Hungarian Heritage Review, 1991 (20. évfolyam, 1-11. szám)
1991-01-01 / 1. szám
WHO ARE THE MAGYARS? (Editor's Note: This article is reprinted by special permission of the author from "The Spirit of Hungary" by Stephen Sisa.) A Chinese proverb states: "Even a journey of a thousand miles begins with but a single step." It is very possible that the proto-Magyars wandered not a thousand miles but ten times that distance during the span of many centuries before arriving in their present homeland. Although some historians depict the Magyars as a people of European origin, the greater part of the evidence points to Asia. One thing is certain: they came from the East. The matter of dispute is from how far east? Search for a definitive answer to this question can be a frustrating experience. The best known theory of the Magyars' origin is the Finno-Ugrian(Turkic) concept. The advocates of this theory believe in the linguistic and ethnic kinship of the Hungarians with the Finns, Esthonians, Ostyaks and Voguls. This concept places the ancient home-land of the Finno-Ugrian on both sides of the southern Urals, a relatively low mountain range (average altitude 3000 feet) which seperates Europe from Asia. Since the linguistic likeness of the Magyar language to the Finno-Ugrian family of languages has been firmly established, the advocates of this theory insist that the cradle of the Magyars could only have been situated in the Ural region. It was from there — so the theory goes — that around 2000 B.C. the Finnish branch broke away to finally settle in the Baltic area. Meanwhile, the proto-Magyars remained on the vast West Siberian steppes with other Ugrian peoples until around 500 B.C. (There is no satisfactory explanation, however, for how the Proto- Magyars, who had been forest dwelling hunters and gatherers along with the other Finno-Ugrians, became horsebreeders, livestock herding horsemen and warriors). Then the Magyars, now alone, crossed the Urals westward to settle in the area of present-day Soviet Bashkiria, situated north of the Black Sea and the Caucasus. Remaining there for centuries, they became neighbors of various Ural-Altaic peoples such as the Huns, Turkic-Bulgars, Alans and Onogurs. Inevitably, these proto- Magyars adopted many of their neighbors' cultural traits and customs. Some ethnic mingling also occured before the various Hungarian tribes, pressured by waves of migrating nomads, started their own migration westward toward the Carpathians. This Finno-Ugrian (-Turkic) theory was quasi sanctioned by the state from the middle of the 19th century to recent times. After World War II, however, this concept was challenged by a new coalition of scholars and orientalists. The Finno-Ugrian theory, they argue, is based on linguistics alone, without support in anthropology, archeology or written records. The orientalists point, instead, to apparent evidence that the cradle of the Magyars and their language lay not in the Ural region, but in an area of Central- Asia, earlier known as the Turanian Plain. Now known as Soviet Turkestan, this area stretches from the Caspian Sea eastward to Lake Balchas. Ancient chronicles called this huge area Scythia. A living tradition fed by centuries of folklore holds that the proto-Magyars were related to the Scythians, builders of a great empire in the fifth century B.C. Greek and Latin authors freely referred to a great variety of peoples living within this empire as "Scythians", just as the varieties of peoples encompassed by the Soviet Union today are often called "Soviets". After the Scythian Empire disintegrated, the Turanian Plain witnessed the rise and fall of empires built between the first and ninth centuries A.D. by the Huns, Avars, Khazars and various Turkic peoples, including the Uygurs. The proto-Magyars absorbed new strains from these peoples, and formed tribal alliances from which later the Hungarian nation — an amalgam of Onogur, Sabir, Turkic and Ugrian peoples — was to be born. Today, students of Far-Eastern history believe that the Magyars were —continued next page 24 HUNGARIAN HERITAGE REVIEW JANUARY 1991
