Migration of the ancient Turks-Bulgars from the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea to the Volga and the Balkans (on the example of the origin of the name of the city “Kazan”)
(64th Meeting Budapest, 2022)
Purpose. Today the Turkic-speaking population, living in various regions of the Republic Tatarstan, is the part of the great Turkic nation. Kazan is also one of the oldest Turkic cities. It is the heir of the ancient Volga state ‘Kosan’/‘Kazan’.
Design/methodology/approach. This article considers the origin of the city ‘Kazan’ (‘Kozan’). We conduct our research based on the turkological studies of famous Tatar turkologists and historians. We also consider how it happend that the one part of the ‘Kosan’ Turkic tribes settled down in the Balkans and the other part — on the shores of Volga River and ‘Kozansu’ river.
Findings. Studyings of the ‘Kosan’ tribe migrations to the Balkans and Altai give us interesting results. We have identified the origin of toponym ‘Kosan’/‘Kozan’ as one of the possible variants. It was also determined that the language of ‘Kosan’ tribe of the ‘White Turks’(‘kosan’/‘kusan’ means ‘ak son’, which means ‘Ak Turk’/‘White Turk’) (that is how Turkic tribes ‘kosan’ had been called) is the ‘middle dialect’ of the modern Turkic-Tatar language of the Kazan Tatars. These data give us an opportunity to explain the origin of the ‘white Turks’ in the Balkans, their further assimilation with European non-Turkic tribes.
Originality/value. Based on the research of Turkologists we can establish the historical and cultural-linguistic connection of many Turkic peoples living from the city of ‘Kosan’ near Ferghana and the ancient Turkic Khorezm state to the ancient land of Greeks and the Balkans. Toponym ‘Kosan’/‘Kazan’ is very common in this vast territory ‘Kosan’.