LÁSZLÓ BOTOS

A GLIMPSE INTO HUNGARIAN HISTORY

Part II.

Count István Széchenyi wrote the following letter as early as November 6, 1858, to warn of the withdrawal of his support from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences[1] :

„...Where my person and my rights as founder are concerned, if I am ordered to accept the amended charter – which I found unacceptable from the beginning – if there is no escape, with bleeding heart but invincible spirit, I shall comply, without the slightest comment.

At the same time, I give a solemn warning that, according to the noble ideal of "Justum ac tenacem propositi virum", I shall immediately stop paying interest on the gift I bestowed and sacrificed on the altar of my homeland, as soon as I am forced to notice that my gift is de facto, for I do not attach any importance to nice words and promises and, as soon as the Academy is forced to proceed on a path that does not totally comply with its original goals, which were agreed upon and sanctioned as law between the nation and the ruler. I know that my plans will be followed by my heirs, honestly and faithfully but, should this tragic case come about, in spite of all trust and good hope, I and my heirs shall withdraw our financial support from the poisoned Academy, as stated in the foundation letter.  We shall invest this in some other means to help our homeland and we shall set the goal ourselves, relieving everyone else from participation in these activities. In this respect we will yield only to material forces.

Faithful servant of the governing body

Count István Széchenyi

Upper Döbling 163

November 6th, 1858[2]

147 years have passed since Count István Széchenyi came to this painful and difficult decision. One can only imagine what terrible disappointment he must have felt – as the founder of this scientific institution – when he committed these thoughts to paper. With the passing of time, our people and the nation have had occasion to become convinced, many times over, that what Széchenyi feared actually occurred; the Academy did not follow its original goals. Our academicians, even after such a long period of time, still fumble around in uncertainties. Scholars research the Finno-Ugric theories, which have no foundation, try to explain them and make them acceptable. At the same time, they are unable to answer the many emerging questions that would either validate their theories or refute them. It is for this reason that we Hungarians are the only people in the world who lack national-consciousness, knowledge of the religion of their ancestors, the origin of their language and who live in complete uncertainty concerning these matters, at home and abroad. Many of the theories about the origins of the Hungarians found their way to the learned institutions of the world but, to this day, a completely finished, acceptable, proven theory does not exist. The Academy advocates the acceptance of the Finno-Ugric hypothesis, which is rejected by independent historians and linguists, Hungarian and non-Hungarian, who sharply oppose this theory based on their own research. The Hungarian Academy of Sciences ignores these studies and labels them chauvinistic efforts, in order to discredit them. If its scholars are unable to refute a well-documented scientific argument; if the Academy does not contradict it, but simply rejects it because it has the power to do so, or  completely ignores the subject, then it can be presumed that this scientific argument has some validity. An official scientific institution is expected to foster the research of subjects of national importance, independent of any other interests, and is expected to reject any non-verifiable, false theories against the national interest.

One part of the Finno-Ugric theory is that the ancestors of the Magyars came into the Carpathian Basin in the 9th century to „occupy the land”, a statement which, as we shall see later, does not express the whole truth. It also claims that, after leaving the Kazar Empire, the Magyars fled from the Pechenegs with such haste that they left everything behind, even their wives, and consequently they stumbled upon the Carpathian Basin where they settled. It is interesting that, according to the Finno-Ugric theory, a small group of fugitives conquered the entire Carpathian Basin and subjugated the peaceful, „cultured” Slavic population, which practiced agriculture. How could a fleeing horde – because, according to this theory, their flight was not an organized affair – accomplish this in the middle of a Slavic ocean of people and organize a jubilant party, lasting forty days, without any sentries? They then supposedly scattered among the Slavic population, in order to find wives for themselves, forgetting their own wives, children, parents and grandparents. Later, they came to an agreement with their Slavic wives that, while they were organizing robbery incursions against the West, which could have lasted for years, the Slavic wives would teach the children who were born to them the beautiful Magyar language and this „subjugated”, hostile female group kept its promise and taught the children, who were the offspring of non-Slavic fathers, the Magyar language and Magyar legends.

We ask the „scholars” of the honored Academy to explain such questions. There are many contradictions, uncertainties and shaky suppositions, which have led our historians in the wrong direction and the Academy just spins its wheels.  This behavior is one reason for the cover-up of the true facts. Another reason is the acceptance of false doctrines, which is more serious because it seems to fill the void that the truth should fill, so the void is not obvious. Another harmful consequence of the dissemination of distorted or false theories is that they are followed by a whole group of invalid deductions, which compound the misinterpretations and make it impossible for the writing of coherent, independent, self-explanatory history.[3] We were led astray with the introduction of the Finno-Ugric theory and therefore, if we want to eliminate the reason for these failures and errors, we have to look for the mistakes right at the beginning.

In this study, we begin to search the past from the time of the „Blood-Covenant”. If this period can be clarified truthfully, then our history can be followed with certainty backward and forward. The facts, which are written about this period, are misrepresented and distorted, and the Blood-Covenant itself is a very confused part of our history, even though its basic effect has great importance. We have an unshakeable belief in the historical reality of the Blood-Covenant and, moreover, we will discuss not one, but two Blood-Covenants. One took place at the time of the migration from Scythia, when Álmos was elected as leader. The other took place in Etelköz in Moldavia.

The well-known five points of the Covenant are enumerated in the traditional text.  It was necessary in the period before the introit into the Carpathian-Basin to adopt this as the basic law governing the different groups of the union.  This agreement was pledged by the Blood-Covenant.

The basic idea of equality was included in the traditional text – „Whatever we acquire together, we shall share equally among us”.  This was the basic principle of the treaty between these groups, which saved the weaker, smaller groups from perishing or from servitude. They joined gladly under these conditions.  In this way, the alliance of the “nations” was able to make up for the human losses.  Such a brotherly principle made it possible for the nations to merge.

From today’s perspective, we must not suppose that the existence of these smaller groups was the result of a series of accidental events. We can see that they did not succumb to the forces of history but, in many cases, they were able to establish a new home and an empire. The explanation that all this was as a result of their battle skills and their arrows is too simplistic, because others had arrows and horses too.  The formation of a state requires much more, such as more elevated ideals and morals.

The Blood-Covenant must have taken place in Etelköz.

We may ask: who participated in this covenant? According to the Hungarian chronicles, they were the leaders of the „Seven Magyar” nations who accepted their brotherhood and elected Árpád as their overall leader and reigning prince.

A disturbing contradiction can be noticed in the statement that the „seven Magyar” nations entered into a covenant. If they were brothers (seven Magyars) then the Treaty of Etelköz would have been unnecessary. Historians mention, as an explanation, that they accepted the people who left the Kazar Empire and invited them to join them in a Blood Covenant in Etelköz.   Antal Duli[4] writes that this is not very likely because this should have been already completed before they got started. To begin the occupation of a new territory with non-committed people is very dangerous and uncertain. Álmos must have known this very well. There were no people in Etelköz with whom the Magyars could have united.

The chronicler must have known that the „seven Magyars” could not have entered into a treaty of brotherhood. But if he meant others, why did he not mention them? If he did not want to inform us of these, then why did he mention them? His words imply that the covenant was made with others, with someone else. Our feeling is that he had to conceal something but, at the same time, he gives a glimpse into the events and gives an opportunity for deduction. With the mention of the Blood-Covenant, we have to assume that foreigners were accepted into the brotherhood. But who were these strangers?

The Chronicler also makes it clear that, beyond this act of accepting someone into an allegiance of brotherhood, this Blood-Covenant also formed a nation with a national ruling Prince. If the Blood-Covenant of Etelköz does not clarify the identity of the participants, then what happened here?

Can we accept the rumor that I mentioned earlier, that the Magyars were chased into the Carpathian-Basin? If they were chased, why did they stop in Etelköz?  Maybe to await their pursuers? If the inhabitants of the Carpathian-Basin had not opened the mountain passes, then the acquisition of a new Magyar homeland could not have taken place. The hundreds of cavalry-men, hundreds of thousands of wagons, women, children and millions of animals could not have gone through these mountain passes. 

"Even if the front line had been successful and had broken through, the people who followed had to be defended from the inside and the flank also had to fight to protect them: during the introit, empty territory would have had to be made available for further development inside the country; they would have needed to find food and to create the first prerequisites of a great occupying campaign and only after all this had been accomplished, could the real work, the occupation of the homeland, be accomplished.”[5]

Álmos, being a great military leader, was well aware of all this. Therefore, the theory that the Magyar settlement in the Carpathian Basin was a result of their flight from the Pechenegs is unacceptable. It is likewise unacceptable that a large Slavic population lived in the Carpathian-Basin. The only way the Magyars could have accomplished this re-occupation of the homeland was if they knew very well who the indigenous people of the Carpathian-Basin were and they were in an alliance with them. They could not count on any help from the outside. Byzantium let them down. It was for this reason that Árpád’s first-born son, Levente, died in a battle against the Bulgars. They could not count on Kazár help, since they had left the Kazár Empire because they could not accept the Talmudian laws forced on the people by Obadja. (For further reading: Artamanov:Isztorija Hazar, Leningrad, 1962. p. 523 and Zakar András: Fordulópontok Történelmünkből, 1987. page 9.) At that time, there was hostility on the part of the Pechenegs toward the Magyars because the Magyars had denied the request of the Kazar kagan to accept the role of peacekeepers in the Empire to quell the inner revolts of the Empire. If they had accepted this role, the same thing would have happened to the Magyars as later happened to the Pechenegs, that is, extinction, after accepting the role of police. We can ascertain, based on the facts, that there was some Pecheneg-Magyar hostility but there was no Pecheneg pursuit of the Magyars. Álmos and his son, Árpád, knew that the only help they could count on would come from an alliance with the peoples living in the Carpathian-Basin.

Inside the Carpathian-Basin, the Avar Empire fell apart into small groups and the people lived under the feudal system, ruled by the Franks.  One part of the populace was indigenous to the Carpathian Basin and was in servitude, even under the Avars, because it was not military,  but agricultural. The ruling classes came and went, but the indigenous populace remained. Árpád’s arrival meant only new lords for them and, because of this, they did not even think of resistance. Another part of the populace belonged of the Avar Empire. For them, the arrival of Árpád meant liberation. If they could forge a treaty, based on equal rights, then they could regain their power and share it with the incoming people of Hun origin.

In this way, the indigenous populace of the Carpathian-Basin and the Avar populace, which had lost its power, formed a coalition. Árpád had a strong, well-organized and well- prepared army but did not have a homeland, which he could consider permanent. Therefore, it was important for him to reclaim the empire of Atilla, the ancient homeland in the Carpathian-Basin.  As descendants of Atilla, Árpád’s people were legal heirs to this land. The Avar people hoped to regain their lost independence. In this manner, the two nations formed an alliance.

The people looking for this alliance, the indigenous populace and the military Avar nation confirmed it with the Blood-Covenant of Etelköz.

Who participated in this Blood-Covenant? The answer can be the following: the returning people of Árpád and representatives of the people living within the Carpathian Basin.

We are attempting now to place the facts into their proper place to illuminate and prove the truth. The points of the Blood-Covenant followed the usual form of covenants between the peoples of the plains and it is this fact that preserved the alliance and prevented the nations from breaking apart. This is affirmed in the Blood-Covenant of Etelköz since the union took place according to the ancient points of Blood-Covenants. This saved Árpád’s people from extinction. With the Blood Covenant, they became instantly a major power.

Now we have to go back to the time prior to Árpád’s reclaiming of the homeland, to Etelköz. Our historians do not explain why Árpád stopped in Etelköz, at the doorstep of the Carpathian Basin, why the Magyars settled there, even though Álmos did not plan a permanent settlement there, since everyone wanted to return to the lands of Atilla. When occupying a land, quick actions assure success.  Waiting, postponement is the cause of failure. As I mentioned earlier, they paused to take some time to build up their strength. As we know the inhabitants of this danger zone were inactive, did not do anything to oppose the Magyars. They did not close the mountain passes and historians have not explained why they did not do this, if they were Slavs and enemies.

The logical conclusion is that the Magyars remained here so that they could make a covenant, a treaty with the indigenous population of the Carpathian Basin, which is the most important guarantee of success. Álmos received here the foremost assurance of the alliance, the hostages. After these events, he forged a treaty with Byzantium to oppose the threat from the Bulgars and assure that the main body of the army, under the leadership of Levente, could move to the lower Danube and defeat the Bulgars, diverting the Bulgar forces away from Árpád’s army. We know that Byzantium broke this treaty. According to historical documents, Árpád’s forces were able to enter the mountain passes undisturbed. They cut roads for the wagons and their animals. After their arrival, they camped at Munkács for forty days in peace. This is how the occupation of the homeland began. The word „occupation” is inaccurate since this was not really an occupation, but a return to the homeland.

Our history does not mention even one battle. If there had been one, we can be certain that there would have remained some kind of document glorifying the victory. There could not have been a battle, since the people inside the country were allies. There were no people uprooted, since the ones who returned were identical to the people living inside the country. The population shows a uniquely uniform origin in race, language, religion and folk art up to the settlements of the Habsburgs.

The fact that the cavalry remained in one place for forty days, in the middle of a military operation, is incomprehensible. But if we accept the fact that Árpád did not find enemies here, only allies, then everything falls into place and the mystery is solved. The continuation of the “occupation” was also an arrival without battles. Árpád sent a message to Zalán to surrender his lands.  Zalán understood the message and fled to Titel, from where he sent a message to Árpád that he would return with Greek-Bulgar support. There was no battle because he did not return These events were described by the poet, Vörösmarty, in his poem called Zalán Futása, the flight of Zalán.

During the occupation of the lands of Ménmarót, 15 Székely (Sicul) and 20 Magyar soldiers lost their lives. Anyone can see that this was not a battle of occupation only a little skirmish. After this „battle” the children of Ménmarót soon married within the family of Árpád. The other „potentates” either fled or willingly surrendered. To glorify these events, the chronicler recounts the defeat of Svatopluk, although we know that he was no longer living at this time. Everything the chronicler wrote, concerning the battles of the occupation of the homeland, is no more than an effort to protect some of  the Frankish overlords and their families.

This assumes that behind these overlords – representatives of foreign powers – were no masses, and that their main job was tax collection. They could not recruit anyone from the indigenous population to oppose Árpád. This shows that this population was not of their own line of descent but rather that they were underlings. These overlords were foreigners, whom the people did not support, and we know that the people supported Árpád since the Székelys (Siculi) went to greet him.

In case of danger, the inhabitants either turn against the aggressor, or flee. Here, neither of these things took place. On the contrary, according to the custom of the time, the people greeted the newcomers with respect and gifts, to express their expectation and trust. In A.D. 900, the bishops of Bavaria complained, in a letter written to Rome, that part of the populace shaved their hair and joined the Magyars.[6] József Mosolygó writes that the people who joined Árpád were „Avar heroes who were subjugated by the Franks...”.[7] The populace of the Carpathian Basin multiplied the ranks of the returning armies and became allies in the Magyar wars.

The Etelköz Blood-Covenant must have been between the incoming leaders and the leaders of the peoples already living in the Carpathian Basin. Who were they? Zalán and Galád could not have been among them, because they did not participate in the treaties with Árpád, nor did they belong to the indigenous, or the Avar populace. These overlords were strangers, genetically speaking. We wish to find the original leaders of the indigenous populace, who were directly related to the Magyars and who were trusted by the people.  They inherited this trust from their subjugated predecessors.

The subjugated Avars had leaders of their own, even a kagan. The Franks did not kill all Avar leaders, but baptized them  into the religion of the victorious Franks (Roman Catholicism) and sent them back to their remaining country as serfs. With this act, they quieted the people. This is a fact that supports Antal Duli’s suppositions. Pope Eugene II. sent a letter, in 826, to the Avar Kagan, named Tudun, to restore the old bishoprics in Pannonia and Dacia, which flourished there during the time of the Romans and the Gepidae.

When did the Avar Kaganate come to an end? We do not know. But we do have information that the territory, today known as Moravia and Austria, was a surviving part of the Avar Empire, at the beginning of the ninth century.

Árpád must have met the son of Tudun. Presumably the leaders of the returning people and the leaders of the people living in the Carpathian Basin forged the Blood-Covenant.

Many recognize the Kabars in the Palóc people. There are many Hun remains and artifacts in the Palóc territory. We also know that in the past, Dacia, which is presently called Felvidék (Uplands) (Slovakia) was part of Tudun’s empire. The Hun-Avar identity is well known. It was possibly for this reason that Árpád gave military aid to Arnulf in his battle against the Moravians in 892. How could it otherwise be explained that Árpád’s troops passed through enemy territory from Moldavia through Bereg to the Danube Bend without any resistance? The only explanation is that he went through allied territories.

The Palóc people show a relationship to the Székely (Sicul) people. The Székelys call themselves Huns. Historians state that the Palóc are Kuns.  The historian, Anonymus, informs us that the Hun-Kabar chief, Ete, settled in Baranya. What does that mean? Does it mean that his people lived there earlier and that is the reason that they resettled there? Ete, as the name of a noble family, can be found in Erdély (Transylvania) too. The name „Kun”  is a link between the Székely and Palóc people, says Antal Duli. The Székelys are part of the Kun-Kabar community. Based upon the Kun-Kabar link, within which we also include the people of Baranya, we accept that the Palóc lived here and we see in them the people of the Avar Empire. They were those Kun-Kabar people who, along with the Székelys, went into the camp of Álmos, who was already in Kiev, to prepare and discuss the details of the return of the Magyars. The Kabars, who are mentioned by historians, and whom the army of Álmos „cut up like gourds”, belonged to the people of the Kazars, who were converted to Judaism.

King László (1077–1095), whom we know today as St. László, was the most beloved and revered King of the House of Árpád, whose deeds greatly helped to uplift the nation and strengthen the borders of the country. We consider this latter action to be very superficial.  King László caused irreparable harm to our nation. He expanded his influence to territories which he inherited based on relationships, territories in which Hungarians had no overwhelming presence. After the death of Demeter Zvainimír in 1088 A.D. the Croatians offered the throne to the Hungarian King László. Croatia enjoyed full self-determination within Hungary until 1920.

At the same time, King László prevented the Avar-Kuns, who still lived outside the Carpathian Basin, from entering Hungary. These Kuns were allied with Byzantium but they would have liked to unite with the related peoples from whom they had been separated. It should be noted that, in the past thousand years, people of Magyar origin always considered the Carpathian Basin as their homeland. These brother-nations were separated on religious grounds. Rome did not permit the „pagan” Kuns to settle in the Carpathian-Basin among the Christians and the already Christianized Avars, because she was afraid that the newly Christianized Avars and Magyars would forgo their new religion and revert to their pagan religion. (Approximately 200 years later, during the reign of King Béla IV., 40.000 Kun families settled between the Danube and Tisza.  This territory is still called Little Kun and Big Kun country.)

The Germans were also afraid of the influx of the Avars because, with this, they perceived the strengthening of the Magyars. The Christian view supported the German interests. King László almost completely annihilated the Kuns who lived outside the Carpathian Basin. With this act, he made it possible for an infiltration of Slavs and Oláhs (Wallachians), who had gained their freedom from Byzantine suppression and slavery in 1204. This King permitted them to seep slowly into the Hun and Avar territories, where the population was sparse in those days.

According to the chronicler the number of returning nations was seven but, at the same time, he mentions that, in Kiev, an eighth nation, the Kun-Kabar nation, joined them.  However, he again mentions  only seven nations, after their arrival.

Constantine Porphyrogenitus mentions eight nations. It is interesting that he does not mention Árpád’s nation, the Megyer nation first, but the Kabar nation and then the Megyer nation. Our historiography does not resolve this question either. It seems that Antal Duli’s reasoning sheds light on everything, if we accept that the Kun people are the very same people as the Kabars, who arrived earlier and were already in the Carpathian Basin, when Árpád arrived. The leaders of these nations met Álmos at Kiev. We must stress that only the leaders met, not their people and, after the sealing of the Covenant, the leaders of the Kun-Kabar-Székely peoples proceeded beyond the mountain passes to greet the home-coming Árpád and to sanctify the Etelköz Blood Covenant. The people remained in place to await the homecoming nation. According to historians, seven leaders came through the Verecke pass. What could be the explanation that Constantine, who knew the Magyars well, -- as we already mentioned – talks about eight nations and among them, in first place, the Kabar nation, as the main nation? Antal Duli explains this in the following way: According to Constantine, the Kabar nation was a combined nation, consisting of three parts and so it was bigger, more populous than any of the newcomers. For this reason, this ranking order is acceptable. This point of view is illuminated even more by the fact that these three nations formed an alliance of nations, superior to a nation: they did not have a chieftain but a Kende (Kündü) or a Kagan. Constantine’s account must be authentic because he got his information from the grandsons of Árpád.

The Kende’s son, Kurszán, was a contemporary of Árpád and he was preserved in history as a military leader. The Byzantine Emperor Niketas held discussions with Álmos and Kurszán. It is probable that the Treaty of Byzantium was forged by them.  Kurszán’s lands were in the region of Bud. The Bavarians invited him for a visit, which he accepted; he was overcome by them and executed. His lands were taken over by Árpád’s family.

Our history is again incomplete. The chroniclers hardly mention this event.  Kurszán’s murder during a friendly Bavarian visit was a great injury and insult to the incoming people. The chroniclers mention Prince Zolta’s immeasurable indignation over the demeaning hanging of two Magyar generals, Bulcsu and Lehel and give an account of the campaign that was waged in revenge under the leadership of Botond, Szabolcs and Orkony. At the same time, they do not give any details about the infamous execution of Kurszán. It seems that the people were not outraged by this murder. Is there some tendentious concealment here? We believe there is and it is connected to the creation of centralized power by the House of Árpád. They did not feel this was an enormous national loss and it may even have aided the home-comers in their quest to create a centralized power.

The title, Kündü or Kende, was one of the greatest honors. The Arabian writer Al-Bekri writes, in the 11th century, that the King of the Magyars in Lebedia is called Kende.

From this information, we may assume that Kurszán was the highest-ranking noble of the indigenous population and the Avars who lived inside the Carpathian Basin. He forged the Blood-Covenant with Árpád in Etelköz, but he may have been already in Kiev. This seems to be confirmed at the conference in Byzantium because, if Kurszán was truly the head of the people of the Carpathian Basin, then Emperor Niketás had to have a treaty with him.  Álmos could not have done this alone.

After the homecoming, the various nations held the territories that they occupied, as their own land.  Kurszán was the leader of the most numerous group of the indigenous populace and he was superior to the incoming Princes. This is difficult to understand because the de facto power was in the hands of the homecoming people.  Even the Blood Covenant could not resolve  this contradiction. The confusion was settled by Árpád, in all probability with the assent of the other chiefs, as they permitted the realization of a unified centralized power.

If we accept that Kurszán, the ruler of the people within the Carpathian Basin, the ruler of the Upper-Magyar region, Felvidék, (Dacia) (now Slovakia) made a treaty with Árpád, then it is understandable that Zalán, Ménmarót and Glád did not engage in a hopeless war with Árpád. If we add the Székely (Sicul) people to this alliance, which we can do with certainty, then we can see that there were no foreign or hostile people living in the Carpathian Basin.

We know from the testimony of the chronicles that the Székely people hold themselves out to be the descendants of Atilla, but historians do not accept these authentic data.  At the  same time, they have no solution to their own riddle: where did the people learn their Magyar language? It is almost impossible that they learned it from Árpád’s Magyars. The only proven fact is that they were living in the Carpathian Basin before the arrival of Árpád. The historian Lajos Bartucz and archaeologist/historian Gyula László described the Avars as Magyars. So a Magyar speaking indigenous population had to teach the newcomers and the earlier arrivals (Avars) the Magyar language. The only exception here may be the Megyer group.

King István I. (St. István) is introduced by our historians as „a missionary apostle, who leads the people away from paganism, whose every deed can be traced to this and this was the first goal and central purpose of his reign."[8]

This is totally fabricated propaganda. It was not King István I. who broke down paganism, but the organizations of the people and the strength of the Greek Orthodox Church. He introduced the Judeo-Christian religion to the region. It is important for the historians, who give lip service to the missionary zeal and the representation of István I. as an apostolic King, to accept the theory that the Magyars were pagans, and constantly reinforce this because, if István merely replaced one Christian religion with another, he would not have become an apostolic missionary King. We also have to know that, in István’s time, the two Christian Churches were not yet separated.  The official date of the schism was July 16, 1054.

According to our historians, King István I. or St. István was the founder of the nation. This is partly true. His goal was to secure the central power of the House of Árpád. All his other instructions and deeds were parts of this goal. Antal Duli writes: „The Blood Covenant was enough to lay down the foundation of the homeland for a few more centuries, but it could not forge the two strata of Magyars into one.  The tension between them gradually increased and this had to be eased to ensure the future of the country.  He probably could have secured his rule over the new arrivals with the help of the incoming Princes and their armies, but an organized rule is possible only under a strong central power. He did not have enough strength to organize a central power and for this reason he asked for help from the outside.” The greatest enemy of the Magyars at that time, the Germans, took advantage of this request for outside help. Under the pretext of converting the Magyars to Christianity, Otto I. was able to break the Magyar military force and to accomplish a well-disguised German occupation, which István I. realized too late.

The second reason for the orientation toward the West was that Greek Orthodox Christianity was already well established among the people living in the Carpathian Basin. Therefore, István I. should have built his central power upon the organizations of the indigenous population. This would have meant an exchange of power, which would have given the indigenous population the upper hand, which István did not want. He dissolved the Blood Covenant which was created by his predecessors, which contained the following text: "...Those princely persons, who elected Álmos as their leader out of their own free will, and their sons, shall never be excluded from the council of the leaders and  service of the country." [9] Had he chosen to support Byzantine Christianity, the already weakened Byzantium could have given less help in case of need, if only because of the great distance between them.  István I. trusted the good will of the West and chose to support Western Christianity. These may have been decisive factors in making this decision.

It is worth mentioning that, in the struggles between Byzantium and Rome, the decision of István I. gave Rome increasing confidence. It was only after the Magyars embraced Western Christianity, that Rome, for the first time, in 1054, felt strong enough to excommunicate Byzantium.

Perhaps István’s greatest mistake was the adoption of feudalism, the system of half-slavery, from the West, in order to secure his central power. Recognizing the power of the land estates, he was encouraged to distribute the land among his supporters. He held the three most important factors in his hand: The Church, the land and the weapons. He stabilized and finalized the power of the incoming Magyars, which created a strong centralized state.

He is called the founder of the homeland for this reason, which is only half true as I mentioned before. It is true that he created the centralization of power under his leadership but, at the same time, he caused the indigenous population, the people who were there prior to his reign, and the resisting groups to be cast into servitude. Since his supporters were from hostile nations and he helped them into advantageous positions, casting aside the people who entered into a double Blood Covenant and became brothers, he caused the Magyar against Magyar feelings and inside battles. So István I. became the cause for the influx of foreigners and the anti-Magyar feelings.

István I. should have found a way, at any cost, to unite the people. He should not have made treaties with foreign enemies. If he wished to make treaties with his enemies, he should have sought national agreement. When Sámuel Aba was elected King, this indicated that the people were willing to make concessions. The people became unified, the inner battles ceased and the saying: „We shall pay the Germans not with gold but with iron” dates from this time.

We see in the person of King Sámuel Aba the personification of the entire suppressed Magyar people who fought against the incoming German aggression.

István I. did not support the Byzantine Christianity, which was becoming weaker but instead chose to convert to Roman Christianity, which was gaining strength.  With his help, the Byzantine Church could have gained power, as the Roman Church did. If he had chosen Byzantium, he would not have had to force the indigenous population into accepting a new faith. He could have avoided the Inquisition and the suffering and persecution that came with it.

The ancient Magyar runic script[10] would not have been destroyed. Bishops Method and Cyril did not force their people to accept the Roman letters.  Instead, they created for their people the new Cyrillic script, based upon the Magyar runic script. We can safely assume that the Magyar script would also have been left untouched. To them– since they were adversaries of Rome –  the only important factor was that the Roman writing system should not take hold. If the Hungarians had kept their ancient runic script, the nation would have benefited greatly. Through the act of destroying the runic script, the Roman priests caused Hungary to sink to the level of Western Civilization.   Western historians spread rumors – which continue to this day – that the Magyars were uncivilized barbarians.  To boost the self-image of the West, they claim that the missionaries taught the „barbarians”  to write and kept silent about the fact that they destroyed the already existing writing system.  They forced upon the Hungarian language the inadequate Roman alphabet. It is inadequate because it does not have a character for each Magyar sound. It is for this reason that Magyar words are found scattered throughout the Latin texts, in an attempt to write Magyar words within the Roman writing system. How could it have been possible to render these words accurately, when the following Magyar letters are missing from the Roman alphabet?

Á, CS, É, GY, Í, LY, NY, Ó, Ő, SZ, TY, Ú, Ű, ZS

Because of this, by the time the Hungarians were able to combine the Roman letters to render the Magyar sounds, Hungarian literature was set back about a thousand years. Roman Christianity did not uplift the people, but caused a long-lasting cultural decline. This mutilation of culture was exacerbated by the lack of schools at that time and the use of Latin, the language of the Church. 

According to the historian, Anonymus, the Aba family is of Hun origin. Other sources stress that the Aba family was „one of the oldest Magyar families.” How can this contradiction occur? Hun and Magyar?

„It is probable that „the eighth nation of the Magyars, a group of the Avar people who were called ’Kabar’ settled in the Mátra region, which also testifies to the fact that Árpád did not occupy the homeland by military means but with a brotherly treaty."[11]

István I. founded a state but he could not unite the nation.  Throughout the last one thousand years we have always felt this „conflict in society, world-view, religion and politics."[12] This state has survived because the Western half of the country has benefited more from the adoption of Christianity than the Eastern half (Erdély/Transylvania).

The cause of inner conflict and contradiction is that during the past one thousand years, the nobility was convinced that they reclaimed their homeland and they took upon themselves the duty of protecting and defending the homeland. To them the indigenous population they found in the Carpathian Basin was only a „peasant” populace. Here I have to mention that Count István Széchenyi was the first who wanted to change this view. The first step toward equality was the building of the chain bridge in Budapest (planned by Széchenyi), where even the nobility had to pay a tax, whereas before this time they were exempt from taxation.