Kubrat - one of the first
Protobulgarian Christians
Kubrat(Кубрат - Bulgarian, Купрат - Chuvash) was a Bulgar (
Protobulgarian) ruler credited with establishing the confederation of Old Great Bulgaria in 632. He is said to have achieved this by conquering the Avars and uniting all the Bulgar tribes under one rule.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubrat Kubrat is one of the first Protobulgarian Christians.
How it happened? Kubrat spent time at the Byzantine court, either as a hostage or for protection from the dynastic war within the Turkic Khaganate. As the 7th-century Byzantine historian John of Nikiu narrates:
Quetrades (i.e. Kubrat), the prince of the Moutanes (i.e. Huns), and a nephew of Kuemaka (i.e. Organa), was baptized as a child and was educated in Constantinople and received into the Christian community in his childhood and had grown up in the imperial palace. He was a close friend of emperor Heraclius
.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubrat