House of Basarab
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- Basarab redicts here. For other uses, see Basarab (disambiguation).
The Basarabs were a family which had an important role in the establishing of the Principality of Wallachia, giving the country its first line of Princes, one closely related with the Muşatin rulers of Moldavia. Its status as a dynasty is rendered problematic by the official elective system, which implied that male members of the same family, including illegitimate offspring, were chosen to rule by a Council of boyars (more often than not, the election was conditioned by the military force exercised by candidates). After the rule of Alexandru I Aldea (ended in 1436), the house was split by the conflict between the Dăneşti and the Drăculeşti, both of which claimed legitimacy. Several late rulers of the Craioveşti claimed direct descent from the House after its eventual demise, including Neagoe Basarab, Matei Basarab, Constantin Şerban, Şerban Cantacuzino, and Constantin Brâncoveanu.
Rulers usually mentioned as members of the House include (in chronological order) Mircea the Elder, Dan II, Vlad II Dracul, Vlad III the Impaler, Vlad the Monk, Radu the Great, and Radu de la Afumaţi.
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[edit] Name and origins
The dynasty was named after Basarab I (also Bazarab or Bazaraad), who gained the independence of Wallachia from the Kingdom of Hungary.
Basarab I's name was originally Basarabai and lost the ending -a when it was borrowed into Romanian. The name is of Cuman or Pecheneg [1] origin and most likely meant "father ruler". Basar was the present participle of the verb "to rule", derivatives attested in both old and modern Kypchak languages. The Romanian historian Nicolae Iorga believed the second part of the name, -aba ("father"), to be an honorary title, as recognizable in many Cuman names, such as Terteraba, Arslanapa, and Ursoba.
Basarab's father Thocomerius of Wallachia also bore a Cuman name, identified as Toq-tämir, a rather common Cuman and Tatar name in the 13th century. The Russian chronicles around 1295 refer to of a Toktomer, a prince of the Mongol Empire present in Crimea.
While the names indicate a Cuman (or Pecheneg) origin, contemporaries constantly identified Basarab as a Vlach. Charles I of Hungary speaks of him as "Bazarab infidelis Olacus noster" ("Bazarab, our treacherous Vlach"). A parallel can be found with the Asen dynasty, mentioned as Vlachs, and presumably of partial Cuman ancestry, who ruled over the Second Bulgarian Empire.
[edit] Legacy
The Basarab name is the origin of several placenames, including the region of Bessarabia (part of the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine) and a few towns, such as Basarabi in Romania, Basarabeasca in the Republic of Moldova, and Basarbovo in Bulgaria.
[edit] Notes
- ^ S. Brezeanu, Identităţi şi solidarităţi medievale. Controverse istorice, pp. 135-138; 371-386.
[edit] References
- Brezeanu, Stelian, Identităţi şi solidarităţi medievale. Controverse istorice, Editura Corint, Bucharest, 2002
- Vasary, Istvan, Cumans and Tatars, Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. 149-155
