Volga Bulgaria

Volga Bulgaria was a medieval state of the Bulgars, a Turkic people who settled in the middle Volga and Kama river region, after leaving the Pontic steppe. It was a trading power, which exchanged furs, honey and slaves with the Islamic world, Rus and the Khazars, and it had cities such as Bolghar and Bilyar. In the early tenth century, its ruler Almish adopted Islam, a move encouraged by an embassy from the Abbasid caliph that included the traveller Ibn Fadlan, who wrote an account of the journey. The state was conquered by the Mongols, and its people merged with others in the Golden Horde. The Volga Tatars and Chuvash consider it an ancestor.

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