Armies of the Volga Bulgars & Khanate of Kazan
The Bulgars were a Turkic people who established a state north of the Black Sea.
In the late 500s and early 600s AD their state fragmented under pressure from the Khazars; one group moved south into what became Bulgaria, but the rest moved north during the 7th and 8th centuries to the basin of the Volga river. There they remained under Khazar domination until the Khazar Khanate was defeated by Kievan Russia in 965.
In the 1220s they managed to maul Genghis Khan’s Mongols, who returned to devastate their towns in revenge. By the 1350s and onwards, they were caught in the middle between the Tatar Golden Horde and the Christian Russian principalities. A new city then rose from the ashes – Kazan, originally called New Bulgar – and the successor Islamic Khanate of Kazan resisted the Russians until falling to Ivan the Terrible in 1552.
The dress, armament, armour and fighting methods of the Volga Bulgars during this momentous period are explored in this fully illustrated study.
VIacheslav Shpakovsky is Assistant Professor and Chief Historical Scientist in the History Department of Penza University in Penza, Russia. He has written a number of articles on various aspects of Russian and military history for both academic journals and popular magazines in Russia. David Nicolle, born in 1944, worked in the BBC’s Arabic service for a number of years before gaining an MA from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, and a doctorate from Edinburgh University. He has written numerous books and articles on medieval and Islamic warfare, and has been a prolific author of Osprey titles for many years.
Gerry Embleton has been a leading illustrator and researcher of historical costume since the 1970s, and has illustrated and written Osprey titles on a wide range of subjects over more than 20 years. He is an internationally respected authority on 15th and 18th century costumes in particular. His son Sam Embleton is also an illustrator and they have completed many joint projects for Osprey.