Baianos 1 was the eldest of the five sons of Kobratos 1 who succeeded their father as rulers of the Bulgars then living near lake Maeotis (see Anonymus 7, Anonymus 8, Asparuch 1 and Kotragos 1); Baianos 1 (who is called Batbaian by Theophanes) alone took their father's advice and remained with his followers in the ancestral homes of his people; both Nicephorus and Theophanes say that he remained there "down to the present" (μέχρι τῆς δεῦρο; both presumably used the same source for this story, which must have been written during the lifetime of Baianos 1); later, Baianos 1 became tributary to the Khazars: Theoph. AM 6171 (called Batbaian, he is described as the first brother and the ruler of Bulgaria Prima - τὸν πρῶτον ἀδελφὸν Βατβαιᾶν, τῆς πρώτης Βουλγαρίας ἄρχοντα), cf. Nic. Brev. de Boor 33-34, Mango 35 (called Baianos). According to the List of Old Bulgar Rulers, his father's reign ended in 642; the family name was Dulo; cf. Kobratos 1. Bulgaria Prima was presumably the same approximately as Old Great Bulgaria, in the area north of the Caucasus and lying between the Don and the Volga. On the relations of the Bulgars with the Khazars, see Dunlop, Jewish Khazars, pp. 41ff.

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