Paulicians or Pavlikeni also known as Tazigan and Tsabis are adherents of an endogamic religious community which spread abroad after reaching the territory of the Byzantine Empire from Tachkastan.

Their Tsabi religion derived from the Donatists and was adopted by Tachkastan whose messenger Paulic (hence Paulicians) introduced it to Heraclius who inroduced it to Europe when his friend the Bulgarian Khaan Kubrat was baptised into the Paulician faith. Khaan Kubrat's Bulgarian descendants became the first 7th-Day Miaphysites in Europe.

In Tachkastan the Paulicians translated the Evangelical Lectionary into Arabic for the first time. They were persecuted by the Sufyanids but escaped to Armenia before being rescued by Emperor Leo the Isaurian who settled them in Pavlikeni and Khazaria.

Those unfortunate enough to remain under Islamic jurisdiction called themselves Alians, Alawis and Alevis (Turkish language: Aleviler or Alevilik).

Paulicians can be described as Messianic Noahides and hence also as Nabataeans or Edumean-Ishmaelites for sharing some characteristics of both Edom and Ishmael in Judaic thought.

The Paulician form of Noahide faith arrived among the Bakr Wa'il Ishmaelites of Tachkastan from Yemen as Tsabi'ism and began to become popular there from 610CE thanks to the poetry of Hanzala who inspired Hani ibn Qabisa to continue his mission both under the guidance of Solomon the Pharisee around the time that Nehemiah ben Hushiel's army conquered Jerusalem for Khosrau II.

Nehemiah ben Hushiel's army was betrayed by Khosrau II and in 619 Hani ibn Qabisa sent Paulic as a messenger to Heraclius in Armenia and converted him. Heraclius saw Tsabian Miaphysitism as the unifying mechanism to galvanise support for his campaign against Khosrau II throughout the 620s but caused trouble by poorly renaming it Monoenergism.

Hani ibn Qabisa's Rosh al-Ma'amed Hanzala led the Arabs to overthrow Sassan from the Southwest while Heraclius led his people from the northwest. But after Sassan was vanquished, Heraclius converted to Monothelitism suddenly in 629 and began to suppress his previous allies. Nevertheless, the Tsabis survived.

When Heraclius evicted a refugee remnant of Nehemiah ben Hushiel's army from Edessa the Ishmaelites of Tachkastan welcomed them as Abrahamic relatives. A Sadducee among them even rose to become Abu Bakr after Hanzala. Eclipsing Hani ibn Qabisa's Tsabis, the Sadducee had no concept of Sar HaPanim and failed to establish any military alliance with the Ishmaelites until he was replaced by the Karaite Umar from another remnant of Nehemiah's army which had taken refuge in Yemen. Umar too eclipsed Hanzala's and Hani ibn Qabisa's teachings but as a believer in Sar HaPanim Umar did manage to galvanize support for his plan to retake Jerusalem promising that Sar HaPanim would return as their Mahmad once sacrifices on the Temple Mount had been restored.

Having taken Jerusalem, Umar comissioned Ka'b al-Ahbar to set up a Tabernacle on the temple mount and initiated sacrifices. But after several years Sar HaPanim had still not set up residence in the Tabernacle as their Mahmad. By the time Umar was succeeded by Uthman, Jesus had been accepted as Sar haPanim and currency was being issued with Jesus on it as their Mahmad. Hanzala's and Hani's teachings were promoted and it looked like Tsabi'ism was still going to grow even when Uthman was killed by the Sufyanid party in 656.

Hani ibn Qabisa's Tsabis in Tachkastan were able to express their independence at this time in conflict with the Sufyanids until a peace treaty was established in 661. Under the treaty, Hani's son Hassan surrendered only on condition that Muawiya would allow religious freedom. Muawiya agreed but had Hassan poisoned as an extra insurance.

After Hassan was assasinated, the Ishmaelite Tsabis of Tachkastan were led by Hassan's brother Husseyn (who was married to Shahrbonu) while Constantine-Silvanus led another group to safety in Kibossa. Those Tsabis in Tachkastan under Husseyn became known as Alevis while those in Kibossa near Colonia, in Armenia under Constantine-Silvanus became known as Paulicians.

For thirty years Constantine-Silvanus traveled extensively, along the Euphrates valley, across the Taurus Mountains, and into the western parts of Asia Minor, making converts on the way. His missionary activities came to the attention of the Byzantine Emperor, Constans II Pogonatus (the bearded).

The Emperor issued a decree condemning the teachings of Silvanus and sentenced him to death by stoning. Simeon, the officer sent to carry out the execution, ordered Silvanus' friends and followers to stone him. The followers refused and dropped their stones. Simeon was impressed with the piety of Silvanus' followers and joined them, taking the name Titus. However, a young man called Justus, whom Silvanus had raised like an adopted son did cast a stone at Silvanus and killed him. Justus also betrayed Titus and the local Paulicians by informing on them to a local bishop. Emperor Justinian II ordered Titus and the Paulicians to be burned to death as heretics. Titus was therefore executed in 690 but the adherents of the sect fled, with their new leader Paul at their head, to Episparis. Paul died in 715, leaving two sons, Gegnaesius (whom he had appointed his successor) and Theodore. Gegnaesius was taken to Constantinople, appeared before Emperor Leo III, was declared innocent of heresy and returned to Episparis, but, fearing danger, went with his adherents to Mananalis in Eastern Anatolia where he died in 745.

In 747, Emperor Constantine V is reported to have moved a significant number of Paulicians from Eastern Anatolia to Thrace to strengthen the Bulgarian frontier, beginning the presence of the sect in Europe.

Paulicianism is the form of Noahide Judaism that Isaac Sangari introduced to the Bosni in the 740s during the reign of the Khazarian Khaan Bulan of Banat and thus the sect continued to grow in the Balkans.

Their movement became so strong that Khaan Boris I of Bulgaria was able to declare the Christian faith as the First Bulgarian Empire's official religion in 864CE supporting Ratimir's Moravians who were also converted to their faith during this time ruling Bracta and the Bosni peoples who are called Gusari inhabited the land. They resisted both Byzantine and Latin influence and expelling their clerics from Bulgaria in 893 triggering a long war with Byzatium as a result until 927 during which the Bosni Gusari descended from Ratimir managed to establish a permanent new base called Bosuna (Bosnia). John Kinamos and others described their Khalyz religion as Mosiast Islam. After the war they were labelled as heterodox Bogomils and hunted down. After the collapse of Khazaria, many more fled to the Bosni Gusari in their only safe haven until the Bulgarian Empire totally collapsed in 1018 and the Bosni Gusari promoted their Peterine Noahide Faith.

When the Gusari faith which came to be known as Catharism reached as far as Milan, the Vatican urged Hungary to crusade against Bosnia several times but their Catharism survived, even among rebellious Hungarians of Moravia who inspired by the Slavonic translation of the Bible translated the Hussite Bible too.

Their tradition of preaching the Gospel in every language was later also adopted by their Anabaptist descendants who promoted Germanic translations of the Bible.