Muslim Sources on the Magyars in the Second Half of the 9th Century

446 Pages·2016·2.189 MB·English

by  Istvn Zimonyi

MuslimSourcesontheMagyarsintheSecondHalfofthe9thCentury
East Central and Eastern Europe
in the Middle Ages, 450–1450
GeneralEditor
FlorinCurta
volume35
Thetitlespublishedinthisseriesarelistedatbrill.com/ecee
Muslim Sources on the
Magyars in the Second Half
of the 9th Century
TheMagyarChapteroftheJayhānīTradition
By
IstvánZimonyi
leiden | boston
Coverillustration:SabretacheplatefromKarosCemeteryII.CourtesyoftheOttóHermanMuseum
(Miskolc,Hungary).
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Names:Zimonyi,István.|Jayhānī,AḥmadibnMuḥammadibnNaṣr,active10thcentury.
Title:MuslimsourcesontheMagyarsinthesecondhalfofthe9thcentury:theMagyarchapterofthe
Jayhanitradition/byIstvanZimonyi.
Othertitles:Muszlimforrásokahonfoglaláselőttimagyarokról.English
Description:Leiden:Brill,2016.|Series:EastCentralandEasternEuropeintheMiddleAges,450-1450,ISSN
1872-8103;volume35|"TheHungarianversionofthepresentworkwascompletedinlate2003and
publishedunderthetitleMuszlimforrásokahonfoglaláselőttimagyarokról:aĞayhānī-hagyomány
magyarfejezete(MuslimsourcesontheMagyarsbeforetheConquest:theMagyarchapterofthe
Jayhanitradition)"–Preface.|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2015032912|ISBN9789004214378(hardback:acid-freepaper)|ISBN9789004306110
(e-book)
Subjects:LCSH:Hungary–History–To896–Sources.|Hungary–History–To896–Historiography.|
Ethnology–Hungary–Earlyworksto1800.|Philology–Earlyworksto1800.|Hungarianphilology–Early
worksto1800.|Jayhānī,AḥmadibnMuḥammadibnNaṣr,active10thcentury–Criticismand
interpretation.|Geography,Medieval–Asia,Central–Earlyworksto1800.|Nomads–Asia,
Central–History–To1500–Sources.
Classification:LCCDB927.Z56132016|DDC943.9/01072–dc23LCrecordavailableat
http://lccn.loc.gov/2015032912
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Latin,ipa,Greek,andCyrillic,thistypefaceisespeciallysuitableforuseinthehumanities.Formore
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issn1872-8103
isbn978-90-04-21437-8(hardback)
isbn978-90-04-30611-0(e-book)
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Contents
Preface ix
ListofMapsandIllustrations xiii
Introduction 1
1 TheJayhānīTradition 7
1 ThePersonalityofal-Jayhānī 7
2 Al-Jayhānī’sLiteraryActivityandHisGeographicalWork 11
3 TheSourcesofal-Jayhānī’sGeographicalWork 16
IbnKhurdādhbih 16
4 TheWorksWhichPreservedtheJayhānīTradition 18
IbnRusta 18
Ḥudūdal-ʿālam 19
Gardīzī 19
Al-Bakrī 20
Abūʾl-Fidāʾ 23
Al-Marwazī 23
ʿAwfī 24
Shukrallāh 24
MuḥammadKātib 25
ḤājjīKhalīfa 25
5 Al-Jayhānī’sReportonCentralAsiaandEasternEurope 26
2 TheVersionsandTranslationsoftheMagyarChapter 38
3 TheInterpretationoftheMagyarChapter 56
1 TheNameoftheMagyars 56
FolkEtymologiesoftheDesignationMagyar 62
2 TheEasternMagyars 67
Pechenegs 67
VolgaBulgars 72
Äskäl 74
FirstBorder 77
3 TheMagyarsasTurks 83
TurkMeaningMagyar 85
MagyarsBelongingtotheTurkPeoples 90
4 TheStrengthoftheMagyarArmy 102
vi contents
5 ThePoliticalOrganization 116
TheInterpretationoftheWordshiʿār 117
TheMagyarKingKündä 118
TheKingGyula 120
DualKingship 120
TheStructureofNomadicEmpires 125
6 HousesandNomadicLife 139
YurtsandTents 139
NomadicWayofLife 160
7 TheDimensionsoftheMagyarLands 186
8 TheSeaofRūmandItsTwoRivers,FishingintheWinter
Quarters 202
TheRomanSea 204
JayḥūnAmuDarya 230
WinterQuarters 233
Fishing 236
9 TheBulgarsontheDanube 239
Onogundur~W.n.nd.r 241
BulgarsandOgurs 244
DanubeBulgars 262
10 EtilandDanube 265
Danube 266
Volga 270
Etelköz,HabitatoftheMagyarsbeforetheConquest 281
TheRoleofRiversintheNomadicWayofLife 284
11 Moravia 290
12 TheCharacteristicoftheMagyarLands 303
13 MagyarAgriculture 306
14 MagyarsandSlavs 309
Ṣaqāliba 317
Rūs 320
KievandtheMagyars 324
Provisions 327
15 TheReligionoftheMagyars 330
16 Magyar-ByzantineTrade 334
Karkh 336
SlaveTrade 337
ByzantineMerchandise 338
17 Khazar-MagyarRelations 340
Sarkel 340
contents vii
Trench 342
Khazar-MagyarRelations 344
18 TheAppearanceoftheMagyars 354
19 ClothesandWeapons 356
Weapons 357
20 ProsperityandTrade 358
21 RaidsagainsttheSlavs 359
22 TheDistancebetweentheSlavsandtheMagyars 359
23 Bride-Price 360
24 TheEasternBorderoftheMagyarTerritory 363
25 SlavicCastlesagainsttheMagyars 364
Summary 365
Bibliography 377
Index 409

Preface
The Hungarian version of the present work was completed in late 2003 and
publishedunderthetitleMuszlimforrásokahonfoglaláselőttimagyarokról.A
Ğayhānī-hagyománymagyarfejezete(MuslimsourcesontheMagyarsbefore
theConquest.TheMagyarchapteroftheJayhānītradition).1Itwasthentrans-
lated into German and published in Herne in 2006. During the preparation
of the English translation, I took into consideration the critical notes of the
reviewspublishedinthemeantime.2
IalsodrewinspirationfromthepublicationofMihályKmoskó’sstudieson
themedievalnomadicpeoplesoftheEurasiansteppe,inwhichtherelevant
textsoftheMuslimgeographicalandhistoricalliteraturehadbeencollected
andtranslated.Ihadplannedtopublishhismanuscriptswithacommentary
reflectingthestateofresearchintheearly1990s,buteventuallydecidedtosepa-
ratethetwoprojects.Meanwhile,Kmoskó’sstudiesontheMuslimgeographical
literaturehavebeenpublishedinthreevolumes.3
1 Hereandinthefollowingpages,Iusetheterm“Magyars”forthenomadic,pagantribalcon-
federacyledbytheMagyartribeinthe9th–10thcenturiesandemploy“Hungarians”eitherfor
theChristianMagyarsafterad1000,orforallsubsequentperiodstothemodernday.Infact,
“Magyar”isaself-designation,while“Hungarian”ultimatelyderivesfromtheLatin“Ungri”
or“Hungri,”whichitselfgoesbacktotheSlavic“Ongur.”TheSlavictermsshowsthatspeak-
ersofSlavicsawtheMagyarsasOnogursandcalledthembythatethnicname.Besidesthis
distinctionbetweenaself-designationandthenameemployedbyoutsiders,thatbetween
MagyarandHungarianisnotdevoidofseriousproblems,asitmayattimesimplythatthe
MagyarsandtheHungariansweretwoseparateidentities.Nonetheless,thekingdomwhich
theMagyarsestablishedafterconversionwasknownasHungariainLatinsources,although
theMagyars,whowerethedominantelementinthatkingdomthroughoutitshistory,pre-
servednotonlytheirethnicidentityandlanguage,butalsotheirownself-designationtothis
day.Tocomplicatethingsevenfurther,theconversiontoChristianityandtheaccompany-
ingsocialandpoliticalchangesalsointroducedanewterritorialconcept:AHungarianwas
apersonbornintheHungarianChristianKingdom,whowasthesubjectoftheHungarian
king.Theethnicandterritorialconceptswereinparalleluseforthesubsequentcenturies
(Zimonyi1994a,5–7).
2 FerencMakk,“UnemonographiesurlesHongroisdelapériodeprécédantl’occupationdu
bassincarpatique,”Chronica6(2006):52–65;EmineYılmaz,inBiligTürkDünyasıSosyalBil-
imlerDergisi,Güz2007,224–228;ImmoEberl,inZeitschriftfürSiebenbürgischeLandeskunde
31(2008):165–166;VictorSpinei,inSüdost-Forschungen67(2008):419–424;FlorinCurta,in
ArchivumEurasiaeMediiAevi16(2008–2009):285–287.
3 Kmoskói/1,i/2,i/3.
x preface
AmongKmoskó’smanuscripts,therewasamonographinGermanonthe
chapters in Gardīzī dealing with the Turkic-speaking peoples with parallel
sections from other authors. That manuscript has been completely revised;
togetherwithHansgerdGöckenjan,Ipublishedittwelveyearsago,andadded
therelevantchaptersfromtheparallelauthors,aswellasaphilologicalandhis-
toricalcommentary(butleftoutKmoskó’sinitialnotes,whichhadmeanwhile
fallenoutofdate).4KmoskówonfameinthefieldofSyriacstudiesasthefirst
tocompiletheSyriacsourcespertainingtothepeoplesoftheEurasiansteppe.
ThatstudywaspublishedinHungarianbySzabolcsFelföldi.5
InadditiontothestudyofmedievalMuslimandSyriacsourcesonthehis-
toryofthesteppelands,anewresearchprojectwasinitiatedattheDepartment
ofMedievalHistoryoftheUniversityofSzeged,whichfocusedonthecollection
and translation with commentary of the sources pertaining to the medieval
nomads. Within this project, Samu Szádeczky-Kardoss published his source
bookontheAvars,6withanothermanuscriptinwaitingconcerningthesources
for the early history of the Bulgars, up to the migration of Asparuch to the
Balkans,ca.680.TerézOlajospublishedtheGreeksourcesonthe9th-century
AvarsandtheHungariantranslationofTheophylactusSimocattes,withnotes.7
SamuSzádeczky-Kardoss’sdisciple,CsabaFarkas,wroteadissertationonthe
GreekandLatinsourcespertainingtotheTürkEmpire.ThelateÁrpádBerta,
theformerheadoftheDepartmentofAltaicStudiesatUniversityofSzeged,
preparedacriticaleditionoftherunicinscriptionsdatedtothetimesofthe
Türk and Uygur Khaganates, accompanied by a Hungarian translation with
philologicalcommentary.8Thisissofartheonly“native”sourceforthesocial
andpoliticallifeoftheearlymedievalsteppenomads.Finally,IstvánFerincz
translatedtheRussianPrimaryChronicleintoHungarian,towhichthehistori-
calnotesareunderpreparation.
Inthemeantime,anumberofdoctoraldissertationsonthehistoryofthe
medievalnomadshavebeendefendedinSzeged.MihályDobrovitswrotethe
firsthistoryoftheTürkKhaganates,SzabolcsPolgárcollectedallsourcescon-
cerning the development of trade in East Europe from the 9th to the 10th
centuries, Szilvia Kovács wrote the history of the Cumans/Kipchaks before
4 Göckenjan,Zimonyi2001.
5 Kmoskó2004.Meanwhile,MarkDickenshasdefendedhisdissertationentitled“Turkāyē:
TurkicPeoplesinSyriacLiteraturePriortotheSeljüks”(UniversityofCambridge,2008).
6 Szádeczky-Kardoss1998.
7 Olajos2001;2012.
8 Berta2004.