close
GodFearers GodFearers
Search

Paulicians


Paulicians or Pavlikeni also known as Tazigan and Tsabis are adherents of an endogamic religious community which spread abroad from the territory of the Byzantine Empire.

Their Tsabi religion derived from the Donatists and was adopted by Tachkastan whose messenger Paulic (hence Paulicians) introduced it to Heraclius who inroduced it to Europe when his friend the Bulgarian Khaan Kubrat was baptised into their Miaphysite faith. Khaan Kubrat's Bulgarian descendants became the first 7th day Baptists in Europe.

They translated the Evangelical Lectionary into Arabic for the first time. They were persecuted by the Sufyanids but escaped to Armenia before being rescued by Emperor Leo the Isaurian who settled them in Pavlikeni.

Those unfortunate enough to remain under Islamic jurisdiction called themselves Alians, Alawis and Alevis (Turkish language: Aleviler or Alevilik).

They can be described as Messianic Noahides and hence also as Edumean-Ishmaelite for though being neither Edom nor Ishmael they share characteristics of both groups.

Theirs is the form of Noahide Judaism that Isaac Sangari introduced to the Bosni Gusari in the 740s during the reign of the Khazarian Khaan Bulan.

Their movement became so strong that Khaan Boris I of Bulgaria was able to declare the Christian faith as the official religion of the First a Bulgarian Empire in 864CE. The Moravians were also converted to their faith during this time. They resisted both Byzantine and Latin influence and expelling their clerics from Bulgaria in 893 triggering a long war with Byzatium as a result until 927. After the war they were labelled as Bogomil Heretics and hunted down but the Boseni Gusari had managed to establish their new base called Bosuna (Bosnia) before 952. As many fled to the Bosni Gusari, the Bulgarian Empire totally collapsed in 1018 and the Bosni Gusari promoted their Peterine Noahide Faith.

When the Gusari faith which came to be known as Catharism reached as far as Milan, the Vatican urged Hungary to crusade against Bosnia several times but the Catharism survived among rebellious Hungarians who inspired by the Slavonic translation of the Bible translated the Hussite Bible too. Their tradition was later also adopted by the Anabaptists who promoted Germanic translations of the Bible.