Hungarian Turanism

Hungarian Turanism (Hungarian: Turanizmus) is a Hungarian nationalist political ideology which stresses the alleged origins of the Hungarian people in the steppes of Central Asia ("Turan") and the affinity and origin of the Hungarians with Asian peoples such as the Turkic peoples, Huns etc.

The Hungarians were (semi-)nomads^[1] before the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin and their culture was similar to other steppe peoples. However, their Central Asian origin is not supported by academic researches, and the term "Turanian" quickly became an archaism.^[2] Scholars prefer a Uralic homeland of ancient Hungarian conquerors (mainly on linguistic grounds and recent genetic researches of ancient fossils) rather than a Central Asian. The ancient relations of the Hungarians and their interactions with other equestrian nomadic peoples are still debated issues. Despite the Hungarian Academy of Sciences having always rejected the Turanic origin theory, it gained wide currency among the Hungarian political far-right in the years between the two world wars and became an element in Hungarian fascist ideology.

Some extremist turanists have even emphasized “ties of ancestry” with the Tibetan, Japanese, and Korean peoples or the ancient Sumerians.^[3] The idea of the necessity for "Turanian brotherhood and collaboration" was borrowed from the "Slavic brotherhood and collaboration" idea of Panslavism.^[4]

Origins

The term Turanian, now obsolete, was formerly used by European (especially German, Hungarian and Slovak) ethnologists, linguists and Romantics to designate populations speaking non-Indo-European, non-Semitic and non-Hamitic languages^[5] and specially speakers of Altaic, Dravidian, Uralic, Japanese, Korean and other languages.^[6]

The idea of a Turanic family of languages and Turanic people was put forward and promoted by the German linguist Max Müller. In his lectures on the “Science of Language”, he applied the name Turanian to the "nomadic races of Asia as opposed to the agricultural or Aryan races".^[7] Max Müller went to Budapest to popularize his new books in 1874. The enemies of the Finno-Ugric language theory gathered around him, and Müller had resounding success amongst them. The career of the Turanic theory began in Hungary. Some years later, Max Müller the "inventor" revoked his Turanic theory about Hungarians.^[8]

The Hungarian Turan Society was founded in 1910 and included many leading scholars of the day. Initially, the Turan society concentrated on Turan as geographic location where some of the hypothetical ancestors of Hungarians lived. The scholars of the Turan society denied the ethnic and linguistic kinship and relations between Hungarians and the so-called Turanic and Turkic people.^[9] However the more popular and radical Turanists soon identified "Turan" with the whole of Asia and even proclaimed kinship between the Hungarians and the Tibetan people, Japanese and Koreans. Hungarian Turanism failed to receive support in the Hungarian and European scientific communities, therefore it tried to build up political connections.^[10]

Turning into a racist ideology

At the beginning of Hungarian Turanism, the most notable promoters and researchers of turanism like Ármin Vámbéry, Vilmos Hevesy,^[11][12] and Ignác Goldziher^[13][14] were of Jewish origin. For example, It was Ármin Vámbéry who invited Max Müller to Budapest in 1874. However, after World War I, antisemitic influence within Turanism grew.^{[citation needed]}

The movement received impetus after Hungary's defeat in World War I. Outrage at the Treaty of Trianon, which saw Hungary lose two-thirds of its historical territory, led many to reject Europe and turn towards the East in search of new allies in a bid to revise the terms of the treaty and restore Hungarian power. The more radical Turanists stressed the superiority of Eastern culture and race (Mongoloid) to those of the West (Caucasian) and emphasized the racial aspects of the ideology.^[15] In Transylvania, "Turanist ethnographers and folklorists privileged the peasants' cultural 'uniqueness', locating a cultural essence of Magyarness in everything from fishing hooks and methods of animal husbandry to ritual folk songs, archaic, 'individualistic' dances, spicy dishes and superstitions."^[16] The political elite of the interwar period wanted to see itself as a military nation.^{[citation needed]} The claims of certain linguistic researchers regarding the Finno-Ugric relationship were therefore strongly rejected, because many found the idea that their nation was related to a peaceful farming people (the Finns) as insulting.^[17]

Turanism and Hungarian fascism

The leader of the Hungarian fascist Arrow Cross Party, Ferenc Szálasi, believed in the existence of a "Turanian-Hungarian" race (which included Jesus Christ). The idea was a key part of his ideology of "Hungarism".^[18]

In Hungary some fascists (and non-fascists) tried to link the ancestors of the Hungarians to Timur, the Ottomans and Japan, which some Hungarians of the 1930s described as the 'other sword of Turan' (the first sword being Hungary).

The right-wing Jobbik party and its president Gábor Vona are uncompromising supporters of Turanism and Pan-Turkism (The ideology of Jobbik considers Hungarians as a Turkic nation.)^[20]

Turanist belief-systems after 1989

Christian Turanists

Many Christian Hungarian Turanists held the view that Jesus Christ was not a Jew but a proto-Hungarian or a “noble of Parthia”.^[17] The theory of “Jesus, the Parthian prince” are such, or the revivification of real or supposed elements of priest-magicians of ancient “magic” Middle-Eastern world, shamanism, and pagan ancient Hungarian religion. Also some muslim Turkish Turanists held the view that Muhammad was not an Arab but a Sumerian, and Sumerians are Turanid according to Turanist theses. It is an opportunity for the Christian Turanists to link Jesus Christ to the ancient middle-eastern mystery and the ancient pagan Hungarian beliefs. Both Catholic and Protestant religious leaders of Hungary acted against this theory and beliefs.^[21]

Kurultáj

The Kurultáj is a Turanian tribal meeting based on the "common roots" of some Central Asian people. It is also a popular tourist attraction in Hungary (from late 2000s) and Central Asia. The first Kurultáj was in Kazakhstan in 2007 and the last one was organized in 2012 at Bugac, Hungary.^[22][23] According to Hungarian researchers the modern Hungarian Turanism became a kind of business called "Szittya biznisz" (Scythian business) and it has not got much to do with ancient Hungarian traditions.^[24]

See also

• Curse of Turan
• Pál Teleki
• Turanism (similar Turkic ideology)
• Ármin Vámbéry
• Ignác Goldziher

References

Further reading

• Emel Akcah and Umut Korkut: Geographical Metanarratives in East-­Central Europe: Neo-­Turanism in Hungary,(2012 Central European University)|
• Joseph Kessler Turanism and Pan-Turanism in Hungary: 1890-1945 (University of California, Berkeley, PhD thesis, 1967)