Old Bulgarian literature

Old Bulgarian literature covers the period from the ninth to the eighteenth century and represents the beginnings and development of the Bulgarian literary tradition. It circulated chiefly in manuscript form and was distinct from oral literature, or folklore, to which it actively opposed itself. Its emergence was linked to the official adoption of Christianity as Bulgaria's state religion and to the Christianisation of other Slavic states. This was reflected in the copying and dissemination of religious texts, an integral part of Old Bulgarian literature.

Three main layers can be distinguished in medieval Bulgarian letters: high religious literature, lower or popular literature, and oral tradition or folklore. For various reasons, most works are anonymous. Religious writing came to be divided into canonical literature, recognised by the Church, and apocryphal literature, which also included the books of heretics, principally the Bogomils. The latter were prohibited, and few copies of their books survived.

Old Bulgarian literature developed genres such as saints' lives, eulogies and others. Alongside religious writing, secular literature covered historiography, law, natural science and various narrative texts. Scholars also speak of Old Bulgarian poetry, dividing it into recited and sung verse.