Golden Age of Bulgaria under Simeon I
Under Simeon I Bulgaria became the leading power of the Balkans and the centre of Slavonic letters: at Preslav the disciples of Cyril and Methodius developed the Cyrillic script and created a literature in Old Bulgarian.
- Date
- 893 – 27 May 927start: year known; end: exact date · duration: ≈ 34 years
- Place
- Preslavtoday: Veliki Preslav, Shumen Province, Bulgaria · Balkans and Anatolia
- Participants
- Simeon I the Great, First Bulgarian Empire
- Threads
- Early medieval Europe (500–1000)
- Also known as
- Golden Age of medieval Bulgarian culture; Преславская книжная школа; Preslav Literary School; Cyrillic script; Кириллица
In 893 an assembly at Preslav deposed Boris’s eldest son Vladimir, who had tried to restore paganism, raised the younger son Simeon, educated in Constantinople, to the throne, moved the capital from Pliska to Preslav and proclaimed Slavonic the language of church and state. In the Preslav Literary School the Cyrillic alphabet, based on Greek letters with additions from Glagolitic, came into use; John the Exarch, Constantine of Preslav and the monk Chernorizets Hrabar, author of the treatise On the Letters, wrote and translated there.
Simeon sought the imperial crown of Constantinople itself. In 913 Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos crowned him outside the city walls, and after the victory at Achelous (917) he styled himself tsar of the Bulgarians and the Romans. When he died in Preslav on 27 May 927, Bulgaria stretched from the Adriatic to the Black Sea; the peace concluded later that year recognized the imperial title of his son Peter and a Bulgarian patriarchate.
Connections
Causes and preconditions
- Christianization of Bulgaria864 · Balkans and AnatoliaThe Council of Preslav completed the conversion begun by Boris
Includes
- Battle of Achelous20 August 917 · Balkans and Anatolia
Related events
- Mission of Cyril and Methodius to Great Moravia863 – 6 April 885 · Western and Central EuropeThe disciples of Methodius expelled from Moravia founded the schools of Preslav and Ohrid
- Sviatoslav’s invasion of Bulgariabetween 967 and 968 – July 971 · Balkans and AnatoliaHalf a century after Simeon, his capital Preslav became a battlefield in the wars of Sviatoslav and John Tzimiskes
Same participants
- Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basinbetween 894 and 895 – 907 · Western and Central Europevia First Bulgarian Empire
Adjacent events in the thread
- Founding of Cluny Abbeybetween 909 and 910 · Western and Central Europe
- Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte911 · Western and Central Europe
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Founding of Cluny Abbeybetween 909 and 910
- Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte911
- Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basinbetween 894 and 895 – 907
Eastern Europe
- The Pechenegs first come to the Rus’ land915
- Ibn Fadlan’s embassy to the Volga Bulgars21 June 921 – 12 May 922
- Gnezdovo inscriptionbetween 925 and 960
Middle East and Egypt
- Great Rus’ raid on the Caspianbetween 913 and 914
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Golden Age of Bulgaria
- Wikipedia (English): Preslav Literary School
- Wikipedia (English): Simeon I of Bulgaria
- Wikipedia (Russian): Золотой век Симеона
- Wikipedia (Russian): Преславская книжная школа
- Wikipedia (Russian): Симеон I
- Божилов И. Цар Симеон Велики (893–927): Златният век на Средновековна България. — София: Отечествен фронт, 1983.
- Wikidata: Q12280511