Balik ( bg, Балик,

Byzantine Greek Medieval Greek (also known as Middle Greek, Byzantine Greek, or Romaic) is the stage of the Greek language between the end of classical antiquity in the 5th–6th centuries and the end of the Middle Ages, conventionally dated to the Ottoman co ...

: ; fl. c. 1320 and died 1347) was a noble of the

Second Bulgarian Empire The Second Bulgarian Empire (; ) was a medieval Bulgarians, Bulgarian state that existed between 1185 and 1396. A successor to the First Bulgarian Empire, it reached the peak of its power under Tsars Kaloyan of Bulgaria, Kaloyan and Ivan Asen II ...

who increased the autonomy of his province and became despot of the

Principality of Karvuna The Despotate of Dobruja or Principality of Karvuna ( bg, Добруджанско деспотство or ; ro, Despotatul Dobrogei or ) was a 14th-century quasi-independent polity in the region of modern Dobruja, that split off from the Second ...

. An account cited that he finally broke away from the empire in the 1340s and, as a result, the dioceses in his region, which was later named Dobrudja, were subsumed under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. This came after Tsar Ivan Alexander divided Bulgaria into three territories that were held by his sons. V. Stoyanov explains the name through Turkic balik - 'city', or balïk - 'fish'. But another Turkic etymology can also be indicated. balq – 'shines, sparkles, shines', balqï, Turkish dial. balqïn – 'beautiful, shining', balqïr – 'lightning', or with Turk. Chagatai balga, Kalmyk balig – 'mace'. During the Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347 he supported the regent Anna of Savoy against pretender John VI Kantakouzenos. Balik died in 1347, either during an outbreak of the

Black Death The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...

or killed during a retaliation campaign led by Umur Beg, on behalf of John V Palaiologos, that destroyed Dobruja's seaports. In 1359, Balik's brother Dobrotitsa was appointed head of a new province created by the Anna of Savoy as his reward for helping her gain the Byzantine throne. He succeeded Balik after he recaptured Karvuna in 1354.

References

1347 deaths Medieval Bulgarian nobility 14th-century Bulgarian people Year of birth unknown Medieval Dobruja {{Bulgaria-hist-stub