Almış

This article is about the first Muslim ruler of Volga Bulgaria. For the 9th-century head of the federation of the Hungarian tribes, see Álmos, Grand Prince of the Magyars.

Almış
Ruler of Volga Bulgaria
Modern portrait of Almış
Reign	9th century – beginning of 10th
Father	Şilki

Almış iltäbär (Almysh Elteber, Almish Yiltawar, pronounced [ʌlˈmɯʃ], fl. end of 9th century – beginning of 10th) was the first Muslim ruler (emir) of bulgars.

Almış was a son of Şilki ([ʃilˈki]). He was a ruler of one of the Bulgar duchies. Initially, a vassal of the Khazars, he struggled for independence and unification of all Bulgar tribes and duchies. He sent ambassadors to the Baghdad caliph. In 922, the caliph Al-Muqtadir's ambassador Ibn Fadlan appeared in the Almış' capital. Almış adopted the Islamic name Jaʿfar ibn ʿAbdullah (Latin Tatar: Cäğfär bine Ğabdulla, Arabic script: جعفر ابن عبدالله‎).

It has been thought during dozens of years, that Almış was a ruler of the Volga Bulgars, and that the Baghdad embassy with its secretary Ibn Fadlan reached the Volga Bulgars in the Middle Volga region (currently, Tatarstan territories in Russia). But recently the thorough reconstruction of the embassy itinerary revealed: the Bulgars ruler "capital" was in the village Tri Protoka near the modern city of Astrakhan. Therefore, all Ibn Fadlan account is about Bulgars and people living in the Northern Caspian area and Low Volga region.

References

• (Tatar)