, 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 the Bul