The Omurtag's Tarnovo Inscription is an inscription in Greek language

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

, engraved on a column of dark syenite

Syenite

Syenite is a coarse-grained intrusive igneous rock of the same general composition as granite but with the quartz either absent or present in relatively small amounts Syenite is a coarse-grained intrusive igneous rock of the same general composition as granite but with the quartz either absent or...

 found in the SS. Forty Martyrs Church

SS. Forty Martyrs Church

The Holy Forty Martyrs Church is a medieval Eastern Orthodox church constructed in 1230 in the town of Veliko Tarnovo in Bulgaria, the former capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire....

 in Tarnovo. The inscription was known since 1858 when Hristo Daskalov from Tryavna

Tryavna

Tryavna is a town in central Bulgaria, situated in the north slopes of the Balkan range, on the Tryavna river valley, near Gabrovo. It is famous for its textile industry and typical National Revival architecture, featuring 140 cultural monuments, museums and expositions...

 managed to visit the church (which was converted to a mosque at that time) and to make a replica of the inscription.

Along with the Chatalar Inscription

Chatalar Inscription

The Chatalar Inscription is a medieval Greek inscribed text upon a column in the village of Chatalar by the Bulgarian Khan Omurtag . It was unearthed in 1899 by the archaeologists Fyodor Uspensky, M...

, the Tarnovo inscription testifies for the active construction during the reign of Khan Omurtag

Omurtag of Bulgaria

Omurtag was a Great Khan of Bulgaria from 814 to 831. He is known as "the Builder".In the very beginning of his reign he signed a 30-year peace treaty with the neighboring Eastern Roman Empire which remained in force to the end of his life...

 (814-831). It is assumed that the inscription was made in 822. The historians are uncertain about the original location of the inscription (probably Pliska

Pliska

Pliska is the name of both the first capital of Danubian Bulgaria and a small town which was renamed after the historical Pliska after its site was determined and excavations began....

) and the location of the "new home on the Danube", for which the inscription was created - Silistra

Silistra

Silistra is a port city of northeastern Bulgaria, lying on the southern bank of the lower Danube at the country's border with Romania. Silistra is the administrative centre of Silistra Province and one of the important cities of the historical region of Southern Dobrudzha...

, the village of Malak Preslavets or the island of Păcuiul lui Soare (now in Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

).

Original

+ Κα[ν]α συβιγη Ωμο<μο>ρταγ ις τον παλεον υκον αυτου μενο(ν) επυησεν υπερφυμον υκο(ν) ις τον Δανουβην κ(ε) αναμεσα τον δυο υκο(ν) τον πανφυμο(ν) καταμετρησας ις τιν μεσην επυισα τουμβαν κε απο τιν αυτη(ν) μεσην της τουμβας εος την αυλι(ν) μου την αρχεα(ν) ισιν οργηε μυριαδες β' κ(ε) επι τον Δανουβιν ισην οργιες μυριαδες β'. το δε αυτο τουβι(ν) εστιν πανφυμο(ν) κ(ε) μετρισα(ν)τες τιν γιν επυισα τα γραματα ταυτα. ο ανθροπος κ(ε) καλα ζον αποθνισκι κε αλος γενατε κε ινα ο εσχατον γηνομενος ταυτα θεορον υπομνησκετε τον πυισαντα αυτο. το δε ονομα του αρχοντος εστην Ωμορταγ καν(ν)α συβιγη· ο Θ(εο)ς αξηοσι αυτον ζισε ετη ρ'.

Translation

"Kana subigi Omurtag, living in his old home, made a glorious home on the Danube

Danube

The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....

and in the middle between the two most glorious homes, after he measured [the distance], he made a tumulus. From the very centre of the tumulus to my old palace there are 20,000 raztega and to the Danube there are 20,000 raztega. The tumulus itself is most glorious and after they measured the land I made that inscription. Even if a man lives well, he dies and another one comes into existence. Let the one who comes later upon seeing this inscription remember the one who had made it. And the name is Omurtag, Kana subigi. Let God make him live 100 years."

Significance

The final lines of Omurtag's Turnovo Inscription reveal Omurtag's message to future generations: "Even if a man lives well, he dies and another one comes into existence. Let the one who comes later upon seeing this inscription remember the one who had made it. And the name is Omurtag, Kana subigi. Let God make him live 100 years."
These lines sound like a direct address to posterity: before his judgement, Omurtag rises with his life philosophy which is fundamentally different from the lachrymose Christian ideology and the salvation it offers in the promise of the soul's perpetual being. The Bulgarian ruler deliberates upon the meaning of human life, upon the great mysteries of birth and death, upon that which stands between them and which history itself sometimes grants immortality. In fact, Omurtag finds immortality in the course of human life without seeing the need to abstract beyond its earthly confines as evinced by the very last line which focuses on the prolonging of life on earth rather than redemption in an imagined afterlife. The philosophical premise here demonstrates a clear awareness of the continuity of history on a grand scale and the frailty and transience of a person's life in comparison with the only consolation here being that person's actions and accomplishments and their role in the lives of people yet to come - the core idea in Omurtag's philosophy. His concise and laconic words do not contain self-glorification, but rather Khan Omurtag seeks the meaning of human existence in a constructive genesis, and it is set in stone by the acknowledging voice of history before which the Bulgarian ruler rises with his remarkable deeds.

External links

• Васил Златарски. Търновският Омортагов надпис, История на българската държава през средните векове, Т.І, ч. 1 Епоха на хуно-българското надмощие, София, 1918, с. 580-584.
• Старобългарски надписи - надпис 56
• Храмът “Свети Четиридесет мъченици”, ст. н. с. д-р Божидар Димитров