Another tribe, akin to the Proto-Bulgarians, were the Utigurs. They are mentioned only by the Byzantine historian Procopius Caesariensis and his continuators Agathias and Menander in connection with events that took place duringthe middle and the second half of the 6-th century. Most detailed is the record of Procopius: "Beyond the Sagins dwell many Hunnish tribes. The land is called Evlisia and barbarians populate the sea-coast and the inland up to the so called lake of Meotida and the river Tanais (Don). The people living there were called Cimmerians, and now they are called Utigurs. North of them are the populous tribes of the Antes.'' The Kutrigurs were an akin to the Utrigurs tribe. This is evident from the genealogical legend, preserved by Procopius: "In the old days many Huns, called then Cimmerians, inhabited the lands I mentioned already. They all had a single king. Once one of their kings had two sons: one called Utigur and another called Kutrigur. After their father's death they shared the power and gave their names to the subjected peoples, so that even nowadays some of them are called Utigurs and the others - Kutrigurs." This is also confirmed by the words of the Utigur khan Sandilh [23]when he was asked by Justinian to attack the Kutrigurs: "It is neither fair nor decent to exterminate our tribesmen (the Kutrigurs), who not only speak a language, identical to ours, who are our neighbours and have the same dressing and manners of life, but who are also our relatives, even though subjected to other lords." The Kutrigurs occupied the lands west of the Sea of Azov and the river Don. In the middle of the 6-th century they had the leading role in a powerful tribal union which was able undertake massive attacks against the Balkan provinces of Byzantium, returning home with great spoils and tens of thousands of enslaved Byzantines direct relation to the history of the Eastern Fore-Caucasus in those centuries has the late (12-th century) chronicle of the Jacobite patriarch of Antioch Michael of Syria, based on earlier sources. [40]Particularly important is the excerpt narrating about the three brothers 'Scythians', set out on a journey from the mountain Imaon (Tien-Shan) in Asia and reached the river Tanais (Don). Here one of the brothers, called Bulgarios, took 10,000 people with him, parted from his brothers and with the permission of emperor Maurice (582-602) settled in Upper and Lower Moesia and Dacia. "The other two brothers came to the country of the Alans, which is called Barsalia (Bersilia) and whose towns were build by the Romeans, as Caspij, called Torajan Gates (Derbend). The Bulgars and the Pugurs (puguraje), who had inhabited those places, were Christians in the old days. And when a foreign people started to reign over that country, they were named Khazars after the name of the older brother, who was called Khazarig (Kazarig). And that people became strong and expanded." The story comprises facts pertaining to several events of different age, all of them united around the story of the expansion of the Khazarian political power in the second half of the 7-th century. The earliest event, described in the chronicle, is the coming of the three brothers to the lowlands between the Caspian Sea and the river Tanais (Don). Here Bulgarios occupied the lands next to Tanais, and Khazarig and the unknown brother - the Alan country of Barzalia. Also, there were pre- Khazarian towns in the outlying southern parts of Barzilia. Only one of them is mentioned in the chronicle - Caspij and it is identified by most historians as Derbend, which other name is Caspian Gates. DING-LINGS Hungarian Turkologist Mihaly Dobrovits: The Saragurs, Kutrigurs, Utigurs, Bulgars and Sabirs were equally part of the vast confederation of tribes, called by the Chinese Dingling 丁零 and later Tiele 鐵勒 (Moravcsik 1930, pp. 59-61, Hamilton 1962, pp. 25-26; Pul-leyblank 1990 Golden 1992, pp. 100-106). The Dingling was a Turkic people, wandering in Northern Asia in the 3rd century BC - 5th century AD. [Materials about the history of the Xiongnu (according to Chinese sources). Issue one. / Foreword, translation and notes of V. S. Taskin - Moscow: Science, 1968 - p.136] The type of Dingling, recovered on the basis of a summary of information, is "characterized by the following features: medium, often high, growth, dense and strong physique, oblong face, white skin with the blush on the cheeks, blond hair, nose protruding forward, straight, often Roman kind". [G. E. Grumm-Grzhimailo. Western Mongolia and the Uryanghai region. Volume Two. A historical sketch of these countries in connection with the history of Central Asia. - L., 1926 - p. 34-35] XIONGNU Austrian turkologist Otto Maenchen-Helfen: "Bronze in a British museum from the Ordos region, which for a long time was under the rule of the Xiongnu, shows us a Caucasoid, we note thick mustaches and wide open eyes... A double burial in a desert region north of Minfeng is quite eloquent. Polychrome silk, jackets, pants, stockings, and shoes are the same as in Noin-Ula. But the person depicted on the fabric has distinctly Caucasoid features. The buried couple also represents the Caucasoids... Liu Yuan, the Xiongnu conqueror of Luoyang in 311, had a height of 184 cm; in his long beard were red hair... After the conquest of the territory of Tuva by the Xiongnu in the second century BC, its population, which was mixed with the preponderance of the Caucasoid features, became not less, but more Caucasoid". [Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen. The World of the Huns - Berkeley-Los Angeles-London: University of California Press, 1973 - p.370, 371-372, 373, 374] KIPCHAKS (CUMANS AND OTHERS) From Chinese chronicle Gan-mu: "Kincha (Kipchak) is about 30 thousand li from the Middle State. In summer the nights are extremely short. The sun will hardly turn down and immediately rises. This country produces excellent horses, and rich people breed them in a great variety. Residents usually recline on metal and skin. Courageous and brave; strong and ardent. Their eyes are blue, their hair is reddish. Möngke with the army came to the sea Khuan-tkhien-hi-si. Suddenly a strong wind rose and the sea waters dried up". The Red Jews. The Khazars are to be identified with the “Red Jews” of Jewish and Christian legend. These were described as red-haired. Arab Descriptions. Three different types: Two Black-haired The Khazars often fought against the Arabs but also had diplomatic and economic relations with them. The Khazars minted Arab coins including those with Muslim Arabic inscriptions. Three different types of Khazar are recorded by Arab writers. Here are Arab records concerning Khazar appearance: The Arab Geographer Istakhri describes two types of Khazar, both dark-haired: # The Khazars do not resemble the Turks. They are black-haired and of two kinds, one called the Kara [i.e. Black] - Khazars who are swarthy verging on deep black as if they were a kind of Hindu, and a white kind [Ak-Khazars], who are strikingly handsome. # Note the above description says that both kinds of Khazars had black hair though regarding countenance, etc. one was white and the other very dark. Fairhaired Al Maghribi said the Khazars were typically white: # As to the Khazars, they are to the north of the inhabited earth towards the 7th clime, having over their heads the constellation of the plough. Their land is cold and wet, their eyes blue, their hair flowing and predominantly reddish, their bodies large and their natures cold. Their general aspect is wild. # Similar to Slavs, Bulgars, and Alans Al-Makdisi (ca. 946-1000 CE) described the Khazars as similar in their physical appearance to the Slavs who in that region were predominantly fair. Iben al-Nadim says that the Khazars, Bulgars, and Alans all had round(small) eyes and very white skin. When they (the Utigurs) went near Lake Meotide, they met the so-called Gothic Tetraxites. Initially, these Goths, under the protection of their shields, stood in defense against the invaders, relying on their power and inaccessibility at the place - because they are actually the bravest of all the barbarians there. The beginning of the swelling of Lake Meotide, where the tetraxites lived at that time, formed a sickle bay that surrounded them from most countries and left only one not very wide access to the attackers. Later, however - since the Huns did not want to waste a lot of time here, nor did the Goths hope to be able to resist many enemies for a long time - they agreed with each other, so that when they united, they would pass together and ready to go. settle on the opposite side, right on the shore of the island, where they live now, while still being friends and allies of the Uighurs and living there forever, with equal and equal rights with them. That's how these Goths settled there.Until this day they live with the Huns( Bulgars) as brothers and have similar traditions and language. In East Slavic languages and Polish, they are known as the Polovtsy, derived from the Slavic root *polvъ "pale; light yellow; blonde".[17][18]:43 Polovtsy or Polovec is often said to be derived from the Old East Slavic polovŭ (половъ) "yellow; pale" by the Russians – all meaning "blond".[18] The old Ukrainian word polovtsy (Пóловці), derived from polovo "straw" – means "blond, pale yellow". The western Cumans, or Polovtsy, were also called Sorochinetses by the Rus', – apparently derived from the Turkic sary chechle "yellow-haired". A similar etymology may have been at work in the name of the Sary people, who also migrated westward ahead of the Qun.[19][full citation needed] However, according to O. Suleymenov polovtsy may come from a Slavic word for "blue-eyed", i.e. the Serbo-Croatian plȃv (пла̑в) means "blue",[20] but this word also means "fair, blonde" and is in fact a cognate of the above; cf. Eastern Slavic polovŭ, Russian polóvyj (поло́вый), Ukrainian polovýj (полови́й).[21] An alternative etymology of Polovtsy is also possible: the Slavic root *pȍlje "field" (cf. Russian póle), which would therefore imply that Polovtsy were "men of the field" or "men of the steppe" in contrast to the Lipovtsi. The ethnic origins of the Cumanians are uncertain.[27]:30[8]:279[28][need quotation to verify] The Cumans were reported to have had blond hair, fair skin and blue eyes (which set them apart from other groups and later puzzled historians),[13]:36[18]:43[29] although their anthropological characteristics suggest that their geographical origin might be in Inner-Asia, South-Siberia, or (as Istvan Vassary postulates) east of the large bend of the Yellow River in China.[6][7][30][31] The Roman natural philosopher Pliny the Elder (who lived in the 1st century AD), in describing the "Gates of Caucasus" (Derbent, or Darial Gorge), mentions "a fortress, the name of which is Cumania, erected for the purpose of preventing the passage of the innumerable tribes that lay beyond".[32] The Greek philosopher Strabo (died c. 24 AD) refers to the Darial Gorge (also known as the Iberian Gates or the Caucasian Gates) as Porta Caucasica and Porta Cumana.[33] The writings of al Marwazi (c. 1120) state that the "Qun" people (as the Cumans were called in Hungary) came from the northern Chinese borders – "the land of Qitay" (possibly during a part of a migration from further east). After leaving the lands of the Khitans (possibly due to Kitai expansion[34]:199), they entered the territory of the Shari/Sari people. Marwazi wrote that the Qun were Nestorian Christians