The siege of
Bilär was a battle for the capital city of
Volga Bulgaria, between the
Volga Bulgars and the
Mongols
Mongols are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, China ( Inner Mongolia and other 11 autonomous territories), as well as the republics of Buryatia and Kalmykia in Russia. The Mongols are the principal member of the large family o ...
. It took place in the autumn of 1236 and lasted 45 days. It ended with the destruction of
Bilär and the
massacre
A massacre is an event of killing people who are not engaged in hostilities or are defenseless. It is generally used to describe a targeted killing of civilians Glossary of French words and expressions in English#En masse, en masse by an armed ...
of its population, estimated at several dozen thousand.
After the
Battle of Samara Bend, the Bolghars renovated
Bilär's fortifications. The third 11-kilometre-long wall of stone and wood encircled the city. However, after the Mongols besieged the city, it withstood the siege only for 45 days.
By the materials uncovered by archaeological excavations, the city was burnt after falling, and the unburied remains of its population were found all over Bilär. The excavations prove the
Kazan Tatar legends and the Russian chronicles, which wrote that the Mongols:
Then, the Mongols destroyed many Bulgarian cities, but the country's north remained intact, so many survivors resettled to the North and the West from the Bulgarian mainland. The country was incorporated into the
Ulus Jochi, but the resistance lasted forty years.
Some years after the fall of Bilär, Bolghars tried to revive the Great City, but this attempt had no result.
References
* История Татарстана, Казань, "ТаРИХ", 2001.
* История Татарской АССР, Казань, Татарское книжное издательство, 1980
*
History of Tatarstan
Volga Bulgaria
Bilar
Conflicts in 1236
1236 in Europe
1230s in the Mongol Empire
1236 in Asia
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