bakil" or "Bulyar", and ruled there for thirty years. He would have ruled Bulyar longer, but happened a terrible winter, and after it came a famine. Almost all the cattle, and many people had perished. Intent to prevent a demise of the whole people, Bulümbar took his people further west. The Hons harnessed Murdasian women in the their carts, for a rumor went that it was exactly them who, with their magic, first caused a severe winter, and then a drought. Many Khots and Utigs left with the Hons, and they gave many rivers and districts in the Kara-Bulgar the names from their native land: Bozauly, Samar, Tiganak, Orel, Agidel, Hingul and others.. And the Hons or Hols who stayed behind in the Hin were eventually subordinated by the Serbiys, and took their name. The Menkhol tribe, and its clan Tingiz or Chingiz come from those Hons...
Kurbat’s senior son Bat-Boyan route was coaching between Djalda and the middle course of Buga-Idel, one part of his people went up the left bank of the river, and the other went on the right... .
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The youngest son of Kurbat, Atilkesé with nickname Asparukh, had his seasonal coaching route between Burdjan and Bekhtash, and the Utigs's and Murdases were also submitted to him. His main stan was in the city of Burdjan in the south of Djurash. He was very amicable with his uncle Shambat, the sitting Ulugbek of the Bashtu, who was surrounded by both loyal Bulgarian Saklanian biys and the Anchian boyars. This attachment was not overly pleasing for Kurbat, who always suspected his brother of propensity for treachery, so Atilkesé received an ulus remotest from Kyi... .
While such a Khakan was alive, the country was peaceful. But when in the 660 AD he was striken by death, Shambat, with support of Atilkese, raised arms against the new Khakan Bat-Boyan, with a purpose of seizing the throne. They let him rule more or less calmly for three years only, and then they started an open war against him. Because Kurbat before his death forbade Bulgars to fight each other, Shambat attacked the Kan with the forces of the Ak-Balynian Ulchians and Saklan-Uruses, and Atilkese attacked with the forces of Murdases, Masguts, Türks, and a hired band of Türkmens...
The war went on for a few years. Atilkesé managed to crush the Bat-Boyan’s Sabans, then he devastated As-Bandja, and together with Shambat besieged the Khakan in Djalda. In the action, the Bek's people, and especially Murdases, killed many Bulgars of the Kan. That caused a bad hostility between the Black Bulgars and that Saklanian tribe. The Khakan complained to Atilkesé about the actions of his people, but Atilkesé sarcastically replied: ”Murdases could not distinguish between your Bulgars and Sabans, because they really speak the same Sabanian language... .”
With support from Atilkesé, Shambat was besieging Djalda for five years, and in the other part of the Saklan-Bulgarian state he was accepted as a Khakan.
In the heat of the siege the Türkic Khakans, whose might has increased again, attacked the Saklan across Agidel. It is said that then across the river from Türkistan came 150 thousand Kumans, Türkmen Kuk-Oguzes and Kyrgyzes, united by a name of Hazar, a founder of the Türkic state. Shambat with Atilkesé raced towards the enemy, but were defeated and fled to Bashtu with a part of their forces.
This route happened because during the battle the Djurashian Türks, Murdases and Utigs switched over to the side of the Khazars, and the Serbiys fled to the north and hid in the Sura forests. The Khazars gained many captured Burdjan Bulgars, whom they forced to fight on their side.
The Djalda Bulgars were so angery with the others that they wanted to finish off immediately their defeated fellow tribesmen in the Bashtu. But noble Bat-Boyan did not allow these bad feelings, and he led Kimmerians against the Khazars. The opponents met at the river which we called Almysh, and the Kyrgyzes called Kelmes, and Khakan Bat-Boyan urged Kalga, the leader of Khazars, to return the territory of the Saklan that he unlawfully took.
In reply, Kalga ordered his forces to ford the small river, and a fierce fight erupted. Tangra helped his slaves, and made the Burdjan leader Khumyk to join his fellow tribesmen, after which the Bulgars, with the support of the heroic Anchians, managed to gain a full victory. From both sides fell 90 thousand soldiers, of which 50 thousand were Khazars, and Kalga was hacked up by Khumyk, and from that time the Khazars called the small river Almysh "Kalga".
Continued on page Chapter 1-5

Bakhshi Iman
DJAGFAR TARIHI
(THE ANNALS OF DJAGFAR)
Volume 3
KUL GALI
HON KITABY (BOOK OF HUNS)
Volume 3 Contents
Fargat Nurutdinov DJAGFAR TARIHI publication story pp. 6-10

Fargat Nurutdinov Timing of the Kazan city foundation pp. 11-15

Fargat Nurutdinov Bulgarian Khans of all dynasties pp. 81-103

Fargat Nurutdinov Tore (Tengrianism) pp. 110-124

Fargat Nurutdinov ? Ukrainian Troy pp. 129-141

Fargat Nurutdinov How and when got to Kazan a Czech coin of the 10th c. pp. 141-144

Fargat Nurutdinov Unknown Mokhammediyar pp. 145-156

Fargat Nurutdinov Oldest History of Trident pp. 157-166

Fargat Nurutdinov Miniatures from the Djagfar Tarihi Annals pp. 171-177

Kul Gali HON KITABY A few advices for travelers to Tubdjak pp. 16-30

Kul Gali HON KITABY Description of Saksin pp. 31-58

Kul Gali HON KITABY Brief about Bulgaro-Kipchak relations pp. 64-75

Kul Gali HON KITABY Fragments pp. 62-63

Kul Gali Brief about Yar Chally p. 169

Kultasi Kazan History pp. 60-62

Bakhshi Iman Brief about Bulgarian Viziers pp. 75-80

Bakhshi Iman Fragments of "Djagfar Tarihi" pp. 59-60

Reykhan Bulgari Flowers of the Kipchak Fields pp. 103-106
Gazi Baba Brief about Bulgarian Heraldry p. 107
Gazi Baba Bulgarian Calendars Tore and Kam-Boyans pp. 108-109

Gazi Baba Alphabet of Danube Bulgars p.125

Gazi Baba Batyr Djilan and Karamats (Sacred Groves, Temple) pp. 126-128

KUL GALI
HON KITABY (BOOK OF HUNS)
FRAGMENTS FROM THE CHAPTER
"A FEW ADVICES FOR TRAVELERS TO TUBDJAK"
Translator's Notes
Because of the eclectic structure of the Volume 3, with massive editorial comments by Fargat Nurutdinov, and multiple fragments of different authors assembled from a loose-leaf like conspectus format, the publication's sequence is not followed, but the contents are reorganized by the authors of the fragments and editorials. The Page numbers, where shown, indicate the actual pages in the book publication. The offered copy of the printed edition contains typos and misspellings, for which I apologize and intend to correct them with time.
The "mouse over" explanations basically follow the definitions found in the Annals and represent the views of its writers, which may be different from the known or accepted conditions of the present time. They are the best guess and some of them may be incorrect because of incorrect interpretation of the text by the translator. The translator of the Annals to Russian left a multitude of Türkisms in his translation, and they are preserved in the English translation, in blue italics, with additional comments by the translator from Russian to English denoted with a marker "- Translator's Note" .
For a brief dictionary of medieval Bulgarian geographical names and expressions click here. For phonetical conventions click here

What we know about Kul Gali and his works
Kul Gali Biography here

Bulgaria
ca 1050

Tubjak
ca 1050

KUL GALI
HON KITABY (BOOK OF HUNS)
(FRAGMENTS FROM CHAPTER "A FEW ADVICES TO TRAVELERS TO TUBDJAK")
1. GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT TUBDJAK
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Tubdjak is the biggest il [province] in the State, settled by 70 Uzian and Kirghiz nomadic tribes. But you will not find sandjaks [viceroyalty], beyliks, uluses, Tarkhanlyks there, like in the other ils, as it is divided only into tübas. Such a division was partly established because our hishdeks [nomads] more than all others are concerned about the preservation of equality, and consequently do not allow neighbors to raise in rank of their titles or possessions. There is also another reason for it: from a tüba is raised the smallest tax ...
There are a total of seven tübas in the province. They are Urug-tüba, Ulug-tüba, Seber, Kara-Idjim, Ak-Idjim, Saban-tüba and Sary-tüba...
In the western part of the province stands out Urug-tüba, limited from the west and north by Djaik [Ural], from the east by the Urugtau [Mugodjar] mountains, from the south by Djurdjan [Khoresm], the banks of the Turanian [Aral] sea and Man-Kyshlak. From the time immemorial the Uzian tribe Urug or Djurug dominates there, that's the reason for that called.
In addition to the Urugs, there also lives a part of another Uzian tribe, the Uy. It is also called Uil, Uildar, Uyyaguz (pronouced as Uy-Yaguz- Translator's Note) , Uykek...
"Kek" or "As" means in the Uzian "clan", but sometimes also "tribe". The Uilians, together with the Khindyrians, established the Sabanian confederation of the Uzian clans, and untill now a part of the Uilians live in their old native land, in the Sabanian tüba, on the river Uyyaguz [Ayaguz]. One more big group of the Uilians lives in the Saksin and Mardan, in the tübas of the cities Uykek [Uvek] and Suz Uryny...
The river, along which are located Uilian pastures is also called Uil' [Uil]...
The center of the tüba is the city of Er or Er-balik, located at the mouth of the river Er-Inesh [Or].
The northern part of the il, where is also located its capital Saba-Kül, is called Ulug-tüba. West from it is Urugtau, to the south is Idjim, in the east is Yrtysh [Irtysh]. Here, in surrounded by the Kirghiz tribes and clans, is coaching Kydan, the clan of the Tubdjak Ulugbek Kichi-Mergen, the son of the Kondjik Ulugbek and the nephew of the Kara-Mergen Ulugbek...
We call Kydans the part of the Kypchaks in service to the Kytay [Mongolian] tribe of Kara-Kytay. Once the Kara-Kytays served to the Hons and took from them the called "Syanbi", they were the strongest of the Kytay tribes, but then they were defeated by the Imens [Manchurians] and weakened...
However a lack of the people Kara-Kytays compensated by their natural bravery which surpassed that of the other Kytays, and with taking into the service of the Kypchaks. Coming to the Kara-Kytays service, these Kypchaks had to drink a bowl of koumiss, take an oath of loyalty and say: "I am Kytay". This phrase they pronounced in the form "mon - gyt", and we began to call them Mongyts. The Mongyts adopted the Kytay's language, but did not merged into one mass. Among them were those who accepted Kytay's customs and superstitions (pagan blunders). They were especially cruel during the war toward the Türks oppositing the Kytays. We despised them and called them Kaymans, that is "identical to the pagan Uigurs". The word "kay" [pagan Uigur] was considered an expletive...
It arose in the time when the Kays were at war with the Hons and destroyed a few Sabanian clans...
The word "Kayman" is a very strong curse in our language, like the word "kay". Those Kays who accepted the the true belief, we praised very much and called them "Sary Kashan". In the Kuakbash I visited a colony of local Sary Kashans at the invitation of their duvan [head] Kutlu-Mohammed, and saw myself that they are very tidy and benevolent people...
When the ruling dynasty of the Kara-Kytays split, one Kara-Kytayan prince with a greater part of the Kaymans formed his beylik to the east of the Kara-Kytaja, and began to called it and his people Kaymanian [Naymanian]...
Those Kypchaks who had to hire into the service to the Kara-Kytays but preserved their Türkic customs and their respect for other Türks, we call Kydans. Our Kans willingly accepted and still take the Kydans, and the Kara-Kytays, onto the service, as they acquired from the Kara-Kytays their military bravery, skills and the weapons. But the Kydans were and are very proud and capricious, and quite often raised mutinies against their masters. So, in the reign of the Emir Adam the Kydanian troops of the biy Ugyrdjak raised a mutiny against the Uzian's Sultan in the Uzian land. Braking through Daglyk, Ugyrdjak and his brothers of Turbin and Ardjan besieged the Madjara-Suba, were beaten off. Then they went to Khin-Kerman, but there also they failed to profit. But in the Kara-Saklanian [N.Pontic] steppe spread a rumour about their heroism, and the Shir Kyrgyzes, the usual foes of the State, invited them. Together with these Kypchaks, Ugyrdjak established his domination over that steppe, but he did not want to remain there and left to the Man-Kyshlak. The Saksinians tried to stop him, but he outwitted them by organizing a false river crossing, crossed the Idel in another place and broke through to the Man-Kyshlak. Ardjan inherited his authority, tried to conclude an alliance with the Bashtu Bek against the State, but that, ingratiating Adam, killed the Kydanian. Then Turbin left the Kara-Saklan and engaged into the service to the State. He and his people accepted the true belief and established the city of Gazilar in the Mardan...
The Kydanian ancestor of the Kichi-Mergen Ulugbek fled with his people to the State during a conflict in the Kara-Kytayan state...
The Kyrgyzes, who in the beginning were unhappy with his appointment as an Ulugbek, soon reconciled to it, as he protected their freedoms and besides was not one of them...
However Kichi-Mergen himself lost valour and the pride of his ancestors, and in his fear lowered himself by taking me for a secret naib [auditor], and my travelling notes for a book of the court records. Forgotting about any decency and honour, he, like a last amil [collector and re-buyer of taxes], right during the feast selebrating my arrival, humiliatingly expressed his concern: "Is the greatest in the whole universe Kagan [Kan Chelbir] (1178-1225 - Translator's Note) pleased with my service?" I calmed him as well as I could, but since then loathed even a sight of him and was very glad when our caravan set out from the Sabakül...
The Kydans are coaching in the Ulug-tüba together with several loyal Kirghiz clans, who are called "tazlar" by the others Tubdjakians ...
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Everything in the Tubdjak between the rivers Yrtysh and Abi-Darja [Ob], is the tüba Seber with center in the city Omek...
Here the inal [head of tüba] is chosen from among the biys of the Kirghiz tribe Iskilik. The word "Iskilik" is pronounced also "Askal" and "Esegel". As the motherland of the Iskiliks is the Seber, they are also frequently called "Sebers". They are descendants of the Kirghiz Kilik tribe and Altaians, that's why they are called "Kilikian". The Iskiliks also live in the south of Bajgul, and in the Ulug-tüba, and we quite often call the south of the Bajgul and Northern Tubdjak, alongside with the Seber, "Iskil" ("Askal", "Esegel") or "Seber"...
And the native land of the Kiliks is Kara-Idjim tüba. Is is encircled by the Turanian sea , Ulug-tüba, Idjim, headwaters of thr river Khin-Darya [Turgay] and Ulugtau [Ulytau] mountain. Here... dominates the Uzian tribe Hindyr (from Hin > Hun + plural affix "dyr", i.e. "Huns" - Translator's Note), whose warriors are famous for their marksmanship in the bow shooting... The center of the tüba, city Hindyr, is located on the river Khin-Darya at its merging with its influent river Kilik-Bulak [Irgiz], on which banks the Kiliks live. From there one part of the Kiliks in the famine years moved to the Sébér, and another joined Badjanaks and left with the Sabans to the north. The northern Kiliks, whom we frequently call "Illak" or "Ilek", settled on the bank of the Djaik influent, which received their name Illak (Ilek)...
South of the Kara-Idjim is Sary-tüba, limited in the west by the Turanian sea, in the north by the border with the Kara-Idjim, lake Bulyar or Baylar dingize [Tengiz] and the upper and middlr flow of the river Atil [Kulanutpes], in the east by the source of the river Sarysu and the western coast of the Bulgarian or Sabanian [Balkhash] lake, in the south by the river Irgiz [Kalmakkyrgan]. And the name "irgiz", was explained to me, means a steppe stream that cuts a ravine and disappear...
In the Sary-tüba dominates the Uzian tribe Kangly, also called Bulyar or Baylar. This tribe sometime, together with the Sabans headed the Badjinaks, but it was less numerous than the Sabans, and for this reason the Badjinaks sometimes are also called Sabans, but not the Kangly. A part of the Kangly, with Badjanaks, left from there to the Mardan, where they settled around the lake Kangly dingeze [Shalkar], and to the mountain [shan] Cherem [Cheremshan], near which is the great capital of our State, Bulyar.
The mountain Ulugtau, which the ancients called "Cheremshan", is greatly revered by the Badjanaks (this hill, promonent in the flats of the area, has a remarcable history spanning millenia. Lately, it was repossessed by the state Orthodox Chirch commercializing the pilgrimage and arousing the reverence to the legendary mountain - Translator's Note)... It is a source of the rivers Djilanchyk (Snake river - Translator's Note), Khin-Darya and Bulyarchay (Bulyar river - Translator's Note), the right influent of the Sarysu...
When we were in Tubdjak, the Kytay tribe Burdjigin suddenly attacked the friendly to the State Kytay tribe Arakytay [Merkits]. Arakytays are the northern Kytays and are considered the indigenous Kytays, and that's why they are called "pure (Ara) Kytays". This Arakytay tribe controlled the eastern part of the Hons and Kyrgyzes, whom they called "Argyn", by the Argyn [Argun] river, where they managed to defeat Bulümar's father, the Kan Djilka of the Hons. After that battle Bulümar withdrew one part of the Hons and the subjected to them Kyrgyzes to the West, but the other part, led by the Bulümar brother Burdjigin, retreated at that time to the river Djilka [Shilka]. Djilka carried the name of this river because he was born on its bank. In that same place he also was buried in the wooden house "kur", above which was built a kurgan [artificial earthen hill]...
But soon the Djilkian part of the Hons and Kyrgyzes also had to submit to Arakytays and began to be called "Argyns". The descendants od Burdjigin or Chindjigin adopted the customs and language of the Kytays, and were left by the Arakytays as the biys of the Argyns, but did not forget their humiliation. To always remember it, they even kept the name of Burdjigin, made out of two Bulgarian words: "buri" or "chin" [wolf] and "djigin" or "djakyn" - "prince"... From that clan came out the present ruler of the Kytay land Timer [Chingizkhan]...
Despite of the past wars, the relations of the State with Arakytays were good, and their merchants were frequently coming through the Altai to the Seber for their trading business. The Arakytays Khan Kara-Kolyn even sent to the Bulyar his ambassadors, who told the Kan: "The event with Djilka happened after the Djilka's ancestor, the Hons Kan Madji, defeated and killed our Khan and for a long time enslaved Arakytays, so that even the blood account of our feud is equal, and there is no sense to cloud our relations by already superfluous memories of the past insults. In fact, you are friends with the Kara-Kytays, and they are descendents of the Arakytays "... Gabdulla liked this straight talk, and he sent to Arakytays our ambassadors and merchants. The pestilent Kaymans, who managed to form their own beylik in the Altai, did not let the Kan's ambassador into the land of the Arakytays... When the Kaymans, together with Kytay tribe Kirey attacked Kara-Kolyn, Timer with his Burdjigins and Argyns traitorously switched over to the side of the enemies. However, Arakytay defeated the enemies and captured Timer, and then sold him to a merchant Nazym in the Kozgyn. Nazym did not bring the slave to the Echke Bulgar, as the Kytay slaves were not valued, and sold him to the Sabanian inal Kukdjal.. .. The Imenian Khan, learning about it, demanded from the Kara-Kytay Khan Aldjan to release Timer, as this Burdjigin earlier rendered him considerable services... Aldjan, mindful that the Imens would disrupt the trade with the Kara-Kytays, very important to them, meekly asked Chelbir to release Timer. The Kan has been appreciating the friendship with Aldjan, and ordered the Tubdjak Ulugbek Kara-Mergen to resolve the affair. The Ulugbek personally visited Saban-tüba and persuaded inal to release Timer, and for that he gave his daughter in marriage to the Kukdjal's son Kamal...
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Timer for a few years served the Imens, and then with their support seized most of the Kytay lands and began to call himself "Khan Chingiz". And this word, as the explained to me Saban inal Kukdjal, is the Imenian name of the clan Burdjigin... Kara-Kytays call Timer people "Tatars", the way they always called all Kytays who were serving Imens. In fact, Timer and his ancestors served Imens for a long time ...
The children of Kara-Kolyn with a part of remaining Arakytays and loyal Argyns fled to the kind Aldjan, and he sheltered them. In the beginning they were placed in the area Kagan located between river Uyyaguz (Ayaguz), lake Kagan (Zaisan), Kara-Yrtysh (Black Irtysh) and Kagan mountains (Tarbagatai Ridge). Then the younger son of Kara-Kolyn, Tudjun, also received pastures near the rivers Irgiz, Sarysu and Chul (Chu), because Aldjan wanted to strengthen the border with Djurdjan there.
Aldjan was very far-sighted. 9 years after my journey to Tubdjak the Djurdjans captured Tudjun's district (djoz - district, i.e. county - Translator's Note), however, Subyatai, the best Sardar of Timer, knocked them out from there. Djurdjans, and also Tudjun and his people, saving their lives, fled to the Sary-tüba. This war forced Chelbir to distract from the Kisanian and Balynian engagemants and send kursybay to Tubdjak. While Tatars were hesitating, to attack the State or not, the kursybay has had time to enter the Sary-tüba by the Türkic road...
The Tatars began to attack our tabyr (fortification made of one or several rings of waggons), but only lost many people, and when they decided to circle it, they fell under attack of the part of the kursybay that stayed outside the fortifications, and of the arriving for assistance a new army of Djurdjan. After a fierce combat the Tatars retreated, and the Tudjun district remained for Djurdjan, as Chelbir did not start worsenning the situation in the east by a dispute with the Djurdjanians. And Arakytays themselves, and the Argyns in their majority preferred to remain in the Tubdjak, and Chelbir gave them tlands along the Kilik-Bulak...
From the 1219 begun the continuous intrusions of the Tatars into Tubdjak, and mostly were invading the Timer's subjects Kydans, Kaymans, Kyrgyzes and Argyns. The Tatar Khan did it so that he could not be accused directly of the attacks by his horde, in fact the parts of these tribes were spread in many countries in the south. And if we were showing to his ambassadors the crowds of the captured people, they were replying under his order: "Тчесе аре our run away people whom we also hold to be criminals and are ready to execute them"...
In the 1223 the Kaymans and Kydans of Timer again besieged the Sary-balik. The Inal Kasim, who specifically came to meet with me to the Uyyaguz, mindful that on the return leg I may not come to his tüba, defended the city very bravely, but the forces were unequal... The situation of city was desperate when a released by us from a captivity servant of Uran-Kytay at full gallop rode to the Tatars with the message: "Subyatai with all his army was taken prisoner and they are escorted from the Bulgar. If this city would be ravaged, the Bulgarian escort will hack down all the captured to the last person, and they will start with Subyatai". The frozen by this message Tatars stopped the fight for the city, and when they were given the Kytays captured in the Mutton battle, they left back to their land...
When kusyrbays entered Sary-balik, one of them asked inal Kasim: "Why do you battle so badly for this desert , in fact the State has many others, and blossoming, lands?" The old Kasim answered: "Each clan has only one their land, given to them by the Almighty God, without which the community would be lost. This is the land of my clan. People in State are like water in a bowl. Break this bowl, and the water will spill, divide the land, and the people will disperse "...
1 Start of fragment (Inal Kasim told Kul Gali that once, for some time, the Uils became the strongest Badjanakian tribe... They helped the Alan dynasty to seize the Idelian throne, for which they were prosecuted by the Honish dynasties of the Idel. But when Arakytays [under a name of Jujans] seized Khin Uils allied with them, and for a long time nobody dared to disturb them. However, when Arakytays became weak, the Suvarian Kans of the Idel again began to restrain Uils.
But also between the Idelian Bulgars there was no unity. So, in the beginning Bulgars-Utigs [Utrigurs] expelled to the Kara-Saklan [Ukraine] many Baylars [Kotrags](Bay is a noun, lar is the pl. affix, so Baylar is Bays - Translator's Note), and then the Suvarians forced a part of Utigs, dissatisfied with the Suvar's domination, to leave to Burdjan [N.Caucasia]... At the same time, the Utigs allowed the Arakytay Khan Tubay with his Arakytays and Uilts to stay between the rivers Chuyl (Tsivil) and Deber (Sviyaga) and from them came the Serbians (the Türkic ancestors of the Chuvashes)...
When the power in the Khin was captured by the Serbiys (Türküts) they decided to annihilate the former owners of the country, Arakytays, and those were forced to flee into the Ulagian territory (Lower Danube) together with a part of the Uils. The other peoples began to call the fugitives Uyars (Avars), concatenating in this name the names of the Uils (Uy) and Arakytays (Ar)... The Serbiy's Kans did not destroy the Idel state, but only took from it the Saksin and forced it to pay them a tribute. They called Idel "Bershud", like the Madjars, causing the Horezmian writers frequently confused Idel with Bardjil (Persia), and Bolgar they called "Bershahar". And Madjars' word "ber" means "Bulgar"...) End of fragment 1.
1 The fragment in (...) brackets was preserved only in my rendition.
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In the 1224 the Kayman Khan Mangush with his 100-thousand horde of Kaymans, Kireys, Kyrgyzes and Kydans defeated the Sabanian militia of the inal Kamal and occupied the Sabanian tüba... The kursybay initially set out to Kuakbash, but then under a new order of the Kan engaged in the pursuit of Karabash... This new order came after a false news of Kichi-Mergen to the Kan about an attack of Karabash on the Tubdjak under an order of the Tatar Khan. The Ulugbek foresaw a possible contender in Karabash, and decided to destroy him with a weapon of slander...
Later, in the 1236, Khan Batu, wishing to gain the sympathies of the Tubdjak biys, executed Kichi-Mergen...
In the winter of the 1226 Kichi-Mergen called in the inals of all tübas to a provincial kanash [council] in Kuakbash, which he ostensibly wrestled back from the Mangush's son. When the inals came to the place, sooner out of the desire to see the miracle of a victory over the enemy with their own eyes, they were immediately seized by the Ulugbek, who openly declared to them about his switch to the side of the Tatars. The traitor expected a fast victory, since in the steppe the word of the clan's head rules, and all the biys were in his hands. However, with the help of inal Kamal the old Kasim managed to escape and told the Kan about the mutiny of Kichi-Mergen... Mir Gazi immediately appointed him a new governor of the Tubdjak, and he, with a help of Bashkorts, Bayguls and Saksins, could stop the enemy at Sary-Balik, Akmulla and Omek.
But at the end of the 1228 the huge Tatar army of Subyatai attacked Sary-balik again. The captured by the Kytay Sardar his tribesmen began asking sobbingly the Ulugbek to surrender, to save the lives of the Sary-tüba Badjanak tribes. Then the old Kasim took in his hands a dombra and sang them the song that I composed for the Karabash biy:
Cleaning a slippery pomegranate with a sharp knife -
Can wound your hand.
Addressing a man with slippery words -
Can wound his heart.

Why had I lived to hear my wives
Asking me to let the wolves into my house?
Why had I lived to hear my kids
Asking me to betray my word?

If children do not listen the father -
Does this father have children and is he a father?
If people do not listen their biy -
Does this biy have a clan and is he a biy?

Even be alone, with last my horse fallen -
But I have a Bulgarian bow and one arrow!
Let my wounds bleed -
But shall I abandon my tormented land?

If I leave, where, in what alien land
I will find you, the land I love?
If my fate is to die - I shall die here,
Where my mother reared me and where I hear our larks...
Before, after such an answer Subyatai would hack all the people. But after the death of the Khan Timer his descendants, to whom he promised Tubdjak, became more cautious... Khan Batu, whom his father had tutored to attract the steppe subjects by attracting their biys, did not allow his Sardar to start a slaughter, and ordered him to advance to Saksin, bypassing Sary-balik. Subyatai, sending two detachments to Sabakül and Akmulla, to distract there the forces of the Tubdjaks, Bashkorts and Bayguls, moved with most of his army further to the West. Batu remained at the Sary-balik and waited for Kasim to loose his consciousness from starvation, and then his similarly weakened people surrendered... The war for Sabakül, Kyzyl Yar and Omek lasted till 1235, when Ishtyak pulled his armies from the Tubdjak...
But Gazi-Baradj had to personally come to Tubdjak and tell the inals about the State abandoning the Tubdjak. Only after that our steppe dwellers who have much more love to State than the always ironizing at them ulans, had to submit to the enemy...
The tüba Ak-Idjim in the east borders with the Seber, in the north with the Ulug-tüba, in the west with the Kara-Idjim and in the south with the Saban-tüba. Its center is the city of Akmulla (present Tselinograd) (anybody who enjoys the story of Kul Gali would enjoy the jazz with Akmulla i.e. "White Grave" name. In 1868 the city in the freshly grabbed Central Asia was renamed to a Russified Akmollinsk. The brilliant Khruschev in 1961 renamed the millennia-old city to "Tselinograd", i.e. "Virgin Land City" mentioned by the commentator, erasing its Türkic name and history. In 1992 the newly independent Kazakhstan restored the name as Akmola, and 1994 it was renamed again to Astana, i.e. "Capital" in Türkic, once again brilliantly indicating that the capital is a capital - Translator's Note) in the upper flow of the Idjim... Those going by the Tychkan (Jerboa, a mouselike rodent with long rear legs - Translator's Note) Road... would have to pass... Akmulla, and then menzel Bura-Balik (present Temirtau) on the river Kuk-Darya (Nura). A little to the south of this balik passes the boundary of the Saban-tüba...
Saban-tüba is limited in the east by the river Uyyaguz and Kagan mountains, in the north by the Yrtysh river and the boundary of the Ak-Idjim, in the west by the boundary of the Sary-tüba, in the south by the northern coast of the Bulgarian lake...
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2. ROADS OF TUBDJAK
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Tubdjak... Through this huge province of State pass a number of main caravan roads... The Saksin or Azak road starts in the Saksinian Azak, passes through the Madjara-Suba and Sakchi-Bolgar to the coast of the Bulgarian sea, and from it to the menzel Djam on the river Djam-Bulak where it joins the Bukhara road...
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From this road in the menzel Susyn splits the Türkic road, which is also called Turgu-yuly [Silk Road]... It passes through the fortress Sakmara.., the city Er-Balik which protects the mouth of the river Er-Inesh and the close-by crossing over the Djaik... To Er from the north, from bank of the Tubul [Tobol], comes the Yabalak road from the Baygul, which reaches to the Sabakül...
From Er the Türkic road crosses all Tubdjak... toward the Uzian cities on the river Syr-Darya... Most part of the population of these cities are Bulgars, that's why all the Kans of State always paid a special attention to the safety of this area. After the first attack of the Tatars, Chelbir, with an agreement with the Djurdjanian Shakh, posted there a few of our detachments, who ensured in the 1219 the evacuation of a part of the local population to the Bulgar. The Khan Kara-bash of Kydans and Oimeks, who initially served the Kytays, and then had to submit to Tatars, participated in the attack on this area, causing Chelbir's fury ...
For the first time I met this Khan during my trip by the Hon road... This road is also called Kaganian, Khinian and Kashanian. It begins in the Bolgar and goes through the Tamta-Bashkort and Er to the Sabakül... After Sabakül the largest cities along this road are the Urus-Kan (present Kurgan), Kyzyl Yar (present Petropavlovsk) and Omek (present Omsk)... In the Kyzyl Yar from the Hon road branches the Tychkan-yuly, which goes to Atbasar, Akmulla and menzel Gazanbash near the Gazan mountain (present Chingiztau mountains), located on the border of the State with the Kara-Kytay... To the Gazan also comes the Hon road from the Omek... From the Omeka to the Gazanbash possibly come overland, through the seven big stations called here baliks, or by the ship by the Yrtysh river to the Seventh Balik, and from it already by a land route to that menzel...
The Baliks were built with a huge effort out of the trees transported there by the Yrtysh from the Bajgul... To build as many menzels as was necessary was not possible, and they were set at a distance of about four marches one from each other, and named by the numbers and baliks... When the Tubdjak Ulugbek Tagyl, the grandfather of the Kara-Mergen Ulugbek reported to Anbal (1135-1164 - Translator's Note) about the results of the construction, the Kan said: " If it is better for you, leave them as they are. But if even once the Sardars, ambassadors, officials, post workers or merchants would complain about the inconveniences of the Hon's road, I shall make you an ordinary postman on that road". From that time the maintenance of the Hon's road became the main task for all Tubdjak Ulugbeks, who were not afraid of a rivalry by other Kypchak biys...
Kara-Mergen was telling me that when the Kara-Kytay invaded Tubdjak, in the Sabakül menzele were not any postmen nor horses in place. And then Tagyl himself rode the Hon's road carrying the message, succeding before that in persuading the Sardar Halik of the kusyrbay detachment to move to protect the Kyzyl Yar. These kusyrbays were barely rescued from execution by the Emir Kolyn, but the immediate death was replaced by a slow death in the Yabalak... Eventually luck fell to bothof them: Tagyl managed to be the first to the Kan with a message about the intrusion of the infidels, and the Sardar appeared in time at the Kyzyl Yar and beaten off the enemies. And though in this Kara-Kytay invasion mainly participated not the Kytays, but their subject Oimeks, the Anbal's courtiers inflated this victory out of scope to a route of all Kara-Kytay army. But the same lie helped the disgraced kusyrbays: Kolyn coerced the Kan to forgive them and return the heroes of his glorious war to the Echke Bulgar...
Right after the Nauruz I set out from the Bulyar to the Sabakül with a merchant Asadulla, a descendant of the merchant Asad, through Yar Chally, Ufa and Sterlé... But in the Sterle I was caught by a messenger of the merchant Nazym, calling me to go to Tubdjak together with him through the Er. He allowed his son Masud with the main part of the caravan to go first, and remained to wait for me in the Sakmara... I accepted his offer, as Asadulla was going only to Sabakül, and Nazym was going to the very Kytay borders...
The travel by the military road which connected the fortresses Kichu-Bayram and Sakmara was a dangerous undertaking, but the Sardar of garrison of the Kashmau fortress Bek Tugan came to my help and himself accompanied me to the Sakmara. When I asked him whether he may get punished for it, he answered: "I touched with my hand the flap of your furcoat, that wouldi avert from me and my family any troubles". Near the Sakmara I was already met by Nazym...
The Sakmara with its palisade, certainly, reminds more a regular menzel than a fearful fortress... In the 1135 this fortress was burnt by the Ooimeks, after which its size was reduced in half... Near it, already after the invasions of Subyatai, was built a new fortress Kargaly...
In the Sakmara tüba live the descendants of the Badjinaks who moved here from the Balasagun, the old Sabanian city in the Kashan, during the reign of Bat-Ugyr (882-895 - Translator's Note). A part of the Balasagun Badjinaks also settled at Sus-Uryny where they founded menzel Balasagun [present village Balasheyka]... They say that the name "Badjanaks" Sabans took as a symbol of their submission to the clan Dulo, and that it came from the Sabanian name for the coat of arms of the clan Dulo, "bu sanak", which is "imperial or great pitchfork"... The "sak" or "sagun" in Badjanak is "murky or black stream" (small river), frequently a mountain stream, and the "balasagun" is "non-murky" (clear) stream (small river). The Sakmara in Badjanak is "murky rivulet"...
In Sakmara we spent the Sabantuy, after which we set out to the east. Riding next to me Nazym has started the "Camel song" [record in the I.M.-Kh.Nigmatullin's notebook: "Nowadays called " Oly ülnyn tuzany"]...
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While we were catching up with the main caravan, we did not have, I am asking to believe it, any protection, and our all caravan consisted of twenty five camels and forty people. But if the reader would not believe me, I will willingly shall forgive him, because those who went with me on the safest in the Kara-Saklan Savysh road also did not believe it. But nevertheless... the situation was exactly that. The attacks on the officials and merchants on the Hon's road were so rare, that as a fresh example I was told a story about the robberies of the Sabanian biy Gazi-Kaplan in the last three years of the Anbal's reign and in all the fourteen years of the reign of Otyak. For some time he was among the courtiers of the Kan and so distinguished himself by at fulfilling his whims, that the Kan decided to form a new province Idjim specially for him, out of the southern part of the Tubdjak. However the joy of the new Ulugbek was short ,as in his province after the split of the former il the size of the taxes has almost doubled, and people very soon began to grumble. The discontent of the local biys was also caused because Gazi-Kaplan, who was just one of them, demanded them to submit to him, and also because he accepted the true faith... The dissatisfied biys surrounded the Gazi-Kaplan's quarters in the Akmulla and demanded that he refuse the post of the Ulugbek and attain a reunion of the Tubdjak, or to fight with them... Gazi-Kaplan chose to refuse from the post of the Ulugbek, but his impudent request for a restoration of the unity for the Tubdjak caused a terrible fury of the Kan. The Ulugbek was seized by Turgen and turned over to the ilchibek (representative) of Anbal, but near the Kyzyl Yar the Idjim biys snatched out their leader from the hands of the Tubdjaks and ilchibek's people... After that all that the Idjims did was only to struggle for their right to pay the former taxes in fight against the Turgen's detachments. Finally, in the fight suffered onlyone merchant, Gabdrahman, a descendant of Islam-Batysh, a grandfather of Nazym, but he himself lived on, and the robbers turned out to be the people of Turgen, who suspected the merchant in intention to break the Kan's interdiction on the trade with the rebellious Gazi-Kaplan. But when it turned out that only a drover separated from the caravan in a southern direction in search of a horse that run away from the camp, the Ulugbek and the biys of the tüba immediately compensated Gabdrahman all the damages ... Otyak also was deaf to the requests of the Idjims, and Gazi-Kaplan continued with the payment of the former taxes, beating off the attempts of the Tubdjak patrols to seize his area... Only the Visier Gubajdulla convinced Chelbir to meet the wish of the Idjims, and their struggle stopped right away...
The son of Gabdrahim, the father of Nazym Islam, also had only one unpleasant incident was during his travel in the Tubdjak. but also only when he with his people suddenly deviated from the Hon's road for a trip to the aul of his father-in-law, biy Turgay. During a night the Kypchaks from the neighboring clan drove away the merchant's horses... The horse theft for Kyrgyzes was considered almost as heroism, therefore nobody even searched for the thieves, and Turgaj-biy replaced his son-in-law's loss right away. However, in this situation all biys were obligated to do so...
The main attraction of the Er is the Horse market. Only from the Tubdjak are driven there for sale up to 300 thousand horses. Here is also selling everything necessary for the cavalrymen and coachmen...
We celebrated Djien in the Kyzyl Yar, where we drunk koumiss right on the bank of the Idjim... Here we acquired 550 camels...
The Kyzyl-Yar fortress has approximately thirty buildings (of which five are mosques), surrounded by a rampart, behind which is a palisade and a moat with two drawbridges, eastern and western... The soldiers from the rampart, under a protection of the palings from behind it can hit the enemy, invisible to the enemy... On the rampart against bridges are two quadrangle towers... A suburb where live 1500 people is surrounded only with a rampart to obstruct the passage to the cavalry... In the winter this rampart and the internal wall of the moat are poured with water, making them an ice hill... The garrison almost entirely consist of the Baygul Ishtyaks employed by the Tubdjak Ulugbeks for garrison service. For this service their families receive at once such a big payout that parents willingly send their sons to the Tubdjak...
When the Kara-Kytay cavalry, consisting mostly of the Kaymans and Kydans, broke through to the city, its all inhabitants hid in the fortress, and on the external rampart were left only archers. For them out of the big baskets filled with dirt were made shelters on the rampart, from behind which they fired at the enemy... Halik has brought one part of the kursybay into the city, and another positioned in a tabyr near the suburbs... The archers, completing a good work on the external rampart and having shot all arrows, retreated to the fortress and tabyr... The infidels, after clearing passages in the piles of their killed tribesmen and horses, started to race with shouts into the suburb, but at this moment our people ignited it... The surrounded by fire enemies burst in flames and burned down in front of the eyes of their tribesmen, who were not able to do anything to help them. The Kayman biy, whose son got into a trap, raced with his djurs (mercenary, militiaman, member of feudal retinue - Translator's Note) to his help, but to our shooters he became a good target, and they immediately hit him and several of his people... The Kaymans in a fury rushed once again on the tabyr, but again were met by a terrible rain from the bow and crossbow arrows, and retreated...
The Kara-Kytay Khan was so shocked by the losses that he started negotiations with the State and recognized its right to have the Tubdjak... After the conclusions of the p[eace our relations with the Kara-Kytay became most friendly, however they did not allow through their territory our caravans to the Khin [Northern China], in order to receive intermediating profits from the trade of the State with the Imens. And in the territory of the Kara-Kytay state our merchants were allowed to trade, but only in several cities where the entrance was forbidden to the Imens. But even with all this the trade with the Kara-Kytays was very profitable for our merchants...
In Omek we met a merchant Sajfulla, a descendant of Baytugan, the brother of Islam-Batysh. He sailed here from the Bajgul on fifty ships with a multitude of rafts... From there Masud went with 505 camels and 215 people to the Kozgyn [present Novosibirsk] to meet there other Sayfulla's ships sailing there from the Bajgul by the Abi-Darya, which we also called Baygul [Ob]... In the estuaries of the rivers running into Abi-Darya and Yrtysh, the Sajfulla's caravans are always met by the Baygul and Tajgas [eastern Sibirian and Far East] traders, and exchange their goods for his...
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I sailed Yrtysh river a part of the way to the Seventh Balik on the Sajfulla's ship... From the Seventh Balik we went to the Gazan mountain... Thus, all our way from the Sakmara to the Gazan mountain took 80 days...
Here is the the native land of the Sabans, therefore this tüba also is called Sabanian... The local Sabans told me, that Kan Gazan died there, and over his "kur" [wooden funeral chamber] people filled a huge kurgan which began to be called Gazan mountain. Near it there passes the border of the State with the Kara-Kytay...
Inal Kukdjal met us very hospitably... In the feast in our honor he gladly described how Khan Timer [Chingizkhan] was in his captivity... It turned out, he was very cowardly and was especially afraid of pain. Sometimes inal wanted to strike him with a whip for negligence, but he, guessing this desire, threw himself down to his legs and kissed his boots praying for a pardon...
The inal graciously explained me the meaning of a lot of the Badjanak words that were already forgotten in the Echke Bulgar... Their word "Uzi" means "Bulgars"... When they want to praise a person they call him "Uzbek", which is "Bulgar-like"... Besides, he told me an interesting story related with the word "chunkas"... When Tagyl received the order of the Kan to build chunkases, i.e. stations, along the main roads of his il, he asked ilchibek: "What are these "chunkas"? " The ilchibek answered: "A stone or generally a strong column" though he should have told in this case not about the literal, and about the service meaning of this word. A pleased Tagyl installed stone columns across the whole Tubdjak, instead of the stations, and when the same ilchibek went by the roads and asked where are the stations on them, he was surprised: "How come you did not notice the stone columns?" Only then ilchibek, who explained to the Ulugbek only the literal meaning of the word "chunkas", has understood that the Ulugbek did not know the service meaning of this term and consequently set up columns instead of the stations... To hide what has happened was no sense, the first merchant would find out the absence of the stations, and Emir Kolyn would send the Ulugbek to zindan (dungeon - Translator's Note). Therefore the ilchibek, who liked the ingenuous Ulugbek, first of all went with the report to the Kan. When Anbal heard the story from ilchibek, his old djur and friend, he began to laugh loudly, and laughed for a very long time... He also liked very much such people, and he ordered Tagyl to built chunkases only on the road from the center of the il to the first Kara-yuly [big and comfortable road]. But Tagyl here also distinguished himself: he asked to move the center from the Kyzyl Yar to Sabakül, closer to the Kara-yuly, to build less stations... When Anbal received a report about it, he exclaimed: "Are in the world people lazier and more ingenuous than the Hints? " But he allowed to transfer the center...
On the third day of my stay in center of the Sabanian tüba, a small town Kuakbash, there arrived Kydanian biy Karabash and invited me and my friends to the wedding of his son in his aul the Kagan. We went beyond Uyyaguz without any fear: like the Kara-Kytays, the Kydans never displayed perfidy with their guests... In the wedding he was the most cheerful and happy man... Speaking about me, he said that exactly like this he imagined the inhabitants of the heavens... Karabash invited to the wedding of the best chichens... After they showed their art, I thought that it would be useful for me to become their pupil for a while...
Karabash was one of the most outstanding biys of the Kara-Kytay state, but after its fall he had to serve the Tatars and had to take part in their assaults. But he did not display any eagerness, which in 1219 enabled many Uzians, Arakytays and Argyns to retreat from the Djurdjan area of the Syr-Darya to Tubdjak. But, as I already wrote, his forced participation in the assaults was enough that he, based on the Kichi-Mergen reports, was classed as a confirmed enemy of the State... That vile Kaymanian Khan Mangush, who seized our caravan, and then ripped up bellies of the Djurdjanian ambassadors and dishonored their wives and daughters, held as hostages the wife and the younger son of Karabash. Once he tried to rape her... The son jumped to shield his mother and was killed fight the rapists... His wife met the murderers with a dagger in her hand and... committed suicide. A servant girl managed to reach the quarters of Karabash and to inform him about what happened. Having lost those whose lives he saved by serving the Tatars, Karabash killed the Kayman Khan and with his clan coached away to the Tubdjak. During the attack on the Kaymans he freed me from captivity, and I was coaching with him... Many Badjinaks, Arakytays and Argyns left together with us from the Sabanian tüba and Sary-tüba...
Kichi-Mergen does not allow Karabash to be in his territory, but the Mardanians at my request are giving him for pasture coaching the Sakmara district. Chelbir, learning from Kichi-Mergen about it, personally set out to there with a desire to destroy the fugitives and to seize me...
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Much later Mir-Gazi told me that the head of Karabash was presented to Chelbir on a spear, but the Kan did not have time to enjoy it. He suddenly felt bad, and soon died (1225 - Translator's Note)... So perished the gracious Karabash-biy, who through all his life asserted only one right, the right for a life for himself and his clan... His son accepted Islam and in a jihad revenged the infidels for the death in vain of his relatives... He and his people were given land in the Kolak tüba to set up their settlement, which later received the name of Bugulma... When the Tatars ignited the city, he retreated with his detachment to the Bulyar...
We went back we by the Tychkan road... By the end of our travel in the caravan were already about 5 thousand camels and up to 30 thousand horses... The Echkebulgarian merchants frequently sell the Tubdjak camels and horses in the Saksin markets ...
But the Kuakbash is not at all the end of the road for our merchants. Through the Kuakbash passes the ancient road from the Balasagun to the Altai, which use the Kara-Kytays, pleasing our tamgachis [tax collectors at customs posts]. Frequently, our merchants join the Kara-Kytay caravans and go with them... South of Kuakbash our merchants go only in one direction, to the Kashan, as the road to the Khin is closed for the reasons I already wrote about. But going to Khin, Yrtysh has to be crossed and then the Altai is crossed over... The desert Monkyry is left to the south. It was formed in the place of the old Khinian State, covered by a golden sand, which then in one of the storms was covered by the usual sand. In this desert wander the wild descendants of the ancient Khins, who swapped all their values for illusive happiness to own the golden sand, who have forgotten even about who they are... These people, already more like animals, are called Monkyrts by the name of the desert. It is said that if a traveler would unintentionally divert from the main road he will be lost forever in this terrible Tatar desert and either will be eaten by the Monkyrts, or himself will forget everything in the world and become the same as them... Oh, the Almighty! Save us from such a sad fate! [...]
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Notes

Seid Mohammed-Gali ibn Mirhudja
(Kul Gali)
1172 - 1240
Note. Most of the dates are found in the sources, but some are interpolated as plausible approximations - Translator's Note
Mohammed-Gali ibn Mirhudja is better known under his literary pseudonym Kul Gali
Genealogy of Seid Mohammed-Gali
Ahmed ibn Fadlan (Bagdad Caliph's ambassador - Translator's Note) had son Nasyr,
his son was Mohammed,
his son was Hamid,
his son was Nugman,
his sons were sheikh Daud and kazyi Yakub.
Sheikh Daud dared to show his discontent about the Kan Adam deporting the Emir Akhad Mosha, and for that he himself was exiled from the Echke (Old) Bulgar to the Saksin province, where in the city Saksin Bolgar (aka Sarai Batu, 48.5°N 45.0°E, since Batu located his palace sarai there) was born his son Suleiman.
Emir Kolyn returned Suleiman to Bulyar and he became a Seid. The highest minaret of the "Baradj" mosque has been named by his name. And Sulejman had son Sada.
Sada was appointed the Seid after a suppression of Mamli-Omar revolt, his son was Kylych,
Kylych wrote a famous dastan about Tahir and Zuhra and he also was a Seid.
And the son of kazyi Yakub was Saint Isbel, who consecrated with his pray founding of the city Kazan in 1103, his son was sheikh Kul-Daud,
his son was Mirhudja Nakkar,
his son was Mohammed-Gali (1172 - 1240),
his son was Mir-Gali,
his son was Yadkar,
his son was Radjap,
his son was Isbel Hudja, who died in 1359, his sons were Hammad and Husain.
Hammad was forced to flee from the Bolgar to the Chirmyshan, at the age of 93 years, when Idegay returned. All sons of this pious sheikh were martyred in the Ulug-Bolgar, defending its holy relics from the Mongol's desecration.
His brother Husain after the death of his favorite wife left in sorrow to the Bashkort, and died there near the mountain Mamlitüba in 1393 at the age of 83 years, without leaving any children. As him and Hammad remained completely alone, he blessed Ashraf, the son of Emir Chally-Mohammed to accept the title of Seid to return to the Bulgar its appropriate power.

1171 (566 A.H.) The son of Seid Kul-Daud, Mullah Mirhudja tried forbidding the traditional Bulgarian fight matches between men and women during the popular celebrations, and one of fighters, the daughter of the Tabyn Biy Ümart-Tabyn, became Mirhudja's wife.
1172 (567 A.H.) Tabyns’ Biy Ümart-Tabyn daughter gave birth to Mirhudja's son Mohammed-Gali. Mullah Mirhudja is appointed to Bulyar. During a move of the family to the Bulyar she caught a cold and soon died...
1172 (567 A.H.) Bulyarians nicknamed the new seid Nakkar, for his sonorous and beautiful calls to pray.
1178 (573 A.H.) When Mohammed-Gali is 6 years old, Kan Otyak (1164-1178) dies, Gabdulla Chelbir (1178-1225) is raised to the Kan throne.
1179 (574 A.H.) Kan Chelbir appointed the father of Mohammed-Gali, Mirhudja, as the Seid of the capital Bulyar, to replace Seid Mamil, the senior son of Hyzyr-Hudja, who was appointed the Seid of the capital after the death of Mirhudja's father Seid Kul-Daud. Seid Mamil left to the Tatyak and headed there the brotherhood “El-Khum”.
1182 (577 A.H.) Kan Chelbir was ousted from the capital by a rebellion of Seid Mamli-Omar or Seid Mamil. The rebels raised Chalmati for the reign, Seid Mamil became the Vizier, and Mirhudja remained the Seid of the capital Bulyar. The Mamil mutiny intoxicated the ten years old Mohammed-Gali and for a time made him an adherent of violent actions in establishing the Kaganate of Goodness and Fairness dear to his heart.
1182 (577 A.H.) The lead in the brotherhood “El-Khum” was seized by a most aggressive group named “Amin”, the Alp Simbir-Karga becames their banner symbol. It opposed excessive taxes and duties, and stood for elimination of the allodial lands.
1187 (582 A.H.) House of sciences “Mohammed-Bakir” became a propagator for the Aminian ideas, began to be called “Rooks”. Two shakird friends of the same 15-year old age, Mohammed-Gali and Mir-Gazi, fall under their influence.
1192 (588 A.H.) After graduation from the medresé (medresseh, madrasah, Muslim school - Translator's Note) 20-year old Mohammed-Gali became an imam-khatib in the Hasan mosque in the Bolgar, and became a very popular preacher.
1192 (588 A.H.) People's discontent pushed Amines to a new plot, lead by the mullah Gali. He spread the web of the plot, called the “Rook’s” after the image on the Amines’ banner, through all the country. The purpose of the “rooks” brothers was installation of Mir-Gazi as the Kan sharing their views, gentle and sensitive to injustice, in contrast with the Kan Chelbir.
1193 (589 A.H.) A new plot against Chelbir, headed by 21-year old future great Bulgarian poet Mohammed-Gali (Kul Gali)
1193 (589 A.H.) A signal to rebellion were the calls for the morning prayer. In the Bolgar the people were to be raised by Gali himself, and in the capital by the voice of his assistant mullah Kylych. Kylych betrayed and reported to the Kan Chelbir about the upcoming revolt. Mergen, who was promoted to the post of the Tubdjak Tarkhan, seized 500 main participants of the plot including Gali. All 500 were sentenced to execution.
1193 (589 A.H.) Bulyar Tarkhan Mer-Chura learned about the events and decided to protect Gali in memory of his kind father. He bought the lives of 500 sentenced in exchange for 500 captured Galidjians. After that the “Rooks” were paraded for sale into slavery, and Gali, who turned grey at once, was banished to the Alabuga tower, and was chained there to the wall. Mir-Gazi was exiled from the Bolgar to the Kashan.
1203 (599 A.H.) Ar’s revolt. Kan Chelbir forgave the 31-year old mullah Mohammed-Gali, expressed hope that he would cease revolting against the rulers, and endorsed him, as a Mir-Gazi's friend, for the post of the Kashan Seid. After receiving this message, Gali told Mir-Gazi with a weak chuckle: “The “kind” Khan first chained me in bondage, but the ”malicious heathens” tore it off. Now the Kan desires that I would start hating those who ripped his chains off me. But how can I be angry for it?” Seid Mohammed-Gali after incarceration in the Alabuga began to call himself Kul-Gali, as a sign of his sympathy for the oppressed and his humble status...
1204 (600 A.H.) Bulgarian poet Mohammed-Gali ibn Mirhudja (pseudonym - "Kul Gali") completes his immensely long ingenious poem "Kyssa-i Yusuf" ("Tale of Joseph"), using the achievements of the Persian and Arabian literatures, and giving us a literary monument written in the indigenous Bulgarian language of the 12th century (first legally printed in Russia in 1989, in quasi-Cyrillic "Tatar" alphabet. Second edition was prepared by Nurmukhammet Khisamov and printed in New Turkic Latin).
I completed this work in six hundred (or ninth or thirtieth? Hijra),
During sacred Radjab, the thirtieth day.
I finished writing this poetic composition, -
The favor of Creator supported me till now.
The modest slave Kul Gali composed many lines,
Each one crowned with a twenty fourth syllable...
30 Radjab 600 AH Saturday 3 April 1204 AD A plausible date, after 10-year incarceration
30 Radjab 609 AH Tuesday 25 December 1212 AD An implausible date, in the height of the revolt
30 Radjab 630 AH Thursday 12 May 1233 AD An implausible date, in the height of the social reforms

Radjab is the seventh month of the lunar calendar. In numerous (i.e., about 170 extant) manuscripts of the poem are given mostly the three dates: 600, 609 and 630 year of Hijra. The thirtieth of Radjab 630 corresponds to the May, 12, 1233. The real date of 30 Radjab 600 AH, that makes any sense is ignored, and as the most likely are recognized these two dates: 609 and 630. In the Türkic original, tukuz ("nine") and utuz ("thirty") in the stanza rhyme system (yituzenden - utuzyndan - tukuzyndan) are easily replaced, and because of that arose the erroneous line. The copyists also could do it out of the professional consideration, to avoid tautology in the rhymes. But the recurrence of the same words in Kul Gali's rhymes is not a rarity. Ironically, because of all these reasons, and also of the ignorance about the social and historical timing of the ideas and motives of the poem, its further fate, as well as the fate of the author, the least plausible date of 630 AH is recognized as the most truthful.
1207 (603 A.H.) Before his exile, Seid Gali married the daughter of Dayr and grand-daughter of the slave-trader Appak.
1207 (603 A.H.) In exile as Kashan Seid, Seid Gali was widowed, and his son Mir-Gali from the daughter of Dayr grew up in the house of the suvarbashi (in the Bolgar? - Translator's Note).
1207 (603 A.H.) The period of 1207- 1212 (603-608 A.H.), when Mohammed-Gali served as the Kashanian Seid, and could extensively travel in the Central Asia area, appear as the potential time when he could compose the "Hon Kitaby" ("Book of Huns"), which is traditionally dated to unlikely ca. 1235.
1212. (608 A.H.) Seid Gali taught about the laws, causing the Kashanian revolt, which was supported by the Ars' revolt. Gali writes a letter to Kan Chelbir spelling out the rebel's request, and protecting those igenchis whom he converted to Islam. Seid Gali presented Kan Chelbir the restored book about Üsuf. The Kan saw there a verse about the transition of the power from the senior to the younger brother, and became furious. Kan Chelbir ordered to seize the Seid again, as the instigator of the mutiny. In response, Gali declared that those trying to cross Agidel to seize him would sink. Out of the superstitious fear, many were afraid to deal with the saint and refused to execute the order of the Kan, and only sardar Guza went to the Kashan. ”Be careful”, told him Elaur, “You may drown”. The fearless sardar in response only laughed. But the Gali's prediction came true...
1213 (609 A.H.) A wave of sanctification swipes around Mohammed-Gali's image. Gali consecrates fortress, declares a complete abdication from the power, and the places he ever visited are converted into the mosques.
1214 (610 A.H.) Emir Mir-Gazi promised Seid Gali to ensure the fate of the rebels. He persuaded Seid Gali to leave from the country. First the Seid fled to the Bolgar and from there left with a caravan to Khoresm, with Yaldau's help, because of his hate of his father Kan Chelbir. In Khoresm, Emir Djelaletdin hospitably received Seid Gali and appointed him a secretary of his archive...
1214 (610 A.H.) The period of 1214 - 1224 (610-621 A.H.), when Mohammed-Gali served as a secretary of the Khoresmian Emir archive, and could extensively travel in the Central Asia area, also appear as the potential time when he could compose the "Hon Kitaby" ("Book of Huns"), which is traditionally dated to unlikely ca. 1235.
1224 (621 A.H.) Bulgarian poet Mohammed-Gali ibn Mirhudja (pseudonym - "Kul Gali") creates his annalistic compilation "Hon Kitaby" ("Book Of Huns").
1224 (621 A.H.) Khorezmian Emir Djelaletdin sent an embassy to the Bulgarian Kan Chelbir to ask for help against Juchi's advance. Seid Gali was in the ambassadorial caravan. The embassy was intercepted by the Kypchakian Ak-Oimek Khan Karabash, who was trying to pacify Juchi. Seid Gali was taken prisoner but was not harmed, because Kypchaks treasured chichens (storytellers) who, as they believed, were saints and could talk with the sky, and for some years he wandered in the steppes with the Kypchaks. Gali composed for Oimeks a few songs.
1225 (622 A.H.) Juchi pursued Khan Karabash Oimeks and forced them to cross Djaik. To please Juchi, Kan Chelbir refused to let Oimeks hide inside the Bulgarian State, and cornred them against Djaik river. Kan Chelbir suddenly died, and immediately in the field the Beks raised Mir-Gazi to the reign (1225 - 1229 AD). Seid Gali, cornered with Oimeks, came to the new Kan and asked to spare the poor Kypchaks. Kan Mir-Gazi could not refuse his friend and, ordered to settle Oimeks in the Bashkort. Kan Mir-Gazi took Seid Gali to the Bulyar, expelled dishonorably Kalych from the capital, and installed Gali instead. Soon Seid Gali persuaded Mir-Gazi to cancel the tax increase on all subashes, al-chirmyshes, merchants and and small craftsmen.
1227 (624 A.H.) Kul Gali devises a plan for his friend Kan Mir-Gazi to improve the position of the Muslim igencheys, small and middle craftsmen, and alpars, the enlisted knights.
1229 (626 A.H.) Kan Mir-Gazi died, and Altynbek, absolutely apathetic to the reforms of Gali, was raised to the Bulgarian Kan throne (1229, 1230-1236 ).
1229 (626 A.H.) Emir Iljas Yaldau rebelled in Bulyar, dethroning Altynbek and installing Gazi Baradj (1229-1230) instead, and causing a popular revolt. Said Gali advocates a reform to the newly enthroned Kan telling him: “Instability of our Kans, all disasters of our State are from non-observance of our faith, which prohibits the slavery. Relax taxes on small freeholders, subashes and al-chirmyshes to the size of the time of Talib, confirm the law of conversion of igenchis to subashis and al-chirmyshes when they accept Islam, enlist the remaining heathen kurmyshes into the category of kara-chirmyshes, and make ulans into the bakhadirs , and you will act in accordance with the Koran”. The Kan Gazi Baradj immediately carried out his will, and the Mohammed-Gali law was announced on all maidans of the State. The kurmyshes, especially Ars and Serbiyans of the Mountain Side and heathen Bulgars of the Ar’s district, began to accept Islam in masses, and declare themselves subashis or ak-chirmyshes. The Kan Gazi Baradj with the support of the Seid Mohammed-Gali with an iron fist quashed any resistance to Kan by the Seid Kylych followers.
1230 (627 A.H.) Altynbek re-instated to the throne, Gazi Baradj fled to Rus. The fate of Mohammed-Gali reform law is unknown, all real control is with the local authorities.
1231 (628 A.H.) Seid Gali married Mir-Gazi’s widow Sauliya who was given in marriage at five years old, and whom he loved all his life.
1231 (628 A.H.) 1231 - 1236 Seid Gali is criss-crossing the country working to unite the State. This time of high tension in the state, and high external threats, appear as the most unlikely time to compose the thoroughly written and saturated with innumerable details "Hon Kitaby" ("Book of Huns"), which is traditionally dated to this ca. 1235 period.
1236 (633 A.H.) Gazi-Baradj returns as Mongol Batu's ally and becomes Bulgar's Emir again, in vassalage to Batu (1236-1242 AD). Storm of Bulyar by Mongols and execution of its defenders. During the battle Seid Gali's grandson was lost, and trying to find him Sauliya fell behind. The grandson was found alive, but the unfortunate woman who brought him up as a son was killed. Gali was among the captured, holding his grandson in his arms. Seid was pointed to to Batu, Mankay Subyatai, and Guük: “He cannot be executed, he is the Supreme Kakhin of the Bulgars. His death will bring misfortune to Mongols”. Seid, who tried to cheer townspeople with a pray, only illegible words coming off his lips, was pulled out from the crowd and saved.
1236 (633 A.H.) Gali refused to become the Bulgar Seid and departed for a voluntary confinement in the Alabuga in protest of destruction of Bulyar. Seid Kylych, the predecessor and opponent of Mohammed-Gali and Mohammed-Gali reform, was installed the Bulgarian Seid, and the head of “El-Khum”.
1240 (637 A.H.) Emir Iljas Yaldau raised a mutiny against Kan Gazi Baradj, called a djien to declare Mohammed-Gali the head of the country with a title of Seid. Mohammed-Gali agreed to become the head of the State, but did not leave Alabuga in view of his feebleness. He immediately sent to the Nur-Suvar his firman which said: “By the will of Allah, I, Seid Mohammed-Gali, accept the control of the Bulgarian State and declare jihad to the damned Tatar troops."

Preserved fragment of the Mohammed-Gali Firman
1240 (637 A.H.) Subyatai suppressed the Mohammed-Gali revolt in a "Gali War", restoring Kan Gazi Baradj control of Bulgar State. Suppression of the ”Gali War” happened before the end of October, 1240. Seid Gali, learning in his solitude about the disastrous events, collapsed and did not rise any more. Kul-Burat transported dying Seid to the Nur-Suvar, arriving with already lifeless body of Gali with the book ”Hon Kitaby” on his chest. Seid Mohammed-Gali was buried near the Kan's palace.
1242 (639 A.H.) Kan Gazi Baradj raised his son Hisam to the throne of the State and left to Batu to become his Visier.
1246 (643 A.H.) After another revolt that deposed Hisam, Nur-Suvar is completely destroyed. Burilday tramped with his horse’s hoofs the Gali’s tomb near the Emir’s palace, and an elder brother of the “El-Khum” told him: “What are you doing? This is the tomb of a saint! You yourself are calling the death on your head!” But Burilday continued his sacrilege. The grave of the Seid Mohammed-Gali ibn Mirhudja, known under his pseudonym Kul Gali, remains buried, covered by 750 years of sediments, in the barely visible remnants of the Nur-Suvar.
1612 A first book in Tatar was published in Leipzig (Germany) in 1612
1722 First Tatar native publishing-house in Russia, 110 years following the German publication
1983 UNESCO celebrated Kul Gali's 800-th anniversary.
Notes
Imam - man who leads prayers in a mosque.
Khatib - orator, speaker, i.e preacher, sermonizer