LÁSZLÓ BOTOS

THE HOMELAND RECLAIMED

Chapter 6.

The Magyars and the Ancient Populace of the Carpathian Basin

    In linguistic discussions new questions have arisen regarding the Turkish and Magyar origins and the origins of the names Turk, Onugor and Magyar. New theories have surfaced, one of the most important being that, already at the time of the earliest migration of the peoples of the Steppes, a Magyar-speaking people was living in the Carpathian Basin. The originator of this theory is Lajos Marjalaki-Kiss, who stated:

    "I have a strong belief that the Árpád Conquest brought a political change, and formed a new state in this land, but the populace in this territory remained 90% the same as it was before the invasions of the Huns, Avars, Bulgars, Slavs and Germans. The majority of the people did not come into the Carpathian Basin with Árpád. They lived there before the Huns and the Avars and spoke a Magyar language. It is my conclusion that these were the descendents of a Magyar-speaking peasantry who were the Scythian, later called Sarmatian people from the millennia before Christ."[1]

    Elemer Zalotai, in his handwritten essays, often expresses the view that a Sarmatian people, which populated the Great Hungarian Plain, were assimilated into the Magyars of Árpád.[2] Dezső Simonyi believes that, already in the fifth century A.D., the Ugor-Magyars entered the Carpathian Basin with the Bulgars.[3] Géza Nagy connects the appearance of the Ugor-Magyars in the Carpathian Basin with the dissolution of the Bulgar Empire in Caucasia.[4] No matter how the Ugors settled into the Carpathian Basin, one thing is sure - that they did not come with Árpád, but rather with the Huns, Avars or Bulgars, and not in the ninth century, but in the fifth or sixth centuries.

     One of the tribes of the Bulgar Kagan, Kuvrat, was called by the Byzantine writers, "Onugor". The name of the Hun king whose empire at that time was on the shore of the Sea of Azov, which was visited by Kuvrat, was "Muager" (Magyar). Kuvrat was the founder of the Dul dynasty. The Magyar legends mention King Dul of the Alans. When the White Stag led Hunor and Magor, each with one hundred warriors, through the Meotis Marsh, and disappeared from their sight, Hunor and Magor found the two daughters of King Dul and their handmaidens, whom they kidnapped and their descendants became the Huns and the Magyars. The legend of Hunor and Magor is mentioned also in an ancient history book of the Magyars which only recently came to light in a Turkish translation. In 1543, at the fall of Székesfehérvár, at the time of the burning of the King's castle, The History of the Magyars, written in Latin, fell into the hands of the interpreter of Suleiman I, Terdzsuman Mahmud, who translated it into Turkish in the Tarihi Ungurusz. Terdzsuman was born in Hungary, became a Turkish slave as a child and worked himself up to the position of interpreter.

    According to the Tarihi Ungurusz, (translated into Hungarian in 1982 by József Blaskovics), when the sons of Nimrud, Hunor and Magor, arrived in the Carpathian Basin, they found an ancient populace speaking the Magyar language. The Tarihi Ungurusz was written before the discovery of the Sumerian clay tablets. At that time, to be named the descendants of Nimrud was not a claim to distinction. After the discovery of the Sumerian tablets, when the whole world accepted Sumer as the cradle of civilization, it became popular for nations to link their ancestry to the Sumerians. In the legend, the distant past and the actual historical events became intermingled. The important point is that at some time in the past, there were Magyar and Bulgar connections. The second important point is that, when they entered the Carpathian Basin, the Árpád Magyars found, not foreigners as is often emphasized but, peoples related to them. Some of the "nations" who came with Árpád, particularly the Megyer "nation" spoke the same language as the people they found in the Carpathian Basin. The Magyar people are definitely more ancient than historians lead us to believe. József Hampel says that the Avars remaining in Pannonia met the Árpád Magyars and lived side by side with them. We know that from the archeological remains.[5]

      Géza Nagy recognizes the connections between the Caucasian findings and those of Hungary. According to Gyula László, these findings support the Onugor settlements in the Carpathian Basin between A.D. 568 and 678. At that time, the Kutugurs, Huns, Sabirs (Subareans), Onugors, and Bulgars settled in the Carpathian Basin among the Avars. The early Russian chronicles call the Caucasus the Magyar mountains.[6] The Russian Chronicles also state that, in the Caucasus, there was a city called Madzar (Magyar).

     Gyula Rhé was the first to mention the continuation of the Avars in the Carpathian Basin.[7] Recently, Tibor Horváth, a Hungarian archeologist excavating the territory of Caucasia and the River Kuban, discovered pottery and metal artifacts that were identical to the round handled pottery and metal artifacts of the Avars. The art and culture of the people of the Caucasus shows an amazing resemblance to that of the Avars in the Carpathian Basin. Tibor Horváth says that we cannot state that these were simply copies and we have to conclude that there were connections between the Avars and the people of the Caspian territory. The Avars in the Carpathian Basin must have separated from the people of Caucasia. When they entered the Carpathian Basin in A.D. 568, the Avars brought with them some of the peoples from Caucasia and the Kuban territory -- Huns, Sabirs, Onugors and Magyars. Gyula László's discovery that, in A.D. 670, a large group of Magyars entered the Carpathian Basin, was the deciding factor in his conclusion that the Magyars twice reclaimed their homeland, once in A.D. 670 and again in A.D 896.[8]

     According to the Magyar Chronicles, there were 108 different clans of Magyars who made up the seven "nations" who returned to the Carpathian Basin with Árpád. Historians tell us that the Magyars were living in Etelkőz before moving west into the Carpathian Basin. They were actually one of the many ethnic groups living in the Kazar Empire.

    Until the seventh century A.D., the Kazars had been living in the Caucasus. The Arabs forced them to move to the north where they settled near the river Volga. They established a new capital, which they called ITIL. This was the same name as that from which Atilla is derived, ETEL, the original name of the River Volga. This city of ITIL was built on the bank of the River Volga. Historians treat the Kazars as they do other Turanian or Ural-Altaic peoples, simply declaring them to be of unknown origins. But, if we look more closely at this people, we will see that they are not unknown. Their name "Kazar" belongs in the family of the Turanian or Ural-Altaic languages. The Magyars, who also belong to this group, and not to the Finno-Ugric group, have many words of a similar structure. For example: Hungár - one of the names of the Magyars; huszár - cavalryman; kufár-peddlar; vizár - flood; kosár - basket; hinár-sea-weed; futár - messenger; the Tatar name also belongs in this group.

    The Curator of the Soviet Academy of Science (the Hermitage), Dr. Artamonov, writes that, in A.D. 730, the Kazar Kagan, Bulan, adopted the Jewish religion and soon after, the rest of the Kazar aristocracy followed suit.[9] Artamonov dates this conversion to the latter half of the eighth century. There is more information about this in the letters of the Kazar King Joseph, an anonymous writer from Cambridge and in the writings of Jehuda Halévy. All three mention Dagastan, the ancient center of Kazaria, where a coup took place. It is also mentioned by a Hungarian historian, Ojtózi Erdelyi-Kádár.[10]

     Artamonov wrote that Jewish fugitives took refuge in Kazaria and in a short time they converted the Kazar aristocrats to Judaism. It was relatively easy to convert them because, according to Artamonov, the Kazar aristocrats did not want to belong to either the Byzantine or Arab sphere of influence and be subjected to the efforts of both to convert them to their religions. They preferred to choose a third religion to avoid conflict. One of the ethnic elements among the Kazar people was the Turkish or TUR-UG people. According to Professor Kálmán Gosztonyi of the Sorbonne University, the Sumerian word, TUR-UG, means a fragment of a people. These Turkish people crossed the Caucasus to reach the Aral Sea, Caspian Sea and Lake Baikal. Here they met a highly cultured equestrian people with whom they united in a loose alliance. When the Kazar aristocracy was converted to Judaism, they elected two Christian, two Jewish, two Mohammedan and one pagan advisor to the Kagan. In a short time, the entire advisory committee was comprised of Jews. In spite of that, the people of Kazaria did not like the laws of the Talmud. Obadja took over the power from Kagan Bulan. He assigned Bulan to a position of second-in-command and the Kagan, from this time on, functioned only in a religious capacity. Under Obadja's rule, the Jewish religion became the state religion in the Kazar Empire. In one of his letters, King Joseph of the Kazars mentions Obadja, whose son inherited the throne, as the biggest patron of the Jewish religion . Only the son of the ruler could inherit the throne, never a foreigner. Thus the dual-monarchy was established. When revolution broke out, the Magyars, who were living in Kazaria, took the side of the revolutionaries because they could not accept the new religion, Judaism. At that time, the Magyars played a significant role in the history of Kazaria.[11] The Talmudist Jewish leaders invited foreign powers to help them suppress the rebellion of the Turkish and Magyar Kazars. Thus the outside powers, the Uz and Pechenegs obtained power in Kazaria. The Kazar people were very much weakened by this inside struggle. According Artamonov, in A.D. 854 and 855, the Kabars, one of the peoples of Kazaria, fled to the side of the Magyars. The name Kabar was written by Arab writers as Habr (singular) and Ahbar (plural). Ahbar later became Kabar.

    Because of the Jewish coup in Kazaria, the Magyars were divided into two major camps. One group left Kazaria and formed a new state between the Caspian and Black Seas together with the Hun, Onugor and Sabir (Subarean) peoples. They became known as the Kuma Magyars. The name of their capital was Madzsar (Magyar), located on the bank of the river Kuma. The palaces of this city, the Christian churches and Mohammedan mosques, and the irrigation canals, now in ruins, are witness to an outstanding culture and a free empire. A traveler named Pallas, made drawings of this city in the nineteenth century. Moses of Chorene was the first to mention this Magyar settlement. In the tenth century, Gardizi mentions that they were followers of Jesus, Mohammed and various idols. No one mentioned that there were Jews among them.

     The Kuma Magyars had lived on the northern slopes of the Caucasus Mountains, from the year A.D. 460 on. They had connections as far as Kiev until the thirteenth century. László Bendeffy collected many data to prove the existence of the Kuma Magyars.[12] These Magyars were Christian and, in 1329, Jerettan, (originally Gyertyan), King of the Asian Magyars, asked Pope John XXII to send a bishop to his country. The Pope sent Bishop Thomas Mankasola. All the Magyars from Magna Hungaria and from Bactria eventually gathered in the territory of the Kuma Magyars (Kunmagyaria). One hundred years earlier, a Dominican monk from Hungary, called Julianus, had met many Baskirian Magyars on this territory, and they were able to understand each other perfectly. At that time, in Hungary, the Magyars knew about the existence of Kunmagyaria, where people spoke their language. In the fourteenth century, the people of Kunmagyaria asked King Lajos the Great, King of the Carpathian Magyars for help against Tamerlane, the Mongol but King Lajos refused because he did not want the Mongols to attack his country. In 1395, Tamerlane completely annihilated the Magyars in Kunmagyaria. Only very few were able to escape and they took refuge in the mountains surrounding the Kuma, Malka, Bakszan, Csegem, Cserek, and Terek rivers.  Today, the Abkazo, Osszat, Kabar, and Kurd peoples are those who connected with the Kuma people and kept their customs.

    The other group of Magyars, because of the civil war in Kazaria, migrated towards the West, and settled at first in Levédia, between the Kuban, Don and Dnieper rivers. The pagan Kabars who also objected to the imposition of the Jewish religion in the entire Kazar Empire joined the migrating Magyars. The rulers of Kazaria did not want to accept that they were losing the Magyars because the Magyar military strength was very important to them. Therefore, at the beginning, they tried to persuade the Magyars to stay with them. They offered them the chance to fight as mercenaries for Kazaria but Álmos and the Magyars knew that if they accepted this proposal, the Magyar people would be erased, because of the constant struggles within the Kazar Empire, just as were later the Pechenegs and the Uz, who accepted the same offer. At that time the devastation and genocide reached tremendous proportions. Many nations were extinguished such as the Pechenegs, the Uz and the Cumanians yet András Zakar writes that historians ignore this fact.

     The historical data around this period are disappearing worldwide. Those historians who mention the civil wars in the Kazar Empire usually omit the Talmudist coup and the resulting separation of the Magyar nation into two groups and they do not mention the genocide in the Empire which included the Magyars, Scythians, Pechenegs, Uz, and Cumanians. Those historians who deal with this topic mention how powerful and civilized Kazaria was but they fail to mention that Kazaria was powerful only while the Magyars were part of the Empire. After the Magyars departed, the Kazar Empire lost its power and disintegrated. It was not the Magyars who learned from the Kazars who became Jews, but rather the Kazars who learned from the Magyars and adopted the ancient Magyar political structure, which made Kazaria into a strong and civilized nation. Professor Kálmán Gosztonyi of the Sorbonne University explains the origins of Kazaria. Without the knowledge of the languages of ancient Asia Minor, we cannot determine where the Kazar language belongs. According to Professor Gosztonyi, every known Kazar word can be understood with the help of the Sumerian language. For example: TUR-UG in Sumerian means a small nation that has broken away from a larger nation (a fragment of the whole).[13] TUR-UG became TURK in English and TÖRÖK in Hungarian. Even today the Hungarian word "tür" means "to break". This name is very fitting for the ancient Scythians and the Sarmatians because in this large territory where they lived there was not a large unified nation. In 1000 B.C, they arrived in small groups from the south side of the Caucasus Mountains. This is why even now many historians believe they were a Persian people. But if we compare the surviving Scythian names with the Sumerian words and meanings, we can see an obvious connection. There is no question that there is a Sumerian and Iranian mixture in the language. Only those linguists and historians who did not have a thorough knowledge of the Sumerian language state that the Scythian and Sarmatian languages are derived from the Persian languages. They actually show a closer connection to the Sumerian language than to the Persian language. The Scythian and Sarmatian peoples were the major populace of Kazaria. At the beginning of the seventh century, Theophilactus did not call the Kazars by this name. He called them Turks but in A.D. 626, they were called Turks who lived in Kazaria.[14]

    András Zakar writes that the contemporary historical sources mention the tragedy of the civil war in the Kazar Empire but none of the sources mentions the reason for the civil war.[15] These sources name the Pechenegs as enemies of the Magyars, but do not explain why they were enemies, or in whose service the Pechenegs acted. To understand the situation we have to describe the background at that time.

    The Magyars had always known why the strong Magyar nation had to separate into two groups and why they had to be killed. They also knew how they could avoid a recurrence of this division. First they had to become strong again. This is why they united with the survivors of the Kazar civil war, the Kabars and the Cumanians (Kuns). With this new alliance, the Magyars migrated towards the west. After leaving Levédia, they settled in Etelköz in the ninth century. Here they made their first blood union, which emphasized their unity and their determination to prevent possible recurrence of this coup in Kazaria.

     The seven Magyar leaders came to the conclusion that only a unified leadership could achieve the enormous task of resettling into the Carpathian Basin. Therefore they made a blood-union and elected Álmos to be their leader. They declared that the new leaders should be elected only from the descendants of Álmos. Anonymus described this blood union, calling the new leader: "ducem et praeceptoram".  Álmos and his son Árpád were spiritual and political leaders at the same time.

     Álmos was the Magyar leader or Priest-king who prepared the Magyars' return to their ancient homeland. He ordered them to manufacture all the tools and implements that they would need on a long journey and grow enough food for the journey. Only by being prepared could they undertake a successful migration. If they had not made adequate preparations, this undertaking would have been a disaster.

     When Álmos realized the danger of the Talmudist coup, he immediately ordered that the Magyars should prepare to leave and look for a new country. The migration of four hundred thousand people and an unbelievable number of animals required a great deal of planning. The preparation for this migration was described by Dunlop, Marquart and Macartney. Professor Artamonov, in his aforementioned book, offered new data about the Talmudist coup in Kazaria. Antal Bartha, a well-known Hungarian historian, adopted these data and in 1964, he wrote an article about the coup in the Szazadok, No. 4. p.807. Unfortunately, in 1968, Artamonov was relieved of his position as curator of the Hermitage museum and in the same year, for reasons still unknown, Antal Bartha, in the Történelmi Szemle, Issue 1-2, Nov. 1968, retracted the statements he had made in 1964, in which he had accepted Artemanov's data.

    László Makkai writes in the 1968, issue No.II, of Minerva, p.43 "Az idők sodrában": "The dissolution of the tribal union was the first blow to the power of the Kazar Empire."[16] The Chorezmians joined the departing Magyars. Today these people are called "Kaliz" by the Hungarians. In the twelfth century the Hungarian laws allowed these people to practice their customs. Several place names have remained in Hungary which are a reminder of these people. The name, "Chorezm", in Sumerian was KU-MAGGAR-RI-IES-MA. The meaning of this name was "Holy, glorious, nation's land". This name was identical in the fifth century with the name that Moses of Chorene used for the Magyars: Ku-Maggarii. The Sumerian word analysis is from Elemér Novotny. These two statements tell us about the origins of the Choresmian people and the Sumerian connections of the Magyar people. We stated earlier that the Magyars refused the Talmudist Kazars' proposals to be the policemen of the state. The Pechenegs and the Uz accepted this assignment and were later erased because of the inside struggles. The same fate would have befallen the Magyars if they had accepted that role. The last remains of the Pechenegs, under the leadership of Tonozuba, settled in Hungary in the reign of Stephen I. Tonozuba and his wife were buried alive by the Christians because they would not accept Christianity.

     The birth of Prince Álmos, who became the Priest-King of the Magyars, was the greatest joy for all the Scythian and Magyar peoples because in him they saw the savior of the people. Anonymus is not sparing in using the most glorifying adjectives in writing about Álmos. There is a mystery about the death of Álmos. Until recently, the Hungarians did not know what happened to him, how and under what circumstances he died. The anti-Hungarian history writing states that Árpád was ordered to kill Álmos but why would Árpád have killed his legendary father? Such an act would have caused the Magyars and the Scythians to hate him. It was not necessary in order for him to obtain power because Álmos had already appointed him as his successor.

     In the County of Zemplén, in 1958, now in Slovakia, archeologists discovered the grave of a Magyar prince from the time of the Magyars of Árpád. The head of the skeleton was cut off and placed at the right shoulder. The skeletal measurements were identical to the measurements of the body of Álmos. At the time of his burial, perfect silver replicas of the golden weapons of Álmos were placed in his grave. This was done so that the weapons which Álmos used, which were believed to have magical properties, could be used by Árpád as the new Priest-king. The only prince of the Magyars, at that time, was Álmos.  Árpád and, later, King István, inherited the original sword of Álmos which is presently in a museum in Prague. The decoration on the sword found in the grave was identical to that of the sword of St. István. The decoration of the saddlebag, the sacrificial goblet, the horse's harness and other objects from the grave such as bracelets, necklaces and ankle bracelets made of gold and silver, ornaments for braiding, the quiver with seven arrows, leather clothing with silver decoration, were all identical to those of the Magyars of that period and all indicative of the high rank of the person buried in the grave. The appearance of the identical sword in this grave proves that this is the grave of Álmos.

    It is possible that Álmos was a victim of the revenge of the Kazars. He probably realized that the Kazars would follow the Magyars who had left their union, and he prepared for the possibility that he might be killed, by giving the leadership of the Magyars to his son while he was still alive. Some historians theorize that, once they had accomplished their mission, the Magyars sacrificed Álmos as a priest king, a divine person. But this was never a custom among the Magyars so why would we suppose that they did that? If we accept such a supposition, we would be supporting the theory that the Magyars of Árpád were really pagan barbarians.

     In the vicinity of Szomotor, in the present land of Slovakia, where the grave of Álmos was found, the Magyars buried him and paid him their last respects. In Hungarian "szomorú tor" means a sad feast or a burial feast. "Szomorú" in modern Hungarian means "sad"; "tor" means "feast". Both words are still used today but the phrase "szomorú tor" has been replaced by "halotti tor" which means "feast of the dead" or "burial-feast". "Szomorútor" was mispronounced "Szomotor" by the Slavs. The earliest written Hungarian version of the word "szomorútor" was found in 1803, in the writings of Szirmay who writes: "Szomotor olim zomoru-tor pagus Hungaricus".[17]  This is evidence that this was Magyar territory because the Magyars would not have buried their leader in a foreign territory. This territory later became inhabited by Slavs and was given to Czechoslovakia in 1920 at the Treaty of Trianon. If we disregard the Slav influence on the Hungarian word, we can see a Hungarian name which goes back about 1100 years and we can see the progression of the Hungarian language: "z" changed to "sz"; "zomoru-tor" became "szomoru-tor" which later became "Szomotor" in the Slovak language. This burial feast was called a sad-feast because the Magyars had to bury their priest-king who had done so much for the nation.

     Another very strong and populous nation which was almost completely erased because of the inside struggles in the Kazar Empire were the Cumanians (Kuns) One of their last remaining groups also received a welcome in Hungary. They are now living in the territory called Kiskunsag and Nagykunsag in Hungary.

     Anonymus in his "Gesta" says that, as the Magyars crossed the River Dnieper at Kiev, together with other nations that had joined them, seven Cumanian armies, who were mercenaries of the Kazars, attacked them. The Magyars defeated the bald-headed Cumanians. These Cumanians were those who had accepted the Jewish religion of the Kazars, which insisted that they shave their heads. This baldness protected them from the Pecheneg mercenaries. Those who did not accept the Jewish religion despised those with shaved heads. The long braided hair of the Ural-Altaic people indicated their freedom and dignity. Baldness indicated humiliation, submission and weakness. This baldness also meant a loss of freedom. The populace of Kiev came to a peaceful agreement with the army of Álmos. Everyone was able to stay home and their leaders sent their sons into the service of Álmos. The seven defeated Cumanian leaders, when they saw the goodness of Álmos towards the people of Kiev, voluntarily accepted him as their leader and swore an oath of loyalty to him.

     In 892, the united Magyars elected Árpád as their leader.  Árpád soon made diplomatic connections with the Byzantine Emperor, Leo the Wise, and convinced him to undertake a joint campaign against the Bulgars who were at that time a major power in the Carpathian Basin. Leo accepted this alliance in A.D. 894 and it came time for Árpád to take back the ancient land of the Magyars which had belonged to Atilla, and later the Avar Kagan Bajan.  Árpád entrusted the leadership of the Nyék and Jenő "nations" to his eldest son, Levente, who, with the Byzantine allies, attacked the Bulgars from the south, on the lower Danube, while Árpád, with his main power, entered the Carpathian Basin through the Verecke Pass. Levente's attack was very successful, and he even occupied the capital of the Bulgars, but then Leo the Wise let the Magyars down by making peace with the Czar of the Bulgars, Simeon. The Bulgars then with their full army were able to turn against the two Magyar nations, led by Levente. Even so, Levente kept up a fierce battle as he retreated, so that the power of the Bulgars was weakened and the army of Árpád was able to take over the rest of the Carpathian Basin, which did not resist him because they were Magyar-speaking.

     The people living in the Carpathian Basin, who were related to the Magyars, accepted Árpád as their leader. Simon Kezai writes that, when Árpád's Magyars approached Transylvania, the Szekels went out to meet them and entered Pannonia with them.[18]  Árpád accepted the Carpathian people into the organization of the new state. The Magyars did not subjugate the people living in the Carpathian Basin as the Rumanians and the Slavs propagate. The Rumanians claim that their ancestors, the Wallachians, (Vlachs) lived in Transylvania at the time Árpád entered the Carpathian Basin with his Magyars. It is interesting that there is no documentation that the Vlachs had to defend themselves from the incoming Magyars. How is it possible that, if there were so many of them, as they propagate, they did not hold back the Magyars or the Huns and Avars who preceded them? There were very few passes through the Carpathian Mountains through which the Magyars could enter the Carpathian Basin. The older maps of the region do not show a territory occupied by Wallachians.

    The Magyars entered the Carpathian Basin through the Verecke Pass in the north and the Lower Danube in the south. Subsequently, other peoples, the Uz, the Pechenegs and the Kuns, tried to enter the Carpathian Basin by the same routes but were unable to do so because the passes were well-defended by the Magyars. The Kuns were able to settle in Moldavia and Havasalföld and remained there until the Tatars annihilated them in A.D. 1241. The Vlachs did not appear until the 1300's.

    When we read the "Gesta" of Anonymus, we can see that the populace voluntarily paid homage to the Magyars and were pleased to accept them. They pledged their sons into the service of Árpád to prove their loyalty. If these sons proved themselves worthy and brave in Árpád's service, he rewarded them with gifts of gold, and land and entrusted them to guard the castles and the borders giving them equal rights in the organization of the state. After the fall of the Avar Empire, there had not been a single well-organized state in the Carpathian Basin before the arrival of Árpád and the Magyars. As the Magyars advanced into the Carpathian Basin, they stopped several times for a celebration, which lasted for days. Pannonia was the last place that they occupied because they were expecting the greatest resistance from the Pannonians. However, they encountered very little resistance except for the representatives of some foreign powers. Mén Marót, a Frankish feudal lord, when he was ordered to give up the land that he occupied in Pannonia and surrender it to Árpád, the rightful heir of Atilla, refused to do so. Árpád then sent an army against him and, as this army was approaching, the populace on the way joined Árpád and paid homage to him as the descendant of Atilla and the rightful heir of this land.

     Árpád's soldiers left their families in the territory of Transylvania until they had occupied the whole Carpathian Basin. The security of these families was not taken care of by the Magyar army but was entrusted to the inhabitants of Transylvania, the Szekels, who were willing to accept the task of protecting them as a related people. At that time, the Slavs had no kings or leaders of historical importance. They lived in small groups isolated from each other or in communities as vassals to some other major power. They slowly infiltrated more and more, individually, as shepherds or as servants of one of the other nations. The Vlachs infiltrated in a similar way, but much later, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. That there was no sign of the Rumanian language north of the Danube before the fifteenth century was recently proven by the Rumanian linguist, Professor Petrovice, at the Academy of Science in Rumania but his theory was rejected by the Rumanian Daco-Roman historians.

     The Magyars of Árpád occupied the city of Atilla, Etzelburg, where they spent twenty days in celebration. The castles and palaces of Atilla, built of stone, particularly impressed them. Atilla's city was built not in Buda, as many historians mistakenly record, but in the Pilis Mountains, near Esztergom as is recorded in the Niebelungenlied.

    Anonymus writes about the populace who lived in the Carpathian Basin in A.D. 896. He says that it was a densely populated, fertile land, populated by a Magyar-speaking peasant people (Scythian-Sarmatian people). They were peaceful shepherds, and farmers and had so many new masters that when Árpád came in with his Magyars, they were not alarmed. They did not rise against Árpád because in their legends they recalled Atilla, the Sword of God, who was the ancestor of Árpád who came to chase out the Bulgars, Slavs and Germans who were temporary settlers in that territory. The people of Árpád organized the populace they found here into a Magyar state. This ancient populace just found a new master in Árpád and continued their daily lives as serfs. This ancient populace of serfs could not have been Slavs since Anonymus does not identify them as such. He just calls them peasants or serfs. We will find out what language this populace spoke from the geographical names, which Anonymus mentions, the majority of which are Magyar. The Gesta of Anonymus mentions the names of rivers which were Magyar: Duna, Tisza, Maros, Szamos, Körös, Temes, Olt, Zala, Rába, and Lake Balaton. They preserve their ancient names in spite of the fact that many different peoples ruled this land, such as the Celts, Dacians, Romans, Sarmatians, Huns, Bulgars, Avars, and Germans. Only the rulers changed, the peasant people remained.

     There are numbers of organized cemeteries all across the Carpathian Basin to witness the fact that the ancient populace remained there. Cemeteries were excavated in Keszthely, Moson, Székesfehérvár, Szentes, Szeged and many more towns. The dates of the graves prove that the Carpathian Basin was populated continuously from the third century A.D. The people buried their dead in organized cemeteries before, during and after the time of Árpád. Among these poor peasant graves, the rich Árpád Magyars were buried, with colorful gold and silver ornamented belt buckles and some with harnessed horses. At the time of the people's migration, they buried their dead in graves 1.5 to 2 meters deep, and the corpse was always laid down from west to east. The most useful objects were buried with them. In the eleventh century, the Christian burial customs came into use. The age of the graves can be easily determined from the type of burial. Géza Nagy made the connections between the Scythian and Magyar burials from the types of graves that he found. József Hampel, as  was mentioned earlier, recognized similarities between the Hun and Sarmatian peoples by studying their graves. Most recently G. Csallány, at Szentes, Ferenc Móra at Szeged, Gyula Rhé at Veszprém, excavated thousands of graves of the different migrating peoples. Csallány identified the Hun-Magyar connection, Gyula Rhé the Avar-Magyar connection and Nándor Fettich the connection between the Scythian artifacts from South Russia and those of the Avars. Obviously archeologists have been unable to determine the identity of the ancient populace of the Carpathian Basin.

    In the Carpathian Basin can be found geographical names identical to Sumerian names, which go back to 3000 B.C., which indicates that they must have had some Sumerian connections. The Carpathian Basin has always been inhabited by Turanian people, Scythians, Pannonians, Huns, Avars, Magyars, Sarmatians. The Slavs who lived there in scattered settlements, called the ancient populace of the Carpathian Basin "Polovec". This ancient populace called themselves "Palóc". Today the Palóc people are located in the county of Nográd in Hungary. This ancient Palóc people joyfully greeted those tribes among the Árpád Magyars who spoke their language. We know this from the "Gesta Hungarorum" written by Anonymus. The people of Árpád appointed them to be the defenders of the northern part of the Carpathian Basin (today Slovakia). The Magyars settled in a territory, which had been inhabited for millennia by a people who were related to them.

    The Magyars of Arpád did not disturb the customs and religion of the people they found in the Carpathian Basin. They cordially accepted the Christian missionaries. Constantine Porphyrogenitus, in his work entitled "Tactica", wrote that both the Christians and the Mohammedans called the Magyars "pagans" but he noted that their character and integrity evoked respect and that their military strength was awesome. They did not practice polygamy or human sacrifice, and were not idol-worshippers but in fact worshipped only one God. They placed great value on their sworn word and foreign missionaries who came among them were not killed.[19]

     The Magyars who entered the Carpathian Basin, in A.D. 896, numbered approximately 400,000, a considerable number for that time in history.[20] These people were the only nation in Europe, other than the Greeks, who had their own writing system. They brought with them a thousand years of culture and customs. The Magyar titles of rank were identical to that of the Assyrians. For example, the "kashanu", the Assyrian king's Chief Justice, was in Hungarian "Kusan", Árpád's second-in-command; "salat" was the prince of a county in Assyrian, and in Hungarian it was "zsolt". In Akkadian, "siltani" became Sultan in Turkish; and the Assyrian "tarton", the leader of the army-engineering corps, which is in Hungarian "tarjan", was the leader of the miners and blacksmiths. The Assyrian "kundu" was the commander-in-chief of the army, which in Hungarian was "kende". In Assyrian "harku" was a vice-roy, which in Hungarian was "horka", just as in Bulcsu Horka.[21]

     The people of Europe at that time called the Magyars "Scythians". Pope Gregory XI, in his Papal Bull, called the Magyars the Royal Scythians. The Magyars had more animals than all other European nations possessed. Gardizi, the Byzantine historian, writes that the Magyars wore furs, silk and brocades, that they carried weapons ornamented with gold and silver and that they wore undergarments like all the other Scythians. The civilized Greeks did not even wear undergarments. The other European nations adopted the use of undergarments during the wars of the Crusades.

    The accepted view of historians is that Árpád's Magyars were a union of two peoples, the Ugors and the Turks, with the Turks in the minority. They place this unification outside of the Carpathian Basin. The skeletal remains of the people of Árpád were examined by Pál Lipták and his findings were published in 1954. The results of his anthropological research were the following: 20% Ugor origin and 80% Turkish origin, which is the reverse of the accepted theory. In the 1930's, according to Lajos Bartucz, the Turanid (Turkic) race made up 25-30% of the Hungarians, the Eastern Baltic 20% and the Dinaric 20%, a total of 70%, all of which were round-headed. The Ugors were not round-headed.[22]  In his study in 1992-1993, Dr. Gyula Henkey states that the Turanid race makes up 30.5% of the present-day Hungarians, the Turkic race 48.7%, the Pamiroid, 11.7% , the Slavic 2.2% and the Finno-Ugric only 4.6% .[23]

     The customs and chronicles of the Magyars from Levédia and Etelköz showed a Turkic influence. According to the archeological results, Gyula László declares the remains of the Árpád Magyars to be of Iranian-ScythianTurkish origin.[24] Constantine Porphyrogenitus calls these people a Turkish speaking people.

     The Finno-Ugric theory states that the people of Árpád were Ugors (Magyars), whose ancestors were ruled by a Turkish minority. It also states that this Turkish minority gave the Ugors their customs, culture and military tactics and then the Turks were assimilated into the Ugors. If we look at the anthropological research, this theory cannot be substantiated because the physical evidence shows that the Magyars were 80% Turkic and only 20% Ugors.

     We can make another very important conclusion from the skeletal remains about the male/female ratio among the Magyars. So far 68 skeletons of the Árpád era have been analyzed and 44 of them are men and 24 women. Lajos Marjalaki-Kiss says that among the Árpád Magyars there must have been fewer women than men, causing the Magyar men to marry the women of the ancient populace they found in the Carpathian Basin. We have only approximate data about the number of the people of Árpád. According to Ibn Ruszta, an Arab traveler, when the Magyars were in Levédia, in the eighth century, they were able to maintain 20,000 horsemen. The populace must have been approximately 150,000 - 200,000 people. A century later, joined by the Kabars, this number had increased to approximately 400,000, as they entered the Carpathian Basin. The populace which they found in the Carpathian Basin must have numbered many times that of Árpád's people. In present-day Hungary, speaking in anthropological terms, the ruling element of the Magyar people is of the Eastern Baltic and the Dinaric race. The Turanic type is found particularly in the part of Hungary called Kunság, where the Cumanians settled in the 13th century. Both dominating types, the Eastern Baltic and the Dinaric can be linked with the skeletal remains of the ancient populace.

    Archeologists excavated many thousands of graves of the ancient populace in which they found female skeletons with an ornamental metal band around their head at the temples. Until recently, these graves have been declared to be Slavic graves. If the ancient populace were Slavic, then why did the Árpád Magyars not adopt the Slavic language? The majority always absorbs the minority. The Árpád Magyars adopted the language of the ancient populace but gave the name "Magyar" to the nation and to this language. Therefore the ancient populace spoke the "Magyar" language. Historians are forced to acknowledge that the women who wore ornamental metal temple bands were not Slavs. We know that the numbers of the people of Árpád were small. They could not have imposed their language on the ancient populace. Because the language of the present day Hungarians is Magyar, the language of the ancient populace must have been "Magyar". It was not possible for the people who wore temple bands to have come into the Carpathian Basin with the people of Árpád because it can be shown that they had existed in the Carpathian Basin for millennia. In Levédia and in Etelköz, where the Magyars had settled before migrating west to the Carpathian Basin, no temple bands have been found in the Magyar graves.

     The people who wore temple bands must have spoken the Magyar language because these people gave their language to the people of Árpád and kept the Magyar language alive. Adorján Magyar was the first to collect several thousand pages of ethnographic data of the ancient populace in the Carpathian Basin. Unfortunately, because of financial problems, this research has never been published. The research of Lajos Marjalaki-Kiss and Sándor Nagy supported the theories of Adorján Magyar.

     In an attempt to support the Finno-Ugric theory, Gyula László quotes Károly Mesterházi on the subject of the so-called "ancient populace" outside of the Carpathian Basin. "Artifacts characteristic of the ancient populace were excavated at Poltava, Csernigov and the Oka river territory. The dating of the artifacts from the Oka River territory and the determination of their ethnic origin is somewhat inexact and their connection with the Magyars is rather questionable, yet somewhere in these territories we must research the development of the material culture of the ancient Magyar people."[25]

     From this quotation we cannot establish that the "ancient populace" of the Poltava, Csernigov and Oka river territories in Siberia were identical to the people in the Carpathian Basin whom historians have up till now called "Slavs", but this is what Gyula László infers. At the time of the peoples' migrations, only the people of the conquering nations moved on, but the poor people, the common people, remained. This ancient people of the Carpathian Basin did not come in with Árpád, but had been living there for millennia.  Géza Radics asks why we should look for the ancient Magyar people in the Oka River territory if their connection with the people of this territory is "questionable". [26]

    Bálint Hóman, the greatest Hungarian historian of modern times, around the time of World War II, had supported the Finno-Ugric theory but later changed his opinion about the origins of the Magyar people. The following is a statement from Bálint Hóman: "...it can be concluded that there was neither a Finno-Ugric ancient people, nor a Finno-Ugric language, and we should rather call these people the Finn-Magyar people."[27]  Professor Hóman repeated this opinion on several occasions and he denied any relationship whatsoever with the Osztyak-Votyak-Manszi people. Sándor Csőke, a noted Hungarian linguist, also stated that there was no Finno-Ugric language, that there were no linguistic or historical data that prove the Finno-Ugric origin of the Magyar people. "This theory was made up by linguists and historians."[28] Björn Collinder has shown that the hypothetical Finno-Ugric language lacked 14 phonemes, one of them the "gy" sound, which is found in the name of the Magyar people. If the Magyars were descended from a people who did not have the "gy" sound, why would they have used it in their name?

    Sándor Nagy points out that, genetically, there are no similarities between the Magyars and the Ostyak and Vogul or Finno-Ugric peoples. The latter do not grow facial hair as do the Magyars and they have pronounced Mongoloid features. The information and pictures are taken from Zoltán Trocsanyi: Észak Nómadai.[29]

    In contrast to the pictures of the Ostaks and Voguls is the description of the Magyars by William Ripley: "...it appears that the Magyars are strikingly fine looking and well-developed people. The facial features are regular, the nose and mouth well defined. There is nothing Asiatic or Mongol to be seen." "The present traits of the Hungarians seem to lend force to the hypothesis that the same race was also firmly rooted in the Great Danubian Plain before their appearance."[30] Arthur de Gobineau says: "The Unitarian theory is backed by such arguments as the following: - "The Magyars are of Finnish origin and allied to the Laplanders, Samoyeds and Eskimos. These are all people of low stature, with wide faces and prominent cheekbones, yellowish or dirty brown in color. The Magyars, however, are tall and well set up; their limbs are long supple and vigorous, their features are of marked beauty and resemble those of the white nations."[31]

    According to the Finno-Ugric theory, the language of Árpád and his people was Magyar and they were the first Magyar settlers in the Carpathian Basin. However only a few of the "nations", such as the Megyer nation, spoke Magyar. There are other historians who state that the majority of the homecoming Magyars were called Turkish and that their language was Turkish. Du Yaxiong, stated that the language of the Avars and the Uigurs was identical to that of the Huns and that the Hun language was a Turkish language. In his book, mentioned earlier, he writes: "Zang Kian, who was a famous traveler in ancient China, thoroughly learned that language (Hun) when he spent ten years in a Hun prison. He was the envoy of the Chinese Emperor and twice he traveled to the West, in 138 B.C. and 119 B.C. He was generally regarded as the pioneer who made the first journey from the middle of China to the West. From his Hun dictionary and Syntax, I can state that the Hun language was a Turkish language."[32] Otto Maenchen-Helfen concurs with this statement: "to judge by the tribal names, a great part of the Huns must have spoken a Turkish language." [33]

     Ferenc Kunszabó questions whether the Magyars were Turkish. The Magyars of Árpád entered the Carpathian Basin approximately 360 years after the flight of Mohammed. If they were Turks, they should also have been Mohammedans. There is no record in History of any nation that gave up the religion of Islam for "paganism", and sun-worship. There is also no record that the homecoming Magyars kept in their language the names and titles of Islamic priests. They always had the Taltos and Magus priests. Kunszabó's third point is that the contemporary historians called the Magyars a "freedom-loving" people. The Turks accepted Islam with a blind obedience dictated by the Koran. His final point is that the religion of Islam forbids the eating of horsemeat. They allowed only cud-chewing animals to be eaten. The Magyars raised horses and horsemeat was a staple in their diet. Were they a Turkish people or were they not?[34]

    The homecoming Magyars adopted the language of the ancient populace, as did the Huns and Avars before them. If the ancient populace which Árpád found in the Carpathian Basin had been Slav, as is commonly taught, Árpád's people would have been slavicized. Therefore, we can make the conclusion that the language of the ancient common people of the Carpathian Basin was the language we now call "Magyar". This people was in the majority. The ancient populace that remained, which was not assimilated by any of the conquering peoples, was the people who kept their language and, with time, they gave the language to those who settled among them. This ancient populace gave names to everything, and because Árpád's people also learned their language, this is why all the geographical names are "Magyar". The language of the ancient people was not analyzed by the Academy of Science, but the time will come when we cannot postpone any longer the research of these people. We have to recognize this ancient people because they gave the present Magyar nation its language and the majority of its populace. Árpád, the priest-king, the leader of the Megyer (Magyar) nation, gave the name and statehood to the country and the name to the language.

    In the labyrinth of many different names and peoples, we have to come to the conclusion that the formation of the Magyar people cannot be tied to the formation or migration of any of the other peoples. The formation of the Magyar people cannot be tied to the Sumerian, Scythian, Hun, Sabirian, Avar, Parthian, Turkish peoples. Even so, the Magyar people, during their long history, were connected to the above-mentioned peoples. The Magyar people were not formed in distant Asia or in the Fertile Crescent, in Mesopotamia, but were the people of the Kőrős culture, one of the oldest of the world's civilizations. In the far distant past, many thousands of years ago, nationality was not important. Survival and overcoming the hardship of the elements was of prime importance. The Magyar people were formed in the Carpathian Basin many thousands of years ago.