Hungarian prehistory

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"Hungarian prehistory" (Hungarian: magyar őstörténet) is a specific period in the history of the Hungarian people. It typically refers to the time starting from when the Magyars were considered a people separate and identifiable from other Ugric speakers (1000-500 BC) up until their occupation and settlement of the Pannonian plain around 896 AD (Hungarian: Honfoglalás). The events that occurred between the Honfoglalás ("occupation of our country") and the coronation of St. Stephen (1000/1001 AD) are also included by some historians as part of Hungarian prehistory.[1] The terms "proto-history", "ancient history", and "early history" are also used by different sources to describe this same period of Hungarian history.[citation needed]

The "Tree of Life" on an ancient Magyar sabertache (tarsoly) plate
The "Tree of Life" on an ancient Magyar sabertache (tarsoly) plate

Contents

[edit] The formation of the Magyars

[edit] Emergence from the Ugric speakers

The Hungarian language is an Ugric language and belongs to the group of Finno-Ugric languages, a grouping in the family of Uralic languages.[1][2] The Finno-Ugric languages separated within the Uralic languages before 4000 BC and the community of the Finno-Permic and Ugric languages ended before 2000 BC.[2] The formation of the Hungarian language (between 1000 BC and 500 BC) can be localised to the southern regions of the Ural Mountains.[1]

Climate changes around 1300 BC resulted in the northward expansion of the steppes which compelled several groups within the proto-Ugric people to turn to the nomadic lifestyle.[2] This change was strengthened by the several proto-Iranian groups living south of them who had been practising pastoral nomadism.[2] Following a further climate change around 800 BC that caused the expansion of the taiga, the nomadic proto-Ugric groups had to move southward; thus they separated from the ancestors of the Khanty and Mansi peoples.[2]

[edit] Ethnonym

The origin of the "Magyar" expression (the self-definition of the Hungarians) could prove the period when the separation of the proto-Hungarians and the groups speaking proto-Ob-Ugric languages took place, but there are several theories on its origins; the word is composed of two parts: magy and ar.[2] Words similar to the magy element of the word are also used by the Khanty and Mansi peoples (referring to one of their groups (mos) or to themselves (mansi) respectively) which suggest that it is of Ugric origin and it possibly means "those who speak".[2] The ar element of the world may be either of Ugric or Turkic origin and it probably means "man".[2]

Nevertheless, the Magyars (Hungarians) in the Arabic sources are mentioned as magyar, baškir, turk, in the Greek as hun, ungr, turk, savard, in the Latin ung, hungr, pannon, avar, hun, turk, agaren, in the Slavic as ugr, peon.[3]

[edit] The Hungarian Urheimat

The Hungarian Urheimat (Hungarian: magyar őshaza) is the theoretical original homeland of the Magyars. The term urheimat comes from linguistics and tends to be reserved for discussion about language origin. One view states that the Magyar Urheimat is the same as the Ugric language group's urheimat on the western side of the Urals.[4] Another view claims that the urheimat is roughly the same area as Yugra to the east of the Urals, where the Khanty and Mansi live today. Another point of view is that the urheimat concept is outdated since the development of a people is continuous. [5]

The view of Magyar prehistory officially propagated in the 19th century by the Austro-Hungarian monarchy derives Hungarians ultimately from Yugra, although according to Russian documents the Ob-Ugrians fled to the east from the Komi and the Russians in the 12th century. Yugra also tends to be identified as the Ob-Ugric language urheimat and not the earlier Ugric period. The western side of the Urals in the vicinity of the Kama river is considered to be the Ugric language urheimat.[6] It is believed that the Magyars emerged from this western Ural Urheimat based upon early language influence from Permic peoples.[7] One of the consensus views is that the Magyar urheimat is somewhere in the steppe zone south of the Ural mountains.

Another view, based upon the idea of early Ugrian and Turkic connections places the Magyars to the east of the Urals. The time when the proto-Magyars moved westwards from the regions east of the Ural Mountains and settled down in Bashkiria (around the region where the Kama River joins the Volga) is still under debate.[2] Their movement may have been caused by the migrations of people in the 4th century AD, but it may have also connected to the appearance of a new archaeological culture (Kushnarenkovo culture) in the region in the 6th century AD.[2]

[edit] Hungarian legends on their origins

[edit] The Legend of the Wondrous Hind

The Hunt of the Wondrous Hind (Chronicon Pictum)
The Hunt of the Wondrous Hind (Chronicon Pictum)

The legend of the origins of the Magyars were recorded by Simon of Kéza in the Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum ("The Deeds of the Huns and Hungarians").[1]

According to the legend, two brothers, Hunor and Magor were on a hunting trip when a white hind appeared before them; the hind were enticing them to the moorlands of the Mæotis (the Sea of Azov) where it disappeared, but the brothers settled down there.[1] Six years after, the two brothers went for a new hunting and they met the wifes of Bular's sons and two daughters of Prince Dula of the Alans; Hunor and Magor persuaded the girls and carried them off to be their brides.[1] Thus, as the legend records, Hunor and one of Prince Dula's daughters became the ancestors of the Huns, while Magor and her sister became the ancestors of the Magyars.[1]

The legend is usually interpreted as a remembrance of the Magyars' previous connections with the Onogurs (Hunor), the Bulgars (Bular) and the Alans.[1]

[edit] Emese's dream

According to the legend, recorded in the Gesta Hungarorum and in the Chronicon Pictum ("Illuminated Chronicle"), the mother of Grand Prince Álmos (called Emese by the Gesta Hungarorum) saw a dream of a Turul bird "that flew over her and got her with child; she saw her womb as the source of many great kings, but they would multiply in foreign lands".[1]

Modern scholars pointed out that the chronicles reserved the Árpáds's tradition of their totemistic descendence.[1] The legend also suggests that Álmos must have been the spiritual leader (kende) of the Magyar tribal federation.[8]

[edit] Migrations

Very specific areas are named and connected with the migration of the Magyars from an original homeland area to modern day Hungary. Each area is detailed below.

[edit] Magna Hungaria

Map illustrating the confluence of the Volga and the Kama (the territory whereabout Magna Hungaria lay).
Map illustrating the confluence of the Volga and the Kama (the territory whereabout Magna Hungaria lay).

Magna Hungaria (literally "Great Hungary") was an area settled by the Magyars. In 1235, Friar Julian located this land directly east of the capital of Volga Bulgaria. One theory states that the Magyars moved to this area from a northerly urheimat before migrating further to the southwest. "The Hungarian tribes joined with by the tribe Megyer – as readable by Istvan Fodor – presumably moved to the south, then west from the Bashkirian Magna Hungaria, crossing the Volga, and dwelled in the area of the river Don." In Bashkiria, in the territory of the Kama river, Hungarian gravesites confirm the Hungarians' ancestors' dwelling here. A significant burial place used between 850 and 920 AD is Bolshie Tigani with 150 graves in the Volga-Kama territory.

Linguistic researches and toponyms suggest that in the Volga-Kama region, the proto-Magyars came into contact with the Volga Bulgarians, who were migrating northward following the 670s.[2] It must have been in this region that Magyars would have become most known for the stockherding, equestrian type of nomadic existence.[citation needed] The proto-Magyars organised themselves into tribes probably in the region, because the name of one of their tribes (Gyarmat) reserved as a clan's name among the Bashkirs.[2] The name of several Magyar tribes is of Oghur origin.[1]

The proto-Magyars were separated into two groups between 750 and 830; and afterwards, the two groups existed separately: one of them stayed in Magna Hungaria until the 1240s, while the other group (the ancestors of the future Hungarians) moved southwards.[2]

[edit] The Don-Kuban area

There is no name for this Caucasian area the early Magyars were to have lived in and the evidence for habitation appears tenuous[9], but most scholars seem to agree that the Magyars lived there prior to Levedia[10]. It is generally referred to as the Don-Kuban area or the Caucasian homeland. Xenophon, Prokopios (490-562 AD), Agathias (536-582 AD), Protector Menandros (6th century), Joshua the Stylite (6th century), the Chronicle of Edessa, Joannes Ephesinus (6th century) and especially the Armenian authors Agathangelos, Phaustos Byzantios and Lazar of Farp, mention the Huns and Hungarians dwelling there. The Armenian ruler St. Gregory "the Illuminator" (Gregor Lusavoritch) mentions the Hungarians' ancestors there in his ecclesiastic works.

Kornél Bakay (1996) finds significance in the fact that "the old name Sabir of the Hungarians leads us into the Caucasus... the ancient Hungarians came into being from two ethnicities; the Hungarian speaking Sabir-Huns, and the Turkish speaking Onogur Turks" (it is now known that the language of the Huns was also Onogur Turkish). The group who broke away in the Caucasus are the Savard Hungarians, to whom the monk Julianus traveled, before nearing Magna Hungaria. (Their location here is Majar, where Samuel Turkoly attracted attention in 1825).

[edit] Levedia

Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, writing in De administrando imperio, names a place where the early Magyars lived. He called it "Levedia" after Magyar voivode Lebedias.[11] Constantine reports that this land has a river flowing through it called Chidmas or Chingilous, but scholars have been unsuccessful in identifying which river these names refer to. The most widely accepted theory identifies the Chidmas with the Kodyma River and the Chingilous with the Inhul River (tributaries of the Southern Bug River).[1]

According to the Emperor's work, the Magyars struggled together with the Khazars, which is interpreted that the Magyar tribes were under Khazar suzerainty.[11] The length of the period when the Magyar tribes belonged to the Khazar empire is under debate. If the early Hungarians were in Levedia – in the neighborhood of Bulgarians and Khazars – it is possible that they lived there only "three years" altogether, as Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus wrote. Some modern authors suggest a 300-year-long period.[11] The Khazar suzerainty over the Magyars may have started around 840 when references to a people distinct from the Khazars disappeared from the written sources.[8]

Around 850, the Pechenegs, who had suffered a defeat from the Khazars, invaded Levedia and defeated the Magyars who, lead by the "Voivode" Lebedias, were obliged to flee westwards. A group of the Magyars fled over the Caucasus Mountains and settled down there. The latter's descendants lived in the region until the 13th century.[8]

Doubt has been cast upon the existence of Levedia. For example, András Róna-Tas doesn't believe Levedia was a real place, instead seeing the story as an Árpádian legitimizing explanation for a regime change.

"The appearance of a new dynasty always brought about a crisis of legitimacy. The new ruler ... needed to explain what happened to the previous clan... At that time, the legitimacy of power in the steppes meant being recognised by the Khazars.

The part [in De administrando imperio], which relates Levedi facing up to his incompetence, and recommending Álmos or Arpád instead of himself, lacks even the smallest fragment of credibility."

—András Róna-Tas[12]

[edit] Etelköz

The Seven Chieftains of the Conquest (Chronicon Pictum)
The Seven Chieftains of the Conquest (Chronicon Pictum)

Following their defeat from the Pechenegs, the seven Magyar tribes (Hétmagyar) that moved westwards settled down on the territory that the Byzantine emperor calls Etelküzü (or Etel and Küzü).[11] The territory was located around the Dnieper, Southern Bug, Dniester, Prut and Siret Rivers.[1]

Shortly afterwards, as the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus recorded, the Khagan of the Khazars sent envoys to the "Voivode" Lebedius and suggested him that he should be elevated to grand prince, but Lebedias rejected the Khagan's proposal and proposed another "voivode", Álmos or his son, Árpád instead of himself; the Khagan accepted his offer.[8] Although, the Byzantine Emperor recorded that the heads of the seven Magyar tribes preferred Árpád, but modern authors usually follow the theory that his father, Álmos was proclaimed the first Grand Prince of the Magyars (megas Turkias arkhon in the De Administrando Imperio).[1]

Ahmad ibn Rustah mentiones that the nominal leader of the tribal federation Hétmagyar was styled kende, but its military leader was the gyula.[11]

The Magyars are a reace of Turks and their leader rides out with 20,000 horsemen and this king is called k.nd.h and this name denotes their king, for the name of the man who is actually king over them is ĝ.l.h and all the Magyars accept the orders of their ĝ.l.h in the matter of war and defence and the like.

—Ahmad ib Rustah[13]

His record suggests that the leadership of the Magyar tribal federation was divided between a spiritual ruler and an administrative and military leader – similar to the practise the Khazars had been following.[8][11] In the Khagan empire, the holder of the third dignity (following its military leader) was styled kündür which suggests that the Khagan granted this title to the head of the Magyar tribal federation.[8]

In 860-861, Magyar soldiers attacked Saint Cyril, who was travelling to the Khagan, around Chersonesos that had been captured by the Khazars, but Saint Cyril could calm them down.[8] The Hétmagyar federation seceded from the Khazar empire around 862.[8] The Annales Bertiniani recorded at the year 862, that the Magyars (Ungri) pillaged East Francia: [8]

enemies, proviously unknown for the nations, called Ungri, devastate his /Louis the German's/ country.

—Annales Bertiniani[3]

Muslim geographers recorded that the head of the Magyar tribal federation lead 20,000 soldiers when attacked the neighboring East Slavic tribes and they sold their captives to the Byzantine Empire.[8] They also mentioned that the Magyars were "were wealthy and strikingly rich due to the trading."[8] The Hétmagyar federation even was strengthened when the three tribes of the Kabars who, had rebelled against the Khazars, joined it before 881. The joining of the Kabars to the Magyars was recorded by Constantine Porphyrogenitus:

The so-called Kabaroi were of the race of the Chazars. Now, it fell out that a secession was made by them to their government, and when a civil war broke out their first government prevailed, and some of them were slain, but others escaped and came and settled with the Turks in the land of the Pechenegs, and they made friends with one another, and were called 'Kabaroi'.

—De Administrando Imperio[3]

Thenceforward, the Kabars were regarded as military auxiliaries of the Magyars and they provided the advance and rear guards to their hosts.[3] In 881, the Magyars and the Kabars invaded East Francia, and they fought two battles, the former (Ungari) at Wenia (probably Vienna) and the latter (Cowari) at Culmite (Kulmberg or Kollmitz in Austria).[11] The Annales Fuldenses recorded at the year 892, that King Arnulf of East Francia invaded Great Moravia and the Magyars joined to his troops.[11] Two years later, in 894, the Magyars invaded Pannonia allied themselves with King Svatopluk I of Great Moravia.[8][11]

[edit] First records on the Magyars

See also: Sources for Hungarian prehistory
Migration of the Hungarians
Migration of the Hungarians

The Magyar tribes appeared in the written sources in the 830s and the sources suggest that they were living north of the Black Sea at that time.[11] The following records are usually connected to the Magyars, although some of the authors do not accept the identification of the people mentioned in the sources with them.[11]

[edit] Hungarian tradition of the migrations

[edit] Dentumoger

The Gesta Hungarorum ("The Deeds of the Hungarians") names a place called Dentumoger where the ancient Magyars lived before migrating to the Carpathian Basin. The name is used synonymously with Scythia.

So the Hungarians...traced their origin to the Scythian people, whom in their own language they call Dentumoger. And that land became overcrowded with the multitude of people born there...

—Anonymous[14]

According to the Gesta Hungarorum, the ancient Magyars migrated directly from Dentumoger to the Carpathian Basin following a path from the Middle Volga region to Susdal to Kiev.[15]

Both the interpretation and the localisation of Dentumoger is uncertain. The first part of the expression (Dentu) may contain the Don River's Alanic name (Den) with the ancient Hungarian diminutive suffix (tü); and therefore it may refer to the Donets ("Small Don") River.[1] The expression's second part (moger) contains an ancient form of the word "Magyar".[1]

[edit] The Legend of the White Horse

The Chronicon Pictum reserved the most complete version of the legend according to which the heads of the Magyar tribes sent "a big horse with a saddle gilded with gold from Arabia and a gilded rein" to Svatopluk and they asked soil, grass and water in exchange.[1] Svatopluk was delighted at the presents and told their envoys that they could take as much as they wanted. When Grand Prince Árpád was informed on Svatopluk's answer, he sent again envoys to him with the next message:

Árpád, together with his people, tells you that not to stay anymore on the land that has been bought, because your land has been bought for the horse, your grass for the rein and your water for the saddle. And you transferred your land, grass and water for a price simple, because of your penury and eagerness.

—Chronicon Pictum[16]

The legend probably reserved the memory of an alliance made by King Svatopluk I of Great Moravia and the Magyars following pagan customs.[1] The Gesta Hungarorum connects the events of the legend to Dux Salan, an alleged ruler between the Danube and the Tisza Rivers, in the southern part of the Carpathian Basin.[1]

[edit] The "Conquest of our Country" (Honfoglalás)

The conquest
The conquest

[edit] Prelude

The theories on the reasons of the invasion of the Magyars into the Carpathian Basin can be divided into three groups:[11]

  • Based on the later chroniclers' tradition and the Gesta Hungarorum, some scholars think that the invasion was an intended military operation with the clear purpose of occupying the territory and the Magyars had surveyed their future country during their former campaigns in the region.
  • Interim theories suggest that the Magyars, threatened by the Petchenegs, had been planning to conquer the territory protected by the Carpathian Mountains, but their plans were disturbed by the Pechenegs' sudden attack against Etelköz.
  • Based on the contemporary or nearly contemporary sources, the historians' third group pointed out that the Magyars' invasion was an involuntary military action that was enforced by the joint attack of the Pechenegs and the Bulgarians against them.

[edit] Movements on the Steppe

Muslim historians recorded that in 893, Isma'il ibn Ahmad, the Samanid amir of Transoxiana made a successful military campaign against the Karluks, a Turkic tribe who had to move northward and expelled the Oghuz Turks from their dwellings; thus, the latter were obliged to move westward and they attacked the Pechenegs.[11] Therefore, the Samanid amir's action launched a series of movements of the peoples on the Eurasian Steppe and these movements put the Pechenegs under pressure.[11]

As Constantine Porphyrogenitus mentions in his work:

Originally, the Pechenegs had their dwelling on the river Atil /the Volga/ and likewise on the river Geich /the river Ural/, having common frontiers with the Chazars and the so-called Uzes. But fifty years ago the so-called Uzes made common cause with the Chazars, and joined battle with the Pechenegs and prevailed over them and expelled them from their country, which the so-called Uzes have occupied till this day. The Pechenegs fled and wandered round, casting about for a place for their settlement.

—De Administrando Imperio[3]

[edit] The Kabars and the Szeklers

The late-medieval historian Aventinus mentiones that King Arnulf promised to the Magyars, in 892, that they would keep all the territories they would occupy if they gave him military assistance against Great Moravia.[8] Both the Gesta Hungarorum and the Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum refers to the tradition that the Szeklers, who had probably joined to the tribal federation in Etelköz, had already settled down in the Carpathian Basin when the Magyar tribes invaded the territory.[8]

When they /the Szeklers/ got to know that the Hungarians were returning once more to Pannonia, they hurried to meet them in Ruthenia and together they conquered the region of Pannonia.

—Illuminated Chronicle[13]

Based on the above-mentioned primary sources, some modern historians claim that some tribes of the Hétmagyar federation may have expanded their dwellings to parts of the Carphatian Basin east of the Garam River, since they had been intervening in the wars of the local powers occasionally from 861.[1][8] Following the nomadic traditions, the Szeklers and the Kabars, who joined to the tribal federation Hétmagyar after its formation, had to go before the Magyar armies in wars; therefore, they must have been the first who invaded the territory and settled down there around 893 - provided that the theory is valid.[8]

[edit] Alliance with the Byzantine Empire

Following 883, a war broke out between the Byzantine and the Bulgarian Empires; the tzar Simeon I of Bulgaria invaded the territories of Thracia and his troops destroyed the Byzantine armies.[8] The Byzantine Emperor Leo VI the Wise sent envoys to the Magyars and his envoys signed an agreement with the heads of the Hétmagyar federation, Árpád and Kurszán against the Bulgarian Empire.[8]

The Byzantine fleet delivered the Magyar troops over the Danube to the Bulgarian Empire, and the Magyars defeated the Bulgarians in three battles (at the Danube, Silistra and Preslav).[8] The tzar Simeon had to flee to a fortress (Mundraga).[8] Following their victories, the Magyars commenced to return to Etelköz.[8]

According to the Rus' annals, the Magyars

defeated the Bulgars, Simeon hardly escaped in Silistria.[3]

[edit] The Pechenegs' intervention

The tzar Simeon made an alliance with the Pechenegs who were seeking for new territories threatened by the Oghuz Turks.[8] The tzar lead his armies against the Magyars and he defeated them at the a decisive battle.[8] In the meantime, the Pechenegs invaded the dwellings of the Magyars in Etelköz and pillaged the territory that was nearly unprotected because the Magyar troops were far away, in Bulgaria.[8]

Following their decisive defeat from the Bulgarians and the invasion of the Pechenegs, the Magyars were obliged to flee from their dwellings in Etelköz and they invaded the Carpathian Basin around 896.[1][8] Constantine Porphyrogenitus summarizes these events (referring to the Magyars as "Turks") in his work as follows:

when the Turks had gone off on a military expedition, the Pechenegs with Simenon came against the Turks and completely destroyed their families and miserably expelled thence the Turks who were guarding their country. When the Turks came back and found their country thus desolate and utterly ruined, they settled in the land where they live today.

—De Administrando Imperio[3]

The abbot Regino of Prüm also relates that the Magyars

were expelled from their own dwelling places by the neighboring peoples, called Pechenegs.

—Chronicon[3]

[edit] The conquest of the Carpathian Basin

The invasion of the Magyars (Chronicon Pictum)
The invasion of the Magyars (Chronicon Pictum)

The Magyar conquest of the Carpathian Basin can be divided into the following two (or three) phases:[11]

  • The occupation of the eastern parts of the territory (around 896).
  • The occupation of Pannonia and the western parts of the Carpathian Basin (900-902).

[edit] The Carpathian Basin at the time of the Magyar invasion

At the time of the Magyar invasion, the Carpathian Basin was divided among several powers, because following the collapse of the Avar Empire around 800, the neighboring powers occupied only parts of its territory.[8]

  • The region of Transdanubia (Pannonia) and the western parts of Slavonia belonged to East Francia.[8] The Slavic population of the province was governed by dukes appointed by the king with a seat in Blatnograd (today Zalavár).[11]
  • The territories north of the Danube belonged to Moravia, but the expansion of the Moravian territories is still under debate.[11]
  • Transylvania and some regions east of the Danube were occupied by the Bulgarians around 803.[11]
  • Some medieval sources suggest the existence of another Moravia ("Great Moravia") in the southern parts of the Carpathian Basin.[8]

[edit] The occupation of the eastern parts

Following their catastrophic defeats from the Pechenegs and the Bulgarians, the Magyars were forced to migrate to new pastures; therefore, their all population moved to Transylvania, the territory of the Carpathian Basin over the mountains bordering on their dwellings.[8][17] Around their invasion, the Magyars probably killed their spiritual leader, the Grand Prince Álmos following a similar Khazar tradition that prescribed the murder of the Khagans (as a human sacrifice) in case of disasters affecting the people.[8] The fourteenth century chronicle compilation briefly says:

Álmos was killed in Transylvania, for he was not allowed to enter Pannonia.

—Chronicon Pictum[3]

Therefore, the Hungarian tradition connects the events of the invasion (Honfoglalás) to his son and successor, Grand Prince Árpád.[1] The contemporary sources, however, emphasize the role Kurszán played during the invasion, which suggest that he was the military leader of the federation.[1][18]

As the Transylvanian plateaus and the valleys of the rivers could not supply the people and their cattle with sufficient provisions, the Magyars invaded the Great Hungarian Plain and they could occupy the territories of the Carpathian Basin east of the Danube and the Garam Rivers probably without facing any severe resistance.[8][18] In case a "Great Moravia" existed in the southern parts of the Carpathian Basin, the Magyars occupied its territories during their invasion and they may have also occupied the southern territories of Transylvania that had been occupied by the Bulgarians.[8] The first legend of Saint Naum relates that the Magyars occupied the Moravian land

and devastated it. Those /of the Moravians/ not captured by the Magyars, ran to the Bulgars. And their depopulated land remained in the hand of the Magyars.

—First Legend of St. Naum[3]

[edit] The first campaign against Italy

The Magyars must have been engaged with their internal affairs after the conquest of the eastern parts of the Carpathian Basin, because they did not intervene in the internal struggles of (the northern) Moravia.[8] The fourteenth century chronicle compilation relates that the Magyars

had a rest in Transylvania, and let their beasts have a rest.

—Chronicon Pictum[3]

But in 899, they invaded the northern regions of Italy.[8] They pillaged the countryside around Treviso, Vicenza, Verona, Brescia, Bergamo and Milan and when they were informed that King Berengar I of Italy gathered an army against them, they pretended to be fleeing and they defeated the king's army at the Battle of Brenta (24 September 899).[18]

Following their victory, they took Vercelli and Modena, then laid siege to Venice where they were defeated, and afterwards they left Italy.[18] The Annales Fuldenses says that they

returned on the same route they had come devastating a great part of Pannonia.

—Annales Fuldenses[3]

[edit] The second phase of the conquest

When the Emperor Arnulf I died (8 December 899), the Magyars sent envoys to his successor, King Louis the Child of East Francia.[18] This mission intended, under the pretext of concluding a treaty, to reconnoitre the land to be occupied (i.e., Pannonia).[3] The Hungarians started a war with the Moravians, occupying a part of their land between the Garam and Morava rivers; then they unexpectedly crossed the Danube, attacked the land of their allies and, meeting with hardly any resistance, seized Pannonia.[3] A detailed account was left about this event by bishop Liutprand of Cremona who relates that one year after Arnulf's death and his son's coronation (in 900) the Magyars

gathering a very great army, demand for themselves the people of the Moravians that King Arnulf has subjugated through their valour; they occupy the frontiers of the Bavarians, too [3]

The Hungarians stopped neither at the river Morava nor at the western border of Pannonia, but penetrated deeply into the territory of Bavaria, spreading devastation and destruction as far as the Enns River.[3] Although Luitpold, Margrave of Bavaria defeated them at a battle near Linz, but his victory had no effect on the successes of the Magyars in the Carpathian Basin.[3][18] Thus, in 900 the territory of the Carpathian Basin west of the Garam-Danube line was drawn under Magyar control, and that completed the conquest.[3]

The Magyars endeavoured to expand their suzereinity also over the territories of Carantania in 901, but Margrave Ratold defeated them.[8] In 902, they lead a campaign against the northern Moravia and defeated the Moravians whose country annihilated.[8]

[edit] Consequences

The Honfoglalás may be qualify from several points of view.[8]

  • Concentrating only on its substance, independently of its consequences, the conquest was purely a change of the pastures of a nomadic people which had happened often before. Nevertheless, during the next centuries, it became obvious that the Magyars (Hungarians) managed to found a country, because they were forced to adopt the European traditions.[1][8]
  • The arrival of the Hungarians drove a non-Slavic wedge between the West Slavs and South Slavs; this was a factor contributing to the triumph of Latin over Slavic among the West Slavs.[17]
  • The arrival of the Pechenegs, split the Magyars from the Khazars with whom they had close ties. This had the effect of greatly weakening the Khazars as a Steppe power; eventually in 965 they were destroyed by Sviatoslav I of Kiev.[17]

[edit] The Honfoglalás and the Hungarian chronicles

[edit] Gesta Hungarorum

The anonymous author of the Gesta Hungarorum wrote his romantic work on the Honfoglalás around 1210 (i.e., 315 years after the events); therefore, he composed his work from almost nothing, using his imagination.[8] He does not mention the name of the important historical personalities of the second half of the 9th century (e.g., Svatopluk, Braslav, Arnulf I, tzar Simeon), and romantic heroes created by him appear as characters in his work.[8] Some examples of his creative imagination follow:[1][8]

  • He says that the Magyars crossed the Carpathian Mountains and the first settlement they occupied in the Carpathian Basin was Munkács (today Mukachevo in Ukraine) that they named taking into account the fatiguing road on which they reached it, i.e., the Hungarian word munka (a loanword from a Slavic language) means "work".
  • He names some opponents of the Magyars (Ménmarót, Salan, Gyalu, Galád and Zobor), but these personalities are not mentioned in contemporary sources and most of them are named after toponyms.
  • The events of his own age are reflected in his work, e.g., he mentions Galád's "Cuman, Bulgarian and Vlach" troops, although the Cumans appeared in Europe in the 11th century and the Vlachs (Romanians) must have arrived to the Carpathian Basin only in the 12th century, but these people founded and organised the Bulgarian Empire in the 1180s.

[edit] Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum

It was the chronicler Simon of Kéza (court priest of King Ladislas IV of Hungary) who attempted to elaborate in detail the relationship between the Huns and the Hungarians in his chronicle written around 1283.[3] In his work, first among Hungarian historians, he records the legend of the origin of the Hungarians (the Myth of the Wondrous Hind), which suggest that the Huns (or the Hungarians) descended from two brothers.[3] In his view, the Conquest becomes in fact a second conquest, and he emphasizes that this second conquest was executed by the same people; that is to say the two peoples are not simply related, but identical.[3]

[edit] Historiography

The first major scholarly foray into Hungarian prehistory was made by Johann Eberhard Fisher (1697-1771) with his statement (1768), that "the language of Estonians, Finnish, Lapps, Permis, Vots, Cheremis, Mordvins, Chuvash and Hungarians is common". All these nations lived "in born wildness and crassness in the near past", to his mind. August Ludwig Schölzer (1735-1809) brought Fischer's work into notoriety in his work published in 1771 stating, that "only the Hungarians have no history of their own". The Hungarian theologian and astronomer János Sajnovics, after observing the passing of Venus before the sun on the island of Vardö, wrote a linguistic essay about the Hungarian-Lapp relationship. Then the jurist Antal Reguly collected folksongs from the land of Voguls.

On the basis of these early forays, in 1870 in Budapest the Finno-Ugric theory of ethnogenesis was established with the support of the Academy in Vienna and proclaimed as fact with only the barest of linguistic support as evidence. The biggest proponent of this theory in the 19th century was the Saxon from Szepes, Pal Hunfalvy (Hunsdorfer), making common cause with Joseph Budenz.

Opposing Hunfalvy, for the cause of proving Hungarians' "Turkish" roots, stood Ármin Vámbery, among many others. He stressed that "the base, the core of the Hungarian language and nation is Turkish, and where a bit of Finno-ugrian sparses can be found are secondary, sojourner elements".

Gyula Laszlo criticized the "Finno-Ugric" concept of prehistory: "If linguistics wouldn't draw the attention of the explorers to the Ob-Ugrians, they would never search for the Hungarians' ancestors' relatives there by themselves... The language separates our human being, and our beliefs bind us..."

[edit] Alternate theories

[edit] Land conquest in two waves theory

A theory reiterated in recent decades by Hungarian archeologist Gyula László[19]. He has argued that the Magyars arrived in two separate waves, centuries apart, a notion which is still controversial.

Some evidence: The Primary Russian Chronicle, attributed by some to Nestor, recalls that the Magyars undertook two Ingressions of Hungary, first under the name of "White Ugrians", during the time when the Avars occupied the country, and then a second during the reign of the Grand Duke Oleg. Archaeologists of the Rippl-Rónai Museum from Kaposvár (Hungary) have made a sensational discovery near Bodrog-Alsóbű - Temető-dűlő, Somogy County, in 1999. The research-workers dug up a pottery piece that was long-ago part of an ancient furnace bellows, having on its edge a Székely-Magyar type runic text of 4 letters in Hungarian language ("funák" = "they would blow", or maybe: "they were blowing"?). As scientist Gábor Vékony said, this writing monument may be dated as being made between 864 and 873 A.D., so less 23 years before the arrival of the Hungarians (Magyars) led by Árpád in the Carpathian basin.

[edit] Other alternate theories

Many other theories have appeared beside "Finno-Ugrianism".

  • Some of them don't even consider how different the Hungarians are compared with all other European nations, but concentrating on the indigenous natives, proclaim that "the Hungarians, getting the start of any others, dwelled in the Carpathian Basin" (Adorján Magyar, Lajos Marjalaki Kiss).
  • István Kiszely and some other scholars looked for an ethnic urheimat and traced the seed of the Magyars to today's Eastern Turkestan, specifically, the northern and western edges of the Gobi Desert, the Jungar Basin and the confines of the Taklamakan Desert. In this area, between the 9th and 8th centuries BC, was established the Hun (Xiongnu) empire. Among the members of this Xiongnu tribal confederation were Turkic, Altaic and Iranian groups, as well the ethnic groups that later, under the name Onogur (Turkish: "Ten Arrows"), constituted the Bulgars and several other steppe peoples, probably also leaving their name in the form of "Hungary"[20]. The migration of the Hungarians' ancestors from Central Asia started with the later Onogur nation seceding from the second Turkic federation to move west, and it continued until the conquest of Pannonia.
  • The idea of the Egyptian origin of Hungarians, published in the 3 volume book of Tibor Barath (1973), appears written in newer phrasing: "Most of the Eastern nations, so the Hungarians arrived not from Mesopotamia, but from the closer Egyptian culture era to the lands of Europe".
  • Geza Kun stood for the Etruscan-Hungarian relationship, and to the mind of Ferenc Zajti, "the ancient Scythian-Hun nation gave birth to the Hungarians".
  • The alleged Sumerian-Hungarian relationship has had numerous representatives and followers (Ida Bobula, Viktor Padányi, Ferenc Badiny Jós, Kalman Gosztonyi, Sandor Csőke, Andras Zakar, Mrs. Hary etc. ). The origin of this assertion was explained by Ida Bobula this way: "When in the middle of the 19th century, under the debris of Mesopotamia the first written memories, the tile-table notched cuneiform and hieroglyphic text began to turn up, professionals recognized that those against the Assyrian-Babylonian texts were written in a non-Semitic structured language." The language proved to be agglutinatively structured. The pioneer orientalists Julius Oppert, Rawlinson, and Archibald Sayce spoke of the ancient Scythian and Turanian languages. The French scientist Lenormant declared that the language of these "artificers of writing" is closest to Hungarian.

[edit] Speculations on mythic origins

Mythic Totem of Hungarians, the Turul
Mythic Totem of Hungarians, the Turul

The Legend of the White Stag suggests the unification of the Magyars with certain tribes of Huns and Alans[21]. An early version of this story was found in a document taken from the Hungarian Royal Library when it was captured by the Turks and re-published under the title "Tarihi Üngürüs" (History of the Hungarians), now in the Topkapi Museum of Istanbul. The document starts with Tana, perhaps the same as the Sumerian Etana of the city of Kish son of "Arwium", son of "Mashda", according to a very few authors such as F. Hamori and T. R. Michels. The Kushan Scythians also had an ancestor called Kush-Tana. In the Sumerian account, Etana of Kish was the first king who 'stabilised all the nations'. Some feel that Etana of Kish corresponds to the Biblical Cush or his son, Nimrod[22]. In the Hungarian account, Tana's son is called Menrot, whose twin sons, Magor and Hunor dwelled by the Sea of Azov in the years following the flood, and took wives from the Alans[23][24][25].

Another version of this legend found in the Kepes Kronika makes Magor and Hunor the sons of Japheth rather than of Nimrod, equating Magor with Magog. Nimrod the hunter, founder of Erech, is more plausibly identified by David Rohl with Enmerkar, founder of Uruk (Sum. kar=hunter). The mother of the twin sons in the Hungarian version is Eneth, Enech or Eneh, who is the wife of either Menrot (Nimrod) or of Japheth. If she is to be equated with the Sumerian goddess Inanna[26], she may have originally been the wife of both men, and a great many others beside. The Sumerian legends of "Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta" describe vividly how the powerful Inanna, something of a kingmaker in her time, abandoned the king of Aratta, who is called Ensuhkeshdanna, and awarded the kingship of Erech to Enmerkar.

Another argument sometimes used to link the Sumerians (who called their language Emegir) with the Magyars, involves the hereditary caste among the Medes and later Persians known as "Magi"[27].

According to the Hungarian legend of the Turul (a mythical bird which corresponds to the Sumerian "Dugud"), Ügyek, the descendant of king Magog and a royal leader of the land of Scythia, married the daughter of Ened-Belia, whose name was Emeshe (a word that means "priestess" in Sumerian language[28]). From her was born their first son Álmos. Álmos, who was Árpád's father, is said to be a descendant of Attila the Hun[29][30].

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Kristó, Gyula (editor) (1994). Korai Magyar Történeti Lexikon (9-14. század) (Encyclopedia of the Early Hungarian History - 9-14th centuries). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 435. ISBN 963 05 6722 9. 
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Kristó, Gyula (1993). A Kárpát-medence és a magyarság régmultja (1301-ig) (The ancient history of the Carpathian Basin and the Hungarians - till 1301). Szeged: Szegedi Középkorász Műhely, 41-43. ISBN 963 04 2914 4. 
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Kristó, Gyula (1996). Hungarian History in the Ninth Century. Szeged: Szegedi Középkorász Műhely, 57. ISBN 963 482 113 8. 
  4. ^ "The locality in which the Magyars, i.e. the Manycha-Er group, emerged was between the Volga and the Ural Mountains." Róna-Tas, András (1999). Hungarians and Europe in the Early Middle Ages, 319. 
  5. ^ "'Urheimats', then, should denote those major stages in the formation of a people which brought about significant change to the life of the members of the group... such changes may include a splinter group peeling off from the main community, the beginning of interaction with another people, the change of community life style, or a major migration." Róna-Tas, András (1999). Hungarians and Europe in the Early Middle Ages, 315. 
  6. ^ "The Ugrian Urheimat was located in the Ural region, primarly on the western side. However, Ugrian splinter groups are known to have resided to the east of the Urals, too, by the time which the Magyars must have dwelt in the Volga-Kama region..." Róna-Tas, András (1999). Hungarians and Europe in the Early Middle Ages, 319. 
  7. ^ Róna-Tas, András (1999). Hungarians and Europe in the Early Middle Ages, 319. 
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao Kristó, Gyula (1996). Magyar honfoglalás - honfoglaló magyarok ("The Hungarians' Occupation of their Country - The Hungarians occupying their Country"). Kossuth Könyvkiadó, 65. ISBN 963 09 3836 7. 
  9. ^ "The arguments advanced in favour of this theory are few and not convincing. ... As most of the peoples whose names have been borne by the Hungarians lived ... in the Kuban-region, we are entitled to suppose that the Hungarians themselves lived in the same territory. ... The names in question are ... Ungroi, Sabartoi and Turkoi. Evidence is available that each of these three peoples occupied the Kuban-region. In the case of none of them it is necessary to suppose that contact with Hungarians took place in the Caucasian country."
    Sinor, Denis, The Outlines of Hungarian Prehistory, <http://www.kroraina.com/hungar/ds_ohp.html>. Retrieved on 29 December 2007 
  10. ^ "The question now arises, from where did the Hungarians migrate to Levedia? The answer given to this question is practically unanimous: the Hungarians migrated to Levedia from a country centred around the river Kuban, and bordered by the Caucasus, the Azov and Black seas and the Don."
    Sinor, Denis, The Outlines of Hungarian Prehistory, <http://www.kroraina.com/hungar/ds_ohp.html>. Retrieved on 29 December 2007 
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Tóth, Sándor László (1998). Levediától a Kárpát-medencéig ("From Levedia to the Carpathian Basin"). Szeged: Szegedi Középkorász Műhely, 41. ISBN 963 482 175 8. 
  12. ^ Róna-Tas, András, Hungarians and Europe in the Early Middle Ages, pp. 417-418 
  13. ^ a b |László, Gyula (1996), The Magyars - Their life and Civilisation, Budapest: Corvina, pp. 193-194, ISBN 963 13 4226 3 
  14. ^ "de gente scithica, que per ydioma suum proprium dentumoger dicitur (,) duxit originem"
    Gesta Hungarorum, <http://la.wikisource.org/wiki/Gesta_Hungarorum#De_electione_almi_ducis>. Retrieved on 28 December 2007 
  15. ^ "Anonymus describes the route that lead from Dentumoger to Hungary as follows: the Volga, Susdal, Kiev, Vladimir, Galizia. There is no question here of any migration towards the Kuban-region, or the Black Sea; quite plainly Anonymus makes the Hungarians come direct from the territory which later authors call Magna Hungaria or Bascardia."
    Sinor, Denis, The Outlines of Hungarian Prehistory, <http://www.kroraina.com/hungar/ds_ohp.html>. Retrieved on 28 December 2007 
  16. ^ Bollók, János (translator) (2004), Képes Krónika (Illuminated Chronicle), Osiris Kiadó, p. 28, ISBN 963 389 785 3 
  17. ^ a b c Fine, Jr., John V. A. (1994). The Early Medieval Balkans - A Critical Survey from the Sixth to the Late Twelfth Century. The University of Michigan Press, 139. ISBN 0 472 08149 7. 
  18. ^ a b c d e f Bóna, István (2000). A magyarok és Európa a 9-10. században ("The Hungarians and Europe in the 9th-10th centuries"). Budapest: História - MTA Történettudományi Intézete, 28-29. ISBN 9 63 8312 67 X. 
  19. ^ Hungary - Origins of the Magyars. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved on 2008-02-27.
  20. ^ The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia - p. 176 - by René Grousset
  21. ^ The Hungarians: A Thousand Years of Victory in Defeat by Paul Lendvai - 2003 - p. 14
  22. ^ Nimrod - Darkness in the Cradle of Civilization p. 331 by Steven Merrill - 2004
  23. ^ Five Eleventh Century Hungarian Kings: Their Policies and Their Relations p. ix, x, by Z. J. Kosztolnyik - 1981
  24. ^ Magyar mythologia p. 146, by Arnold Ipolyi - 1854
  25. ^ Gesta Hungarorum
  26. ^ Hargita
  27. ^ e.g. "The Ancient Identity of Hungarians", a typical synopsis of such speculations.
  28. ^ Selected Hungarian Legends By Albert Wass, p. 41; ISBN 978-0879340063
  29. ^ Attila: The Barbarian King Who Challenged Rome p. 309 by John Man
  30. ^ The Realm of St. Stephen: A History of Medieval Hungary, 895-1526 - p. 19 by Pál Engel

[edit] References

  • Bakay Kornél (1997, 1998): Őstörténetünk régészeti forrásai. I. P. 302; II. P. 336. Miskolci Bölcsész Egyesület. Miskolc.
  • Bakay Kornél (2000): Az Árpádok országa. Kőszeg. P. 512.
  • Encyclopaedia Hungarica (1992, 1994, 1996) I-III. Főszerkesztő: Bagossy László. Hungarian Ethnic Lexicon Foundation. Calgary. P. 778, 786, 888.
  • Kiszely István (1979): Rassengeschichte von Ungarn. In: Schwidetzky, Ilse ed.: Rassengeschichte der Menschheit. R. Oldenburg Verlag. München-Wien. Pp. 1-50.
  • Kiszely István (1992): Honnan jöttünk? Elméletek a magyarság őshazájáról. Új Mandátum Könyvkiadó. Budapest. P. 460.
  • Kiszely István (1996): A magyarság őstörténete. Mit adott a magyarság a világnak. Püski Kiadó, Budapest. I-II. P. 860.
  • Kiszely István (2000, 2002, 2004): A magyarok eredete és ősi kultúrája. Püski Kiadó. Budapest. I-II. P. 1500.
  • Kiszely István (2004): A magyar ember. Püski Kiadó. Budapest. I-II. P. 980.
  • László Gyula (1999): Múltunkról utódainknak. I. A magyar föld és a magyar nép őstörténete. P. 573; II. Magyarok honfoglalása – Árpád népe Pp. 574-1036. Püski Kiadó. Budapest.
  • Róna-Tas, Ándras (1996). Hungarians and Europe in the Early Middle Ages: An Introduction to Early Hungarian History. CEU Press. ISBN 9639116483. 

[edit] See also

[edit] External links