NOTE 2.—BOLGHAR, our author’s Bolgara,
was the capital of the region sometimes called Great
Bulgaria, by Abulfeda Inner Bulgaria, and stood
a few miles from the left bank of the Volga, in latitude
about 54 deg. 54’, and 90 miles below Kazan.
The old Arab writers regarded it as nearly the limit
of the habitable world, and told wonders of the cold,
the brief summer nights, and the fossil ivory that
was found in its vicinity. This was exported,
and with peltry, wax, honey, hazel-nuts, and Russia
leather, formed the staple articles of trade.
The last item derived from Bolghar the name which
it still bears all over Asia. (See Bk. II. ch.
xvi., and Note.) Bolghar seems to have been the northern
limit of Arab travel, and was visited by the curious
(by Ibn Batuta among others) in order to witness the
phenomena of the short summer night, as tourists now
visit Hammerfest to witness its entire absence.
Russian chroniclers speak of an earlier capital of
the Bulgarian kingdom, Brakhimof, near the mouth of
the Kama, destroyed by Andrew, Grand Duke of Rostof
and Susdal, about 1160; and this may have been the
city referred to in the earlier Arabic accounts.
The fullest of these is by Ibn Fozlan, who accompanied
an embassy from the Court of Baghdad to Bolghar, in
A.D. 921. The King and people had about this
time been converted to Islam, having previously, as
it would seem, professed Christianity. Nevertheless,
a Mahomedan writer of the 14th century says the people
had then long renounced Islam for the worship of the
Cross. (Not. et Extr. XIII. i. 270.)
[Illustration: Ruins of Bolghar.]
Bolghar was first captured by the Mongols in 1225.
It seems to have perished early in the 15th century,
after which Kazan practically took its place.
Its position is still marked by a village called Bolgari,
where ruins of Mahomedan character remain, and where
coins and inscriptions have been found. Coins
of the Kings of Bolghar, struck in the 10th century,
have been described by Fraehn, as well as coins of
the Mongol period struck at Bolghar. Its latest
known coin is of A.H. 818 (A.D. 1415-16). A history
of Bolghar was written in the first half of the 12th
century by Yakub Ibn Noman, Kadhi of the city, but
this is not known to be extant.
Fraehn shows ground for believing the people to have
been a mixture of Fins, Slavs, and Turks. Nicephorus
Gregoras supposes that they took their name from the
great river on which they dwelt ([Greek: Boulga]).
["The ruins [of Bolghar],” says Bretschneider,
in his Mediaeval Researches, published in 1888,
vol. ii. p. 82, “still exist, and have been
the subject of learned investigation by several Russian
scholars. These remains are found on the spot
where now the village Uspenskoye, called also
Bolgarskoye (Bolgari), stands, in the district
of Spask, province of Kazan. This village is
about 4 English miles distant from the Volga, east
of it, and 83 miles from Kazan.” Part of
