Sandilch

{{Short description|6th century Utigurs leader}}

{{History of Ukraine}}

Sandilch (Σάνδιλ, Σάνδιλχος; Turkic: "boat") was a chieftain of the Utigurs in the 6th century.{{Cite book |last=Kim |first=Hyun Jin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jCpncXFzoFgC&q=utigurs |title=The Huns, Rome and the Birth of Europe |date=2013-04-18 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-00906-6 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last1=Jenkins |first1=Romilly James Heald |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O5JqH_NXQBsC&dq=onogur&pg=PA45 |title=Byzantium: The Imperial Centuries, AD 610-1071 |last2=America |first2=Medieval Academy of |date=1987-01-01 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-0-8020-6667-1 |language=en}} The origin of the name is probably Hunnic.{{cite book |last=Maenchen-Helfen |first=Otto J. |author-link=Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen |date=1973 |chapter=Chapter IX. Language: 6. Turkish names |chapter-url=http://www.kroraina.com/huns/mh/mh_6.html#Sandilchos |title=The World of the Huns: Studies in Their History and Culture |publisher=University of California Press |pages=412 |isbn=9780520015968}}{{Cite book |last=Agathias |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PqsJZcQR7oIC&dq=Sandilch&pg=PA147 |title=The Histories |date=1975 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-003357-1 |language=en}} Although he initially protested against leading the Utigurs into war against a related people, the Kutrigurs, the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I (527–565) convinced him to do so through diplomatic persuasion and bribery.{{sfn|Golden|1992|p=99–100}}{{sfn|Golden|2011|p=140}} The Utigurs led by Sandilch attacked the Kutrigurs, who suffered great losses.{{sfn|Golden|1992|p=99–100}}{{sfn|Golden|2011|p=140}}

Sandilch's own words:

"It is neither fair nor decent to exterminate our tribesmen (the Kutrigurs), who not only speak a language, identical to ours, who are our neighbours and have the same dressing and manners of life, but who are also our relatives, even though subjected to other lords".{{cite book |author=D. Dimitrov |date=1987 |chapter=Bulgars, Unogundurs, Onogurs, Utigurs, Kutrigurs |title=Prabylgarite po severnoto i zapadnoto Chernomorie |url=http://www.kroraina.com/p_bulgar/p_bulg1a.htm |work=kroraina.com |place=Varna}}

After decimating each other, the remnant of Zabergan's and Sandilch's Bulgars acquired Dacia during the reign of Emperor Maurice.