Ghazi Baraj Tarihi. Chapter 7

PBefore ascending to the throne, Almysh, according to the custom established by Djilki, prayed in the Marduan mosque, after which he entered the capital and was raised to the throne by the son of Alabuga Julut, Bel-Yumart, Askal and the son of Mikayil Bashtu - Abdallah ...

Having become the Kan of Bulgar, Jafar immediately sent Abdallah to Salar, and he returned with the Khan's daughter, Nushabi, and the Khan's promises of friendship... Almysh decided to play the wedding in the city of Mardzhana Nur-Suvar. Marjan was wary of his brother and initially refused to recognize him as his Kan, but the arrival of Jafar with his bride melted the ice of mistrust in his heart...

From Nushabi, Almysh had two sons - Yalkau and Mal, and a daughter, Zukhra ...

That year, Mikail conducted a population count in Bulgar and revealed that there were 190,000 people in the country who spoke the Kyrgyz and Badjanak dialects of the Sabans, 180,000 - Ar, 170,000 - Modzhar or Bashkort, and 10,000 - Khon dialects - Burdzhan and Serbian. All speakers of the Sabanian and Burdzhanian dialects made up the number of Bulgars... After 14 years, a new count revealed already 320 thousand Bulgars...

The only thing that upset the Kan was the situation in the Kara-Bulgar. The Arbat, having learned about the Badjanak invasion, turned back, but the Khins had already occupied the Saklan steppe between Sula and Shir and did not let him into the Kara-Bulgar. Then the Arbat with his own took possession of Duloba or Avaria, where the Bashkorts, who were under the yoke of the farangs, met him as a liberator and proclaimed him their Kan. The warriors of the Arbat, who had already thoroughly forgotten or did not even know the Modzhar language, married the Avar Bashkorto women, and their children again began to speak the Modzhar language ...

Bek Arslan, striving for unlimited power, announced that it was the khakan, and not himself, who secretly served Rum and left the Kara-Bulgar without soldiers before the invasion of the Badjanaks. The pagan Khazars, outraged by him, with the support of the Burdjans and Kaubuians, defeated the headquarters of Ishak and finished off Aksak-Timer together with his Yahud mentors. At the same time, the bek had the sense not to take the Khakan throne, but to erect on it - to calm those close to the Kalga family and influential Cuman biys - the son of Ishak Bakchuar. He was declared the ruler not according to the Turkic custom and, immediately after that, Arslan safely hid from prying eyes, so that no one even really knew what faith the new khakan adhered to. This helped the bek portray himself as a friend of Muslims, Christians, pagans, Jews - depending on the circumstances - and made his position and his possessions stable. Pretty soon, with the help of Rum gold, he managed to persuade the Badjanaks to make peace with Khazaria, thanks to which part of the Kara-Bulgars was able to return to the Kara-Bulgar and proclaim Arslan's henchman, biy Ryshtau, as a Baltavar...

At the same time, Mulla Mikail also worked to strengthen the Bulgar, but by completely different means. He tirelessly spread the light of the true faith in the most remote corners of the state and organized schools at mosques. Under Djilki, he founded 42 mektebs, and later another 180. In the last years of his life, he was also involved in the organization of the Bulgarian coinage and the search for deposits of iron, gold, silver, copper, coal and precious stones in the Urals. Abdallah writes that Mikail sailed more than once along the Chulman and its tributary, the Joz-Uba (“Hundred Rocks”) river, and even reached the sources of the Jaik and Agidel. In 900, Mikail Bashtu, who called himself Shamsi Bashtu in his dastan, went on his last trip to the Urals and drowned in Agidel near Yar Chall during a night storm. The local pagans, on the orders of their leader, fished Mikail's body out of the water and hung it on a tall tree, after which the biy addressed him with the following words: “Oh, the great shaman Bashtu Tintyau! We hang you on a tree so that you quickly get to the heavenly canal of Tangra and be reborn in our land again!”

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Suddenly, the body of the mullah stirred, and the pagans heard his voice: “I am going to the court of Tangra, and if you live piously and in friendship, I will intercede for you before Him and return to earth in the form of the blessings of the Almighty to those who believe in Him. If you live unrighteously and fight in vain and kill each other, then I will appear to you again in the form of a heavy punishment of Tangra. Then black clouds will cover the sky and hide the sun, thunder will rumble and lightning will flash, the earth will tremble and crack, the fields will dry up and become covered with dust, they will rage and turn into swamps of the river - and there will be no joy for you in this and forgiveness in the next world!

The pagans, shocked by the vision, immediately converted to Islam, and named their clan Tamta in memory of this Tintyau...

Byrak, the son of Bel-Yumart, who was sent to search for Mikayil, took the body of the mullah from the tree and brought it to Bolgar, and Abdallah buried his father in the khanaka of Deber, founded by him, on the Deber-su river. This khanaka was supported by six villages, which is why this district was named "Altysh". The affairs of his father were accepted by Abdallah, who was also tireless in the field of state affairs ...

From Mikail there was a book "Shan kyzy dastans", presented by him to Bat-Ugyr when he was raised to the throne. I read it. In it, the words of the old dastan of the Bulgars about the exploits of the three Elbir brothers are intertwined with the writings of Mikail himself. Seid Ahmed Baqir found it obscene and banned it. However, my father kept a list of the mullah's book - a gift from Bek Guza. Mulla Hassan ibn Ishak, known for his book “Collection of Amazing Stories – Delight for the Reader and Listener”, took one of the few lists of dastan to Khorysdan. From Khorysdan, he left for Kashan, where he met Mullah Mahmud and sang and retold Mikayil's dastan to him... And it was written in simple language, which is why Seyid Ahmed called Mikayil "a dropout"...

Hassan's son Sheikh-Omar, left by him to be raised by his uncle Hadji-Omar, also served after his father in the Khorysdan mosque "Kyr-Kuba", founded by Mikail. In Batavyl, his son Khudzha was born, with whom, when he was seven years old, he set off along his father's path and reached Khorasan. There his son became famous as a tabib and received the nickname Khizir. When seid Yakub made a trip to Khorasan, he specially stopped by to see him. Together with him, Khyzyr Khuja released his son Mamli-Omar to Bulgar, whom Yakub began to consider his son as well... not a single list of this dastan, but I can’t believe oral information. Meanwhile, at least one list was brought by the Banji merchant Kalgan from Khorysdan. He lived 90 years and died in 1120. When he turned 85, he was asked: “How did you manage to live to this venerable age?” To this, Kulgan replied, "Because I never sat in one place."

Indeed, he spent his whole life on the road - on trade trips to Khorysdan, Karadzhar, Bashtu, Saklan, Dzhaldu, Djurash, Azerbaijan ... They say that only once in his whole life did he not set off on the road at the appointed time - because illness of his beloved grandson Asan, and this delay was fatal for him. At that time, he was at his home in Bolgar and decided to stay another day near the child. Since Asan was suffocating, he carried him out into the garden. The next morning, the outer baliks of Bolgar were suddenly attacked by the warriors of Dzhurga, and the old man went out to meet them. He was not afraid of the Uruses, for he traded with them and hoped to prevent bloodshed. However, these were not the Anchi Uruses, but the Balyns and Galidjians, and without any pity they cut Kalgan to pieces ... The old man's friends, the Anchi merchants, who loved him for his kindness and honesty, voluntarily raised funds and compensated his son Burkhan for the damage from the villainous attack of the Balyns . In turn, Asan's grandson Barys donated a lot of money to the Anchi craftsmen and merchants who unwittingly suffered from Bek Insan's futile raid on Ryam-Ufa ... Asan, as if in memory of his healing, became a famous tabib.

The clan of Kalgan - Bukharai traded in honey, wax, furs and slaves. For the merchant Appak, the son of the pious master Abu Bakr, Kalgan bought young captives from the Kipchaks and Uruses, and he raised them in very good conditions and gave them an excellent education, and then sold his lovely pupils for huge money to rich clients in Islamic countries. At the same time, all the girls were given the name of the owner - Appak ...

And among the Bukharaevs, healing was considered a family tradition. So even the son of Balus Subash was a famous tabib and earned the nickname Father, although at the same time he was the richest merchant who gave money for the construction of Bulyar. Right in the citadel of this city in 925, he built a hospital with a pharmacy attached to it, which is why one gate and the passage from them to the citadel were called "Father" ...

In Bashtu, he undertook to heal the terminally ill Barys, the son of Ugyr Lachyn, who had previously been unsuccessfully treated by Balyn and Rum doctors. When Barys’s mother Uljay asked him why he did this, Subash replied: “My father became very rich from the sale of Rum things that he bought from Ugyr, and considered himself indebted to him. That's why I want to help his son." "What will be your conditions?" Bika asked. “If I heal Barys, let him not accept Christianity,” said Otchy-Subash. He cured Barys and gave him a new name Audan… and he did not accept Christianity… Reykhan became famous, among other things, for his “Book of a Thousand Herbs”, which was a guide for many Bulgar pharmacists…

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And the son of Asan Bukharai Teklimen cured the Bashtu bek Bat-Aslap, the father of Hin-Kubar, from a serious illness, and for this ... He presented the list of dastan Mikayil to Appak, and his son, Dair, in turn, presented it to bek Guza for the return of the kidnapped barge by him Vasyl property…

The ancestor of the house of Appak was master Masud, who arrived in Bolgar from Baghdad together with Abdallah. His son was Bashir, his son was Musa, his son was Atrak, his son was Bashir, married to the daughter of Mohammed Baryn... As is known, the ancestor of the Baryns was Biy Alabuga. His son was Julut, his son was Tatra Mohammed, his son was Julut, his son was Mohammed, the father of Bashir's wife. Bashir's son was Julut, his son Al-Hamad, his son Ahmed, his son Abu Bakr, his son Appak, his son Dair, his son Tetesh...

Appak justified his trade by the need that Masuds fell into after the expulsion of Abu~Bakr from Bulyar by Anbal, as well as by the fact that he saved the unfortunate slaves from death and need. Dair gave one of them to bek Djurash, who gave it to master Nizami from the Azerbaijani Khondzhak, founded, like the Gurdjian one, by the Khons who served the Persians. This Appak was famous for the wonderful performance of “Shan kyzy dastans”, and, of course, it was she who inspired her husband to retell the story of the appearance of Bolgar in his dastan about Iskander…

Nizami came from the Gabbas family, but from that branch of it that had become impoverished. The poet's father tried to separate from his wealthy relatives and start an independent jewelry business in Khondzhak, but only worsened the situation of his family. Nizami tried to improve the matter, fought for a long time, but did not succeed in this, but he gained great fame for himself in something else - in poetry. Only his son from Appak, Mohammed, succeeded in trading in silk, carpets and jewelry and became respected in his own way. He always, when he came to Bulgar, visited us and stayed in Akbikul, where there was a caravanserai. Mohammed brought us the manuscript of his father's dastan. He had a son, Sadretdin, who also visited me...

And the best performer of Mikayil's dastan was considered bek Elaur from the Ryshtau Kaubuy clan. He traveled from Gabdulla Chelbir to Tabyl-Katau to place Lachyn Khisami on the Gurji throne and was present at his wedding with Samar bika there. When the Gurdjian beks began to sing their songs, Elaur could not stand it and sang Mikayil's dastan in one breath, shocking the ears of those present. And I must say, only occasionally did he help his unusually beautiful voice by playing along on the dombra, which he never parted with. And one of the beks present, Nurshada, the son of the vizier Ablas from Khondjak in Gurdji, fraternized with Elaur in admiration. Elaur took the name of Nurshada, and Nurshada - the name of his family Ryshtau and became known as "Ryshtauly". Later, Nurshada wrote his own dastan, where he included much of Mikayil's dastan...

And Almysh was very worried about the death of Mikail - after all, it was he who convinced Bat-Ugyr to peacefully cede power to Jafar and open the gates of Bolgar, and was also his mentor. It was Shamsi Bashtu who pointed out to the Kan that his kingdom would be as strong as his trade. And Jafar made every effort to seize ... the tribes of Chulman, rich in expensive northern goods, to destroy Khazaria, to seize trade routes to all countries. He paid special attention to ties with Bashtu. The Khazars from the city of Murdas tried to prevent her, but Mardan soon took possession of the city, and Arslan, reluctantly, left the Khorysdan route from Bolgar to Bashta in peace. But he did not stop making efforts to harm Bulgar. So, in 911, the son of As-Khalib, Khud, loyal to the Khazars, captured Bashta and released the son of Lachyn Ugyr, who was detained there. Salahbi, loyal to Bulgar, barely left for Djir, and the head of the Anchis - the son of Jun Barys and the son of Arbat Dzhakyn were captured. Barys was taken by Khud as an interpreter in his raid on Azerbaijan and Persia, and Dzhakyn was sold to Khorezmian merchants. During the battle, Barys managed to escape from the Galidjians, after which he wandered for some time. Fortunately, the people of the Baghdad bek Nasyr, who wanted to go to Almysh back in 906, and in 911 was already appointed head of the great Sultan's embassy to the Bulgar, picked him up - after all, their master ordered them to help any Bulgar out of his sympathy for the Bulgar. Then they found Jakyn...

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After a barbaric raid on the Islamic regions, Hud returned to Itil, but here he was suddenly attacked by the Oguzes and fled up the Idel ... The Turkmens were at first allies of the Khakanate and in 912 - at the request of Arslan and together with the Khazars - attacked the Bulgars. They managed to take Sulcha, or "Seljuk" in Oguz, and capture here the children of Almysh from Nushabi - the son of Mal and the daughter of Zuhra. This happened through the fault of the son of Jafar Ghazan, who was sent with an army to rescue the city and deliberately delayed on the way. However, when the Khan of Uzes Salar rushed to the Bolgar, leaving the prisoners under the protection of the Khazar prince Yusuf, he was suddenly attacked by the son of Bel-Yumart Byrak. Byrak flew out from behind the forest with the cry "Urma!" and soon turned the enemies into a randomly running herd. The Türkmens retreated to Sulcha and here they learned that the city was attacked by the Arbugins of Mardzhan. The cowardly Yusuf, at the very first sounds of the battle, fled with everything full to Itil, and his twin brother Alan took it into his head to fight and was taken prisoner. Salar also tried to change the course of the war, but was utterly defeated. His son Alpamysh was captured by Byrak and Julut and received the nickname "Seljuk" in memory of this. Salar himself, with his other son Takhir, went to Itil and demanded that Arslan extradite Zukhra (because she was engaged to Takhir even before birth) and Mal (in exchange for Alpamysh). Bek refused, stating that he needed to first exchange Alan for prisoners, and then the Turkmens attacked Itil. Tahir managed to recapture Zuhra, but while crossing the Idel Hud killed him and captured the princess. Salar attacked the Galidjians, and they considered it good to go to Bashta through the Bolgars. Khud Anatysh was very self-confident, for he had 5,000 well-armed warriors, but Salahbi was already waiting for him at the Bolgar with his ships. Only one ship of Hood managed to break into Jir - the rest were either sunk or moored to the shore ...

In total, 3,000 Sadumians and Galidzhian Balyns left the shore, and ours had to tinker a lot before all the enemies were trampled, and the neck of the wounded Hud was swept by the lasso of Byrak. Almysh betrayed Hud to the Bershud bek, and Byrak hung him on a tree near his headquarters on the Dyau-Shir River with the words: “Serve, O bravest one, our God Tangra and let him revive you again on our land!”

It was considered a great honor, because, according to the Khonian custom, the Bulgars burned unworthy opponents... In memory of Khud, Byrak gave his son the name Anatysh. Then the remains of the Sadum bek fell under a tree and began to be revered by the chirmysh, who made sacrifices near them before going to war. And the tree and this place were called "Hood Imen" ...

Having done away with the enemy at the Bolgar, Salahbi immediately, with the help of the Anchians, took possession of Bashta and took as his wife an anatishka - the widow of Hud. At the same time, she asked: “Where was my husband killed?” Salahbi replied that in the Bulgarian ravine, where in the end they drove and where they shot the army of Hud with arrows. Indeed, Hud’s army was finished off in the Bu-elga ravine, also named Djilki in memory of the Bashtuy ravine Bu-chai, beyond which there was a zirat…

Arslan, with the help of the Khin badjanaks, drove Ryshtau out of Khorysdan and placed Ugyr at the head of the Kara-Bulgar beylik. But Salahbi immediately moved to Khorysdan with a part of the Kaubuians who had come running to him and knocked Ugyr out. Then he arranged for himself a new headquarters - east of Khorysdan - and called it Khursa. The Badjanaks called it “Kura”… Here, in the Kara-Bulgarian batavyl Khorysdan, Salahbi got married with Uljay, because he decided that the name of the local river Syuyum-Idel was suitable for this and that this would respect Kan Almysh. Thus ended this war, which was nicknamed the "Iron Banner", because it began with the plundering of the Bulgar caravans on Khorys-Yula by the Khazars.

The forces of Khazaria were finally undermined in this war, and the sun of its power began to quickly decline ... But Almysh himself was not destined to take advantage of the fruits of his victory. The shame of his ulans, who fled in a fight with Hood, as well as his attempts, contrary to the advice of Mikail, to forcibly introduce the true faith, shook the sense of respect for him and fear of him within the state. Soon after the victory, the biys, who felt their strength and vulnerability of the Kan, gathered in Bulyar and dictated the following conditions to the Kan:

- Kan stops forcing pagans to convert to Islam;

- Kan recognizes the hereditary rights of Byrak to Bershud, Askal to Esegel, Marjan to Arbuga and Julut to Nur-Suvar;

- Kan takes a strictly defined tribute from these possessions and otherwise has no right to anything in them;

- Kan has no right to appear in these possessions without the permission of their biys, either alone or with an army, and communicates with them through his ambassadors in them;

— the biys of the four dominions do not give warriors to the kan except of their own free will and, in the case of a joint venture with the kan or their own enterprise, they have a contractual share of the booty with him...

Almysh, although he gnashed his teeth, was nevertheless forced to accept these conditions in order to save the state from collapse. Later, he confessed to Abdallah: “When, after the death of Mikayil, I managed for the first time to change the biys in the regions without any hassle and convince a significant part of the Bershud chirmyshs to accept the holes, I thought that my royal power was established once and for all. However, then the fallacy of this opinion was revealed and the need to recall the wise precepts of Bashtu again. Abdallah could not then help the Kan with advice, for he could not pass from Khorasan to Bulgar in any way. Finally, he decided to sail along the Bulgar Sea to the mouth of the Dzhaik and from there get to the nomad camps of the Mardzhan Badjanaks. But Salar was already waiting for him at the mouth, hoping to exchange Abdallah for Mal, and then Mala for Alpamysh. Tebir was captured by the Turkmens and taken to Itil to Arslan, who swore an oath to make the exchange required by the khan. However, having received Abdallah in his hands, the bek brazenly refused Salar. Arslan's fearlessness was due to the fact that he recognized himself as a vassal of the Samanids and counted on their help. Indeed, when the angry Salar tried to disturb Khazaria, the Khorasan Turkmens raided his own pastures. Khan immediately calmed down and when Almysh married Alpamysh to the daughter of the Arbugin merchant Kutlug and released him from captivity without any conditions, he swore to give his life for the Kan Bulgars. And Kutlug was the founder of the Bellak trading house "Illak", engaged in the processing and sale of the best leather, shoes and other leather items. He had to extract raw materials for production in the Badjanak, Turkmen, Bashkort and Kipchak nomads, and therefore he willingly accepted the offer of the Kan to marry his daughter to the son of the Oghuz Khan ...

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Almysh could not help out of captivity and Mal - his favorite and heir. Hasan, eager to seize the throne, wrote to Mal in Itil about his father's desire to execute him for the defeat in Sulcha, and the prince, frightened by this false news, refused to leave Khazaria to the delight of Arslan. Beck always tried to have as many princes on hand for his cunning games. Abdallah claims that he somehow summoned the young Alan and Yusuf to him and told them: “You are twin brothers, and I can replace you on the throne without anyone noticing and generally do whatever I want with you. So serve me faithfully, otherwise, at best, you will rot alive in a zindan.”

They say that the bek was thinking about the approval of Mal on the Khazar throne, but, obviously, death or some other circumstances prevented him from doing this ...

Arslan's main concern after the Iron Banner War was the ransom of Alan, whom the bek did not want to exchange for the unreliable and treacherous Yusuf. In 918, when the position of Almysh became very bad, the Kan exchanged Alan for tebir Abdallah, whose advice he needed. Mikail's son corrected the situation in a few months. He persuaded Jafar to marry his youngest daughter Gulbi to Askal and pass Nur-Suvar to his son Mikail, who was Marjan's favorite. Julut, transferred with his people to Bolgar, received the nickname "Tursuz" and founded a new balik Baryndzhar there. The tebir cajoled this venerable Baryn by marrying off his daughter to his son Tatra. Blessed by Abdallah, they lived very happily to the delight of their parents and named their son in honor of his father tebir Mikail. With all this, Shamsi Teberzi softened the position of the biys in relation to the Kan and forced to become obedient to the father of another and the most dangerous obstinate - Ghazan Hassan. This prince was in close contact with the Samanids (Samani) and relied on their help in his struggle for the throne...