The Hungarian Resettlement of 896 AD
Fred Hámori


732 AD Map of Europe
The story of the Hungarian people is much older than the history of today's Hungarian territory, as is clearly shown by legends, customs, language, music, anthropology and ancient references. They were an organized nation long before their settlement in the Carpathian Basin. Indeed there are not one but several versions of the story of the foundation and origin, some based on linuguistic grounds only (Finn-Uygor), some on old traditions and legends, while others on the story of their Árpád dynastie's origin. This story is perhaps just the story of one element, which was the name of the ruling "nation" which subsequently gave the name to the rest of the people and country of the Magyars, who are known in the west as Hungarians. It is this last group which entered from the east in 896AD which is generally recognized and celebrated by traditions and history and will be the topic of this review.

The journey from our previous homeland to the Carpathian Basin and the foundation and settlement of Hungary was a memorable event of epic proportions. It was remembered for hundreds of years by the descendants of the settlers. They were also reminded by the bards (regos) story tellers and the minstrels (igric), who sang of the preparation, the journey, and the heroes and great battles of the approximately half of million Hungarians who came and settled this country from the east, and retook the inheritance of Atilla, the ancestor of the Hungarian kings of the Árpád dynasty.

The medieval Hungarian Chronicles, without exception, state that the cause of the migration of the Hungarians from the east was the overpopulation of their old homelands. The many tribes and nations of "Scythia" (next to Persia and Southern Russia) were in need of more land and this caused wars and turmoil. Some make references also to the attack of giant eagles (sea hawk=Bese) which is the oblique reference to the Besenyö attack (The Petche-gen Turks). Yet not long afterwards these are in the alliance of the Hungarians again, rather than being fierce and implacable enemies. This attack however was not the cause because they were already on the move and engaged witht the Bulgars when it occured.


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The Hungarians, under the leadership of their elected king Álmos, already knew of the riches of the Carpathian Basin and of its naturally endowed protective circle of mountains. They considered this land their legal inheritance from the ancestor of Álmos, king Atilla and the already long time present Hungarian tribes, who were already there under Avar-Hun rule. No one really knows when they first settled there, for the Carpathian Basin throughout its long history was often settled by kindred Scythian nations, of which the Scythians, Huns, Avars and Magyars were but different branches of this mixture of people and were not related to the Indo-Europeans of the neighboring areas in language or racial characteristics.

When the plight of their Hun and Magyar relations, living in the Carpathian Basin was combined with the pressures from the East, they did not hesitate. They unified the seven Hungarian nations under a single ruler and sanctified the event by a "blood covenant", in accordance with their ancient Scythian custom. Each of the seven rulers cut their arm and let a tiny amount of their blood into a common chalice where all their blood was mixed. This symbolized their unification and their eternal and irrevocable bond from henceforth. They elected Álmos their king, to lead them to retake Atilla's inheritance, and his progeny were to be forever the future rulers of this newly united nation. The Legend of the Turul hawk tells the story handed down through generations about the origin of the dynasty and the event of unification.

The seven Hungarian nations, whose names I have transliterated slightly for the English pronunciation, were the following; Magyari (Madjary), Nyék(Nyak), Kari, Kasi, Taryán, Kurt-Djarmat, Yenö.

Their rulers are: Álmos, Árpád (son of Almos), Huba, Töhötöm, Ond, Elöd, and Tash.

We are not certain in every case which ruler ruled which nation, however we know that other tribes/nations also joined the seven Hungarian ones. We know, for example that following the revolt against the Khazar Empire, three renegade Khazar "Kabar" tribes joined the Magyar Confederacy and moved west to settle in Hungary. Henceforth the now ten tribes, which in the Turanian language was called Onogur meaning "ten tribes", became the western name of the confederacy, which changed in pronunciation to be Ugor, Ungar, Hungar, Venger in various languages. The Kende was supposedly their theocratic ruler but not one who wielded the real power. The real ruler and military commander in chief was called Gyula. Both titles are of Altaic -language origin.

Since not all the Magyars came west, a portion of them moved north to the land called Baskiria, near the Ural Mountains while many remained in the Caucasus and were also joined by more Hungarians from their old settlements north of the Black Sea. In Baskiria four of the seven Hungarian tribal names are still found and the Baskirs are called by the same name by the Russians as Hungarians call themselves (Mozerjan/Magyar). Yet, they have naturally changed over time, mixing with new waves of Turkic nations, while their original stock was largely decimated during the Mongol invasion, after their initial military success against them. The mongols when they entered Hungary made reference also to the Baskirs and applied the name to both Hungarians and the Baskirs of the Urals. Early Persian and Arab references also talk of the eastern and western branches of the Hungarians and relate the Baskirs to Hungarians.(/P) (P)(Yeney/Yenö, Jurmati/Djarmat, Tamyan/Taryan, Girei/Kari) Each of these nations originally had a history of its own but in time converged to be "Hungarian" in language.

The anonymous scribe of the Hungarian king Bela III, informs us about the events of the settlement in the context of the Legend of the Turul Eagle. According to his chronicle, after 884 AD, Álmos defeated and occupied the city of Kiev, which was built upon seven hills. This was the founding city of the eastern slavic empires, the capital of the later Ukraine. It is worthwhile to mention that according to Russian scholar Verdansky (Ancient Russia, Yale University), in accordance with the Russian chronicles the city of Kiev was founded by the non-slav Khazar Empire, of which for a period of time the Hungarians were also an important member. The Hungarians occupied the western part of the Khazar Empire, where Kiev was immediately on its border area. Also, according to Verdansky, the name of this city is non-slavic in origin and means "stone" in the Turanian languages, like Hungarian. In his later work entitled Levedia, Verdansky stated that Kiev was founded in 840 by none other than Almos, the Hungarian ruler. (called Olma in Russian Chronicles.) This work hurt the pride of the Russians and they denounced him for it, just as the fact that much of Russia was later organized by the Viking Rus, which gave the nation it's name and early rulers. The Viking Atlakvida and Hervarar sagas also mention that the city of Kiev (of this region) was inhabited by Huns. The following centuries after the exodus from their old homelands, the city of Kiev held many Hungarians, who stayed behind. The city has a Hungarian saint Magyar Mozes. The surrounding cliffs have Hungarian runic writing, which shows that their occupation laster for many years.

Returning to the story of the anonymous scribe, which claims that after leaving Kiev with many gifts and new confederates, (the Kabars), Almos and his people continued their westward journey. It was unnecessary for them to shed blood for the conquest of the cities of Ladomer and Halich. Their rulers were hospitable to Álmos and his people, and their people helped to build roads to enable the thousands of wagons, and herds of animals to cross the wild craigs of the Carpathian Mountains and the thickly forested wilderness.

The Hungarians built the fort of Munkács after their many labors up the mountains (Munka means work). [The area was appropriated by the Russians after World War II, and now passed onto the Ukraineans.] Here they prepared for the greatest task ahead of them, the "retaking of their inheritance", which they did in a traditional scythian way, recounted in the Legend of the White Stallion. ( Scythian traditions are similar as recounted by Herodotus.) The fort of Ung (Ungvar) came under their siege, still on the northern periphery of the Carpathian Basin. It appears that Álmos, their elder ruler died here as an old man, leaving behind him a grown grandsons such as Levente, the general of the eastern armies who entered the land through Transylvania, and his a son Árpád, who was the commander in chief of all the armies (the "Gyula") and the actual ruler of the nation. It is from this time that all the power of rule settled on Árpád especially since soon afterward the Kende was invited by the Germans for a meeting and murdered.

The chronicles of the time show that in 892 AD, the emperor of the eastern Frankish Empire, Arnulf asked and received help from the Hungarians against their Moravian enemies. Latter it was the Moravians who reciprocated and asked the help of the Hungarians against the Franks. In both cases the Hungarians were victorious.

Our ancestors used these temporary military alliances to acquaint themselves better with the terrain and political powers of the region, as well as to weaken all their adversaries. This knowledge helped them to free their western Hungarian and Hun relatives living already in the Carpathian Basin under foreign Frankish rule. These campaigns made it possible to settle the half million Hungarians and to force the acceptance of their new nation in a sea of western nations, which tried to block their settlement.

It is important to mention that in the time of Árpád, during the settlement, related nations ruled much of Eurasia from Hungary to the borders of China, in a chain of nations which stretched across a continent. It can be shown that some elements of these nations over the centuries later settled in Hungary, like the Besenyö (Boznian,Petchegen), Polovetz, Matyo, Kuman, Ujgur, Jazig etc. and became part of the Hungarian nation. This was before the pincers of the growing Russian Empire and Muslim Empires had wedged themselves between our eastern relatives, and severed our contacts. The "East" at this age had not yet become backward for nearly a millenium, the symbol of timelessness and unchanging customs which for a while stigmatized it. It was then more advanced than Europe, teaching it over the centuries the basics of civilization and science.

The Bulgar-Hun and later the Frankish Empire caused the weakening and collapse of the Avar-Hun Empire centered in Hungary (750-850). At the time of the settlement, the Bulgar Empire ruled much of the eastern Carpathian Basin as well as what is Transylvania, and today's Rumania and Bulgaria. On the south of this country a large and powerful Greek-Roman Empire. The Bulgarian presence represented the greatest threat to the Hungarian settlers, since they were also related Hunnish people who knew and utilized the advantages of the ancient Asian tactics of war, based on speed, maneuverability, feigning on horseback. By this time the Bulgars were already Christians and soon lost their Hun language due to their great dispersal over large areas, foreign wives and foreign church teaching. Today they speak a slavic tongue.

In 894 AD the Greek Emperor Leo Gramatikus sent his envoy Skleros Niketas to Árpád, the ruler of the Hungarians, to ask for his aid against the Bulgars, who were threatening Greek territories. Árpád sent two armies against the Bulgars. One of the armies was lead by his elder son, Levente, while the other army was lead by one of the great lords Tash. The Greeks provided ships to ferry the Hungarian armies across the Danube River. In the early phases of the war the Hungarians vanquished much of the Bulgarian lands and captured their capital.

The Bulgars realized their plight and tried to extricate themselves from their position by making peace with the Greek emperor. The Greeks, probably seeing a more dangerous non-christian danger in the Hungarians broke their alliance and realigned with the Bulgars and the Besenyös to the east of them. They were able to entice the Besenyös to attack the eastern flank of the Magyars and their two armies in Bulgaria. Together the Greek-Bulgar-Besenyö alliance was able to defeat the previously victorious two armies of the Hungarians in Bulgaria. Greatly outnumbered Levente died in battle and a large part of his two armies were destroyed. They however were able to greatly weaken the Bulgars and because of this the Bulgars were incapable for a while to interfere with the momentous events in the Carpathian Basin .

In 896 the mass of the Hungarian people started pouring into the heartland of the Carpathian Basin, from their surrounding mountainous camps.

At first they occupied the eastern part of the basin and only later did Árpáds armies defeat the united armies of the Greeks and Bulgars on the plains of Alpar. Afterwards lord Töhötöm defeated the Bulgar armies in Transylvania. Lord Huba occupied much of the territory of what came to be known in modern times as southern Slovakia, in a lightning fast campaign. They kept pushing westward and conquered the Moravian kingdom, under their ruler Svatopluk. The anonymous chronicler of king Béla II (Baylah), talks of these campaigns in detail as well as many of the local orally transmitted traditions of the Hungarian folk. This was but a brief thumbnail sketch of the main events which are described by the scribe of the king.



In 898 Berengar, the king of Lombardia (north Italian kingdom) requested the help of the Hungarians against the Frank-German Empire. The Hungarians obliged but later returned to attack and defeat the Lombards in their own home. Berengar concluded a treaty with the Hungarians afterwards. Over the following years seven Hungarian raids entered the Italian peninsula, mostly by way of the Alps. However one such raid against Venice involved a naval battle, which was almost lost by the Venicians according to their local chronicles.

In 899 Arnulf, the emperor of the Frankish Empire died and his kingdom was weakened. Arpad took advantage of the absence of a strong ruler and recalled his armies from the Italian Peninsula. The Hungarians then pushed out the Franks from the western part of the Carpathian Basin. By 900AD the Carpathian Basin was completely in Hungarian hands. This basin became for the next thousand years the part of the Hungarian Kingdom as it was before the center of the Scythian, Hun, Avar and Bulgar Hun empires. Even when ruled by foreign kings it was considered Hungarian territory, up to the end of World War I, when it was broken into pieces by the western powers, plunging most of this terrytory into a collection of squabling poor nations which became easy prey for the Russians.

The first parliament in the Carpathian Basin was convened in 902 at the plain of Szer. This occasion was used to settle differences, to divide the land amongst the settlers and ally nations, and to renew the ancient laws. It was also used to unite with the related nations which already settled here earlier and joined the Hungarians from the east. Similar such meetings of the representatives of the tribes and clans were to meet on a yearly basis with the king for the purpose of regulating and creation of laws. All the early Hungarian Chronicles talk of the resettlement as a return of the people and the return of their rule over the land, which temporarily at least had come under German control after the defeat of the Avars by Charlamene and also partially of Slavic control. It is a very incorrect and unfortunate translation of many Hungarians, who call this a "conquest". This term was never used in the past, for they believed that this was but the return of the same people to retake their inheritance.

In 907 Árpád the ruler died and his son Zsolt succeeded him. It is believed that he ruled from 907 to 937. During his reign the main task was to prevent the interference of the many surrounding empires, such as the German Frank empires and the Greek Empires as well as the Bulgars from destroying this new kingdom. To accomplish this, Hungarians usually sought alliances with local kingdoms who asked for their aid against their rivals. Normally in response to foreign requests, they staged military expeditions throughout much of eastern and western Europe, all the way to Spain. In most cases they outclassed all opposition, and instilled in their enemies a fear of the Hungarian armies. The Hungarian leaders fully realized that if the German Empire, ruling as it did many small kingdoms actually fully united under its emperor, it would be a serious threat to the survival of the new nation. So to prevent this, Hungarians helped various competing states of this empire who asked for their help, to fight their neighbors to keep them squabbling amongst themselves. These were typically from the armies of various Hungarian war lords rather than the king. Hungarian expeditions ranged from Spain, France, Italy, Germany to Greece. Their style of warfare was so fast that no organized resistance could be mounted against them. Much of Europe fought on foot, and those who possessed horses were often ill equipped, compared to the advanced equipment of the Hungarians. Return to main?


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Related history of related or neighboring nations;
The Bulgars: Preceeded the Hungarians into the Carpathian Basin, but ruled only eastern Hungary until they were pushed out. They were the allies of the Avar-Huns, who revolted against them and had a share in the collapse of the Avar Empire preceeding the Frank Charlamene's raids which looted an immense treasure throve from the storehouse of the Avar Khagan.

The On Uygurs: A Hunish nation which allied and joined with the Magyars and came with them. Their name is the source of the name"Hungary". Onogur>Ungar>Hungar>On Uygur. They came by way of the Caucaus Mtns along with the so called Sabirs of the Caucasus, who are the source of the Magyar name since they had a Madar/ Makar/ Mazar neighboor for milleniums.

Chorezmians: Previous homeland of the Parthians, Avars and Kabar tribes. An early outpost and colony of the northern Messopotamian Hurrians. The Aral Sea is claimed by some to be the true Meotis Sea of Hungarian legends.

Parthians: Related to many early noble Hungarian families, the scythians who ruled Persia for 500 years and Armenia even longer.

Baskirs: Eastern Hungarians of the Urals, who were over time Turkicized. In the Persian manuscript Hudud Al'alam they are the eastern marches of the Hungarians. Acording to the Chronicle of Derbent they came by way of the Caucasus then split into an eastern branch and went to the Volga and a Western branch going to the area north of the Black Sea. They founded the city of Madjar in the Kuban area, between the Black Sea and the Caspean Sea.

Avar-Huns: Settled Hungary prior to the Hungarians and joined with them They came from the area around Chorezmia and eastern Persia after being defeated by the newly emerging Turkic empire. They were the Western branch of the great Hun Empire. Many were Caucasians, tall people with their own writing style much like Hungarian rovas. They absorbed the Bulgars, Onogurs and many Magyar tribes until their own demise.

Szekely-Hungarians: Settled Hungary prior to the Magyar Confederacy during Avar-Hun rule.

Kazars: Hungarians for a short time were under Khazar dominance and were their allies. They fought wars against a common enemy, the encroaching Muslim conquerors of the south. The western portion of this empire however became independent first from their domination and in time became a magnet for some breakaway elements like the Onogurs and Kabars. Many Hungarians and other groups however stayed behind and became an important part of the Khazar empire. Hungarians lived in most of the Khazar territory in the Kuban and in the Caucasus Mtns as well as outside of it near the Azov Sea. For further information on the Kazars select Kazars URL.

Alans: Previous south eastern neighboors and maternal ancestors of the early Hungarian nation according to the Hungarian legend of origin. They lived predominantly in the Kuban area. They had also been one of the subject nations of the Huns and had a long assosciation with Hunish-Turkic people as well as the Finno_Ugrians. It was as allies of Atilla the Hun during his western European campaighns that some of them settled later in Northern Spain and Southern France and were one of the ancestors of the Catalauns.

Yazig: Allies of the Huns who settled in Pannonia before them, however most are from another group which came from Iran long after the Hungarian resettlemet. The Alans also call themselves As, just as the ancient (non Iranian) Elamites of Iran. (In Hungarian they are called Yas)

Uygurs: Share many customs, script, words, decorative motifs, burial customs with Hungarians including their name Hungar/Ugor/Uygur. For further information select URL: Uygur

Byzanteum:One of the most powerfull neighboors before and after the resettlement. Many early Hungarian leaders were Christianized in Byzanteum and also intermarried with Byzanteen rulers. The Greeks had a long history of dealing with and interracting witht the people of the East and their records are the source of much of the usefull material, whereas most other European material is too biased, too little and fragmented.

From:http://users.cwnet.com/millenia/history.htm