Magyars

This article refers to the Magyar people. More on their language, to consult the article on the Hungarian .

The Magyars are the ethnic independent group constitutive of the Hungary. Their common name is besides that of Hungarian, put aside in certain historical texts where the term of Hungarian gathered all the subjects of the kingdom of Hungary, independently of their ethnic origin (and thus not only Magyars). The Latin term natio hungarica indicated same manner all the nobility of Hungary, whatever was its origin.

There are approximately 8.800.000 Magyars in Hungary (2004). Those were the principal inhabitants of the kingdom of Hungary until the dismemberment of this one with the Traité of Trianon in June 1920. The Magyars consequently constituted of the national minorities in Romania (1 the 350.000 including 700.000 Sicules magyarophones), Slovakia (500 000), Serbia-and-Montenegro (300 000, primarily concentrated in the province of Voïvodine), the Ukraine (170 000), the Croatia (16 000), the Czech Republic (15 000) and the Slovenia (< 10.000).

A Référendum took place on December 5th 2004 bearing on the automatic attribution of Hungarian nationality to all the Magyars of the countries bordering, which was not without letting react the neighbors of Hungary. Although the result of the vote was favorable to “yes”, the electoral rules into force invalidated the vote because of the insufficient participation at the time of the poll (less than 40%).

Hungarian, but not Huns

An error attends and dating from the Moyen-âge the Hungarian consists in comparing to the Huns, barbarian tribe come from Asia and seminomad who occupied the Hungarian basin some 500 years before the arrival of the first Magyar tribes. The names hunnic such as “Attila” (largest of the chiefs hunnic) and “Rika” (a hunnic queen) are still very popular besides in Hungary, although these two first names are of gotic origin .
Come from the the Ural and dispossessed of the kingdom of the Atelkosou or Etelkoz by the Pétchenègues towards 895, seven tribes Magyar migrate in the plain of the Pannonia in 896 under the control of Árpád. Their expansion towards the west stopped after the Battle of Lechfeld in 955, the establishment of the Magyars in the area is devoted by the pope Sylvestre II the day of Christmas of the year 1000, during the conversion of the king Etienne Ier of Hungary, (future Etienne Saint of Hungary, Szent István in Hungarian). Up to that point, the Hungarians delivered themselves especially to plundering through Europe, of the Denmark until the Iberian peninsula (Catalogne), of the Gaulle in the south of the Italy (Bénévent). The christianization, started after the battle of Lechfeld and generalized during the 11th century by king Saint Etienne, will mark the integration of the kingdom of Hungary in the Christian Occident.

Since the 13th century, the kingdom of Hungary was almost always primarily multiethnic, regularly accommodating remainders or detachments of other tribes, generally originating in Asia (Bulgares, Coumans, Khazars, Pétchenègues, Turks, etc), without counting the Slavic remainders and Germanic of Pannonia. Other prone people going until representing more than 70% of the Hungarian population at the end of the 18th century. It is only since the Traité of Trianon into 1920 that Hungary can be regarded as a nation mono ethnic.

Origins

The ethnic origin of the Hungarians (or Magyars) is still obscure, even if the researchers agree to think that in spite of the general belief the Magyars do not have any family ties with Huns or the Sumériens. While making the Linguistic synthesis of the data S, archaeological and anthropological, one arrives at the following result:

Is mountains of the Ural - until sixth century BC

Finno-ugric tribes are installed since -4000 in the east of the the Ural. It is primarily about hunters-gatherers.

These Finno-ugric (probably ancestors of the Finnish current) settles in the valley of Kama, in the west of the Ural Mountains around 3000 av. J-C. Ougriens (ancestors of the Magyars), they, remain in the east of the Ural in the wooded Steppe S of Western Siberia until at least -2000. The remainders of found places of dwelling are besides very close to those discovered in the North-West of the site of the Culture of Andronovo. Starting from -1500, and grace probably using close tribes, they learn the Agriculture, the Domestication of the Bétail and the work of the Bronze, and direct more and more towards an equestrian culture .

Climate changes occurred at the beginning of the first millenium before JC move the sub-group of Ob-Ougriens more downstream from the river Ob (towards -500), whereas Protomagyars remain more in the south to become wandering stockbreeders .

Bachkirie and the khânat Khazar (fourth century BC - 830 a. J. - C.)

Protomagyars migrate towards the west of the Ural Mountains between 4th and 5th front centuries J. - C., and settle between the mountains and the the Volga (Bachkirie).

At the beginning of the 8th century of the Christian era, Protomagyars arrive on the Don. The presence of descendants of Protomagyars remained in Bachkirie is documented until in 1241. Besides many historical references compare Bachkirs and the Magyars (Hungarian) to the two branches of the same people. Bachkirs current are however very different from their geographical ancestors, those having been largely decimated by the invasions Mongolian (13th century) and compared to the Turkish tribes which settled thereafter.

Protomagyars of the area of the Gift was subjects of the khânat Khazar. Organized in a confederation of seven tribes (Jenő, Kér, Keszi, Kurt-Gyarmat, Megyer (Magyar), Nyék, and Tarján), their neighbors were Protobulgares and the Alains. The Bulgares and Magyars enormously interacted in Khazarie, whether it is in alliance or the conflict: Khazars and Bulgares transmitted to the Magyars the influence of their language derived from Turkish, and one finds still today nearly 300 words and names Turkish in modern Hungarian. The system with three chiefs (known later under the name of " kende" (sacral chief), " gyula" (war leader) and " harka" (supreme judge?) also go back to this time.

Etelköz (approx. 830 - approx. 895)

The civil war bursts in the khânat Khazar towards 830. Three tribes khazares unite in Protomagyars and, under the pressure of the Pétchenègues, all settle in the area which the Magyars indicate under the name of Etelköz, between the Carpates and the Gift (either current the Ukraine). Starting from 862, the Magyars (consequently also indicated by the term of Ungris ) start to operate raids in Large-Moravie, against the frank Empire and the Bulgaria.

The installation in the basin of Carpates (after 895)

In 895/896, under the probable direction of Árpád, part of the tribes protomagyares crosses the chain of Carpates to enter the basin of the same name. The Megyer tribe (Magyar) was with the outposts of this conquest.

At the same time (towards 895), Etelköz was attacked by the Bulgarian ones, in reprisals with the interventions of Protomagyars during the conflict bulgaro-Byzantine of 894 - 896, then by their old enemies Pétchenègues. It is not clearly established if these attacks were with the source or posterior at the beginning of the tribe of Árpád.
The first installations in the basin of Carpates were made in Large-Moravie, upstream of the river the Tisza - a slightly populated territory where the Large-Moravians were accustomed to off-setting their criminals and where the Romains had installed the Iazyges several centuries before. Since this base, the raids and Pillage S multiplied through Europe. In the year 900, the Magyar tribes descended the Tisza until in Transdanubie (or Pannonia), which became thereafter the core of development of the Hungarian kingdom then in formation. The allies of the Magyars - Khabars - settle under the direction of Kursan in the area of current the Hajdu-Bihar.

Under the influence of the Slavic populations already present in the area (Bulgarian, Slovak, Croatian etc), the Magyars sédentarisent and give up gradually their pastoral lifestyle, integral agricultural techniques and Slavic vocabulary.

Many (Proto-) Magyar remained however in the north of Carpates after 895/896, as many archaeological vestiges close to Przemysl indicate it (or Peremysl, in Poland). They however seem to have joined the other Magyars as from year 900. Protomagyars remained in Etelköz finished, under the pressure of Bulgarian and of Pétchenègues, by settling in Transylvania where it is thought that part of the current Hungarian minority is not downward tribes of Árpád: these Sicules constitutes a good third of the population magyarophone of Romania, but their exact origin is still matter with debate. Some even advance as Sicules in fact had settled in Transylvania before that the Magyar tribes do not leave Khazarie ( to see the article Sicules for more details ).

Subsequent evolutions

In addition to the various nations mentioned above, which mixed more or less with Protomagyars then with the Magyars with the length of their vast tour, those also have “genes” brought by tribes arrived after them in the basin of Carpates: that they are the Coumans, German Pétchenègues or with the Moyen-âge, the Turks during their occupation of the Hungary of 1541 with 1700, or the populations (Autrichiens, Slovaques and Serbes) invited to repopulate the territories given up by the Turks after 1700.

See too

Gesta Hungarorum (in Latin)

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