Timeless Nation

The origins and migrations of the Hungarians

The mystery of the origins of the Hungarians has been a question debated since the first appearance of the warlike nation in Central Europe. Hungarian linguists have indicated the cold, northern regions of what is Russia today as their possible birthplace. Hostile opinion of the IXth-century Europe suggested a much hotter place of origin (and wished them back there) Other Hungarians have proposed more imaginative theories, claiming descent from such widely different races as the Etruscans, Romans, Atlanteans, Mayas, Incas and dwellers of Mu (wherever that was)

During the study of this question, we shall refer to the ancestors of modern Hungarians as "Proto-Hungarians", that is the Hungarian or Magyar people before their settlement in the Carpathian basin. The following summary represents the consensus of most serious historians concerning the origins and prehistory of these Proto-Hungarians. The opinions of various researchers differ in certain details, but for our purposes, it should be sufficient to present the general picture with9ut the debatable detail, which would seem irrelevant to the non-Hungarian reader anyhow.

The ProtoHungarians were at least bilingual. Some of them spoke a Finno-Ugrian type of language, others a West-Turkic (Thranian or Onogur) tongue and some others probably an Iranian-Mesopotamian type of language. Gradually a new, composite language evolved, based on the grammatical structure of the Finno–Ugrian component, a logical, simple, agglutinating tongue. It retained the simplest basic words of that language, with the Turkic-Onogur and the Mesopotamian-Iranian elements enriching its vocabulary.

The name the Hungarians apply to themselves, ‘Magyar", derives from the Ugrian "Mansi– or "Magy–" with the addition of the Turkic "-eri." forming "Megyeri" – "Magyen." – "Magyar", which became the name of the largest tribe Both particles mean "men". The name given to them by the western historians, ‘Hungarian" (Latin: "Hungarus"), is a variation of the name "Hun-Ogur" – "Onogur" – "Hungur" used since the fifth century by foreign chroniclers, a reminder of their association with TurkicOnogur-Hun peoples.

Anthropometric measurements carried out on skeletons from the settlement period indicate a racially composite people. The main components were the Turanoid (Turkic-Onogur), the East–Baltic (Finno-Ugrian), the Uralian or Ugrian (the eastern branch of the Finno-Ugrian) with substantial components of Caucasian, Anatolian, Nordoid, Dinarian, Mediterranean and Alpine racial types.

This linguistically and racially composite nation has obviously evolved from the successive amalgamations of clans, tribes and groups of various racial and geographical origins. The ProtoHungarian people were made up of some Nordic tribes of Ugrian origin who came from the Volga–Kama-Ural region and of a (probably larger) eastern component of Turkic–Onogur (Turanian) people who came from the Caspian region. These Turkic elements included Scythian, Hunnic and Avar types as well and later some Khazars. To these came the third, southern segment, the Caucasian (Sabir, Alanian) and Iranian-Mesopotamian elements.

It has been proven that all these races, cultures and languages contributed to the formation of the Magyar or Hungarian people and from their amalgamations arose during the first centuries of the Christian era a remarkably colorful, complex and viable nation, not unlike today’s evolving nations, the Australians or the Americans. The latent dynamism of this young People urged them to move on in search of a safer, more suitable homeland. These migrations lasted many centuries.

4. The chronology of the migrations constitutes the most debated field of Hungarian prehistory. The general consensus is the following:

(a) IlIrd and IInd millennia BC The Ugrians leave the Finno-Ugrian conglomeration in the north of (modern) Russia. The largest group of the Ugrians, later to be called "Magyars", detaches itself from the other tribes and begins to move to the south.

(b) 1st millennium BC In the border area of Asia and Europe the Ugrians (Magyars) contact Turkic-Turanian peoples and form unions with them. A large group of Magyars remains however at the confluence of the Volga-Kama rivers (today Central Russia) where they form a well-settled nation which exists until the XVIIIth century (the time of the Mongol invasion).

(c) At the beginning of the Christian era the Proto- Hungarians’ southward movement brings them into contact with the Kharezm-Iranian empire. More Turkic-Hunnic-Scythian elements join them in the Caspian region.

(d) During the Vth-IXth centuries AD. The Proto-Hungarians moves westward. In the Black Sea-Caucasus area they maintain trade and cultural links with Caucasian cultures and are joined by Alans and Sabirs. They also meet the Avars in this area, called "Levedia" by foreign chroniclers. Here the evolving nation remains, for a while, in close contact with the Khazar empire It is probably from this area, during the VIIth century that a large contingent of Magyars (of the more peaceful, Ugrian race) move ahead and settle in the Carpathian basin: these were the "Late-Avars" or "Early Magyars". The more aggressive Turkic type Onogur-Hungarians remain in the area and participate in the campaigns of the Khazars as their allies or vassals, until the collapse of that empire, at the beginning of the IXth century.

(e) A dissident Khazar tribe, the "Khabar", joins the ProtoHungarians and together they move further west to the area called ‘Etelkoz", the "Region between the Rivers" (Dniestr, Dniepr). During this last stage of their westward movement, at the end of the IXth century AD, they organize themselves into a nation of eight tribes, elect a hereditary ruling dynasty and prepare themselves for the occupation of the Carpathian basin.

During the first centuries of the Christian era, the future homeland of the Hungarians was a power-vacuum, with no cohesive or durable state structure. The semi-independent, autochthonous tribes of Sarmatan, Yazygian, Gothic, Alanian and Germanic races lived under the erratic and loosely organized rule of the Romans (in certain areas) or of the Celts. In the IVth century the Huns moved in and united the area into a powerful but short-lived empire, which collapsed after the death of Attila (453).

The evidence of anthropometry and foreign chronicles indicates that the first groups of Proto-Hungarians arrived in the basin during the Vth century. After the collapse of the Hun Empire some Huns and groups related to them remained in the area. The best known of these remnants are the Szekelys, who lived in Transdanubia and Transylvania.

The VIth century marks the arrival of the Avars (also known as "Proto-Avars", "Avar-Huns" and "Varchonites") from theCaucasus area, where they had been in contact with the Proto-Hungarians. At the same time the first Slavonic immigrants arrived in the basin.

The VIIth century brings the arrival of the people who, until now, had been called "Late-Avars", but who are now known to have been Proto-Hungarians ("Early Magyars"). They were peaceful agriculturists, probably of the northern (Ugrian) type. It is reasonable to assume that they had detached themselves from their more warlike brothers in the "Levedia" area and chose the sanctuary of the Carpathian region. This was probably not the first, and certainly not the last dissension among Hungarians.

6. The "Sumerian connection"

At this stage we should say a few words about the question of Sumerian-Proto-Magyar connections.

Sumerian ceased to be a spoken language around 2000 BC (the time of the Akkadian conquest), but lived as a written language until the beginning of the Christian era. From their original homeland, in the south of Mesopotamia, the. Highly civilized, but not very numerous Sumerians exerted a disproportionately large cultural influence over vast regions, from Greece to Iran-Turkestan. Sumerian writings have been found as far west as Transylvania (Hungary).

The following facts form the basis of the "Sumerian origin" theories: Sumerian, the oldest written language of mankind, used a cuneiform notation, reminiscent of the writing of the Proto-Hungarians and Hun descendants (Szekelys etc.), hut also of many other cultures. The Sumerian language belonged probably to the Ural-Altai language family (to which Ugrian-Magyar and Turkic also belong). Its agglutinating grammar shows many similarities to certain structures of the similarly agglutinating Hungarian language, such as the lack of genders, transitive and intransitive verb endings and the use of prefixes and suffixes. Some Hungarian researchers claim to have collected from 300 to 1,000 words in Hungarian which are supposed to derive from Sumerian words, but some of these derivations are hotly contested. At any rate, the linguistic similarity cannot be proven without thorough examination and evaluation of the Sumerian scripts.

There is however a real possibility of the influence of post-Sumerian culture upon the Proto-Hungarians at some stage of their migrations in the Caucasus area, through the Alans, Sabirs or through Iranian contacts.

Recent researches indicate the probability of even closer links by suggesting that the Sabirs (Subarians) of the Caucasus-Caspian region were either Sumerians or related to them. Their association with the Proto-Hungarians (c/f. p.10 and 12) would account for the Sumerian linguistic and cultural influences mentioned in various chapters of this book.

Timeless Nation