THE NINTH AND TENTH CENTURIES

The first documentated trade center that channeled fur from the northern part of eastern Europe to diverse parts of the world was Bulgar-on-the-Volga. Located on the mid-Volga river, Bulgar in the ninth and tenth centuries was an evolving society, which made up part of a larger political and commercial complex.

The Bulgars had arrived in the mid-Volga area in the seventh century, after they had been forced to vacate their lands in the steppe north of the Sea of Azov by the Khazars. The latter were then consolidating their own position north of the Caucasus mountains. Part of the Bulgar population, which had been the nucleus of a nomadic tribal federation, moved westward; that group ultimately settled west of the Black Sea in the section of the Danubian basin that came to be called Bulgaria. The remainder migrated northward to the Volga-Kama basin. There they mingled with Finns and Slavs to form the state of Bulgar-on-the-Volga.

In the tenth century the towns of Bulgar, Suvar, and Biliar, each a tribal center, were in the process of uniting to form a single state. They were also vying with each other for supremacy within it. By the end of the first quarter of that century, Almas, the ruler of the town of Bulgar and the tribes associated with it, had achieved a degree of superiority over the other tribal leaders, but his power was neither exclusive nor unchallenged.