From Levedia to the Carpathian Basin

The 9th century played a decisive role in the Hungarians becoming a people, in the development of their ethnic and political organization, and in their survival through their settlement in the Carpathian Basin (conquest). The book discusses the main issues of this important period, basing its findings on written sources (Byzantine, Arab-Persian, Slavic and Latin) and extensive specialist literature. The majority of the Hungarians migrated from Magna Hungaria along the Volga to the area west of the Don (Levedia and Etelköz) in the late 830s. The seven Hungarian tribes were joined by three tribes of Khazar-Kavars who had broken away from Khazaria. The first known leaders of the Hungarian tribal alliance were Levedi and Álmos. Then, on the Khazar initiative, the Hungarians elected a prince (kündü) in the person of Árpád. In addition to the kündü, which became sacred, the gyula (Kuszán), who exercised military commander functions, played an important role. After an initial hostile relationship, the Hungarian tribes were in an allied-vassal relationship with the Khazar Kaganate. They also led adventuring and raiding campaigns in the 9th century, at the end of which they increasingly participated in the Central European (Eastern Frankish-Moravian) and Balkan (Byzantine-Bulgarian) wars. The wave of migration that began in 893, and the attack of the Pechenegs allied with the Bulgarians, drove the Hungarian-Khvar tribal alliance into the new homeland in the Carpathian Basin around 894/895. This book is the second, revised edition of the monograph published in 1998.