The Onogurs were one of the first
Oghuric Turkic tribes that entered the Ponto-Caspian steppes as the result of migrations set off in Inner Asia. The 10th century
Movses Kaghankatvatsi recorded, considered late 4th century, certain
Honagur, "a Hun from the Honk" who raided Persia, which were related to the Onoghurs, and located near
Transcaucasia and the
Sassanian Empire. Scholars also relate the
Hyōn to this account. According to
Priscus, in 463 the representatives of
Ernak's
Saraghurs (Oghur.
sara, "White Oghurs"), Oghurs and
Onoghurs came to the Emperor in Constantinople, and explained they had been driven out of their homeland by the
Sabirs, who had been attacked by the
Avars in Inner Asia. This tangle of events indicates that the Oghuric tribes are related to the
Ting-ling and
Tiele people. It is considered they belonged to the westernmost Tiele tribes, which also included the
Uyghurs-
Toquz Oghuz and the
Oghuz Turks, and were initially located in Western
Siberia and
Kazakhstan.
Leo I the Thracian granted Ernak the lands of the treacherous
Karadach's
Akatziroi roughly corresponding to 20th century Ukraine. Later kings of the Onogur Huns included Grod,
Mugel and
Sandilch, whose
Utigurs were engaged in a civil war against the
Kutrigurs of
Khinialon. The origin of the
Kutrigurs and
Utigurs, who lived in the vicinity of the Onoghurs and Bulgars, and their mutual relationship, is considered obscure. Scholars are unsure how the union between Onoghurs and Bulgars formed, imagining it as a long process in which a number of different groups merged. During that time, the
Bulgars may have represented a large confederation of which the Onoghurs formed one of the core tribes, together with the remnants of the Utigurs and Kutrigurs, among others.
Jordanes in
Getica (551) mentioned that the
Hunuguri (believed to be the Onoghurs) were notable for the
marten skin trade. In the
Middle Ages, marten skin was used as a substitute for minted money. This also indicates they lived near forests and were in contact with Finno-Ugrian peoples. The Syriac translation of the
Pseudo-Zacharias Rhetor's
Ecclesiastical History (c. 555) in Western Eurasia records the
Avnagur (Aunagur; considered Onoghurs),
wngwr (Onoğur),
wgr (Oghur).The author wrote following: "
Avnagur (Aunagur) are people, who live in tents. Avgar, sabir, burgar, alan, kurtargar, avar, hasar, dirmar, sirurgur, bagrasir, kulas, abdel and hephtalit are thirteen peoples, who live in tents, earn their living on the meat of livestock and fish, of wild animals and by their weapons (plunder)". About the
Bulgars and
Alans, during the first half of 6th century, he added: "
The land Bazgun ... extends up to the Caspian Gates and to the sea, which are in the Hunnish lands. Beyond the gates live the Burgars (Bulgars), who have their language, and are people pagan and barbarian. They have towns. And the Alans - they have five towns." . The
Avar Khaganate collapsed after 822, a few decades later,
Álmos and his son
Árpád conquered the Carpathian Basin around 862–895. The
Hungarian conquerors together with the Turkic-speaking
Kabars integrated the
Avars and Onoghurs.
Old Bulgaria Kubrat organised the Onogurs under his Empire of Old Great Bulgaria in the Mid 7th century. From the 8th century, the Byzantine sources often mention the Onoghurs in close connection with the Bulgars. Agathon (early 8th century) wrote about the
nation of Onoghur Bulgars.
Nikephoros I (early 9th century) noted that
Kubrat was the lord of the
Onoghundurs; his contemporary
Theophanes referred to them as
Onoghundur–Bulgars. Kubrat successfully revolted against the Avars and founded the
Old Great Bulgaria (
Magna Bulgaria), also known as
Onoghundur–Bulgars state, or
Patria Onoguria in the
Ravenna Cosmography. After the
Batu Khan invasions of 1223–1236, the Golden Horde annexed Volga Bulgaria. Most of the population survived, and a certain degree of mixing between it and the
Kipchaks of the Horde ensued. Onoghur-Bulgar group as a whole accepted the
exonym "Tatars." This association was previously mirrored in Armenian sources, such as the
Ashkharatsuyts, which refers to the
Olxontor Błkar, and the 5th century
History by
Movses Khorenatsi, which includes an additional comment from a 9th-century writer about
the colony of the Vłĕndur Bułkar. Marquart and Golden connected these forms with the
Iġndr (*Uluġundur) of
Ibn al-Kalbi (c. 820), the
Vnndur (*Wunundur) of
Hudud al-'Alam (982), the
Wlndr (*Wulundur) of
Al-Masudi (10th century) and Hungarian name for Belgrad
Nándorfehérvár, the
nndr (*Nandur) of
Gardīzī (11th century) and
*Wununtur in the
letter by the
Khazar King
Joseph. All the forms show the phonetic changes typical of late Oghuric (prothetic
w-;
o- >
wo-,
u-,
*wu-). ==See also==