Árpád

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Árpád (disambiguation).

Árpád

Árpád (c.850–907) was the first ruler of Hungary. He was the probable leader of the Magyar tribe, and the founder of the Arpad dynasty. Although he is not considered the founder of the Kingdom of Hungary – that was his descendant Stephen I –, he is generally thought of as the forefather of Hungarians and is often affectionally mentioned as our father Árpád.

Árpád was the son of Álmos leader of the Hungarian tribal federation. According to (not very reliable) medieval chronicles, seven proto-Magyar tribes elected him – as the leader of one of those tribes – their common leader in Etelköz around 890. He is said to have been the leader ("prince" – fejedelem) of the proto-Magyars for 20 years and to have died in 907. The Byzantine De administrando imperio says around 950: Prior to this Árpád, the Magyars did never have another ruling prince ('archont') and since then up to today the ruling prince of Hungary has been from that family. Other sources however imply that there was a second ruling prince called Kurszán, who was either at the same "level" with Árpád, or a kind of "vice-prince". Based on Arabic sources, Árpád's title seems to have been kende – although some scholars consider Kende to be the name of a person – or gyula.

After several looting raids in Europe (from the 860s onwards), the proto-Magyars in Etelköz under Árpád, pushed by the Pechenegs from the East, decided to definitively pass the Carpathian Mountains. In 896 they occupied the Upper Tisza river, from there they undertook numerous looting raids in central and western Europe, and in 900/901 they moved to Pannonia. The proto-Magyars entering the Pannonian fields in 896 represented about 200,000–250,000 people.

According to De administrando imperio, his sons included (maybe not exclusively) :