Kanasubigi

Kanasubigi (Greek: ΚΑΝΑΣΥΒΙΓΙ), possibly read as Kanas Ubigi or Kanas U Bigi, was a title of the early Bulgar rulers of the First Bulgarian Empire. Omurtag (814–831) and his son Malamir (831–836) are mentioned in inscriptions as Kanasubigi.^[1][2]

The title khan for early Bulgarian rulers is an assumed one, as only the form kanasubigi or "kanasybigi"^[3] is attested in stone inscriptions. Historians presume that it includes the title khan in its archaic form kana, and there is a presumptive evidence suggesting that the latter title was indeed used in Bulgaria, e.g. the name of one of the Bulgars' ruler Pagan occurs in Patriarch Nicephorus's so-called breviarium as Καμπαγάνος (Kampaganos), likely an erroneous rendition of the phrase "Khan Pagan".^[4] Among the proposed translations for the phrase kanasubigi as a whole are lord of the army, from the reconstructed Turkic phrase *sü begi, paralleling the attested Old Turkic sü baši,^[5] and, more recently, "(ruler) from God", from the Indo-European *su- and baga-, i.e. *su-baga (an equivalent of the Greek phrase ὁ ἐκ Θεοῦ ἄρχων, ho ek Theou archon, which is common in Bulgar inscriptions).^[6] Another presumption is that the title means the great khan.^[7] This titulature presumably persisted until the Bulgars adopted Christianity.^[8] Some Bulgar inscriptions written in Greek and later in Slavonic refer to the Bulgarian ruler respectively with the Greek title archon or the Slavic title knyaz.^[9]