On a mission to explain the principles of the Muslim religion and jurisprudence to the new Bulgarian Muslims on the Volga. Here are some of the legal practices of the Volga Bulgarians, which the Arab diplomat noted:
“If someone deliberately kills a man, they kill him for punishment. If he had killed by mistake, they make a case of wood, place the killer in it and nail it firmly…
They raise three poles and hang it on them saying, “We leave him between the sky and the earth so that rain and sun reaches him; may God forgive him…”
And further on:
“Men and women go naked into the river and bathe together without covering one another. They do not fornicate in any way or reason. Someone, whoever he should be, if he trespasses, is tied up by the legs and hands to four posts. They cut him with an axe from the neck to the thigh. The same is done to the woman. Then they hang all parts of the man and the woman on a tree. I tried to convince the women to cover themselves from the men but I did not succeed. They will kill the thief as they do with the fornicator…”
From Travels to Volga Bulgaria by Ibn Fadlan. Translated by A. Stoilova. Arab Sources on the Bulgarians, TANGRA TanNakRa Publishing House, Sofia, 2000.
In addition to the Bulgarians, many other ethnic groups lived in Volga Bulgaria with their common law traditions. Their interactions and also the possible influence of the legal system of the Khazars of the 8-9 centuries produced the habits observed by Ibn Fadlan in the beginning of the 10th century.
Justice was the leading value for the Volga Bulgarians. When Ibn Fadlan mentions the spoils of war, he observes that it is split among all participants, including the Tsar. Obviously, the legislation of the ancient Bulgarians had an invariable principle in its value system: justice as a high moral virtue. Byzantine historians saw in it the reason for the other tribes and peoples to join the Bulgarians willingly. Justice is guaranteed by the supremacy of law and the responsibility for any crime is directly proportional to the power exercised by the person in question.
Avar Khaganate
This virtue was attested at the time of the rule of Kan Krum (802-814), one of the first builders of Danube Bulgaria in its glorious 9th century. The Kan defeated the Avar Khaganate in 805, joined the Middle Danube Slavs to his state and established the border along the Tisa River. He learned from the captured Avar noblemen that their kingdom had perished because “our rulers became corrupt and the judges united with the criminals.” Kan Krum introduced the first preventive legislation, taking into account the tragic end of his enemy. He directed his laws against the infringement of ownership, breaking of public norms and any attempt to put private above state-run issues.
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