Dulo

[1][13] During the pagan period, the succession of clan leadership was based on traditions brought over to the Balkans from the Eurasian Steppe, which include the rulers' divine ancestry.

[17] According to him the Nominalia shows that the clan memory and genealogy important to Central Asian peoples was likewise significant to the Bulgars, as well the cosmological understanding of the history, as the Avitohol and Irnik were mentioned in the category of the creator and founder, the mythological divine ancestor-creator represented in the reincarnation of the cultural hero within time cycles.

[26] Zlatarski pointed out, which points Runciman considered to be indisputable;[27] if Irnik was Ernak, then both Ernak and Attila belonged to the Dulo clan, whereas, actually, no source mentions Dulo clan in connection with them;[26] according to the Nominalia Irnik ruled from 437, i.e. several years before the death of Attila in 453, which is impossible.

[18] Kurt (Kubrat; c. 632–665), a member of the clan, revolted against the Pannonian Avars and founded the Old Great Bulgaria on the territory of modern Ukraine.

[1] During the second half of the 7th century his sons split up the Bulgar royal family and spread over Europe, from the Volga river to the shadow of Matese mountains: Bezmer (Ukraine), Kotrag (Volga Bulgaria), Kuber (Balkan Macedonia), Asparukh (Danube Bulgaria) and Alcek (Sepino, Bojano, Isernia).

According to Theophanes, in 761 or 762 the Bulgars "rose up, killed their hereditary lords and set up as their king an evil-minded man called Teletzes, who was 30 years old".

[6][31][8] This proposition was suggested by Mikhail Artamonov,[32] and was prompted by Lev Gumilev (1967), implying there may be made an association of the Dulo clan with the five Duolu (or To-lu) tribes of the Western Turks.

Golden surmises that the Xiongnu tribal surname 獨孤 Dugu (< d'uk-kuo) or 屠各 Tuge (< d'o-klâk) possibly reflects underlying Turkic *Tuğqu or *Tuğlağ "tribe of the tuğ?

[citation needed] The cases of mixing information for Bulgars and Huns in some authors, as well as possible rapprochement of the names Avitohol – Attila and Irnik – Ernak, do not give reason to draw a line of equality between the two ethnic groups.

Golden, Gyula Németh and Panos Sophoulis concluded that claiming of Attilid descent shows the intermingling of European Huns elements with newly arrived Oğuric Turkic groups, as the number of evidence of linguistic, ethnographic and socio-political nature show that Bulgars belonged to the group of Turkic peoples.

[37] B. Simeonov derived Dulu from Turkic dul/tul (big, powerful, giant; war horse), and saw Dulo as partly Slavicized form.

[32] Golden, citing Lajos Ligeti (1986), wondered if Dulo resulted from Slavicism of Turkic title Yula.