Bitola inscription

Sungur Chaush-Bey mosque in which ruins the plate was found.

The inscription was found in Bitola, SR Macedonia, in 1956 during the demolition of the Sungur Chaush-Bey mosque. The mosque was the first mosque that was built in Bitola, in 1435. It was located on the left bank of the River Dragor near the old Sheep Bazaar.[6] The stone inscription was found under the doorstep of the main entrance and it is possible that it was taken as a building material from the ruins of the medieval fortress. The medieval fortress was destroyed by the Ottomans during the conquest of the town in 1385. According to the inscription, the fortress of Bitola was reconstructed on older foundations in the period between the autumn of 1015 and the spring of 1016. At that time Bitola was a capital and central military base for the First Bulgarian Empire. After the death of John Vladislav in the Battle of Dyrrhachium in 1018, the local boyars surrendered the town to the Byzantine emperor Basil II. This act saved the fortress from destruction. The old fortress was located most likely on the place of the today Ottoman Bedesten of Bitola.[7]

After the inscription was found, information about the plate was immediately announced in the city. It was brought to Bulgaria with the help of the local activist Pande Eftimov. A fellow told him that he had found a stone inscription while working on a new building and that the word "Bulgarians" was on it.[8] The following morning, they went to the building where Eftimov took a number of photographs which were later given to the Bulgarian embassy in Belgrade.[9] His photos were sent to diplomatic channels in Bulgaria and were classified. In 1959, the Bulgarian journalist Georgi Kaloyanov sent his own photos of the inscription to the Bulgarian scientist Aleksandar Burmov, who published them in Plamak magazine. Meanwhile, the plate was transported to the local museum repository. At that time, Bulgaria avoided publicising this information as Belgrade and Moscow had significantly improved their relations after the Tito–Stalin split in 1948. However, after 1963, the official authorities openly began criticizing the Bulgarian position on the Macedonian Question, and thus changed its position.

In 1966, a new report on the inscription by Vladimir Moshin, a Russian emigrant living in Yugoslavia, was published.[10] As a result Bulgarian scientists Yordan Zaimov and his wife, Vasilka Tapkova-Zaimova, travelled to Bitola in 1968.[9] At the Bitola Museum, they made a secret rubbing from the inscription.[11] Zaimova claims that no one stopped them from working on the plate in Bitola.[9] As such, they deciphered the text according to their own interpretation of it, which was published by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in 1970.[12] The stone was locked away in the same year and a big Bulgarian-Yugoslav political scandal arose. The museum director was fired for letting such a mistake happen.[13] The Macedonian researcher Ugrinova-Skalovska published her translation of the inscription in 1975.

Copy of the Bitola inscription as per Zaimov reconstruction

Part of the text is missing, as the inscription was used as a step of the Sungur Chaush-Bey mosque and therefore the first row was destroyed. The reconstruction of the Macedonian scientist prof. Radmila Ugrinova-Skalovska[15] is very similar to the reconstruction made by the Yugoslav/Russian researcher Vladimir Moshin (1894–1987),[16] and the Bulgarian Prof. Yordan Zaimov (1921–1987). With some conjectures made by Zaimov to reconstruct the damaged parts, their version of the text reads as follows:[17]

† Въ лѣто Ѕ҃Ф҃К҃Г҃ отъ створенїа мира обнови сѧ съ градь зидаемъ и дѣлаемъ Їѡаном самодрьжъцемъ блъгарьскомь и помощїѫ и молїтвамї прѣс͠тыѧ владч҃ицѧ нашеѧ Б͠цѧ ї въз()стѫпенїе І҃В҃ і врьховънюю апл҃ъ съ же градь дѣлань бысть на ѹбѣжище и на спс҃енѥ ї на жизнь бльгаромъ начѧть же бысть градь сь Битола м͠ца окто͠вра въ К҃. коньчѣ же сѧ м͠ца ... исходѧща съ самодрьжъць быстъ бльгарїнь родомь ѹнѹкъ Николы же ї Риѱимиѧ благовѣрьнѹ сынь Арона Самоила же брата сѫща ц͠рѣ самодрьжавьнаго ꙗже i разбїсте въ Щїпонѣ грьчьскѫ воїскѫ цр҃ѣ Васїлїа кде же вьзꙙто бы злато ... фоꙙ съжев ... цр҃ь разбїень бы цре҃мь Васїлїемь Ѕ҃Ф҃К҃В҃ г. лтѣ оть створенїѧ мира въ Ключи ї ѹсъпе лѣтѹ семѹ исходꙙщѹ

In the year 6523 since the creation of the world [1015/1016? CE], this fortress, built and made by Ivan, Tsar of Bulgaria, was renewed with the help and the prayers of Our Most Holy Lady and through the intercession of her twelve supreme Apostles. The fortress was built as a haven and for the salvation of the lives of the Bulgarians. The work on the fortress of Bitola commenced on the twentieth day of October and ended on the [...] This Tsar was Bulgarian by birth, grandson of the pious Nikola and Ripsimia, son of Aaron, who was brother of Samuil, Tsar of Bulgaria, the two who routed the Greek army of Emperor Basil II at Stipon where gold was taken [...] and in [...] this Tsar was defeated by Emperor Basil in 6522 (1014) since the creation of the world in Klyuch and died at the end of the summer.

American linguist Horace Lunt promoted the idea that the plate might have been made during the reign of Ivan Asen II ca. 1230, or that the inscription might have been composed of two pieces, lettered at different times.[18][19] His views were based on the photos, as well as the latex mold reprint of the inscription made by the professor of classical philology Ihor Ševčenko of Dumbarton Oaks, unlike the approach of Zaimov, who created the re-print copy of the leftover text with special paper and water, when he visited Bitola in 1968.[9] Some modern researchers from North Macedonia have denied the dating of the inscription, claiming the existence of the contemporary Bulgarian identification was impossible, whilst also disputing the original size of the inscription, the titles of the rulers inside the text, the specific way of invoking the saints' help, its authenticity, etc.[20][21]

On the 23rd International Congress of Byzantine Studies in 2016, archaeologists Elena Kostić and Georgios Velenis—who worked on the field with the plate itself—reported that on the very top part of the plate, there were holes and channels to fit Π-shaped metal joints.[22] Therefore, the plate could not have the 13th row and that it was more likely that the plate was part of a much older object from the Roman period. Based on the form of the used letters, they gave the date 1202–1203, when Kaloyan was the Bulgarian ruler.[23] Nevertheless both researchers have summarized that most researchers who studied the inscription believe that the inscription is the last written source of the First Bulgarian Empire with an accurate dating, some others argued it is from the 13th century and only a single study proclaimed it as a forgery.[22]

The few researchers presenting the thesis that the inscription was from the time of the Second Bulgarian Empire (based on one unreadable date in the first case, and on the specific form of the letters in the second) do not give an explanation of where the Bulgarian ruler at that time had detailed information about some events from the end of the First Bulgarian Empire. It is about the kinship of the Comitopuli, as well as some historical battles. It is not clear why this Bulgarian ruler called Ivan, who according to them was not Ivan Vladislav, claimed to be the grandson of Comita Nikola and Ripsimia of Armenia, and son of Aron of Bulgaria, who was Samuel of Bulgaria's brother.[24]