„Królestwo jednego języka i jednego prawa jest słabe” – wieloetniczność wczesnośredniowiecznych Węgier
“A kingdom of one language and one law is weak”: the Multiethnicity of Early Medieval Hungary

Summary/Abstract: Before the eighteenth century, ethnicity was not a criterion for determining nationality.However, there was an awareness of ethnic diversity within one state, and of the fact that itcould enrich them. Among the early medieval countries of Central Europe, Hungary stoodout from the very beginning due to its ethnic mosaic. This was the legacy of the period whenHungarian tribes belonged to the world of the Great Steppe, where the emerging political relationshipswere held together by a charismatic leader or a dynasty with sacred legitimacy. Thecessasion of the factors made these ties disappear as well, yet they may have left traces in thecollective memory, as in the case of Attila. The individual tribes dispersed and found theirplace in new relationships, usually multi-tribal ones.Such was also the tribal character of Hungarian union, which, besides the Finno-UgricMagyars, included the Kabars, a faction of the Khazars, who rebelled against their tribesmen,and the Székelers, who, as alleged bearers of the tradition of Attila, could have been descendantsof the Huns, relatives of the Onogurs, i.e., Proto-Bulgarians. Both these groups underwenta fast process of Magyarization, and in the new place they settled at the borders of the state,creating its first defensive line. This role was also played by later arrivals to the CarpathianBasin: Pechenegs, Cumans and not discussed in this article: Saxons, Muslims and Ruthenians.They were the first contributions to the Hungarian ethnic mosaic. The other source were Slavicor Slavic-Avar natives inhabiting these lands at the time of the arrival of the Hungarians. Theappearance of the Hungarians was not tantamount to the extermination of this population,which became part of the emerging Hungarian society but which, as a peasant population, occupiedthe lower strata of the social hierarchy. Moreover, the existing elites cooperated withthe invaders, and their descendants became part of the Hungarian elite, such as the Hont-Pázmány family or the Miskolcs. Contacts between newcomers and natives added new elementsto the Hungarian historical tradition, such as the memory of Roman shepherds, in whomGyula Kristó saw Frankish (Salzburg) shepherds (also in the spiritual sense) operating in theDuchy of Pannonia.

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