Magyar tribes

The appearance of Hungarian tribe names in settlement names. It suggests where arriving Hungarians lived amongst other peoples and helped in reconstructing where arriving tribes settled.

The Magyar or Hungarian tribes (/ˈmæɡjɑːr/ MAG-yar, Hungarian: magyar törzsek) or Hungarian clans were the fundamental political units within whose framework the Hungarians (Magyars) lived, before the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin and the subsequent establishment of the Principality of Hungary.[1][2]

Etymology

See also: Name of Hungary

The origin of the term "Hungary", the ethnonym of the Hungarian tribal alliance, is uncertain. According to one view, following the description in the 13th-century chronicle, Gesta Hungarorum, the federation was called "Hetumoger" (modern Hungarian: hét magyar, lit. 'seven Magyars'), as in the Latin phrase, "VII principales persone qui Hetumoger dicuntur" ("seven princely persons who are called Seven Magyars").[3] The word "Magyar" possibly comes from the name of the most prominent Hungarian tribe, called Megyer, which became used to refer to the Hungarian people as a whole.[4][5][6] Written sources called Magyars "Hungarians" before the conquest of the Carpathian Basin when they still lived on the Pontic-Caspian Steppe. For example, Georgius Monachus used "Ungri" to refer to them in 837, the Annales Bertiniani used "Ungri" in 862, and the Annales ex Annalibus Iuvavensibus used "Ungari" in 881. The English term "Hungarian" is a derivative of these Latin forms.

History

Main article: Hungarian prehistory
The blood oath in Etelköz.

According to Hungarian historian and linguist András Róna-Tas, the locality in which the Hungarians, the Manicha-Er group, emerged was between the Volga River and the Ural Mountains.[7] Szeifert et al. 2022 proposed that most of the early Hungarian tribes originated from the Volga-Kama and South-Ural regions, where they were composed of a mixed population.[8] Other research findings indicate a region of origin beyond the Ural Mountains, in Western Siberia.[9][10][11][12][13][14] Between the 8th and 5th centuries BCE, the Magyars embarked upon their independent existence, and the early period of the proto-Hungarian language began.[7]

According to genetic study, the proto-Ugric groups were part of the Scytho-Siberian societies in the late Bronze Age to early Iron Age steppe-forest zone in the northern Kazakhstan region, near of the Mezhovskaya culture territory. The ancestors of the Hungarian conquerors lived in the steppe zone during the Bronze Age together with the Mansis. During the Iron Age, the Mansis migrated northward, while the ancestor of Hungarian conquerors remained at the steppe-forest zone and admixed with the Sarmatians. Later the ancestors of the Hungarian conquerors admixed with the Huns, this admixture happened before the arrival of the Huns to the Volga region in 370. The Huns integrated local tribes east of the Urals, among them Sarmatians and the ancestors of the Hungarian conquerors.[15][16]

Around 830 CE, when Álmos, the future Grand Prince of the Hungarians, was about 10 years old, the seven related tribes (Jenő, Kér, Keszi, Kürt-Gyarmat, Megyer [hu], Nyék, and Tarján) formed a confederation in Etelköz, called "Hétmagyar" (lit. 'Seven Magyars').[17][18][19] Their leaders, the Seven chieftains of the Magyars, besides Álmos, included Előd, Ond, Kond, Tas, Huba and Töhötöm, who all took a blood oath swearing eternal loyalty to Álmos.[20] Presumably, the Magyar tribes consisted of 108 clans.[21]

Before 881 CE, three Turkic tribes rebelled against the rule of the Khagan of the Khazars, but they were suppressed. After their defeat they left the Khazar Empire and voluntarily joined the Hétmagyar confederation. The three tribes were organised into one tribe, called Kabar, and later they played the roles of vanguard and rear guard during the joint military actions of the confederation. The joining of the three tribes to the previous seven created the On-ogur (Ten Arrows).[17]

Tribes

Hungarian chroniclers of the 13th century spoke of Magna Hungaria (modern Bashkortostan) and reported that speakers of Hungarian were located there. It is theorized that the Magyars and Bashkirs had close contact before the former's migration west, as there are many parallels between old Hungarian and Bashkir tribal names.[22] Further, most of these names do not have such similarities with Central or Inner Asian languages, implying they may be a unique product of a local Bashkir-Magyar symbiosis.[23] Turkologists Gyula Neméth and Peter B. Golden have compared the following names to this end:

Hungarian Bashkir Constantine Porphyrogenitus
Nyék Negmen (tribal name) Νέκη
Gyarmat Yurmatı (tribal name) Κουρτουγερμάτου
Jenő Yeney (tribal name) Γενάχ
Keszi Kese (branch name) Καση
Gyula (title) Yulaman (clan name) Γυλᾶς
Tarján Tarxany (tribal name) Ταριάνου
Megyer Mišer-Yurmatı (of the Yurmatı) Μεγέρη
Magyar Možeriane, Možarka, etc., (ethnonym, toponym etc.)

Social organization

The Hungarian social structure was of Turkic origin.[24]

Genetics

Magyars comprised seven clans, and later three more clans made of Kabar people. Recent genetic research has shown that the first-generation Magyar core gene pool originated in Central Asia/South Siberia and, as Magyars migrated westward, admixed with various European peoples and peoples of the Caucasus. Burial samples of the Karos-Eperjesszög Magyars place them genetically closest to Turkic peoples, modern south Caucasian peoples, and modern Western Europeans to a limited degree, while no specific Finno-Ugric markers were found.[25] However, a 2008 study done on 10th-century Magyar skeletons did find a few Uralic samples.[26]

See also

Sources

  • Korai Magyar Történeti Lexikon (9-14. század), főszerkesztő: Kristó, Gyula, szerkesztők: Engel, Pál és Makk, Ferenc (Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1994)
  • Kristó, Gyula: A Kárpát-medence és a magyarság régmúltja (1301-ig) (Szegedi Középkortörténeti Könyvtár, Szeged, 1993)
  • Magyarország Történeti Kronológiája I. – A kezdetektől 1526-ig, főszerkesztő: Benda Kálmán (Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1981)
  • Makkai, László (2001). Transylvania in the medieval Hungarian kingdom (896-1526), In: Béla Köpeczi, HISTORY OF TRANSYLVANIA Volume I. From the Beginnings to 1606, Columbia University Press, New York, 2001, ISBN 0880334797

References

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  2. ^ S. Wise Bauer, The history of the medieval world: from the conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade, W. W. Norton & Company, 2010, p. 586
  3. ^ Gyula Decsy, A. J. Bodrogligeti, Ural-Altaische Jahrbücher, Volume 63, Otto Harrassowitz, 1991, p. 99
  4. ^ György Balázs, Károly Szelényi, The Magyars: the birth of a European nation, Corvina, 1989, p. 8
  5. ^ Alan W. Ertl, Toward an Understanding of Europe: A Political Economic Précis of Continental Integration, Universal-Publishers, 2008, p. 358
  6. ^ Z. J. Kosztolnyik, Hungary under the early Árpáds: 890s to 1063, Eastern European Monographs, 2002, p. 3
  7. ^ a b András Róna-Tas, Hungarians and Europe in the early Middle Ages: an introduction to early Hungarian history, Central European University Press, 1999, p. 319
  8. ^ Szeifert, Bea; Gerber, Dániel; Csáky, Veronika; Langó, Péter; Stashenkov, Dmitrii A; Khokhlov, Aleksandr A; Sitdikov, Ayrat G; Gazimzyanov, Ilgizar R; Volkova, Elizaveta V; Matveeva, Natalia P; Zelenkov, Alexander S; Poshekhonova, Olga E; Sleptsova, Anastasiia V; Karacharov, Konstantin G; Ilyushina, Viktoria V; Konikov, Boris A; Sungatov, Flarit A; Kolonskikh, Alexander G; Botalov, Sergei G; Grudochko, Ivan V; Komar, Oleksii; Egyed, Balázs; Mende, Balázs G; Türk, Attila; Szécsényi-Nagy, Anna (27 July 2022). "Tracing genetic connections of ancient Hungarians to the 6th–14th century populations of the Volga-Ural region". Human Molecular Genetics. 31 (19): 3266–3280. doi:10.1093/hmg/ddac106. ISSN 0964-6906. PMC 9523560. PMID 35531973.
  9. ^ Post, Helen; Németh, Endre; Klima, László; Flores, Rodrigo; Fehér, Tibor; Türk, Attila; Székely, Gábor; Sahakyan, Hovhannes; Mondal, Mayukh; Montinaro, Francesco; Karmin, Monika; Saag, Lauri; Yunusbayev, Bayazit; Khusnutdinova, Elza K.; Metspalu, Ene (2019-05-24). "Y-chromosomal connection between Hungarians and geographically distant populations of the Ural Mountain region and West Siberia". Scientific Reports. 9 (1): 7786. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-44272-6. ISSN 2045-2322. Agreeing with the linguistic results most of the archaeologists propose that the putative homeland of the ancestors of the Hungarian speaking population must have been in West Siberia.
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  11. ^ "A magyarság nyugat-szibériai gyökerei nyomában". www.btk.elte.hu (in Hungarian). Retrieved 2024-02-10.
  12. ^ Kerényi, Bálint (2023). "Nyugat-Szibéria mint magyar őshaza". KELETKUTATÁS: TANULMÁNYOK AZ ORIENTALISZTIKA KÖRÉBŐL (in Hungarian). 2023 (ősz): 5–20. doi:10.24391/keletkut.2023.2.5. ISSN 0133-4778.
  13. ^ Tambets, Kristiina; Yunusbayev, Bayazit; Hudjashov, Georgi; Ilumäe, Anne-Mai; Rootsi, Siiri; Honkola, Terhi; Vesakoski, Outi; Atkinson, Quentin; Skoglund, Pontus; Kushniarevich, Alena; Litvinov, Sergey; Reidla, Maere; Metspalu, Ene; Saag, Lehti; Rantanen, Timo (2018-09-21). "Genes reveal traces of common recent demographic history for most of the Uralic-speaking populations". Genome Biology. 19 (1): 139. doi:10.1186/s13059-018-1522-1. ISSN 1474-760X. PMC 6151024. PMID 30241495.
  14. ^ Zemplényi, Lili (2023-07-08). "The Khanty and the Mansi, the Closest Linguistic Relatives of the Hungarians". Hungarian Conservative. Retrieved 2024-12-14.
  15. ^ Maróti, Zoltán; Neparáczki, Endre; Schütz, Oszkár; Maár, Kitti; Varga, Gergely I.B.; Kovács, Bence; Kalmár, Tibor; Nyerki, Emil; Nagy, István; Latinovics, Dóra; Tihanyi, Balázs; Marcsik, Antónia; Pálfi, György; Bernert, Zsolt; Gallina, Zsolt; Horváth, Ciprián; Varga, Sándor; Költő, László; Raskó, István; Nagy, Péter L.; Balogh, Csilla; Zink, Albert; Maixner, Frank; Götherström, Anders; George, Robert; Szalontai, Csaba; Szenthe, Gergely; Gáll, Erwin; Kiss, Attila P.; Gulyás, Bence; Kovacsóczy, Bernadett Ny.; Gál, Sándor Szilárd; Tomka, Péter; Török, Tibor (25 May 2022). "The genetic origin of Huns, Avars, and conquering Hungarians". Current Biology. 32 (13): 2858–2870.e7. Bibcode:2022CBio...32E2858M. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2022.04.093. PMID 35617951. S2CID 246191357.
  16. ^ Török, Tibor (26 June 2023). "Integrating Linguistic, Archaeological and Genetic Perspectives Unfold the Origin of Ugrians". Genes. 14 (7): 1345. doi:10.3390/genes14071345. PMC 10379071. PMID 37510249. This article incorporates text from this source, which is available under the CC BY 4.0 license.
  17. ^ a b Kevin Alan Brook, The Jews of Khazaria, Rowman & Littlefield, 2009, pp. 163-164.
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  19. ^ Carl Waldman, Catherine Mason, Encyclopedia of European peoples, Volume 1, Infobase Publishing, 2006, p. 508
  20. ^ http://www.kislexikon.hu/hetmagyar.html (Hungarian)
  21. ^ John P. C. Matthews, Explosion: the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Hippocrene Books, 2007, p. 69
  22. ^ Peter Benjamin Golden. The Migrations of the Oghuz. pp. 65–67.
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  24. ^ Makkai 2001, pp. 415-416.
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  26. ^ Csányi, B.; Bogácsi-Szabó, E.; Tömöry, Gy.; Czibula, Á.; Priskin, K.; Csõsz, A.; Mende, B.; Langó, P.; Csete, K.; Zsolnai, A.; Conant, E. K.; Downes, C. S.; Raskó, I. (1 July 2008). "Y-Chromosome Analysis of Ancient Hungarian and Two Modern Hungarian-Speaking Populations from the Carpathian Basin". Annals of Human Genetics. 72 (4): 519–534. doi:10.1111/j.1469-1809.2008.00440.x. ISSN 1469-1809. PMID 18373723.