The Eighth Tribe, 1977 (4. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1977-11-01 / 11. szám
November, 1977 THE EIGHTH TRIBE Page 9 ber that the terms Blak, Vlach, Voloch, Vlasi, etc. were used by the medieval Slavs not in conjunction with the later Roumanians (whose ancestors were still in the Balkans), hut rather to designate the Franks, Italians and at times even the Romans. In fact, modern Western Slavs still refer to Italy with that term (i.e. Czech Vlachy, Polish Wlochy. Cf. Cross: Rus. Prim. Chron., p. 235; Győrffy: Honfoglalásról, p. 284.) Coming through the Upper Tisza region in northeastern Hungary and through Transylvania, the Magyars gradually occupied most of the low lying areas and left the highlands and the Carpathian slopes to their Slavic subject peoples. In the course of the conquest, each of the Magyar tribes settled on separate territories in various regions of their new country, and these tribal lands were divided from each other by strips of no man’s land (gyepű). Kündü Kurszán occupied the very heart of the country and established his headquarters at Óbuda — today part of Budapest. But after his death, his lands were added to those of gyula Árpád, who now controlled the whole region encompassed by Budapest, Esztergom and Székesfehérvár and beyond, and also concentrated all princely powers in his hands. Although initially the Magyars stuck to the lowlands of their new country, later they began to move into the highlands, and by the twelfth century they were to be found throughout the Carpathian Basin. Their treatment of the conquered population depended largely on the latter’s reception of the conquerors. If they resisted, they were enslaved. If not, they were basically left alone as tributaries. But the type of slavery known to the Magyars was not a permanent one, and generally did not last long. They intermixed freely with the conquered population (including slaves), and soon assimilated most of them, except those who lived outside the Magyar-settled areas on the Carpathian slopes. The “Avar-Magyars” of the “First Conquest” probably continued their separate existence for at least a century. They may have been the so-called “Black Magyars,” who are contrasted in medieval Hungarian chronicles with the “White Magyars,” who were probably Árpád’s conquerors. Because of ethnic and linguistic similarity, however, they merged rather rapidly, and by St. Stephen’s time in the early eleventh century the differentiation between them appears to have disappeared completely. Following their conquest of the Carpathian Basin, the Magyars spent the first half of the tenth century in military campaigns both against the West Europeans, as well as against the Byzantines. In the 65 While a number of historians may not necessarily agree with the authors’ references to the alleged historical link between the Hungarians, the Sumerians and the Scythians, and while others may find certain minor problems with the entries in the bibliography (e.g. G. D. Satmarescu did not author East Central Europe, but only an article entitled “The Changing Demographical Structure of the Population of Transylvania” in the journal East European Quarterly), the book as a whole is a conscientious, scholarly and useful work. It should serve as a reliable source of information on the history and culture of Transylvania, as well as on the oppressive Roumanian nationality policy against the Hungarians throughout Ceausescu’s lands. Let us hope that copies of this volume will find their way into the hands of the appropriate American statesmen and politicians, as well as into the collections of the better public and academic libraries. And let us also hope that Documented Facts and Figures on Transylvania — along with a number of similar publications by the TWF and its sister institutions — will have the appropriate enlightening influence upon the American policy makers in this “Age of Human Rights.” It should be bought and read by everyone who is interested in helping the cause of the oppressed Hungarians in Transylvania and throughout Roumania. TRANSYLVANIA: The Hungarian Minority In Rumania by JULIA NANAY JULIA NANAY is a descendant of Transylvanian ancestors. She came to the United States subsequent to the Hungarian uprising of 1956. Miss Nánay graduated Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa from UCLA in 1973 with a degree in political science. She has received two Master’s degrees from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University) in international economics and energy studies, 1974 and 1975 respectively and is presently working for Northeast Petroleum Industries in Boston, Massachusetts. To order this book, see instructions on back page of this magazine.
